Quoting: CatKiller

Quoting: eldakingI'll wait a bit anyway and probably will update to 20.04 if it isn't too obnoxious to avoid snaps for most things, or if at least it works well.

sudo apt purge snapd will get rid of snaps entirely. Easy enough.

Sure, but will any default programs be removed by that - like say, the calculator? (I legit don't know what would happen to installed snaps)

And will the Ubuntu repositories contain non-snap alternatives for stuff? If they stop maintaining stuff in the repos because they now use snaps, it becomes impractical to use the distro without it. (While, presumably, other distros could still have those normally... at least for now)

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It actually looks like a meaningful improvement in most aspects; there were many important updates to hardware support and big applications since 18.04, which I mostly had to backport or install in some way (newer mesa fixed several games, newer KDE had some nice features and look for those of us that use Kubuntu, newer libre office had a few important features, and I expect the version of wine in their repositories will be less awful). Plus generally looking nice and bugfixes, as always.

But the way they keep trying to push snaps almost makes me want to not update at all, or switch distros permanently. I used to assume that snaps weren't that bad, but after actually having more contact with them I was shocked by how horrible it is. First, snaps had ridiculously bad performance problems; so it was not even a "non-technical users wouldn't even notice" - people did notice, for example how ridiculously slow chromium was. Second, as a system it is way too closed and centralized, which is particularly bad for something that is intended to work across distros (other distros can't just host their own snap repositories, the backend isn't FOSS, and it is entirely developed by Canonical without any cooperation with other distros). And third, Canonical are actively pushing for it to replace other alternatives, which means we can't even ignore it if we don't like it.

I'll wait a bit anyway and probably will update to 20.04 if it isn't too obnoxious to avoid snaps for most things, or if at least it works well. But frankly, I'm already looking to jump boat from Kubuntu, and particularly for something better to recommend for newbies.

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Quoting: The_Aquabatthere are several reasons for accumulating free games at least on steam one of them is that you get better booster pack rate drop and I think you increase your chance of getting foil cards. (Because accumulating games can increase your steam badge level thus improving your card rate drop)

That's... not high in my priority list :P

This is just me personally, and what I prefer. I think it is very understandable to want to hoard games given for free, and I sometimes do it; I used to do it more often.

But I also think it is important to think about it a bit more, and consider value beyond... for the lack of a better word, beyond "consumerism". Understand that this kind of effort is a cost, that taking a more chill approach (not caring so much about saving those few dollars) also has real value in terms of life quality. When looking at money savings, we tend to try to maximize the quantifiable (money, time) and ignore things like the psychological effects or the loss of privacy.

Which doesn't mean obsessing about free games is a problem for for everyone, but it was for me. Now I think about it not as "neat, I can participate in this marketing campaign and get a game worth 10 bucks" but as "I'm not jumping through these hoops for a game I don't really care about".

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Quoting: GuestIt's not really free if you have to do a bunch of digital gymnastics, is it?

That's like saying "I'll give you $20 for free* for every hour you perform this task for me."

It's like work, only instead of getting paid, you're getting...a...DLC? I would honestly rather just buy it, but since I'm not that interested in the first place, I won't bother jumping through all those hoops for something I'll probably never use anyway.

I get it, it'll appeal to some people. And good, they should take advantage of this. But I've always been leery of linking my Steam account with others. Call me paranoid; 99.8% of the time it probably is.

I very much agree with the sentiment, though in this case in particular it is not a bother to me (I already had met most of the requirements, as I am quite deep in the Paradox rabbit hole, and it's a game I like).

But in general... yeah, I'm not jumping through hoops to get random games I wasn't already very interested in. If it isn't something I am looking to buy, chances are I just don't care enough to play it even for free. (Not that I have a lot of money to spend on games, quite the opposite; but I already have a decent backlog of games I like and often have played too little).

Some people that I know keep getting every free game deal they find as if that was a big benefit, but I personally would be more annoyed by having a bunch of trash on my accounts than happy for having those games. Creating an account or subscribing to a newsletter? Nope. (Unless I was already interested in doing that, of course...)

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Quoting: Eike

Quoting: eldaking*In fact, some games just don't count, and might even mark you as "not a real gamer"... gamer culture is just horrible in pretty much every way. The leds are silly but probably the least toxic thing.

Don't let those people take away the word gamer from you. I'm playing games, so I'm a gamer.
(Well, I'm mostly a parent at the moment, but I would...! ;) )

On the contrary, I prefer to avoid any association with "gamer culture". I play games; "gamer" is not an identity for me that I just "am a gamer".

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Republic of Gamers? What a stupid name. I'd be ashamed to use something with that name.

Quoting: jordicoma

Quoting: LinasI really don't get this RGB trend. All the blinking lights is a distraction and totally breaks the immersion. But better support is always welcome, because it means that I can turn the blinking lights off. :D

I think the same. RGB lights are anti-gaming. It distracts from the action, it makes you worse, it's more expensive, and sometimes it decrises the performance.
I saw a video a sdd drive with lights that were so hot, that made the drive unusable (the chips has a minimum and maximum temperature).

Being a gamer is not about playing games. It is about a culture and a community, and you can play games a lot without being part of it* or be part of it and barely play anything. One element is of course the aesthetic: RGB leds, ugly overpriced chairs with random neon colored patches, big monitors and custom rigs, styles of clothing, etc. There is also the general toxicity and politics, the internal jokes and memes, and etc. So, considering all that: products targeted at "gamers" aren't necessarily better for gaming, they just appeal to many people from a particular community.

*In fact, some games just don't count, and might even mark you as "not a real gamer"... gamer culture is just horrible in pretty much every way. The leds are silly but probably the least toxic thing.

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Quoting: PatolaI am eager to buy this game as soon it gets into a sale...

Speaking of XCOM-Like, couldn't help but mention the incoming X-COM: Chimera Squad which apparently will not support linux. It came out of the blue and it's scheduled to be live in the 24th. Hope it at least works under proton.

Damn, is Firaxis letting us down after all this time? I hope it gets Linux support some time after launch (Some of their games got delayed Linux releases). It's not like I would be able to play it on release anyway, even XCOM2 is already way too heavy.

As for Fort Triumph, I'm really looking forward to it (not now either, but sooner than XCOM2). Interactive terrain (in a meaningful way) is a personal favorite of mine, and while tactical games are a dime a dozen good tactical games are hard to find.

(I don't love that every turn-based, squad-based tactical game gets immediately referred to as "like XCOM but X", it is an entire genre... but I have to accept that we simply have a gold standard for this kind of game, XCOM is just too good).

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Wow, it does look really pretty. Interesting proposal too.

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This looks... extremely not good. This isn't a game that really needs online multiplayer, much less on a competitive ladder style. It is a huge departure from almost everything that makes the game good. Frankly, I'm bummed.

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The way steam handles auto-updates is quite bad. Auto-updating is a pretty important thing: I surely don't want to go online and check for updates for each game, or manually apply patches (or reinstall), and I surely don't want each individual game to handle its own updates (this gives me Windows flashbacks). Leaving games out of date is either not ideal or downright dangerous/incompatible.

But then, it takes control entirely and doesn't even ask for authorization, doesn't allow us to disable updates entirely, or set a time, or play a game without updating it first, and has very little control about which games are updated and how. It barely has the minimum of "don't update while I play" or "never update this one game", and does nothing about updates that break compatibility (with saves or mods, for example)... it requires workarounds to even offer access to older builds (using beta channels).

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