Honestly, not even mad. Sucks for the victims, but we need hackers poking holes in kernel anticheats. Show the game companies that kernel anticheat is a waste of effort and maybe this horrific plague of gaming will die off.

If Bungie is behind it I have zero interest without even knowing what it is. Destiny 2 was an OK game, but its god awful anticheat bans Linux users. That is a sure-fire way to make me pretend your game doesn’t exist. Client side anticheat is a plague. Do it properly on the server side.

Until any competing store releases a Linux client, I can’t really argue against Steam. They are a gatekeeper and almost a monopoly, but they’re also the most benevolent and pro-consumer gatekeeper that we have in the PC gaming distribution space. As long as all the competition continue to be Windows-only and, in some cases, actively work against Linux users, I don’t want Valve’s digital fiefdom to fall.

I’ve been experimenting with both of these and recently wrote up a guide for installing FEX on postmarketOS (as I am testing it on my phone and tablet) but the steps should work for Pi as well.

https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Steam

I also just made a video tutorial/demo on YouTube. I ran Half Life 2 and Tomb Raider (2013). I’m not sure how capable the Pi 4 GPU is in comparison to the Adreno GPUs I tested.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=EuOX2L_yNqI

Box86/64 and FEX can both run Steam on ARM. Lighter games should be playable on RPi4 and 5.

Except the one platform that actually matters, Linux. My girlfriend got me into this game and it’s the only game I have to keep a Windows installation around for. It doesn’t run on the Steam Deck, so it’s the only multiplayer game I play where I would even contemplate having to play it on Switch. I hate Epic Games.

The name Unity just needs to be avoided. I get the well intentioned meaning behind the word, but it has been the name of three major controversial/disastrous products in semi-recent history - Ubuntu Unity Desktop, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and the Unity Engine.

Mozilla sold out a long time ago, they are nothing like they used to be. Everyone should be ditching Firefox for forks if possible. Yes, Firefox is still miles ahead of anything Chromium-based but we can’t trust Mozilla to not screw over their users anymore (and it’s been apparent for YEARS…Pocket, “Sponsored” shortcuts and links, Mozilla VPN popup ads, this behavior is hardly new). What can we trust? Firefox forks with the bullshit stripped out, mostly. I’ve been using LibreWolf for several years on my Linux, Windows, and MacOS systems now. I originally switched because of the Mozilla VPN popups but at the time, complaining about those popups was met with a bunch of Mozilla apologists going “it’s not that bad” “they’re a big company and they need their precious monies”…no. That was ADVERTISING front and center, and it was in Firefox years ago. So was Pocket. So was having Amazon links auto-filled on the new tab shortcuts. Go to something that isn’t run by money. Go to a community-maintained and sanitized fork.

I’ve been pretty happy overall with my Arc A770. For the price, it performs well, and driver issues are mostly a thing of the past. My only complaint is that the anv Mesa driver doesn’t implement VK_NV_device_generated_commands which appears to be a requirement for some D3D12 games on Linux (Starfield being the one I had issues with). Luckily, it looks like there is a new non-NVIDIA specific extension to solve that and an open MR in the Mesa GitLab to add it to anv.

Concord

I wish these implementations of secure boot were designed more to protect the SOFTWARE against “theft” than the HARDWARE against “tampering”. Let us wipe the secure boot keys, but in the process erase the firmware (or have the firmware encrypted so that erasing the keys renders it unbootable) and then allow new code to run. Blocking third party firmware on consumer devices is a shit move. It just creates more e-waste when the OEM stops updating it and the community can’t make their own replacement firmware.

True, but if you buy a finished product that uses the new chip that has secure boot enabled, you can’t flash your own firmware. From what I gather, the boot keys are burned into OTP memory so they can’t be erased or changed. The chip is permanently locked to that firmware.

