Oh god, yes. Politics have become such a shit show. As always I try to stay happily in the middle, but so many people I talk to go to either extreme, and it isn't even that they want to vite for someone because they think they will do a good job. But they vote for someone who isn't the guy/party they hate. I am just waiting for it all to come to a head at this point....

Some work as (unpaid?) Windows shills. Just ignore them, they don't deserve any attention.

Yeah it annoys me to no end too. I've started emailing developers more than asking on Steam or Twitter, as too many people hijack my posts to start arguing about Windows or Proton, it's just not a good look. Frustrating when I tweet to a developer, have a chat and someone comes along and says "just use Proton!" - that's starting to really bug me.

Quoting: slaapliedjeWARNING: Possible foul language ahead...

Spoiler, click me

What purpose to these assholes serve? You have them of all variety too.
since this is a Linux page, I want to rant about the ones specifically around Steam where some people will simply ask if there can be a Linux version of a game, and you almost always get some dipshit that 1) isn't one of the developers, 2) knows absolutely nothing about Linux, 3) is literally just browsing around for Linux posts to do nothing more than to basically whine that we, as Linux users, would like Native gaming, or at least some semblance of something working under Proton to be able to play a new game, and that is just evil to ask that we take away the attention of a game for Windows!

What purpose does that serve? Do they just like being an asshole and like 'no, us Windows users have to suffer through it's shit, an you should too, no Linux version they need to fix bugs on the game for Windows!' without realizing a lot of times it's actually advantageous to have a multi-platform development as finding bugs is actually much easier that way!

The other one, and the one that irritated me today, are the 'It's not Linux, it's GNU!' Okay, I want to know who keeps going around and whining about this? 1) Linux kernel IS GPL2.. so technically is under a GNU license... 2) Has there actually been any long term projects to mix GNU with a different kernel? Only one I've seen so far is Debian, and neither the Debian GNU/Hurd nor GNU/kfreeBSD projects see much love these days. Since GNU doesn't have their own kernel that has as wide support as the Linux kernel, this type of troll can just shut the fuck up. There is no point in trying to split hairs here. This type of person should probably not install any commercial software at all, and even anything that has closed source firmware blobs (which is most wireless cards and all but the oldest GPUs. Yup, AMD even has certain blobs that the kernel wines about if they're not on the system).

I really want to know the psychology of these people. The 'just support Windows' one is very much like 'this is my sandbox, and you're asking me to share my toys!' mentality. The GNU ones are... I don't know, I just want to say 'write your own damn kernel that has wide support for hardware. Oh wait, that's the reason Haiku has been in alpha / beta for longer than I can remember??' Writing a kernel may be what some people do when they're bored, but drivers, especially for GPUs and such isn't exactly an easy thing to do! Otherwise I'm betting my Amiga with PCI slots would have all sorts of PCI based options, but they literally only have accelerated drivers for Voodoo 3+ and unaccelerated drivers for Radeon 9250s, and I think maybe some very beta S3 drivers. Pretty sure some of those are based upon Linux/XFree86 drivers.

Sorry for the rant....

What did you expect from steam forums? The volume of toxicity and trolling there is legendary.

I think many users also think that if a company develops a game for multiple platforms it will take a linear amount of developer time, and that's why a lot of games are really buggy on launch, so they get really frustrated when someone asks for a port for an OS that 'nobody uses'.

yeah one of them is my Cousin which usually tries to convince me to install windows for blabla windows only game to play with and then if i do he just basicly stops playing that game and bullying that game after 1-2 weeks of gameplay.

beyond these. i want to buy neuralink and plant that chip into thats trolls head then install minimal ubuntu version and have some fun.
i will pay for all the job for "Linux Users Sake."

Sadly Linux-phobia is really a big problem.
I even hear bad words about linux from people who should know better, like software engineers, free-time programmers etc.

But it's not limited to Linux, in general people tend to want only monopolies in every aspect of their life nowadays (Amazon, Facebook, Steam, Netflix, Uber, Airbnb etc.) and if you use an alternative then you "make things complicated" in their eyes.
They make things complicated by supporting wannabe-monopolies all the time and giving them power.

Last edited by dr_jekyll on 29 September 2020 at 2:21 pm UTC

Quoting: dr_jekyllSadly Linux-phobia is really a big problem.
I even hear bad words about linux from people who should know better, like software engineers, free-time programmers etc.

But it's not limited to Linux, in general people tend to want only monopolies in every aspect of their life nowadays (Amazon, Facebook, Steam, Netflix, Uber, Airbnb etc.) and if you use an alternative then you "make things complicated" in their eyes.
They make things complicated by supporting wannabe-monopolies all the time and giving them power.

