What would a "Steam Deck 2" be in peoples minds? Less incremental changes? The repairability and modability of the Steam Deck kind of means it doesn't have a direct comparability to console "alternatives". Not to mention the less closed software architecture it provides.
At least this prevents impersonation of well-known publishers or their software. Maybe all changes to metadata like the description should require a manual review even for established packages.
That depends on the depth of the review, e.g. verifying the submitter is a member of the project, the software name does not conflict with a well known name,…
verifying the submitter is a member of the project
That’s a different requirement as far as i can tell (When you do that you get the “plus” sign next to the name on the store).
the software name does not conflict with a well known name,…
It should conflict, the point is that some random dude can create a package and people could use it.
They can review and check that the URL in the manifest used to build or install the package is from upstream, but that can later be changed, it would be better to have some system where you need to whitelist URL’s i think.
I bought Windows 11 early on so I’m still using it to justify the purchase on my desktop, but I moved my OEM licensed laptop over to Debian a few months ago.
Can confirm that as soon as Windows 11 is no longer supported or it gets slightly more ass, I’ll be moving my desktop over to Debian or Arch or something as well.
With the advent of gaming becoming so much more accessible on linux either through native support or through something like proton, I am very hard pressed to find any reason to stay.
I bought two Windows 8 Pro key for $20 each at the peak of it’s hate. I’m reusing those bad boys until they stop being accepted, and when that happens i’ll just ignore the water mark.
I’ve heard all the arguments about how these new packaging formats are supposed to make things easy for developers and for users with different use cases than my own (apparently), but I will continue to avoid them until they have further matured. I’m relieved that this is still possible.
I’ve been using snaps for a few years now and while they still could use some improvements, the snaps I’m currently using seem to be fairly indistinguishable from deb-based packaging thanks to bug fixes they have done over the years. I think the idea of containerized applications is a good one, I think it actually can be safer. Performance is also fine for me with snap applications even like Firefox snap startup speed, although I’m using an R9 5900x and Gen 4 M2 NVMe SSD so maybe that’s why, or maybe they really have improved the snap software and it is just as fast now for the most part.
I’ve had to swap Firefox on my laptop for the deb package, the snap took like 5sec to open, whereas the deb opens instantly. Other than that, i don’t see much of a difference, but i run into sandboxing issues quite often (same with flatpak though)
I had a “Save As” issue in Firefox snap where it just wouldn’t be able to save pages, but since upgrading to either Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04 (can’t remember which version fixed it), that problem has gone away entirely.
My thing (I’m not the guy you replied to) is all the various user-facing complaints that I tend to see in these discussions. I use a distro where I can get current versions of anything I’ve ever needed, and I know how to maintain my system.
As a user, even if the various alternatives are fine most of the time, without concerns about security, integration, etc - I’ve never read anything that would make me want the additional complication. (I say this recognizing that there are security concerns regardless of how you get your software - I’m not saying these new solutions are inherently worse in that regard.)
I suppose at some point I’ll want or need to embrace flatpak/appimage/snaps, but I can’t find any reason I’d do so now - it feels like it increases the number of gotchas I need to worry about when installing software without actually giving me anything I want that I don’t already get with my “legacy” package manager.
We dont live in such a perfect world. Linux has a small marketshare for non-server software, so packaging is done by your distro.
You would need to have user-facing settings for Apparmor or SELinux to replicate what already exists with Flatpak.
Principle of least privilege.
Maybe you prefer native packages, but bubblejail or SELinux confined users are complicated as hell and both are pre-alpha in my experience.
So yes you add bloat, dependencies etc. But you also add stability, a small core system, take load of OS developers and unify the packaging efforts so that it is done by developers not packagers.
This reduces complexity a lot, as the underlying system is not as important anymore, and you can just use whatever you want. Software is separated from the OS.
The problem for me is portability. Flatpak, Snap, Appimage, docker, podman, lxc, they all do the same thing, but they’re splitting the market into “servers” and “desktops”.
We need a portable container runtime we can build from a compose file, run cli or gui apps, and migrate to a server with web app capability displaying the UI. There are too many build targets, and too much virtual market segmentation.
Nix tries to solve the issue, but the problem is you have to use Nix.
A company that makes a billionaire out of its owner is overcharging you, no matter how much you like the company or the owner.
It’s funny because if it was any other companies I’m sure a bunch of you would be happy about it, but it being against Valve you can’t help but defend them.
Should I dig in everyone’s comment history to show who are the hypocrites that otherwise act like they’re left wing?
Valve doesn’t set the prices for any of the products you buy through their store. The game developers and publishers do.
The exception is valve developed games which are mostly free to play and make money on useless cosmetics. Most of their successful games are built on mods that are only possible because valve takes the very consumer friendly position of supporting and encouraging modding of their games.
Hell, they even allow and promote fan made remakes like Black Mesa and unofficial sequels.
If valve is a monopoly, it’s only because they’re the only corporation in the pc gaming space (OK maybe include gog too) that respects their customers. They’re not perfect but they’re orders of magnitude better than the competition.
