Quoting: Purple Library GuyThey sound like jerks. Whether they're telling the truth or not, I sure ain't gonna buy the thing.

I have a couple of GPD's portables (GPD MicroPC and GPD Win Max 2021, both running Xubuntu) and they make really nice hardware, but I've got to agree with this. After their earlier poor conduct, I'm unlikely to consider them again. Glad that they seem to have come round, though!

That said, though they only ever shipped it on crowdfunding backer machines and not retail ones, they have collaborated to get Ubuntu MATE running on some of their hardware in the past (if memory serves, this happened with at least the GPD MicroPC), so they have at least briefly interacted with the Linux side of things before.

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Quoting: StoneColdSpidertheres not point in using the Discovery Queue except to get the sale card during the sales as it does a terrible job at showing me games i might actually be interested in......

Wait, what's a sale card? I'm still fairly new to using Steam (been using it for probably about eight months - I was last a PC gamer when you could go and buy big-box releases at Toys 'R' Us), and I've never heard of this before.

Quoting: RandomizedKirbyTree47You can exclude games with certain tags from appearing in your wishlist, but that often isn't fine-grained enough to remove what you want to remove without removing other stuff too.

Yeah, I've got some of that going on, but you nailed it, the lack of fine-grained control is exactly the problem - I don't want it nuking things that I would actually be interested in but just haven't found yet! For example, say that I wanted an alternative to Rocket League - I can't filter out "sports" in that case because something like that would definitely carry that tag even though it's a fantastical take on the activity.

Quoting: KimyrielleThe point of the queue should be recommending me games I have a chance to like but so far do not own. But it rather seems to be "Look, this person doesn't play shooters yet, so let's try and sell her some shooters! Everyone likes shooters, right?"

That's what I was thinking, too! I'm only a fairly recent console ex-pat, but I already have a lot of time clocked with the main genres that I like (2D platformers, cute roguelites, weird random niche stuff like Yume Nikki, and an ungodly amount of hours in Super Bomberman R Online, mainly), and I barely get any recommendations in that vein - it comes off like a lot of it is trying to "convert" me. When I hear about stuff on Steam, it's usually through word-of-mouth (which is fine, I like that), and not through the algorithm that actually has access to data about what I play and which really should be able to show me these things.

I discovered a game called Bombslinger, yesterday - it's a Spaghetti Western-themed cross between Bomberman and roguelites, and really should've come up in the Discovery Queue considering what I play. It didn't, and I only heard about it because I saw a random mention of it from another Bomberman fan. Amazingly, Steam says that this game doesn't look like anything that I've played in the past. What?!

At least it's not as awful as the short-lived Switch eShop Recommendations feature that Nintendo UK used to have on their website, which would only show three titles at a time (it was supposed to cycle out every couple of weeks or so, but that didn't always work) and which never even got remotely close to my tastes, but at times the Steam Discovery Queue is not terribly far off, and that's a pity.

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The main problem I have with the Discovery Queue doesn't sound like it's even being addressed by these updates: It too often recommends random stuff "because it's popular", to the detriment of recommending stuff that matches what I actually play and have on my wishlist.

There's no point in recommending the latest all-singing-all-dancing DLC-and-microtransactions-riddled licensed sports or war game to a gal whose main gig is cutesy action games and stuff with a retro angle - it's not something that I would ever buy, and their (generally correct) statement that gaming tastes can change over time would never apply to that.

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Quoting: setzer22I've also come to learn System76 is doing a similar thing with a company called Clevo.

All in all, I honestly don't mind at all. It's great that these companies are putting in the effort to sell laptops that "just work" on Linux.

UK Linux specialist Entroware is another one that sells Clevo hardware, too (I've had excellent experiences with them, incidentally; I have their i5 Orion and it's an excellent workhorse), and I'm in the same boat as you - I don't care about the rebadging because at the end of the day these guys are catering to a market that would probably otherwise be ignored, and what's on offer all seems to be pretty good.

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I'm big on portables, and even though I don't need anything at the moment it's really nice to see how more good Linux options are popping up everywhere (remember when we were reduced to an afterthought on netbooks?). I couldn't be happier about that - hopefully it keeps up!

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Congratulations, Liam and GOL! Looks like it's a lucky thirteen, since all things Linux gaming seem to be looking very bright right now. Here's to many, many more years!

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Quoting: EWGYeah, this takes xpenguins to a whole new level!

There was a silly little Crash Bandicoot 2/3 one for Windows 95, too - it did the end-of-level dance when it was clicked on, and you could keep it in place or let it move around while dancing.

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As a Linux lass, thanks for the heads-up, Liam! Grabbing both bundles now.

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This reminds me a bit of late-1990s "desktop toys", except on a bigger scale. Good show!

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Quoting: denyasisI wouldn't be surprised if it does a survey on first run (which is ancedotally consistent with my experience with Steam; survey on new installation.)

Man, that's so weird to me - I've got Steam installed on three machines, and I've never had the survey at all! I'm a relatively recent Steam user though (my account's not even a year old yet), having returned to PC-gaming after an extremely long absence (I left it behind when you could still buy big-box games from Toys 'R' Us and Woolworths, and when Electronics Boutique UK still existed), so I wonder if that's a factor?

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