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Quoting: RedjeI consider myself a casual user.
And I don’t really get the hype for flatpak. Me and friend of mine had several big annoying bugs. For example; in the steam flatplat my nvidia 3080 mobile was not working in games. And games installed outside flatpak worked just fine. And also apps just not working with flatpak, and local app just working as expected.

Flatpak is out there for 10years+ or so? And still such big issues…

This is a distribution or user issue not flatpak I'd assume.

Flatpak will install the required flatpak Nvidia driver runtimes automatically.

If you disable auto update in Gnome-Software or KDE Discover these runtimes will not be updated, apparently. As soon as your host system installs a new Nvidia driver package. Hence, the Nvidia driver is not "properly" installed for your flats.

Same happens with Mesa. Except that Mesa on the host can work with out-of-date Mesa in flatpak and does not require both to match the exact same version.

Simply run flatpak update and all your flats will work on your Nvidia GPU.

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I'm interested in whether if or when Valve will adopt Flatpak itself as their primary distribution format for the Steam Client itself.

Ngl Steam with flatpak might not be perfect especially if you have to grand it directory access to anything outside home. But for me personally Steam flatpak has been overall the best experience compared to their own dep package or any repack for any other distribution in their respective native packaging format.

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Quoting: scaine

Quoting: RedjeI consider myself a casual user.
And I don’t really get the hype for flatpak. Me and friend of mine had several big annoying bugs. For example; in the steam flatplat my nvidia 3080 mobile was not working in games. And games installed outside flatpak worked just fine. And also apps just not working with flatpak, and local app just working as expected.

Flatpak is out there for 10years+ or so? And still such big issues…

Steam is a terrible example of flatpak - it's not created, or recommended by Valve. I'm actually not sure who created it, tbh, but it's a constant source of issues on our Discord support channel when people use it.

The "hype" for flatpak is two-fold. First, it's not distro-specific, so any Linux distro can install a flatpak and it'll generally give you the same experience regardless of what libraries you, personally, have installed, either manually, or through your distro. Second, it's containerised, which means that it has far less access to your PC than normally-installed software, hence less ability to negatively impact your system (e.g. through malware).

That second point is the cause of so many of the Steam issues. Games often need quite a lot of access - screen recording for Steam Replay, access to microphones, access to gamepads, sometimes even access to external filesystems (if you have a "Games" drive, for example). So a Steam flatpak was always going to be challenging. You can use flatseal to manage these permissions, or if you're on a recent version of KDE Plasma, you can manage them directly from within System Settings.

I kind of wonder if Valve will ever fully embrace flatpak and create an official version (and make it the recommended install). Might solve a few issues!

The limited access is nice on paper. I do agree, but it gives me so much extra work for some apps.
And from casual perspective, that is not a good experience.
I hope they can improve the flatpak experience in the future.

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Quoting: RedjeI consider myself a casual user.
And I don’t really get the hype for flatpak. Me and friend of mine had several big annoying bugs. For example; in the steam flatplat my nvidia 3080 mobile was not working in games. And games installed outside flatpak worked just fine. And also apps just not working with flatpak, and local app just working as expected.

Flatpak is out there for 10years+ or so? And still such big issues…

Steam is a terrible example of flatpak - it's not created, or recommended by Valve. I'm actually not sure who created it, tbh, but it's a constant source of issues on our Discord support channel when people use it.

The "hype" for flatpak is two-fold. First, it's not distro-specific, so any Linux distro can install a flatpak and it'll generally give you the same experience regardless of what libraries you, personally, have installed, either manually, or through your distro. Second, it's containerised, which means that it has far less access to your PC than normally-installed software, hence less ability to negatively impact your system (e.g. through malware).

That second point is the cause of so many of the Steam issues. Games often need quite a lot of access - screen recording for Steam Replay, access to microphones, access to gamepads, sometimes even access to external filesystems (if you have a "Games" drive, for example). So a Steam flatpak was always going to be challenging. You can use flatseal to manage these permissions, or if you're on a recent version of KDE Plasma, you can manage them directly from within System Settings.

