• Playnite, if you’re on Windows (though Linux might be over the horizon).
• Heroic Games Launcher if you’re on any platform.

Playnite is the better choice if you’re on Windows, but either way, don’t let Tim’s dumb store stop you from ruining his day by generating a bunch of metrics that show you’re only playing freebies!

Well that didn’t take long lmao

Yikes, that “game” does not look anywhere near finished. One of the demo videos even had T-posing models as the main subjects of the video.

In its current state, I’m not sure it’s even worth the price of Free.

You’re not, but as counterintuitive as it may seem, there are people who use the Fediverse and big platforms like TikTok, Xitter, etc. My words are for them.

Maybe—and I’m going out on a limb here—just maybe, using centralized media to document State-sponsored domestic terrorism is a fucking stupid idea. Especially since the very same platform is co-owned by the State.

Y’all, we already went through this with Xitter. Sorry you fell for it again, but this won’t be the last time if you continue to cling to platforms owned by the very people who want to censor you.

Yes, and I passed that research paper onto someone who works with researchers who think LLMs are the best new invention for technical writing. It’s going to be a constant battle, even amongst people who should know better.

I don’t know if I’d say “a lot,” but I think you are correct to say “some.” We don’t need to suddenly start flinging around generalized invectives towards science, especially when there’s already a concerted effort by conspiracy theorists and bad actors to convince people to reject science out of hand.

Love it (CachyOS). For the most part, everything “just works.” I have no plans to go back—not even wishful musings.

There have been a few…let’s call them…stnanks.

• Not all of the sensors were recognized for my motherboard out of the box. The important ones, like basic CPU temp and a few others were fine, but more granular ones, like fan speed, T_junc, T_die, etc. were missing. I like to apply my own fan curves based on various sensor conditions, so this was a sticking point initially.
  • Thankfully, the Arch wiki and a thanklessly maintained dkms module for this specific (problematic) chipset came to my rescue. Pretty easy to get set up.
• A small number of very specific games and mods don’t work on Linux. If you exclusively play competitive online games, there’s a good chance you are going to be out of luck.
  • I have friends that play League, but I’m not willing to give up Linux just for that one game. Plenty of other multiplayer games out there that work just fine.
• Audio routing is both easier and more difficult.
  • There’s great GUIs to manage audio connections.
  • Trying to get automatic connections going, like with VoiceMeeter, is a lot more technical and involves learning Lua and Pipewire/Wireplumber. Not impossible, and audio tends to work just fine otherwise, but if you want a specific custom setup, it will take some effort.

Overall, I wouldn’t trade what I have for Microsoft any day of the week. I’m done being their product.

Same. I’m thinking about replacing the PSU, which is one of the original parts, to ensure the rest of the parts don’t fail due to improper power delivery.

At least PSUs haven’t yet spiked in price.

Absolutely, I agree. I think we are likely to see a shift in what indie devs use for their game engines (love2d, Godot, etc.) as PC specs stagnate, and I am of the opinion that GOG will see an increase in sales, too.

The “runs like shit” games have a shrinking market.

Inb4 we get astroturfed “Luddites” telling us to just abandon electricity and live like the Amish.

It’s not a win-win, it’s a silver lining amongst a shitstorm of suck.

Why? Because what if you’re not trying to upgrade but just maintain? What if your RAM fails? Or your GPU? Now you’re out there with the AI tech bros vying for a piece of a production line that you have no influence over, but they do. If you just built your rig, you might be safe to wait a while, but what if you built in 2020? Those parts are getting old, by computer standards; they don’t last forever.

We don’t actually know when prices will normalize, because nobody is calling in the IOUs, and nobody is clamping down on that circular economy; 2027 is just a guess. We might be waiting even longer.

You just described the AAA gaming market almost to a T.

The indie market, on the other hand, typically cares about what they produce, and you’re far more likely to get optimized games there that don’t require extra launchers, internet connections, or a massive GPU—not that it doesn’t happen there, mind you, but it’s going to tend to be more of a skill issue than a profit-driven one.

Also, there’s still very good games in the retro space.

I would be curious to find out why, honestly. Is there some economic factor? Has Adobe thoroughly captured the market? Is it cultural? I know the comment author speculates that it’s a cultural/political shift, but I’m curious what the data would show!

I sincerely mean this: thank you for your sacrifice. I wish there were more people like you who were willing to make the sacrifices necessary to stick it to the big corpos.

I’ll be excited if Linux hits 20% total market share, which is about where Apple sits last time I checked. That would put Linux squarely as a contender for normies.

First tech device I’ve ever bought where I didn’t feel some amount of buyer’s remorse. There’s nothing I dislike about it, and I can even install my own distro on it, if I so desire. Because of the form factor, I’ve even been able to tackle my backlog!

According to the article, it might be a company in China, but that remains to be seen. They could just as easily pivot into AI bullshit to try to get a piece of that pie before the bubble pops.

The ones I know aren’t at all, they’re just uninformed.

Depends on the project and the kind of utility I get from it. Up to $20 USD typically, but I’ve donated more for specific cases.