Technology

I've occasionally tried using Linux in the past as my main desktop, because I think Windows as an OS is inferior, and lately because Linux's UI actually seems superior, but I always got suckered back into Windows because I wanted to play certain games.

I tried again last month, and this time, it's different. The games that I want to play work well enough in Linux. Some of them have native Linux builds. Others work well enough in Proton, which is Valve's version of Wine, a Windows emulation layer that can run Windows games in Linux.

I don't see any reason that I'd ever go back to Windows again.

Also:

https://0patch.com/Win10.html

Huh, and I thought that was only for the os activation, but no. ESU support is right there, under the TSForge activation method.

Actually, I been much happier not being able to play League anymore.

Thankfully cachy and bazzite exist as well. Us gamers enjoy our convenience and performance along with privacy!

convicted monopoly

Well that's a blast from the past. That was neat-o how Mr Boies nailed a conviction and the remedy was ... An apology? Was it even that much?

Glad to see Microsoft is successfully building on that crushing no-remedy defeat by doing the same and more. #winning

TempleOS is anything but windows

Just finished building a new PC last night, 64GB RAM, 8GB vRAM, 2TB m.2, 8x8TB HDD, and windows will never goddamn touch it. It feels weird, but so far so good.

I'm most of the way to ditching MS entirely on my own systems.

You can do it, Aussie. Bite his freaking head off.

And the thing of it is, back in the good old days you actually had to learn how to use your computer. This took effort, comprehension, and skill. And probably reading some manuals. Like, actual words printed on dead trees, bound up into a book. This was normal and expected, and you would build up your skillset to operate the machine you probably paid thousands of dollars for. No one had a problem with this then.

Learning to use Linux is no different, but nowadays everyone just wants everything handed to them and they'll steadfastly refuse to put forth any effort while simultaneously failing to realize that figuring out whatever the next workaround is to get around something that Microsoft broke for them in the last update is basically exactly the same thing. Think back when you were learning to use DOS or trying to install your VESA local bus video card drivers in Windows 3.1, or desperately fiddling around with EMM386 in your config.sys file to try to get enough conventional memory freed up at startup to run Doom. If you had the amount of online resources we have now to just get the answer and not have to call tech support (and probably pay for it), or paw through a manual, or just be fucked and have to figure out by trial and error on your own, we would have all been stoked.

Entitlement breeds complacency, and complacency leads to the Dark Side. If you go out of your way to teach yourself to be helpless, you will be helpless.

Back then you owned your computer. By and large outside of some specific special purpose fuckery with licensing dongles you physically possessed the software you ran. Like, on a disk. You controlled what you ran, not some outside source. With all of the commercial operating systems (this includes OSX and iOS, Android, and Windows all to various degrees) this is now actively being taken away from you. The only way to claim it back is to run one of the open source platforms.

A lot of software still requires Windows.

Games are a big one for sure, but there is a lot of productivity and creative software that does not run on Linux.

For me, Minecraft bedrock (for kids) but looks like anything MS tainted will start (or maybe already does) require windows.

Looks like I have to decide what to do soon because they're still on W10.

I've used nothing but vanilla steam for windows games in Linux for a few years.

I think there's the misconception that, because you can use other things, you HAVE to use other things.

Steam and lutris for non steam games. You literally need to learn one program and navigate one singular menu is another and voila every computer game just kinda works, at least in my experience.

have to use Adobe suite

You have already been damned. There is no hope.

If you're not willing to try to escape the terrible enshittification of Adobe, I don't think anyone's gonna be able to help you.

That sucks. Sorry you have to deal with their bullshit AND Microsoft's bullshit.

Other software might surprise you. 🤷‍♂️