It sure does, just put them in an external library and scan for them, that’s what I do and it works flawlessly
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
Depends on what you play. As a general rule I would say that unless you like competitive multiplayer games you’re probably going to be fine. That being said the vast majority of games don’t support Linux natively so you need to use workarounds. Steam has a workaround built-in, so if most of your gaming is through Steam it should be an almost seamless transition (all you need to do is enable a checkbook in the settings). But like I said, it depends on what you play, I recommend you check out https://www.protondb.com/ and look for the games you play to see how they run on Linux.
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
Same answer as before, if the game runs okay then modding it would also work okay, but if not it might worsen an already bad situation. Also be very careful here, because when you run Windows games on Steam they’re sort of sandboxed, i.e. they’re running isolated from other stuff, so installing mods is not as straightforward as it would be on windows where binaries are installed globally. It’s not a big deal, but just the other day someone was complaining that they installed a launcher needed for a game and the game wasn’t finding it and this was the reason.
If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
As a general rune there’s a workaround, it’s called WINE (which is an acronym for WINE Is Not an Emulator) which is an “emulator” for Windows (except it’s not really an Emulator as the name implies). Then there are some apps built on top of that like Proton (which is what Steam has embebed) that include other libraries and fixes to help. It’s not perfect, but unless the program is actively trying to detect it or uses very obscure features on Windows it should work.
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
Yes, you can use WINE like mentioned above to run Windows binaries that use .NET, but also .NET core is available for Linux.
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
Oh boy, this is the big one, this is the Major difference for m Windows to Linux. Linux has a thing called a package manager, ideally everything you install gets installed via that package manager. This means that everything gets updated together. And here’s the thing, we’re not talking OS only stuff, new version of the kernel (Linux)? New version of the drivers? New version of Firefox? New version of Spotify? All gets updated together when you update your system. This is crucial to the way Linux works, since it allows Linux to have only one copy of each library. For example, if you have 5 different programs that use the same library, in Windows you’ll have 5 copies of that same library, because each program needs their own in the specific version, but in Linux since they will all update together it’s easier to have just one library that gets updated together with the programs. This makes maintaining Linux a piece of pie in comparison, just one command or one click of a button and you’re all up to date with everything you have installed.
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
As a general rule open source programs are more secure than their counterparts. Closed source programs always remind me of Burns going through several security measures, that sort of thing is imposible in open source because if everyone can see all of the security measures, so someone would notice the gaping hole in the back, whereas in closed source only attackers might have found it. Like cyber security experts say: Security by obscurity is not security. As for Antivirus you don’t need to worry, Linux is inherently more secure than Windows, and also has a small enough user base (most of whom are security experts) so the number of virus written for Linux is extremely small. Also because you should install stuff through a package manager it’s very difficult to get someone to download a bad binary since there’s lots of security in the package manager to prevent this sort of thing. In short almost every antivirus program for Linux checks your computer for Windows viruses to avoid being used to store or transmit viruses to Windows computers, so it’s completely pointless in your home machine (it’s used for example in email servers).
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
Yes… But actually no. It depends, if you have a relatively modern AMD GPU (as in last 10 years) the answer is a resounding YES, AMD currently has wonderful Linux support and their cards work excellently with drivers being fully open source and integrated into the Linux Kernel. For Nvidia the story is unfortunately not as nice. Essentially there are 2 drivers available, nouveau (open source driver written by the community and purposefully hampered by Nvidia) and nvidia (closed source driver written by Nvidia that has gaping incompatibilities with Linux). Since you game your only option is nvidia, while nouveau is great for several reasons it can’t match the performance of the nvidia driver. For 99% of stuff the nvidia driver should work fine, but I haven’t had good luck with getting Wayland to run on it, which means you’re probably stuck in X11 (I know this doesn’t mean much to you, but in short it means that you’re somewhat limited in your choice for graphical interface and have to use stuff that people are trying to deprecate but can’t because of Nvidia)
Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
Technically yes, so can Windows by that matter. But realistically no, unless you’re writing your own kernel drivers you won’t be in any position to cause hardware damage.
