Quoting: 14Hmm... I do not think this screen is that bad of a way to ask.

I agree. I'm definitely not up in arms about it. But I feel it should be off by default so that someone quickly clicking through stuff isn't enrolled by mistake (i.e. protect privacy by default, make data collection a conscious opt in). Same about their Amazon partnership a few years back (I don't know if that is still a thing) that showed recommendations right in the main menu until you turned it off. Sure it's not forced on users, but it feels dirty to put it in without asking first.

Quoting: KristianAside from gaming what are the most cited missing applications? MS Office? Visual Studio? Autocad? Adobe's suite of software? Anything else?

I don't know about most cited, but ones I've experienced myself are speech-to-text software (all I could find were tools for vocal commands and research projects that are unusable by the average person) and computer-assisted translation tools (there are a couple options on Linux, but a lot of companies insist on big names that only run on Windows).

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Quoting: razing32Hmm the no multiplayer part bugs me out as well.

[There will be multiplayer.](https://steamcommunity.com/app/780290/discussions/0/1745594817429103129/)

Quoting: BrynnvincibleI can confirm that while the early access version will only have the single player rogue-like, based on the community feedback you can expect to see online coop and the full campaign being worked on as a priority after that.

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Quoting: Arehandoro

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: ArehandoroWould you mind providing a link for this, please? I'd like to create some "fireworks" back in the office tomorrow... xD

I've only got a German one...

https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Behoerden-ignorieren-Sicherheitsbedenken-gegenueber-Windows-10-3971133.html

(If I find time I'll look for more.)

Thanks!

Time to practice my German :D (I wish my level could allow me to read the article lol)

P.S: I found this, are they related? https://borncity.com/win/2018/03/30/german-authorities-demands-microsoft-must-disable-windows-10-data-transfer/

It also made waves in France back in 2016, but I don't think anything concrete came out of it (of course):

QuoteMicrosoft's Windows 10 operating system collects "excessive" data on users, violates privacy laws in "numerous" ways and must be fixed within three months, France's national data privacy watchdog announced Wednesday.

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Quoting: ageres

Quoting: Mountain ManMy wife recently bought a new laptop with Windows preinstalled. I spent a couple of hours uninstalling all the junk software that it came with and configuring the OS so that she could use it.

But if you uninstall ALL junk from Windows, you'll get this:

To protect your privacy, external media requires approval to load. Source: helpmyos.ru
View cookie preferences.
Accept & Show Accept All & Don't show this again   Direct Link

An acquaintance recently told me he had removed all the privacy-violating crap from his Windows 10 laptop, to which I quipped "well, what you know about at least." He insisted that he went deep into the system ripping things apart and didn't just change the user-facing settings, but I didn't have time to enquire further. I would have liked to ask why he would go to that much trouble if he was really concerned with privacy (he also uses ProtonMail) instead of just using Linux.

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Quoting: dodrianWhile I'm grateful for Wine, and Steam Play, and their associated technologies, sometimes I think focusing on them (the "Brutal Truths" ) holds us back from talking about what the platform really has to offer. What do y'all think?

I see it as managing expectations. You give something a glowing review and pretend it doesn't have any flaws, people will feel betrayed and be that much quicker to bash it. You tell them right off the bat about the issues that exist and the choices they need to make, and they'll be ready to face and accept them if they do decide to try it out (and if they don't, they won't feel personally let down by the shortcomings).

To me it would be a much graver mistake to go around claiming that "Steam can now play thousands of Windows-only games!" and leave it at that than to say "Steam can now run thousands of Windows titles with acceptable performance, subject to your system specs." The caveat may not be as shiny, but I think there's value in being open and honest instead of trying to make things look better than they really are (even if it's just by omission).

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Well that's refreshing indeed - also Ubuntu has changed more than I knew since I last used it.

But the fact that it lets you opt out of data collection at first launch instead of asking you to opt in still doesn't feel right. It's not the Linux way, if I have any authority to say so myself.

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Quoting: scaineIt's kind of a shame that this digital version doesn't look it's going to support any kind of multiplayer. That would have been, literally, a dream come true. Still, it's a great game and I'll still be delighted to play it single player.

It will, just not during early access. They posted in multiple threads on Steam that multiplayer and campaign mode were their priorities once early access is launched.

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Huh, I'm on the designer's mailing list and I had no idea they were making a digital version of it. The graphics remind me of Hand of Fate, interestingly. I haven't had a chance to try the board game yet, but I expect I will before long. Will see then how interesting the port sounds.

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Quoting: tuxdeluxIn hindsight, with the knowledge of Valve's Steam Play, this seems like a very clever marketing ploy. Six months before they release an emulator, that allows buying windows-only games, they were getting people to add windows-only games to their wishlists.

Absolutely, this is one of the first things that came to mind when they announced Steam Play's upgrade. Everything they did was for a reason, and I find it exciting to see them activating a long-term plan that seems to have been well thought out. When you put the Windows game wishlisting, the work on drivers, the continued improvements to SteamOS and the Vulkan development together on a timeline, it shows that they are working intently on a Linux-centric goal, where previously many felt that they were neglecting us after a perceived failure with Steam Machines.

I don't have any hard expectations as to what's coming exactly, but I'm content and optimistic that they're still very much an ally to Linux gaming.

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Quoting: hummer010I don't think this was as far out of reach as you think. Lutris has already made great strides in being a game client that automated installs for WINE based games. Obviously, Lutris can't have as tight an experience as Steam can for Steam games, but it's still quite good. Lutris had already given me that same experience you've just had, where you start playing games you wanted to play, because it's suddenly easy to play them.

Don't get me wrong, I think SteamPlay + Proton is a complete game changer, but I agree with mirv, we'd have got pretty close to the same experience eventually without Valve.

Having never used the former, how does Lutris differ from PlayOnLinux? Although PoL was supposed to simplify Wine, relying on a small team to prepare and update packages for every program out there still meant that a lot of the time what you were looking for wasn't in the library of preconfs or didn't work anymore. Proton being run by Valve/on Steam has the advantage of more dedicated support and a much larger audience to report issues and suggest fixes; and already it seems to run a lot of games very well out of the box, instead of holding your hand while you jump through hoops but not actually removing the hoops (like PoL).

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