Patreon Logo Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal Logo PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.

Latest 30 Comments

News - Discord is about to require age verification for everyone
By BrandonGene, 11 Feb 2026 at 3:04 pm UTC

Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: elmapul
Quoting: apocalyptech
Quoting: JarmerOMG I love this so much because it will destroy discord. YESSSSSS I ragehate discord so much so anything that takes measures to destroy it is the best thing ever.
Heh, while I don't hate Discord with the same fervor as you, I am certainly not a fan. Perhaps this'll end up encouraging more people to start adopting open platforms for online discussion, over corporate-controlled walled gardens! Though through the cynical eye of historical observation, I think it's more likely that the majority will just grumble about it and acquiesce anyway. Alas!
if we can make the best platform for once instead of demanding people to use an inferior product...

im not saying that open source is aways worse, but we tend to enter the party when its already in the middle or over, we need to find an way to fund cool projects and make then more competitive with closed solutions before its too late for then to compete...
As far as I can tell, open source development also tends to be more kind of steady, a long gradual push, punctuated by bursts of activity when some talented energetic person joins and suddenly adds some stuff.

Closed source development tends to be more front-loaded . . . there's a big push at the beginning, lots of money and hustle to get the product out the door, then nothing much, bugfixes if you're lucky, until it's time for the next version, when there will be a big push to find some new features to bolt on. Eventually the product reaches maturity, and will start to get worse as they either add bells and whistles because, or if it's dominant in its field they will start to enshittify it.

So at the beginning, closed products tend to be better. A couple of versions in, open source software starts overtaking, and then after a while is likely to end up better than the closed product just by virtue of not being a product. But it takes time, quite often too long to get any adoption.
Yes, I've seen this time and time again! Commercial software goes from good to great to almost perfect, and then...what's left? In the best case scenario, they work on extra features that few people will use. Tweaks here and there, and prices stay reasonable. In the worst case scenario (and most common one it seems like), they change their business practices to earn more money from the same or worsening product. "Numbers must go up!"

And in the meantime, open source projects slowly creep towards the "almost perfect" that the commercial software once was. Blender, KiCAD, Krita, OBS, JellyFin, HandBrake: already did this. FreeCAD, LibreOffice, Audacity (4.0), Nextcloud: all on their way there while the alternatives get worse. It's looking good for the future, just requires patience (and more of these companies to F up to inspire devs to work on the open source alternatives).

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By akselmo, 11 Feb 2026 at 3:03 pm UTC

Quoting: dpanterStill bullshit, Discord people. B & S.

Not to trash Matrix but uh, it's not even remotely a realistic alternative. My personal opinion of course.
Matrix is definitely not a 1to1 alternative to Discord, but for some it may work.

Anyway, we should not discourage people from exploring alternatives. Use whatever open platform, be it Matrix, IRC, XMPP, Stoat... As long as its not a dystopian silo like Discord.

The fighting among open chat protocols is embarrassing and should stop. We need to encourage to test things out for people to find as their new chatrooms.

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By dpanter, 11 Feb 2026 at 2:47 pm UTC

Still bullshit, Discord people. B & S.

Not to trash Matrix but uh, it's not even remotely a realistic alternative. My personal opinion of course.

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By Lofty, 11 Feb 2026 at 2:15 pm UTC

For those stumbling across this GOL article who are not in the know. One good alternative is Matrix

Join one server, the list is here:

https://servers.joinmatrix.org/

And then on Linux you can use one of many Clients available:

https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients/

I recommend https://flathub.org/en/apps/im.nheko.Nheko

to log in (on Nheko at least), its a bit different from a typical corporate social media site like Discord , you would put @newfunkynameichose:tchncs.de

the name first then > : & then what ever server authenticator/database you chose to register your username. Other apps might do it different and require an @ for instance.

Hope that helps

edit* BTW you want to choose ' Noto Color Emoji ' in system settings on Nheko otherwise you will have B&W and missing Emoji sets. Hope that helps

News - Prefixer is a modern alternative to Protontricks that's faster and simpler
By Linuxer, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:53 pm UTC

Quoting: pb
Quoting: dziadulewicz
Quoting: williamjcmI hope it'll get released as a Flatpak, because I don't like installing stuff through the AUR or pip.
Exactly. A flatpak or a snap or best both. It's BS for this day and age to not be able to install a damn app with a couple of clicks, honestly 😀
yay -S prefixer *is* a couple of clicks ;p
Huhh dat a termnial command so no its not jus clicks

News - Prefixer is a modern alternative to Protontricks that's faster and simpler
By Serious_Table, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:51 pm UTC

Honestly it's about time, and whomever ends up creating the graphical wrapper of this will be a boon to the community as well. Protontricks/Winetricks is a friction point to the ecosystem just because of their less than intuitive interface and the weird silent pauses and slowdowns that make you wonder if it's working or not. If a game needs tweaks from Winetricks, having something fast and smooth like this is huuuuuge.

