• 1 Post
  • 17 Comments
Joined 8 months ago
Cake day: February 14th, 2024
  • lemmeee@sh.itjust.workstolinuxmemes@lemmy.world•Valve made the right decision
    0·
    6 months ago

    Steam Deck is a computer, so its users deserve to have full control over it just like their PC or smartphone.

    You are correct about Steam client though. Even if they keep the internals closed, the GUI part alone would be worth forking. I wish a chrome-less version would exist.

    If people can’t easily modify it, then its developers have power over users. You have to trust that they will not abuse that power, but they already do - with DRM for example.

  • lemmeee@sh.itjust.worksOPtoGNU+Linux Humor@lemmy.ml•Valve fans are like Apple fans
    0·
    7 months ago

    DRM was not popular on PC before Steam became popular. It used to be possible to buy physical copies of games without DRM. On consoles that is still the case.

    I didn’t participate in the used games market, but the steam sales are like paying used game prices.

    I don’t know, but you can’t sell your game anymore if you get bored of it, so it’s still a loss. Games are overpriced most of the time only to have a -75% off sale a few times a year.

    I must have missed how vavle contributed to lootboxes and microtransactions, was that in their games?

    Yes, Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, CS:GO.

    Updates are turned on by default, but honestly moat games need the regular updates and steam made those so much easier.

    They have also removed content from people’s games.

    The devices with steamOS installed are sold to distribute steamOS…

    Which is proprietary software.

    f course they have to use proprietary libraries to use features. That is how it works…

    So I can’t release a libre game on Steam and use those features. I can’t compete on the same level with proprietary games.

  • lemmeee@sh.itjust.workstolinuxmemes@lemmy.world•"But my friend runs a PinePhone as a daily driver"
    1·
    7 months ago

    In the US store it costs 200$ for the original PinePhone and 400$ for the Pro version. The EU store is a little more expensive.

    I’m not the person you asked, but I’ve had mine for 2 years.

    Pros:

    • free software and freedom (and with that increased privacy and security)
    • runs the same software that you can run on desktop as long as it has an ARM build (a lot of Debian packages do) or you compile it yourself - this includes not just apps, but also terminal programs and servers
    • killswitch to power off the proprietary modem for when you don’t want phone carrier tracking you
    • like in other modern phones the modem is isolated (here it’s connected over USB)
    • multiple distros to choose from
    • multiple desktop environments to choose from
    • replacable battery
    • headphone jack
    • replacement parts available in case you break something
    • there are some interesting addons that you can buy (https://pine64.org/devices/pinephone/#accessories)
    • microSD card slot
    • you can boot from the microSD card, so distro hopping is easy
    • can run Android apps through Waydroid

    Cons:

    • slow - you are running modern software on an old SoC (the Pro version is faster, but still slow compared to modern phones)
    • not all GNU/Linux apps have a responsive UI that works well on mobile
    • some old apps might not have touch support
    • short battery life - the SoC is not very energy efficient. Possible workarounds: get the keyboard addon with builtin battery (but it makes the phone bigger and heavier), carry spare batteries with you, or buy/3D print a bigger case and use a bigger battery
    • runs hot
    • GPS isn’t super accurate
    • audio quality during phone calls isn’t great
    • the non-pro version might not be able to run a mainline kernel, so you might not be able to install a desktop distro on it
    • the Pro version should be able to run a mainline kernel, but there might be things that don’t work
    • experience with GNU/Linux is required
    • sometimes workarounds are needed - for me, on Mobian stable sometimes the modem or wifi don’t wake up from suspend and I have to reset it with a script (I added it to the apps menu for quick access, but it’s still annoying)
    • [on original PinePhone] bad camera and the default app can only take pictures - there is a script for recording video, but then there is no preview
    • I’m not sure if you can use the camera as a webcam in most software
    • [might depend on the model] video playback is not GPU accelerated, so it makes the CPU hot and drains battery and you might be limited to 1080p@30fps or 720p
    • you can run a stable distro with old software and old bugs (and sometimes things change very fast) or a less stable one with current software, but then things will sometimes break after update and you will have to fix it (probably more than on desktop)
    • on Mobian stable (old software) the proximity sensor acts weird during a call and sometimes you can’t see the screen
    • no Xbox gamepad support in Mobian stable (but Playstation gamepads work)
    • they keyboard addon isn’t perfect and requires some setup
    • with the keyboard addon I can’t plug in any USB devices to the phone and I don’t know why - charging works though
    • support for emergency broadcast is only just now being introduced in Phosh (https://phosh.mobi/posts/cellbroadcast)
    • [original PinePhone] uses micro SIM standard instead of nano SIM
    • sometimes there is screen flickering in non-pro version
    • killswitches could be a bit easier to flip (they are very small)
    • [on original PinePhone] poor 3D performance (even SuperTuxKart doesn’t run smoothly), WebGL doesn’t seem to work (at least for 3D)
    • not a lot of RAM, so you can’t run too many apps at once or have too many browser tabs open - you can still run Electron apps, though (just not too many at once)
    • no push notifications, so if you want to be notified when you get a message in some app, while the phone is suspended, you would have to setup a script to wake the phone up periodically

    Edit: I corrected a mistake with the SIM card. I turns out that PinePhone Pro uses nano SIM and it’s only the original PinePhone that uses micro SIM

  • lemmeee@sh.itjust.workstolinuxmemes@lemmy.world•"But my friend runs a PinePhone as a daily driver"
    1·
    7 months ago

    GNU/Linux is not aimed at people who want the most features. It’s made for people who value freedom above everything else.

    I would love to see something like Proton but for .apks instead of Windows executables. If it were as easy to install and run android apps on a mobile Linux OS as it is now to install and play Windows games on Linux, we would be in a great place to see a proper Linux phone.

    You mean Waydroid? I’ve read that it works pretty well.

  • lemmeee@sh.itjust.workstolinuxmemes@lemmy.world•"But my friend runs a PinePhone as a daily driver"
    0·
    7 months ago

    I think they use some very old and heavily modified version of the Linux kernel, so it’s not the same Linux kernel we use on desktop. Then each phone manufacturer adds custom patches on top to support their hardware. GNU/Linux phones also require a custom kernel, but the community is working on upstreaming those patches, so that they can run mainline kernel some day (PinePhone Pro and Librem 5 probably already can now, but some stuff might not work).

    Yeah, using the name Linux for both the kernel and the operating system makes no sense and it’s super confusing. When people say Linux when talking about the operating system, they almost always mean GNU/Linux (like Linux Mint, Arch Linux, etc). But then there is Alpine Linux, which isn’t GNU/Linux and that makes things even more confusing. If I didn’t know what Alpine Linux or Arch Linux was (and had no knowledge of distro names), based on their name I would assume they are some kind of fork of the Linux kernel. Arch Linux should have really been called Arch GNU/Linux and Alpine Linux should have just been called Alpine OS.