Not really a fan of putting secure boot on. The only purpose that serves is locking the customers out of their purchased hardware. Raspberry Pi is clearly not targeting the maker market with those changes, they want that corporate money and are willing to stick the finger to hackers and makers in the process. Can’t make custom firmware if you can’t boot it.

RISC-V support is nice. I like the idea of being able to work as both an ARM and a RISC-V microcontroller while sharing the same array of peripherals.

Honestly, Mozilla has been peddling adware for a long time now. The writing has been on the wall. It started with putting sponsored links to Amazon on the Firefox home screen, then the shitty Pocket acquisition and the stupid featured stories/recommendations garbage, then the full screen Mozilla VPN ads…Firefox has been adware for a while. Use a fork that removes the bullshit. Switch to LibreWolf.

Mozilla is going to absolute shit lately. Partnering with a fucking ad network? You’ve got to be kidding me. Firefox is still the better browser, but it’s time to abandon Firefox proper for forks that get rid of Mozilla’s bullshit. I have been using Librewolf for a while and unlike Firefox, it’s not adware.

I can understand a box with DisplayPort, USB, and power inputs as very few desktop PCs actually have a video- and power delivery-capable USB C port. I cannot understand the lack of controller features and HDR.

I find 1080p to be too small these days. For desktop use I like 1440p or 2160p (4K). For video, I don’t notice the difference between 1080 and 4K too much but for productivity it is a massive step up. My laptop is a 14" 1440p screen and I have an older laptop with a 13" 1440p screen. I use both with 100% scaling (no enlargement) and it’s fine. I don’t think it’s hard to see and I love having the extra screen real estate for coding and multitasking. Being able to have 2 windows side by side and still have enough room on each for a decent length line of code is great. For my desktop, I used a 28" 4K for a long time and being able to have 4 1080p windows open is amazing. 28" 4K is the same PPI as 14" 1080p, and I am already comfortable with 14" 1440p so from a reasonable distance it’s no problem. I went to a 27" 1440p for a while on my desktop after that because I upgraded to a 144Hz VRR display, but just last fall I again upgraded to a 32" 4K 144Hz VRR and it’s great. No problem with reading text at 100% scaling from a normal distance and it’s amazing for games. I do notice games being clearer at 4K but I mainly got the 4K monitor for productivity as I missed it and now that 144Hz 4K was available I wanted it back.

Recommendations and App Promotions sound an awful lot like ads to me. Showing me things I didn’t ask for that you wish to sell me…that’s called advertising and I don’t care what dumb name you call it, they’re still ads. Show me only what I actually want to see - the stuff I explicitly choose to pin to my personalized Start menu.

Ooh, this looks pretty nice. I’ll have to give Whisky a try just to see how games can run on my M1 Mac Mini. I have it set up as a TV PC and I usually just connect a Linux PC or Steam Deck to game on the TV. If I could run Windows games on it that’d be great.

The main issue with new Macs is that they use ARM processors and most games, even for Mac, were made for x86 processors. Minecraft works fine as it is CPU-independent Java code, but you aren’t going to have access to a wide library like you do with Linux. I think there have been efforts to game on Wine with Mac but it will likely require x86 CPU emulation through Rosetta 2, possibly slowing things down. I remember I got Skyrim to run on my Mac Mini M1 somehow but it wasn’t a good experience.

Yeah, this headline is stupid ragebait. RISC-V development board company chooses RISC-V chip for their latest RISC-V development board doesn’t have the same level of nonsensical anti-China rage in it.

I’ve used Raspberry Pis since the first model came out and other SBCs and the lack of RTC has never really been an issue. The Pi syncs time by the time it makes it to the desktop. I can see it being useful for early boot timestamps but the most useful such log (dmesg) is just elapsed time since power on anyways. I can also see it being useful for devices doing data logging without Internet or regular power supply like a remote sensor logging device. I guess I just don’t see it as a crucial component of a home router. I agree it’s a cheap and useful addition though, just not maybe the most essential of one.