News - Prefixer is a modern alternative to Protontricks that's faster and simpler
By ben-green, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:43 pm UTC

Quoting: williamjcmI hope it'll get released as a Flatpak, because I don't like installing stuff through the AUR or pip.
I hear you, the pipx install I did was so incredibly fast though, and the program is so incredibly useful. If I'd know what I was getting I would even have scrabbled around compiling from source, but there was no need.

News - Prefixer is a modern alternative to Protontricks that's faster and simpler
By ben-green, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:43 pm UTC

Quoting: williamjcmI hope it'll get released as a Flatpak, because I don't like installing stuff through the AUR or pip.
I hear you, the pipx install I did was so incredibly fast though, and the program is so incredibly useful. If I'd know what I was getting I would even have scrabbled around compiling from source, but there was no need.

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By eggrole, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:42 pm UTC

Quoting: PyratePerhaps this is the wake-up slap that capable devs need to realize relying on a proprietary surveillance tool was bad from the start, and that a proper alternative can be developed.
I don't think this is up to the devs per-se. This is more like market forces/apathy. If I'm a dev and my potential customers aren't asking for in-game chat, why would I spend time on making one? Heck, even if they are asking, do they really "mean it"?

Or in the case of a discord alternative, sure there is that spike in searches, but it is already dropping off. I seriously doubt that people will actually move away from discord. Network effects and all that. Even if, and I'm sure someone will try, a good alternative is made, I doubt most people would switch. Though I'd love to be proven wrong.

Bluesky didn't topple twitter even though there were a lot of very vocal people saying it "should" and it seems like a good site (I don't use either). I've seen quite a few boycotts over the last decade that have gone exactly nowhere. If the people can't kill something as simple as Bud Light (please ignore the politics behind it, simply an exampe) by not purchasing a single brand of beer for a year, I feel like there is almost no hope.

Maybe I've taken too many black pills, but I have pretty much lost all hope on consumers actually sticking to what they say. Again, I hope I'm wrong, but can anyone give some examples of success in the regard? A company that did something shitty that actually produced some kind of change?

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By Salvatos, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:32 pm UTC

Behavioural analysis to estimate user age without looking at message content… I’m struggling to imagine how that would be effective.

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By Jarmer, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:30 pm UTC

oh so its actually worse. They're using a worthless ai script to estimate peoples ages which it will of course get wrong everywhere.

cool cool cool cool cool cool

my deleted account won't have to worry about anything!

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By Pyrate, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:21 pm UTC

Perhaps this is the wake-up slap that capable devs need to realize relying on a proprietary surveillance tool was bad from the start, and that a proper alternative can be developed.

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By henrebotha, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:21 pm UTC

The real FAQ is: What have you done to prove and guarantee and ensure that these new vendors aren't going to leak PII just like previous ones did? It's not enough to say, "We picked new vendors." You "picked new vendors" before, which resulted in the 2025 leak. You have to show that you have implemented meaningful proactive safeguards that are different to any previous ones you may have had before anyone sane can actually trust you.

News - Prefixer is a modern alternative to Protontricks that's faster and simpler
By pb, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:19 pm UTC

Quoting: dziadulewicz
Quoting: williamjcmI hope it'll get released as a Flatpak, because I don't like installing stuff through the AUR or pip.
Exactly. A flatpak or a snap or best both. It's BS for this day and age to not be able to install a damn app with a couple of clicks, honestly 😀
yay -S prefixer *is* a couple of clicks ;p

News - Motorsport Manager revived with a break from SEGA
By Szkodnix, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:07 pm UTC

Another game (sorta) saved from big bad companies by its developers. What a great time we live in currently, in terms of games 🥰

News - Prefixer is a modern alternative to Protontricks that's faster and simpler
By dziadulewicz, 11 Feb 2026 at 1:02 pm UTC

Quoting: williamjcmI hope it'll get released as a Flatpak, because I don't like installing stuff through the AUR or pip.
Exactly. A flatpak or a snap or best both. It's BS for this day and age to not be able to install a damn app with a couple of clicks, honestly 😀

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By pb, 11 Feb 2026 at 12:57 pm UTC

> they're using an age inference model / a machine learning model already in the background based on what you do and how you interact with Discord to predict what age group you fall into

btw a few years ago my kid almost got scammed by someone posing as a discord employee performing an age check; luckily at some point he realised he was being scammed (probably when they asked him for cc details); I can't help but wonder how much more of this is going on right now and will appear in the near future. They're talking about how 'external partners' are 'trusted' to handle IDs and facial images, but now it's open season for scammers to contact anyone on discord and ask for ID scan and facial image...

News - Prefixer is a modern alternative to Protontricks that's faster and simpler
By williamjcm, 11 Feb 2026 at 12:13 pm UTC

I hope it'll get released as a Flatpak, because I don't like installing stuff through the AUR or pip.

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By t3rr0rh4wk, 11 Feb 2026 at 12:11 pm UTC

Anyone still willing to remain deserves any and all of the dystopian b.s. that Discord is pulling here. Please, please make the jump to something else. We have the power here. They barely support us on Linux anyway. We're clearly not very worth their time, so let's treat them in kind.