A good example of this. Someone I know keeps saying I'd like Apple devices, insists I should use Door Dash instead of Postmates for food delivery, etc.

I have always supported the underdog (just the way I am) and I for 100% sure hate lock in of any kind, so no, I would never like an Apple device. I didn't even like how much they try to push you into logging into their iCloud. Even Windows isn't so in your face about using One Drive!

Some companies are of the opinion that you and your data should belong to them, and you should be happy that they provide such a service to you!

The only one of the big companies I haven't had huge issues with is probably Amazon. And while they have had history of not paying their people well, or other things that make their employees unhappy, it isn't like they've been using sweat shops (at least that we know of), and they provide a great service in getting packages to my front door quickly. I think there is a great reason that Amazon is successful. Google is successful because of luck of the draw and advertisements, which I've never been comfortable with, as I hate advertisements... One of the reasons I'd never sign up and pay for something like YouTube Red or Hulu.

Hell, I still refuse to sign up separately to HBO Max, because I think HBO and Amazon should come to an agreement as having everything integrated through Amazon Prime is much better than having to pay X amount of different services.

But back to trolls, yeah I don't think any of them are paid. I actually watched a commentary video about another video... where the original video was a grown adult male that was upset (to the point where he seemed close to bursting out into tears) that the PC was getting ports of some of the games that were previously exclusive to the PS4 (like Horizon: Zero Dawn). Because SOMEHOW having games be available to more people is a terrible thing! Oh no! I mean it isn't like the PC even competes with the consoles, that's one thing I've never understood... The only way they even compete at all is for the developer's cash. Exclusives to me make absolutely NO sense from either a developer or consumer point of view, it is only advantageous for the maker of that particular platform. No one else benefits from it. Not even the publisher does, unless the platform maker gives them a giant dump of money, and that is only the initial profit. Granted, if a publisher has any doubt on the success of a game, selling it to be an exclusive for that initial bonus is a great idea. People from that platform will flock to it for a 'this is better than what you have' to other platform owners. They basically feed the 'war'.

Exclusives are a funny thing, and just means the game will eventually either be unplayable, or work on a PC via emulation anyhow. :P

Arguably, Linux is not successful because there's no exclusive software for it, meaning you can do everything you can on Linux on other platforms so there's no reason to use Linux (from a functional point of view, I'm not talking about freedom, privacy, etc because the general public doesn't care about those).

Arguably, Apple is the most privacy-minded company there is right now. You buy expensive hardware from them and they make their money from that and not from gathering and selling your data. They are also not a monopoly in any market, Google is bigger in smartphones and obvs MS is bigger in OS. Let's not confuse monopoly with having control one's own devices.

Apple and Google are getting bad press right now because of the shit Epic has been stirring up that they shouldn't have control over their own platforms. I see value in the argument that a smartphone is just like a computer and should be treated like one, I also see value in it being a closed platform, where users have limited capabilities in exchange for security and peace of mind. Much like gaming consoles, perhaps. Should Sony and MS and Nintendo allow users to install their own software on them, including competitive stores? And if so, should they offer support and warranty if users do that?

Perhaps there's place for both types of devices in the market. It's just too bad for smartphones you only have the choice of locked-down chaperone Apple and spyware Google.

Quoting: slaapliedjeBut back to trolls, yeah I don't think any of them are paid. I actually watched a commentary video about another video... where the original video was a grown adult male that was upset (to the point where he seemed close to bursting out into tears) that the PC was getting ports of some of the games that were previously exclusive to the PS4 (like Horizon: Zero Dawn). Because SOMEHOW having games be available to more people is a terrible thing! Oh no! I mean it isn't like the PC even competes with the consoles, that's one thing I've never understood...

<rant>
These people are simple consumers, brainless, fanboys. It's the same thing about Apple you don't understand either. ^^
It's like they think: Playstation is better than Xbox, the console looks better, the gamepad is better, the games are better!", they don't care about other people can't buy/play that game on their platform of choice.
They want to be, sort of, part of the "better" camp, but better in what? Not freedom for sure...
You know, I think we all know some fanboys, either for video games, cars, computers, clothes, food...
There is always someone saying that what he use/buy is better but in the same time doesn't know shit and refuse to learn, they just consume.
And the idea that they could be slaves, brainwashed... is unbearable for them, I saw that many times...
In fact with many of these big companies It's just like Stockholm syndrome...
</rant>

Well, if you spend money on something you are more than likely going to defend it.

And of course, you may do nothing, buy nothing and “consume” nothing, that’s not much of a life, really. People make amazing things and one of the good sides of civilisation is we have a fair amount of free time we can spend on entertainment and don’t have to slave in a mine 16 hours a day. People find what works best for them and go with it. Yes, many a time that doesn’t involve much thought.