Given the lack of investment from google lately on chromeos and the newish desktop mode of android, my guess is that they will fold chromeos into android and call it a day.

As for steam, the main issue is that other than these new qualcomm chips (and apple's), the rest won't play anything reasonably recent well. FEX and box32/64 can be used to handle stuff, but if you see dev blogs, the good stuff is usually tested (and supported) with desktop cards.
Then there's the issue that the arm instructions to speed up translation and compatibility with x86 are optional, page sizes (x86 is 4k, arm is up to 64k) differ and translation is a pain.
Stores (steam, gog, etc), cloud help with making arm64 viable by offering native builds (thus marking the as such), devs could then just make arm builds available (target would still be a pain). As an example you can play stardew in arm for years just by replacing the c# binaries, for java games the same is also possible (more work but possible).
Right now we can also use box or fex to translate but why leave performance on the table when you are running on an already limited platform if you can avoid it.

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The issue with GOG with respect to Linux and publisher support is mostly down to:

• No galaxy support for Linux, i.e. no cloud saves, no online features. This means two versions or extra code to handle it, which in turn requires validation and what not. Steam at least is consistent in their support of platforms and available features.


• The upload/packaging process for Windows/MacOS and Linux games is/was different and was specially cumbersome


• Linux as a platform is not unified (see https://docs.gog.com/linux-guidelines/ for gog's guidelines), the safest bet is to pack everything as a static library (which again is a pain). Steam bypasses some of these with their Steam Runtime


• GOG in general is a small store (10% of PC sales of cyberpunk was from GOG)


• Linux for gaming is still a niche

As for the delisting of games. Happens all the time, I have the original Fallout's on my account (slug id 1) which were delisted, I can download the games any time. Eventually the games got back on GOG and the original ones were renamed to Classic.

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The number of times "playable again" shows up on Proton release changelogs is a bit worrisome..

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Quoting: maddovr

Quoting: alka.setzerI think, and may be wrong, that this only applies to the open source AMD stack, the closed source driver may not be subject to this limitation.

It does, unfortunately. Both mesa (gpu open drivers including amd's) and AMDGPU-PRO (amd's proprietary drivers) rely on the open source AMDGPU (part of the linux kernel), and this implementation was part of the kernel driver (and can't be anywhere but the kernel). So the HDMI forum rejecting this basically closed off hdmi 2.1 on amd for at least the existing gpus. It may yet be possible for next gpus to support hdmi 2.1 on linux by relying on a firmware level driver (like nvidia does) or on an internal chip that converts displayport signal to hdmi signal (like intel does).

Thank you for the insight. VRR on HDMI is an optional feature in any case. Though freesync/adaptivesync over hdmi is still possible with older versions of the spec. I have an Asus ProArt screen that according to the spec sheet is hdmi 1.4 but does support freesync/adaptivesync (and its working). It's only a 1920x1200, 75Hz display but it works. For people that want higher resolutions, refresh rates and bit rates without compression I guess it would not cut it. In any case for me one advantage of hdmi over display port is that audio always works.

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Quoting: finaldestSo I have a fantastic 55 inch gaming capable TV which I paid over £2k for so I could have all the HDMI 2.1 features and £1k for a HDMI 2.1 capable GFX card but the HDMI forum wont allow me to use said hardware because they refuse to allow AMD to release drivers.

If I had the money I would be looking at taking legal action. I am now 3k out of pocket thanks to the HDMI forum.

I use my TV for UHD4k Bluray and Gaming Consoles and all these require HDMI. This is why I chose HDMI for PC also. But now I am forced to buy a new display that used Display Port if I want to use all the HDMI 2.1 features I have already paid for.


I really wish HDMI would just Die. Sick of jumping through hoops.

I think, and may be wrong, that this only applies to the open source AMD stack, the closed source driver may not be subject to this limitation.

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Quoting: PyreticIt's sad to say but, in terms of gaming, Linux's main selling points are its low price and its better performance. We need to focus on both of these if we aim to increase its market share and get developers to start targeting our platform. Thankfully, we are already starting to see that and I can only hope that it's a sign of better things to come.

The Linux (or any other free/gratis OS) pricing advantage is for end users on replacing an OS or installing on a bare bones. For device makers (like OrangePI, Lenovo, Clevo, etc) Linux offers only some relative pricing advantage, as the cost of development and support will have to be paid (instead of for example riding on AMD drivers for the platform), and I think we all have passed through some unbootable distro build or hardware that stopped working for reasons. Large brands like Lenovo, Asus or Valve have support figured out, a small niche company from China and a, flaky, Linux distro not so much.

But if the price is right and the device lasts one year on the wild and is still being supported after that, I'll consider adding it to my list of handhelds :p

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Proton, gave us emulated Windows games (mostly under Steam), took from us Native games (under our distro/platform of choice).

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: NodFun fact. This game was ported to Linux by Loki in 2000. I am a proud owner of the box set and played it at the time.

Yup. Likewise. Not that I can get it to work these days.

There is a docker container just for launching old loki games here: https://github.com/lutris/asgard/

Although not on the list smac(x) works.

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For an example where flatpak is a good add-on look no further than musl based distros (Alpine for example). It provides me with a way to use proprietary software*, Spotify for example (and no, the web version doesn't work) which I would not be able to use otherwise.

On the downside I'm not fan of having to store multiple versions of gnome and other runtime software (total of 3.8GB) because I have two applications installed (330MB) when I also have to have a copy of gnome libs for non flatpak apps. But hey, storage is cheap right and bandwidth limitations are not a thing. (Though I'll admit that flatpak distribution is better than average)

As for monetization, I really don't see this being a thing that will work. Microsoft and Apple already tried it with their desktop OSes and neither had any traction despite the huge user base and lots of money to throw at the problem.
Now if we were talking about mobile OSes maybe this could work (but the linux/*bsd user base isn't very keen on spending money on software)

* Yes, I could install glibc and suffer many pains or try to help with gcompat and similar compatibility efforts.

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My wishes for 2023:

#1 For people to actualy [support/help with/open tickets] open source projects (and/or sites) instead of just complaining
#2 Hardware companies to do a good job with the hardware and not offering linux broken stuff (framework power usage under linux, AMD s0ix broken in multiple vendors, etc)
#3 GOG to add missing linux native ports and open sourcing the API so that we can do something about it
#4 More native linux builds of games, Proton is great and all but it is still not native
#5 For Red-hot and Systemd to stop trying to turn Linux into Windows
#6 More and actualy performant aarch64 hardware and native games to go with it (lots could already be compatible, I.e java and net ones for example, but aren't for reasons)
#7 A revised Nintendo Switch and/or PS4portable to put pressure on Valve (and because the steam deck is huge and needs competition)

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