I kind of wonder if Valve will ever fully embrace flatpak and create an official version (and make it the recommended install). Might solve a few issues!

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Quoting: fabertaweThat's already available, it's called the FuriPhone <https://furilabs.com/>. I've been daily driving the FLX1 for almost a year and it's fantastic. Don't really game on it though, apart from chess and the like.

What about banking apps? Is the camera quality good? Does it have NFC? What's the battery duration?

I have it on my radar, but I'm still sceptical, and after having tried the PinePhone and the Librem 5 I'm also more conservative on money spending for phones.

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You'll even get to craft nametags so you know who is who.

To be clear, you could already use name tags to name animals, but you could only acquire name tags (fishing, loot or trading). It's being able to craft the name tags yourself that's new.

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Quoting: datablobThat's cool, I think. Heh. I still don't entirely understand what ntsync does in practice, I saw that CachyOS also adopted it a while ago and read something about timing consistency. Can anyone elaborate?

Liam did a bit of an overview when it was about to land in Linux 6.14.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/01/ntsync-driver-for-improving-windows-games-on-linux-with-wine-proton-should-finally-land-in-linux-kernel-614/

The gist is that Windows has a function for a program to wait for multiple conditions and Linux doesn't. Wine first emulated that function in user space with the waits that Linux did have, but that wasn't great. But putting Windows in the kernel isn't great, either. So there have been progressing attempts to have the function working with proper performance whilst minimising the amount that having Windows games running bothers the kernel devs. ntsync is the third attempt, I think, with the first two approaches improving performance and the third improving correctness.

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I consider myself a casual user.
And I don’t really get the hype for flatpak. Me and friend of mine had several big annoying bugs. For example; in the steam flatplat my nvidia 3080 mobile was not working in games. And games installed outside flatpak worked just fine. And also apps just not working with flatpak, and local app just working as expected.

Flatpak is out there for 10years+ or so? And still such big issues…

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I wish KoTor 1&2 supported workshop, I can't currently make mods work on Steam is :(

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Still Valve not providing price of those devises is very disturbing with RAM prices still skyrocketing up...

I have some bad feelings about this. At this point $1,000 price for Steam Machine is becoming rather most optimistic scenario.

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Windows went 64bit, but there was work on the Steam Linux Runtime for 64bit. We'll see it one day...

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Not perfectly on topic, but wasn't there chat recently about Steam going 64bit? Or was that Windows only?

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Quoting: LoudTechieYeah, there're actually several.
The problem is just as always third party software compatibility(and this time also less expensive competition).

There are people in the Telegram support channel that have tried every Linux phone and reckon this is the only one which is truly daily drivable. I've only had a Pine Phone, which was not and there's just no comparison to my FLX1. You can read the reviews on their web site or join the Telegram channel. Support is first class.

It's running Debian so either install from the command line or Gnome "Software", including Flatpaks. The Android container (Andromeda) runs F-Droid, Aurora Store, whatever and compatibility's pretty good (Integrity API is a no go, obviously). The Wife's due a new phone so I tried Whatsapp for her and that worked, so I may get her a new FLX1s and she can ditch Google as well.

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The ARM SteamOS project runs so deep huh, I honestly have been less apprehensive about the adoption towards this architecture as of late since so much work is being put into compatibility for it. Hopefully this can help keep hardware budgets at least a bit somewhat in check.

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Quoting: fabertawe

Quoting: dannielloAnd in the near future - Steam Pocket. The first true Linux phone with decent performance! (of course advertised as only for gaming, so Google should be OK with it... In the same sense like Steam Machine is just Linux PC so Sony and Microsoft also should be OK with it;)

That's already available, it's called the FuriPhone <https://furilabs.com/>. I've been daily driving the FLX1 for almost a year and it's fantastic. Don't really game on it though, apart from chess and the like.

It's incredibly liberating to be free of Google, using Linux 😀

As for the Frame, really looking forward to getting one.

