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. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
Latest Comments by CatKiller
Linux Mint votes no on Snap packages, APT to block snapd installs
3 June 2020 at 10:23 am UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: Guestyou're allowing a third party to have total access to your system even if you're using them from Mint, Fedora, Manjaro... they're a big security risk.

As opposed to PPAs?

Linux Mint votes no on Snap packages, APT to block snapd installs
3 June 2020 at 10:04 am UTC Likes: 6

Quoting: GBeeMaybe I need more coffee, but I've no clue what "Snaps are more locked-down as they compared it to using proprietary software, it pushes Ubuntu directly and Snaps are done in the background." means?

Perhaps I should read the original for elucidation. The above explanation has severely confused me :(

It's Liam's summary of Mint's position, but it's hard to make it clear because Mint's position is just argle bargle.

In Ubuntu chromium is distributed (by default - you can still use a PPA) as a snap, for the reasons Liam linked to. Snaps have a central repository that Canonical pays for and maintains, for the reasons listed in the video I linked to, but other developers can put their stuff on there (other developers putting their stuff on there is kinda the point).

These things have made the Mint people Very Angry.

There are issues with snaps, but they aren't the ones that people get Very Angry about.

Linux Mint votes no on Snap packages, APT to block snapd installs
3 June 2020 at 9:29 am UTC Likes: 14

It's worth people watching this video - part of a much longer interview - so that they're informed about snaps.

The Linux market share still appears to be rising
3 June 2020 at 6:35 am UTC

Quoting: KohlyKohlI get the survey on Linux all the time. I'd say once every 3-4 months.

Do you reinstall or distro hop a lot? My understanding is that Steam is only supposed to ask at most once a year.

The Linux market share still appears to be rising
2 June 2020 at 11:08 pm UTC

Quoting: Purple Library GuyEdited to add: On the other hand, the new GoL article about LeNovo adding Ubuntu and RHEL to a bunch of workstations . . . I wonder if that's related?

It certainly seems feasible: if you're going to make your hardware work with Linux anyway for the domestic market, why not try to leverage that work into a wider market? Or they could just be competing with Dell, or it could be an independent move to start offering Linux.

The Linux market share still appears to be rising
2 June 2020 at 8:14 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: Purple Library GuySecond, I note that in tandem with the rise of Linux share on Steam there is, as usual, a decline in simplified Chinese share. So again, this may not mean much except that the Chinese don't use Linux (more fool they--if there's one bunch that would benefit from ripping out Windows and replacing it with Linux, that would be China).

China's mandating that government computers stop using foreign proprietary software for the same reasons other governments do:
QuoteBeijing has ordered all government offices and public institutions to remove foreign computer equipment and software within three years, in a potential blow to the likes of HP, Dell and Microsoft.

Report from the Financial Times.

They have their own distros in Kylin and Deepin already. Whether that will translate to more people using Linux in their leisure time it's too early to say (or even if they'll manage to achieve it for government computers) but people wanting to use the same system at home that they were used to at work was a part of Microsoft's desktop dominance back in the day.

Linux Kernel patch being discussed to help Windows games run in Wine
2 June 2020 at 7:54 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: F.UltraJust guessing here since I'm #1 not a Windows dev and #2 not a Game dev, but this could be due to some high hopes optimizing since the library calls perform some sanity checks and massaging of the data that you send in so a direct syscall is some ns faster.

Me either, but historically there have been some really elaborate things done with games because you really need the performance - timing your game output by where the CRT electron beam is, for example - and you're optimising for that rather than maintainability. On a console it's probably (relatively) legit (and probably took quite a lot of work), since you've got limited hardware configurations and a fixed software environment, any changes to your assumptions come with a whole other console, and if the performance isn't quite there you can't tell your customers to simply buy a better computer. It's not legit when you don't know the hardware, you don't know the software, and all your assumptions can be completely ruined by an OS update, or driver update, or any number of other things that can happen without warning and completely out of your control.

Total War Saga: TROY is now a 12 month Epic Games Store exclusive
2 June 2020 at 6:37 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: EhvisIt's safe to say that giving a game away on day one is going to cost Epic. There are two options, either Epic pays per freely given game, or they paid a fixed price. If the first is true, then having as many people get it as possible would increase the cost for Epic. For the second it might make the deal for CA a bit less interesting than they thought it was. Either way could lower the chances of it happening again.

The thing that would stop it happening again is if no one (relatively) plays it for a year, and particularly at launch when they're trying to build hype. An Epic flop.

Total War Saga: TROY is now a 12 month Epic Games Store exclusive
2 June 2020 at 5:10 pm UTC Likes: 6

Quoting: MohandevirAfter that, will porting the game still be profitable to Feral, if the game is not sold at the initial launch price?

It's going to be (at least) a year late, and a bunch of people are going to have already got it for free. Feral's chances of making it worthwhile to do it have been completely torpedoed.

Total War Saga: TROY is now a 12 month Epic Games Store exclusive
2 June 2020 at 4:39 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: GuestNot sure what you're driving at here, you want us to get it free on Epic Store?

I think (hope) they're saying to wishlist it for Linux on Steam so that Feral don't get totally dumped, but I could be wrong.