And also, what distro might be best for me?
I would probably go with Mint, it’s beginner friendly and I’ve been recommending it for decades. One thing to bear in mind is that in your knowledge level the distro you choose won’t make that big of a difference, try to pick something beginner friendly and you should be fine, no need to overthink this.
PS: some extra notes that you didn’t asked but I think are good to know:
/ and /home in separate partitions, this makes it possible for you to reinstall (or even change distros entirely) without losing your files and configuration. This is due to how Linux manages partitions, which in short is not like on Windows where you have a C and D drives but instead any folder can be a different partition or disk.Huh? Interesting, guess I’m out of the loop, since the install guide doesn’t mention it I didn’t even realize this got added back to the iso. When was that? I should check this out, I really missed the installer all these years, I understand why they did removed it originally, but if you know what you’re doing it’s just tedious work.
Arch is much more difficult to install now than it used to be as well. I remember when Arch had an installer.
I tried Tandoor and Mealie. Currently I use Mealie because Tandoor crapped it’s pants on me and I lost everything I had there, Mealie is simpler and allows export/import to JSON or similar so I can keep a backup that can be converted into any other format I want to.
That being said I don’t use the list feature, and we use Bring at home, so KitchenOwl mentioned here also seems like a good idea for lists and I might check it out.
I agree with most of what you said, I don’t think the price is as high as people make it out to be, but:
So if it will be the cheapest console of its generation
Cheapest version of the Steam Deck is still cheaper for very comparable hardware, and while generations don’t align I think the Deck is closer to the Switch 2 than to the switch 1, and a Deck 2 would be miles ahead of a switch 2.
Not always, they only started to offer Linux support after Steam, and even then it’s just a very small part of their catalog and none of their own games/products, so I think it’s fair to say they don’t offer Linux support but sell some products that do.
Home: Arch, because I’m a lazy ass who likes the AUR.
Work: Ubuntu, because the laptop they gave me came with it
Servers: I don’t have a particular distro I use for all my servers, it depends on what’s my frame of mind when setting the server up. But I’m considering learning NixOS for this use case.
It is still being released but they had the designer/writer from the 1st one leading the writing team, but fired him due to “creative differences” so don’t expect anything similar.
This one gets me as well, Paradox had a great history of maintaining and upgrading the base game with money made from DLCs, some of which are content/feature related and others are way cheaper and are cosmetics, all of that while providing mod support. And that model would have been awesome in a sims like game.
Then why are you getting angry while checking this sub and this post? Seems like you’re also getting worked up over it.
I’m sorry you’re in a bad situation, I get it, I’m also not in a situation where I could even buy the switch 2 even if I wanted to. But this is a big deal, the USA have fucked themselves up in the ass so hard that people outside of it might get hit with it. The price of the switch 2 is just one of the tips of this iceberg, the price of the PS5 is another, but in a short while the same thing will start to happen to lots of electronics, including hospital ones, which could increase the price for everyone depending on how this plays out.
Unfortunately for the rest of us the US is a BIG extremely consumer market, and if they get taken off the picture the profit margin decreases and prices need to hike to keep up.
I have also recently been playing Mini Motorways and found it more fun than Mini Metro (too bad it’s not available on Android, since mini metro is one of my favorite phone games)
CK can be daunting, I recommend you choose which time period you like best and go with that game, e.g. if you like sci-fi go with Stellaris, if you like WWII go with Hearts of Iron 4, etc. liking the time period where the game is set can make a huge difference in you willingness to learn it. For example if you don’t like medieval it might be daunting to track lineages and hereditary traits and how the ownership of land works (I once lost an entire kingdom because of it on CK2), but if you like WWII maybe seeing historical facts reflected on mechanics or learning military tactics is more interesting to you. All of those games are very different from one another, but they’re also very alike, starting with one that’s just the right one can help you pass the steep learning curve.
Depends, here in Europe they use GoCardless, which has a free tier. As long as you’re okay with syncing your accounts only once a day, or once every couple of days you should be good. Not sure how it is in other countries though.
You still need a GPU, otherwise your CPU is wasting precious operations drawing the screen instead of simulating dwarves.