Interesting, though I question why a battery backed RTC is seen as so critically important. Of all the features I can think of wanting in a router, a battery backed RTC doesn’t even begin to make the cut. A device that is powered up 24/7 and connected to the Internet can just get NTP time whenever it boots up and keep time using the OS. What is so necessary about an RTC here? I get that time is used for certificate verification and other security stuff, but again NTP and always powered. Are they concerned that NTP could be an attack vector?

I’m interested in a new OpenWRT router as my WRT1900ACS is getting older and the WiFi driver on it never had amazing support. Right now the Banana Pi R4 looks promising as a WiFi 7 OpenWRT supported router as it looks like most off the shelf WiFi 7 routers do not have OpenWRT support.

I started using gyro on the Steam Deck recently. It is pretty good for fine tuning your aim. I have been playing Overwatch with it and while nowhere near keyboard and mouse, it’s noticeably better than gamepad alone. I can still only play a select few characters with it though.

LibreWolf. I don’t need to see “sponsored shortcuts”, recommended bullshit, abd Mozilla VPN ads when I open my browser. Firefox is by far superior to Chromium based alternatives but let’s not pretend Mozilla are saints when it comes to annoying bullshit in their browser.

Hopefully they do release 1 and 2GB memory varoants which should be $35 and $45 respectively if they follow the pricing of previous models. The performance does look like a big upgrade over the Pi 4 at least.

I’m not sure you can go more than 320kb/s on mp3. I have my music collection on my home server in FLAC but I transcode to 320kbps constant bitrate mp3 for my car and phone. I chose 320 because it’s the highest that I’ve seen mp3 converters able to go.

Or choose btw (Arch)

Pretty well overall. Performance is pretty solid on most games I play now, VRR is fixed finally, and I don’t get graphical glitches. I bought it a month or so after it came out and it was rough in the beginning, lots of crashes and glitches.

It’s the same listing, CS:GO just updated to CS2. Reusing the listing meant the game auto updated.

Some of the other maps got significant layout changes. Dust 2 remains the same because dust 2. If they changed the layout on that map I’m sure they would get a lot of angry competitive players.

Intel A770 with stable mesa drivers, can get around 100-130fps mid settings at 4K in CS2, but got 200+ solid and just ran vsync on at 144Hz 4K very high settings in CSGO. Maybe it’s just the Linux build (which notably received zero public beta testing) but my friend said the Windows version was lower frames on his AMD 580 than CSGO too.

Seriously, who thought a .com shortcut was necessary? Get rid of uniquely useful keys for stupid gimmicks that save a few seconds at most? Bad design.

Hacker’s Keyboard has an option for a persistent notification that can be used to bring up the keyboard whenever you want. On mobile Linux, at least on Phosh (which is the environment that squeekboard is a part of) there is a button on the bottom bar that pulls up the keyboard whenever you want it.

postmarketOS on a OnePlus 6T. I have used various other distros on my PinePhones as well.

I know for sure it’s on F-Droid. I installed it fairly recently (like a month ago). Pretty sure the name is “Hacker’s Keyboard” and you need the apostrophe in the search or F-Droid won’t find it.

Same, best keyboard of all time.

Hacker’s Keyboard has arrow keys, shift, ctrl, alt, and escape. This isn’t a limitation of phone keyboards in general, just the poor design choices of most stock keyboards.

On Android, I’ve used Hacker’s Keyboard since my earliest days on the platform and still use it to this day. It provides a full 5-row layout including modifiers, control keys, and arrows. It works exactly like you’d expect it to work. I can’t stand the default keyboards.

On mobile Linux, there is a keyboard called squeekboard that lets you define the key layout using .yaml files. The default layout is pretty limited, but I created my own portrait and landscape 5-row layouts also with modifiers, control keys, and arrows that makes the experience so much better. I’m typing this on my custom portrait layout. I often edit code and use the terminal with this layout too. phone keyboards are bad because of bad design choices, not because touch keyboards are inherently bad.