News - Valve tweak Steam Community Awards to deal with point farming and "attention-grabbing content"
By Altefier, 11 Feb 2026 at 12:10 pm UTC

I'm late, but I want to say whenever I hear "I used clowns to determine whether I should read a post or not" I'm even more glad they were removed. Clowns can be awarded by anyone, including clowns themselves.

Frequently what I would see is pro-consumer posts being bombarded with clowns, such as asking for the removal of heavy-handed DRM. You always get replies like "you just want to pirate the game" as well. I don't know what kinda response that is, it reeks of either astro-turfing or there seems to be a psychological phenomenon where people feel the need to defend a game or series they enjoy from criticism involving "outside factors" like DRM

Either way good riddance, as bait posts aside, it was also used for bullying

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By syylk, 11 Feb 2026 at 11:46 am UTC

we offer multiple privacy-forward options through trusted partners.
The point is you trust those partners, but we don't - especially considering the past data breaches.

Fool me once...

News - Discord attempt to put out the fires with a clarification over new age verification
By akselmo, 11 Feb 2026 at 11:26 am UTC

Dystopian platform for dystopian times. If one must use this horrid mess, they should never say anything personal on it.

News - Discord is about to require age verification for everyone
By Wanderduene, 11 Feb 2026 at 9:59 am UTC

I will definitely not hold my face up to the camera or show my ID. The moment Discord asks me to do so, I will delete my account, lol.

News - Mesa 25.3.5 arrives with bug fixes for open source Linux graphics drivers
By sherminator, 11 Feb 2026 at 9:26 am UTC

ray tracing improvements for rdna4 so it matches performances on windows would be cool

News - Dune: Awakening Chapter 3 is live bringing massive changes
By BlooAlien, 11 Feb 2026 at 7:10 am UTC

After bugs in their game stole all my equipment (and that of several friends) multiple times (and several vehicles as well, some of which still rot behind the game-world's cliff walls to this very day), and their "support" basically giving me a big middle finger to the sky about my bug reports ("Sorry. We see the bug in our logs, but we can't / won't do anything about it."), you couldn't pay me to play their game again, and I won't be buying any games from FunCom going forward, nor suggesting any to anyone else.

I left two massive bases and thousands of units of Spice to rot, and honestly don't care one bit at this point. Only sucks that I wasted money and time on that game in the first place when I could have been playing anything else...

News - Discord is about to require age verification for everyone
By AllyTheProtogen, 11 Feb 2026 at 4:01 am UTC

I've gone and set up a Matrix account and am ready to move there when this takes effect. With how many breaches Discord has had, I just can't trust them with info this sensitive.

News - Mewgenics is weird, completely chaotic and it's out now
By such, 11 Feb 2026 at 2:18 am UTC

Y'know, I don't mind the art style, but I do think it's holding this game back a bit. Maybe more than a bit. On one hand, I recognise the author looking at it - and that's not a bad thing. On the other hand, I feel like the author has stopped developing. I do find it slightly unpleasant how large some of the UI is, same for the text boxes etc, and the same goes for the large-but-simple art. Doesn't feel great to look at it sitting in front of a monitor, and it ties into how the game doesn't feel satisfying to control with a mouse. That last part sometimes feel like an art that's bound to become a lost one. UI elements just don't click and clack like they used to (much more often) once. It's always been a pet peeve of mine.

Normally, I wouldn't lead with all of the above, but for a massive game like this... it is a problem if I feel all of it since minute one. It will only fester and grow.

So, yeah, there's stuff. I suppose this many games in I would've hoped for a bit more polish in places that are maybe not very obvious? The game overall is fun to play, though. Great core idea that's well developed, solid mechanics, a lot of personality... I just probably won't be joining the "GOAT!" crowd on this one.

News - Discord is about to require age verification for everyone
By apocalyptech, 11 Feb 2026 at 12:29 am UTC

Quoting: CorbenIRC was never gone... it's now libera.chat after the freenode takeover
Yeah, I still use IRC actively on a very regular basis, and I've still got a not-quite-disingenuous opinion that no other internet chat system has managed to eclipse it. Though with less rose-tinted glasses I'd have to acknowledge that IRC still has many problems of its own compared to the kind of administrative capabilities available in its newer competitors (not to mention its essential non-"richness" of the text it shuttles around the system). Still, the fundamental service remains, IMO, one of the best.

That Freenode -> Libera thing is actually a wonderful example. Freenode got shitty with a sort-of hostile takeover thing, and within a week or so it was Business As Usual at Libera. Folks had to re-register nicks, some channels got renamed a bit, some channels jumped ship to places like OFTC, and not everything was perfect, but the sysops still all had their familiar tools they'd been using for years, and mostly all users had to do was update a hostname. In the end, everyone's day-to-day experience remained virtually unchanged, just on a different network.

Anyway, I also feel compelled to point out that Libera is hardly the only bastion keeping IRC alive, though it's one that Linuxfolk are likely to be familiar with.