BadlyDrawnRhino

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  • 89 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • I’ve recently been dabbling with Linux for the first time, so here’s a few things I’ve found along the way.

    First, look at whether you can disable secure boot. Most computers can, but as I’ve recently discovered on my laptop, the option just isn’t there for some motherboards. If you can’t or don’t want to for whatever reason, it’s not the end of the world, you’ll just need to pick a distro that supports secure boot, I know Ubuntu does, and I believe a few of the other more popular ones do too.

    Next, grab a few distros to try out. You may want to look into recommendations if there’s anything specific you want to do. For example, I wanted to make sure gaming setup was as straightforward as possible, so I looked at distros that were tailored towards that. Create some bootable USBs and spend a few minutes just looking at each to get a feel. You’ll pretty quickly decide whether or not you like a distro, there’s really no point spending more time with one if there’s something that puts you off from the get-go.

    Dual boot is the way to go until you feel like dropping Windows entirely, if you can. And if there’s something that just isn’t going to work on Linux, it’s good to be able to just jump across to Windows for that purpose. The only annoying thing I’ve found is that Windows updates can break the dual-boot partition, so just be aware of that. If it happens, it’s not that difficult a process to repair it.

    Other than that, Linux isn’t that different from other OSes in how you’ll probably use it. There are a few different ways you can install programs due to the different distros, so you’ll want to look at things like how to install a flatpak. For Windows programs, you can look at whether you can get it running in Bottles or a VM if you don’t want to bother rebooting.





  • They’re referring to Sony’s stance that all their PC releases should require you to have and sign-in to a PSN account. That’s separate to PS+, you don’t need to pay a sub.

    A lot of publishers include this requirement on their PC releases, regardless of whether they’re single-player or multiplayer, and I think a lot of people are fed up with having to have so many different accounts.




  • I think the major difference between the two is that in video games, the cost of the loot boxes is deliberately obfuscated through the use of whatever single-use currency the publisher has dreamed up, and made worse by the fact that the currency is only purchasable in select denominations, meaning you’re always spending more than you’re going to use.

    You’re not wrong that there are plenty of examples of physical “loot boxes” marketed at children, but at least with those you know exactly how much it costs straight up.

    I wish our government would look into the actual predatory practices that these publishers are using in these games, but this is a good first step. At least the EU is looking into it.




  • Just make sure your family has a way to access your account. I very much doubt that Valve or most publishers will care that your kids have access to decades-old games after you’re gone. Although I could see Ubisoft trying to take action out of spite, but that’s only if they’re still around by then, they’re on pretty shakey ground at the moment.

    Better option if this is an important issue for you is to only buy DRM-free. You’ll have to wait for most AAA games, but most AAA games these days are increasingly not worth it anyway.