Yeah, there're actually several.
The problem is just as always third party software compatibility(and this time also less expensive competition).

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Quoting: dannielloAnd in the near future - Steam Pocket. The first true Linux phone with decent performance! (of course advertised as only for gaming, so Google should be OK with it... In the same sense like Steam Machine is just Linux PC so Sony and Microsoft also should be OK with it;)

That's already available, it's called the FuriPhone <https://furilabs.com/>. I've been daily driving the FLX1 for almost a year and it's fantastic. Don't really game on it though, apart from chess and the like.

It's incredibly liberating to be free of Google, using Linux 😀

As for the Frame, really looking forward to getting one.

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That's cool, I think. Heh. I still don't entirely understand what ntsync does in practice, I saw that CachyOS also adopted it a while ago and read something about timing consistency. Can anyone elaborate?

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While it's nice to see the support coming, for most games it won't make much difference compared to fsync which is already pretty good (as you note in your article).

Still, in the future, ntsync might become the default, so the sooner it's supported the better, I'd say.

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As a retro game enthusiast, I really like what MicroProse is doing.

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Waiting for this too. This would make my setup 100% Linux ready. Only VR was an issue as support for the Sony PSVR2 isn't there yet. And the Frane is native. Very cool.

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Hhmmm.... Why does this look exactly like an extension gameplay to Carrier Command 2? 😅

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Quoting: discocatI'm very curious as to if that will make it into mesa 26 when that releases.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-UE5-Lumen-Merged

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Quoting: Linux_RocksIf advergames are gonna exist at all, better that they be non-toxic like those vs bullshit like America's Army.

You refer to the one funded by the US Army, that once upon a time was paying icculus to port it?
https://www.phoronix.com/news/NDk0

Or something else? Just confused, since that wasn't a Flash game, but I suppose the comparison was for "advergames".

As for Dungeon Rampage - doesn't look like my cup of tea, but I love the background story!

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I guess I'll skip this until the performance and optimization patches kick in to lower resource waste, and maybe get it (if at all) at a Steam's sale for 80%+ off discount, regardless of how good the game is, or how popular it turns out to be.

And is not that my current system would struggle, these guys simply seem to market to a bubble and not to a big audience. It would seem as if the game is more a tech demo than a game, as such. Looks to be dev laziness not seeking optimization, throwing hardware at a performance issue with their code instead of fixing the code.

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Quoting: Corben

But, a bigger vendor like Lenovo seemed a bit more trustworthy if I ever encountered hardware problems.

I thought the same... yet, I got disappointed by Lenovo.

Reminds me of Logitech when I asked them if my Logitech G815 keyboard keycaps will wear away: "no they are laser etched they cannot wear away."
One year later, the black plastic dye over the clear keycap is wearing away on the most used keys, e.g. everything surrounding the etched letter is disintegrating making some letters illegible.
1 year warranty.
I bought a replacement set from Aliexpress for $50 but still, buyer beware these days >:(

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Quoting: JohnologueInstant wishlist + follow + please give it to me

Ditto, 1995 Mechwarrior is alive and well in 2026 and I'm here for it 110%

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The flash games that I remember playing the most back in the day were probably Snowcraft and the Candystand stuff. The Candystand games were just advergames, but at least they were fun. If advergames are gonna exist at all, better that they be non-toxic like those vs bullshit like America's Army. lol

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How nice of Nvidia to finally start making a native Linux app for Geforce NOW so that I can get back to playing some of the anticheat games I bought some time ago. Sure, I can use the browser but I rather they make a native version since it seems to run better when I last tried it on the Steam Deck.

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Quoting: dannielloAnd in the near future - Steam Pocket. The first true Linux phone with decent performance! (of course advertised as only for gaming, so Google should be OK with it... In the same sense like Steam Machine is just Linux PC so Sony and Microsoft also should be OK with it;)

Yes, google, there is absolutely no need to worry about steam running on ARM and inviting APKs to Steam, no need at all. ;-)

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Instant wishlist + follow + please give it to me

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