As far as I know, browsers will only do Widevine L3. Meaning you won’t get resolutions past 720p or maybe 1080p (depending on service). That’s probably fine a small screen like the deck. Less fine for a 4k TV.

One question I have about the cube is will it be capable of doing full DRM streaming services like Netflix? Most living room systems have that, but doing it on an open linux system somehow would be novel.

Speaking for myself — no.

I had reasons for switching to using my dual boot desktop for Linux 95% of the time. Windows 11 became too annoying and bloated for me to want to deal with, and I found Proton could adequately run the games I play (including some old or foreign ones Windows struggles with).

I continue to use my Xbox because it’s unladen with Windows’ recent bullshit, and as a limited machine, it gives me less security concerns about trying games with connections to Russia, China, and Israel.

An Xbox running full Windows is one I would wecome existing but would never buy. I’d just be thankful all their games were PC compatible and use my Linux PC and streaming devices running Steam Link or Moonlight or even xCloud (until that service inevitably enshittifies).

Noto (Google) I thought was the most well-known.

The ban happened because Verizon was trying to sell it.

Bethesda

That’s Microsoft now. And they’ve never seemed gung ho about GOG (I can’t think of any MS game that GOG listed while MS had control over it). Considering their “Dreamlist” thing and the status of Freelancer on it, I’m sure GOG has been lobbying hard with Microsoft to work with them, though.

The article does mention this problem and they claim to have been able to pull it off somehow.

“Mammalian cells are orders of magnitude more sensitive than algae cells, but even with those cells, we were able to detach them with no impact to the viability of the cell,” Vandereydt says.

I’m sure what I’m about to say has already been echoed by others, but there are a few factors working against them. This is from a US/Canada perspective. Other countries may have more or fewer barriers.

1. Mobile hardware - Mobile hardware has higher security. Some of this is by design for the user, since mobile devices are more likely to fall into wrong hands than e.g. a desktop. Some of it is corps preventing users from using their hardware in ways they don’t want you to, though. The level of locked down mobile hardware has only increased over time.
2. Carriers - This one is particular to North America, I think. Carriers here have a long history of meddling in phone hardware - from bloatware to SIM locks and everything in between. One of the things they do since LTE is require device makers to pay them to get certified to make calls on their network. Linux capable devices are too niche to be able to afford this. This is why Fairphone, for example, even with its Android-based OS, only works on one carrier here.

Those are the main two barriers here. Things like apps can have workarounds for those that would be interested in early adoption of Linux phones. But there’s no way around the combination of carrier certification costs and limited options of only very locked down hardware.

I think there’s some sort of a west coast trend towards immutable distros. Bazzite has the same kind of buzz. Haven’t really met anyone that uses these distros around me, though.

https://www.polygon.com/tabletop-games/552558/tabletop-panic-tariffs-on-china-layoffs-bankruptcy-gama/

The U.S. has a very small industrial capacity for manufacturing tabletop games — especially board games.

“The news is bad from every angle, but especially so for card games and RPGs printed in China,” they said. “The choice seems to be either 1) a massive price hike to pay the new import taxes, or 2) go to a direct sales model that removes the hobby distributors from the equation.”

There’s currently not enough industrial capacity in the US to manufacture card games. Simple as that. Trying to do it would likely end up still being more expensive than the tariffs, and probably delay your product.

Presumably if there isn’t a user report for whatever distro I’m using

Distro is unlikely to matter, as long as you don’t pick a really obscure one. And even then, flatpaks will probably work fine.

Protondb also looks to be focused on Steam, I’m guessing it’s like MacOS where if it’s a game not on Steam then you’re shit out of luck if there isn’t a Linux specific version?

Steam is the easiest to work with and most well-supported. But there are other managers like Heroic Launcher and Lutris that can cover non-steam. Knowing whether a game can run on proton/wine outside of Steam does likely require a google search, though. Most things can be made to work as long as the game doesn’t require kernel-level anticheat (e.g. Destiny and BF6).

I… really wonder who in the administration is coming up with all these ideas. It’s gotta be someone who has a staff, and that staff must feel like the most useless people in policy since their boss must be coming up with these ideas while cracked out and not running them by anyone…

Inside Games claims a 50% drop in views from July. PC users were 27% of their views then and is now down to 21%, but that alone can’t account for the drastic drop in viewership overall. Video on it here:

https://youtu.be/tWKTC0nVI10

There was. Some channels even saw most of their decline from mobile/TV viewers.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that wasn’t also related to the adblocker issue, though. How the algorithm reacted to the dramatic change in views could have made waves that saw channels de-recommended or caused it to ignore sections of a viewer’s watch history and thus the recommendations shown to them as well.

With the algorithm everything gets tied together so much that any disruption can have unpredictable effects.

it would be cool to have some sort of optical displays based on interference (suppose, two lasers at the sides of the screen) or whatever, allowing similarly agile resolution change, and also more energy-efficient than LCDs, and also better for one’s eyes. I think there even are some, just very expensive

I think you’re just describing laser projection TVs ( though the projection is from the front or back, generally). They’re not that expensive — just huge. For their size, they’re much cheaper than LCDs and OLEDs, but they only come in about 100+".

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hisense-L5H-4K-UHD-Ultra-Short-Throw-Laser-TV-Projector-with-100-Light-Rejecting-Screen-Dolby-Vision-Dolby-Atmos-Google-TV/5003861077?classType=REGULAR

Scanning laser projection is also used in virtual retinal displays, but that’s for stuff like HUDs or a head-mounted display since it projects on (or rather - into) a person’s eye instead of a screen.

Any kind of scanning display will probably have poor latency compared to LCD/OLED flat panels, I think, though.

Heroic Launcher fulfils the basics for it.

Norway is not EU

Fuckin Shakespeare is screwed.

The benefits of having a full-featured computer in my pocket are just too many for me to ditch it permanently if I have a choice. While it’s certainly able to distract me if I let it, I don’t think I’ve ever had it disrupt my sleep (aside from late night phone calls).

I think it’s better for most (and potentially easier) to keep to the smartphone and just better control the applications that are on it and the notifications that they raise to make sure it isn’t overly distracting you. This may require disabling certain pre-installed apps (e.g. Facebook is one I always disable and just interact with via browser when I want to). Another pattern to follow is adding barriers to the things that distract you most so it takes a little more effort to interact with your distractions. Hank Green’s Focus Friend app that got popular recently is an example of that – placing an emotional barrier on getting distracted when you need to focus.

But ultimately, we all need to do what’s best for ourselves. Everyone’s suceptibility to distraction is different and if a dumbphone is what works best for you, then by all means, go with that for as long as it’s useful.