No matter the reason, private monopolies are a bad thing for consumers.
The game devs and publishers set the price by taking into consideration that 30% goes to Valve, without that 30% games would be cheaper as they wouldn’t need to sell for as high a price for the devs and publishers to recover their investment.
No need to have studied economics to understand that if you need to have 30$/copy in your pockets in order to cover your cost and someone takes 30% from every sales then you need to sell to the consumers for 43$.
No matter how nice Valve acts towards consumers (in many cases because it was imposed to them, not by choice), in the end you’re defending a billionaire while you make less a year than he spends running one of his yachts for a single day.
Bullshit. Games on steam that hit sales thresholds pay less to steam and the prices remain the same. Games on EGS only pay 12% and prices haven’t dropped.
Reality does not comport with your argument at all.
I’ve been in product development and management for 10+ years. I know how pricing decisions are made. You’re very naive.
Well no shit they’ll look at the highest price on the market and use the same price everywhere, but the highest price is based on the fact that the distributor takes a 30% cut!
Again, you are very naive. What you’re describe is cost-up pricing which hasn’t been a generally used method of pricing goods and services for decades at this point. The reason is that doing cost-up pricing is a really good way to go out of business.
The way pricing works today is that sellers set pricing based on what they believe the customer is willing to pay. From there you work backwards accounting for retailer margin, cost of goods, transport, discounts, etc… To find your maximum cost per unit. If you can’t produce the product for less than the maximum cost, you either need to scale back your features, add a feature that would justify a higher sell price, or abandon the project.
Your notion that companies would lower prices if they had to give retailers a small cut is not borne out by theory or by observed real world outcomes.
You’re wrong. Doubling down won’t make you less wrong.
Ideally I’d like to see media distribution be nationalized. Video streaming, audio streaming, videogames, e-books. There have been multiple cases of companies selling digital goods, then ceasing to provide those with consumers left holding the bag. Multiplayer games whose servers are gone. Movies “purchased” on Amazon that become unavailable when their agreement with the publisher expires. I am concerned about what Valve will look like when they inevitably get new leadership.
But I suffer no delusion that nationalizing that is realistic. Certainly not in the US where I live, where even libraries are under attack from conservatives. I’m doubtful that would happen anywhere else either. So what’s the next-best thing?
Seems to me like the capitalist response would be to try to encourage competition. A lot of companies have tried and failed, so I’m not sure what else can be done on that front.
Valve does plenty of unethical stuff, you’re right, but the store isn’t really it. Go after them for their shady loot box gambling and really predatory monetization in f2p games that creates secondary gambling markets. It’s insane.
Valve has actual blood it’s hands and you’re complaining about the legitimate business front that covers for a deeply profitable and unethical core.
Loot boxes suck but I’d argue valve is still one of the better approaches. Makers of skins get cuts of sales, Dotas sales help the international prize pool to an extent, and it doesn’t lock you into a treadmill just to unlock gameplay elements.
Every other company seems to be doing the same but somehow even worse.
I disagree. There’s a deeply unethical core built into Steam that is distinct to it. Since you can sell your loot drops for actual money, they are more literally scratch tickets than your standard loot boxes.
I don’t know, I’m all for keeping people away from addictive behaviors and would rather micro transactions not be a thing at all full stop - but allowing users to get money out of games they have already invested in is also a benefit, so it feels weird to single out the one option that provides consumer value. Don’t play CS anymore? Sell the AK Fire serpent you unboxed for 2.50 back in 2014 and buy yourself a steam deck and keep a gift card for a few games. Or a new set of skins in whatever game your playing now is.
As far as the API goes, Im pretty unfamiliar so Im not sure what responsibilities a company has when using their site as a login to another site. There’s porn sites that allow me to sign in with Facebook / Gmail, if someone uploads CSAM to that site do those sites have a duty in some way?
Even besides the corporate issues, I just can’t help but not like this handheld.
It looks like a cheaply built gamer device, and it feels like a cheaply built gamer device in the hand too. Between them and MSI, it’s almost as if they’ve put literally no effort into engineering anything, and just threw together a whatever they could, on the basis of a generic shell.
Not to mention that having ArmoryCrate is literally a downside in every way, and having 2 years of warranty NOW, after they showed up on FTCs radar, is laughable
Because it IS a cheaply built gamer device in a generic OEM shell. Pretty sure Microsoft has gotten enough flak for handheld Windows that they’re starting to build gamescope type optimizations like directSR. It’s not enough for me to switch back but maybe it is for others, who knows, hopefully Microsoft can stop riding the AI hype train to eventually build something to make armorycrate obsolete.
Yeah, there is a reason everyone talks about the Steam Deck, it’s an actually good device that Valve put a bunch of effort into making soild. There is also the problem that many of these other handhelds, like this ASUS one, are running an OS full of background processes constantly sapping your battery. Again, Valve put a bunch of effort into making the Steam Deck good and it shows.