They can even call them something cool like Steam Machines
I’ve worked with GUIs on python for a couple of years, we used PyQt, which is a python wrapper for Qt which is a C++ library for GUIs. It’s fairly straightforward and easy to get something up on the screen in no time.
However from parts of your comment it seems you want to implement your own graphics library, and that is a lot harder to do.
Also you mentioned legacy hardware, not sure how legacy it would be. Python should run on most things people would call legacy nowadays, but there’s definitely an overhead that could be felt if you’re trying to run this on an embebed system or a REALLY old (as in 90s/00s era) computer.
You also mentioned mobile, I don’t think PyQt can be compiled to mobile easily, nor do I think you should even if you manage to (been there, done that, not a happy time). Desktop and Mobile GUIs are very different, realistically if you want something that works well on both mobile and desktop with the same codebase the easiest approach is web UI.
I can beat anyone now because I’m not matched with or against people who are better than me, I don’t learn anything.
I call bullshit on that. If that were the case your skill would be considered higher and you would be matched against ever higher skilled players until you’re not able to win that much. If you can beat anyone in a SBMM system, you would absolutely obliterate every single match in a non-SBMM. You might think you’re bad at those games, but this is what’s happening to you: https://xkcd.com/2501/ i.e. You think the average player is winning most matches, but the truth is that the average player wins around 50% of the mathes. If you win significantly more than 50% of the games you’re placed in then you’re among the top players and just aren’t enough skilled people online to match up with you, which means that if you were to be put in a non-SBMM lobby you would be MVP 99.999% of times and win the match solo. Think about it this way, imagine there are 1000 people searching for matches in your area, and for ease let’s also asume their number also represents their skill level compared to the other, i.e. 1 is a total noob, 1000 is a pro, in this scenario on a SBMM you’re likely in the top 995 so you get paired with the top 10 and according to you you still win that match, on a non-SBMM your average enemy would be 400 skill levels below your current enemies.
I want to jump into a game and have fun, I want to lose some, I want to win some, I want to try in some, I want to goof around in others.
I’m sorry, but that will never happen, you’re just too good at the game, you win most matches when paired against people of your relative skills, which means there aren’t people with your skill around, pairing you with random people will just result in even more frustrating matches for you. You’re like a martial artist who goes on dojos fighting the black belts and winning and think that it would be more fun if you were allowed to fight a random belt color.
I can’t join a lobby of people, lose to them and then try to beat them in the next game, because they reset the lobby after every match.
According to a quick Google search that has nothing to do with SBMM but it’s because different maps and different modes have different number of players. Not to mention that just thinking about it real quick I realized that probably lots of people just play a match and leave, so your lobby would get smaller and smaller unless you allowed it to be refilled after every round. Not that any of this matters, because that scenario won’t happen to you, because you don’t lose matches, remember?
Cod is also a lot less social because of this, you can’t make friends or enemies across matches anymore.
That’s a bummer, but seems related to the topic of lobby reset, not SBMM.
These big multiplayer games have dropped fun, instead they want people to win win win so they keep playing and buy skins. That’s why people don’t improve anymore, there’s no challenge, every game is the same thing, same strategy required.
Have you considered that maybe you’re so good at these games that YOU keep winning but that the same is not true for 90% of people? These are multiplayer games, it’s literally impossible for everyone to win all the time, it’s a zero sum game, for someone to win, someone has to lose, and if you’re winning more than 50% of the time it means you’re an above average player.
I played some mainstream games recently and they put you against bots and stuff for like 10 of your first games
That sounds ridiculous, but with the amount of people playing CoD I don’t think they need bots. At least for me every time I play I get matched against people, but realistically I don’t play that much.
If they want “fair” games against players, they can play ranked. Just give us our casual lobbies back.
You are looking for a mystical fun of being able to play against people more skilled than you, that won’t happen, because casual players are in general terms much worse than you, you’re like a pro NBA basketball player wanting to go back to play in the yard against kids, you have good memories of that time, but your skill level would make those matches extremely boring for you and unfair for others.