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Cake day: January 17th, 2022

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  • utopiah@lemmy.mltoLinux@lemmy.mlhow is linux for gamers?
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    3 days ago

    I uninstalled Windows few years ago even though I play the latest AAAs and indies games, including in VR, that’s how good Linux for gamers.

    You can check my post history but basically once you have your hardware well supported (basically the right drivers) and rely on a good system to evaluate compatibility (e.g. ProtonDB) then you won’t get any surprise.

    I suggest though that you try it yourself, e.g setup a Linux distribution of your chosing, a game you already own and… see if it feels good. If it does not, feel free to ask around and people will be happy to help if you provide a clear problem with your documented attempts to fix it, at least you can count on me.

    So… finally why did I change? Well beside the “it actually works” it is also a lot more coherent with my own WorldView and my skillset. I’m a professional developer, WebXR prototypist to be more specific, so having an OS that does not put arbitrary (well, mostly about control for profit) limits on what I can or can not do is simply better. I can play for fun AND I can tinker with the same OS. I don’t have to reboot if I just happen to have an idea that I want to try, I can just do it right here and there.

    TL;DR: it works and it’s better, giving me all the freedom I need to be creative and not feel constrained.

    PS: also not giving more money to multibillionaires from Microsoft does feel nice.



  • It’s not really an “App” but tools like ffmpeg or sox or lame can do that no problem. It might take a while to convert your entire collection though … but depending on the size might just take a night or, few nights.

    If you have a ridiculously large collection and do want it “on demand” you could also use e.g. inotify to monitor directories, e.g. ~/Music/ForPhone/ so that any file added to that directory gets converted.

    FWIW I’d use a phone with a microSD card as those days one can get a 1To for less than 100€ so probably no conversion needed even for a large collection.

    Edit: based on a recent conversation I’d try transcoding capabilities of LMS https://github.com/epoupon/lms cf https://lms-demo.poupon.dev/settings from their demo instance


  • Honestly try whatever you want, from Godot to bash on the command line (I’m not even joking) then while doing so, write down what you learn and, as importantly, what is missing. If something is missing and it’s a very VERY big deal for you to re-implement (say 3D engine, or VR support, or cross platform support) then and ONLY THEN do look at other engines. See which ones out there do have both what you needed so far AND what is missing. Do NOT think ahead of all the “cool” things you “might need one day” because you would then look for the “perfect” engine for a project that does not even exist in your mind.

    TL;DR: it does not matter, pick any, build, share, iterate and pick another one whenever you want to.




  • instead of searching and installing all your apps one-by-one

    And… that takes what, a good all 5 minutes?

    Honestly unless you either re-install an OS frequently (which is a weird thing to do on a day-to-day system) or plan to go offline for a long period of time I bet you’d spend more time finding a “solution” then not doing so manually.

    I’m not you but when I install a fresh OS (maybe once every couple of years, at most!) on my desktop (not counting other devices, handheld, servers, etc) I install

    • Firefox (if it’s not already by default, if it’s ESR then I might get a different update mechanism)

    …well honestly that’s it!

    Then yes as I start to work I add KDEnlive, OBS, Blender, Cura, OpenSCAD, etc.

    My point being that I can’t imagine a moment when, as you start the OS you actually need all the other software at the same time. You usually need one, then another, e.g. Inkscape to edit a PDF document you just received, then you pass the extract image to e.g. LibreOffice Writer.

    So… not having everything from the start is IMHO a good moment to consider what you actually need, keep things lean.

    TL;DR: there are technical solutions but on a desktop connected to the Internet it’s not worth it.

    PS: I do personally keep my bash history or my ~/bin/ and ~/Apps/~ directories across installations (because I do keep ~` on a dedicated partition) with some AppImages in but honestly I don’t rely on these.



  • At some point if they have ridiculous restrictions one might consider … doing the test in person, in a room provided by the actual school or that THEY provide the hardware.

    Anyway IMHO the bigger point is that a lot of my own inaction (I won’t speak for others) came from fear of problems that rarely, if ever, materialized. I would recommend to move on and if the problem does actually arise then consider solutions at that point.

    I uninstalled Windows on my SSD years ago (despite paying for it, forced by OEM deals), didn’t regret it once. In fact, I wear it as a “badge of honor” with pride. When someone tells me I “have” to use Windows for whatever reason, I tell them I can’t and that usually leads to interesting conversations.







  • With pleasure, if you do have questions later on though, even in months, please feel free to ask here again.

    Yes using an older device is nice. If you like to tinker a bit there are even older eInk devices that can be unlocked so maybe finding which one and getting it 2-hand could be an interesting adventure.




  • Great example of why a safety net is required.

    Yes hopefully the “base” setup works once you installed it, hopefully manage through some updates, some even tinkerings… but what happens when it break?

    Windows (despite all the criticism, and I’m one of the first to complain about Microsoft the corporation) usually has been fallback mechanisms. It can usually rollback an update. It usually has a hidden recovery partition. It usually has an alternative medium to recover (e.g. USB stick, CD-ROM back in the days, etc).

    So… you genuinely did try to help your mother but do not give up. Try instead to provide a better safety net so that she is genuinely safer. In fact I would recommend testing it together, make it a learning adventure. One way to do so would be to go there, help her fix it… then botcher the setup together! Delete system files, etc, then try again. Obviously the 1st step is insuring her own data (e.g. family photo, documents, etc) is safe.

    While doing so, you might also want to setup up remote control, or not. Anyway a LOT of things to genuinely discover together.

    IMHO if you do do it, she will not only appreciate the effort but assuming you do manage, she’ll have a new sense of pride, both in you but also herself and share the experience with her friends. This in turn might bring more people in!


  • I definitely recommend it… but I also wouldn’t dare predicting the future.

    So far unofficial hacking on the reMarkable has been great. The Discord is very active, new development e.g. https://github.com/asivery/rm-appload (random pick from Discord) so that’s the sign of a healthy tinkering environment.

    Yet, reMarkable has never pushed for customization either. They also got VC funding in 2019 and 2022 but that seemed to have changed nothing on that front.

    So… I highly doubt they would somehow break the ability to connect to ssh then install applications. They definitely can not even technically do that as long as one does not automatically update. Consequently I can safely say that if you get a reMarkable today, you will be able to do a lot with it.

    All that being said, even though it’s Linux proper, it’s also a rather specialized environment with limited resources. If you do not love to tinker, make sure the application you actually need is already available and working on the right version you want (e.g. might work on rM2 but not on rM Pro).

    If you have a specific need in mind, let me know and I can try to share the right resource, otherwise join the Discord and ask there.