King under the Mountain always rubbed me wrong. They hit right at the tail end of “wow. kickstarter is awesome” and right before people realized how many DF-like colony sims there actually were. And then their kickstarter survey, for a key with no add-ons, required an insane amount of personal information. I think they claimed it was for VAT but saw a few “ask a lawyer” threads that pointed out that was nonsense and could have been done with a checkbox.
And the super duper secret publisher right around the time interest was spiking because of DF-GUI was more than a bit sketchy
I dunno. I know that it is hell out there for indie devs (not so much in 2021/2022 but…) but all that combined with the game never feeling like more than a “unity school project” REALLY raises a massive number of red flags. Probably just a single kid in over their head and trying to act like a “real” studio but… yeah.
Still, good to see it was released as open source and here is hoping the fanbase that glommed onto this can carry it forward.
And then their kickstarter survey, for a key with no add-ons, required an insane amount of personal information. I think they claimed it was for VAT but saw a few “ask a lawyer” threads that pointed out that was nonsense and could have been done with a checkbox.
Not heard about that? Who did they do the survey through?
Not sure if they had a third party manage it for them (there has been a LONG history of super vague “secret” dealings) but it was for their kickstarter rewards through backerkit or whatever. So the same survey you get asking how many extra books you want to buy or whatever.
Ah, that’s actually a really common thing and quite normal really for reward systems. Although Kickstarter just announced their own in-house solution, finally.
I think a lot of new indie Devs, having little knowledge of the actual state of the industry, see a publisher offering them big money to make video games (their dream!) and ignore (or lack resources to properly interrogate) the fine print. There are countless examples of publishers simply destroying indie Devs on a whim like this.
Bloomberg previously reported that the vampire shooter’s [Arkane’s Redfall] troubled development grew out of a push by top Bethesda leadership to make a live-service game, a decision that ultimately led to sky-high attrition and multiple delays.
All reward, no risk for the executives demanding that their best-in-class immersive sim developer create an empty live service shooter. Stupid decision led to predictable outcome and the workers feel the ax for it.
Now that gaming is effectively a solved problem thanks to Proton, Adobe Lightroom is just about the only thing keeping my desktop PC on Windows. My laptop is already running Linux. I’ve tried the FOSS alternatives but none of them fits my workflow like Lightroom. This is a me problem more so than a problem with any of these pieces of software.
Try running those adobe apps on a windows virtual machine. Use KVM with virt-managet instead of virtualbox. If the performance is acceptable for you, now you can use Linux as the primary os and only use the VM for adobe apps. VM boots faster too because you can just hit suspend and resume it again later.
Probably because the average user is not going to figure out how to spin a VM to run Lightroom lol. It’s also a bit clunky compared to just opening it.
And that is one of the reasons Linux isn’t at a higher market share. Linux is actually incredibly easy to install. Even back in 2008 or so, it was easier to install than windows. The live CD would give you a full OS with an install button. If you could install windows 7 you could install Linux.
Asking a user to then install something like virtual box and understand virtual hardware and disk images is a step up from that. Not to mention the clunkiness of it all.
Fun fact about the original Sim City: the lead developer said that they wanted to model real cities in the game, but “we quickly realized there were way too many parking lots in the real world and that our game was going to be really boring if it was proportional in terms of parking lots.”
There was a similar issue with Cities Skylines. When they tried to put a realistic amount of parking lot space for modern US cities in, the simulation would have the cities quickly decay and collapse. It was just too much room and distance required to support the parking area. It cost too much and the travel times were too high due to the expanded city distances.
They took out the real parking and made cute little lots instead so the game would stay viable.
Of course, our real city leadership most ignores this warning and says “let’s add more parking and lanes for those ever larger vehicles!” My city’s downtown is about 30% dedicated to off street parking and there’s moves afoot to increase the number of they can knock down a few more buildings to make space.
Oh, and we declared a parking garage an official city historical site. That one’s a little on the nose.
So, your claim has absolutely no basis in fact, just something you read on Reddit? A quick check online suggests that supermarket bread prices in the US are pretty much the same as most European countries (apart from the fact the US bread couldn’t be sold in the EU because it would be classed as cake due to the sugar content)
Plus looking at artisanal bread from independent bakeries, it’s the US whose prices are far higher
So do you have any other sources for European bread being “6 to 10 times more expensive”?
I’ll just pop up to the bakery and get my €1, freshly handmade organic baguette while you’re looking
You wrote an essay about something so meaningless… While completly missing the point. I can’t be bothered to argue about why you’re wrong on pcgaming sub.
American Internet companies are fucking disgusting.
Their speed rates are just throttling speed, yet just this year they got rid of my 300mbs plan ($80/month) and forced me into a 500mbs plan ($110/month!!!) without saying a word. I had it on auto pay and just happened to check to make sure it’s still going through…
That should be fucking illegal, but this is America: land of the fee home of the billionaire.
Man, the state of the games industry is just sad to see. Also makes me question my career working in an adjacent field, despite my job being safe for now…
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