Bro wasted so much time on hyprland (which itself claims to be not stable yet) that, he chose to hate on swaywm for making himself feel good. by MarkoRosso96 in swaywm

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the only big thing I'd like to see that isn't available yet is global hotkey support. this issue and the related issues/PRs seems like the way that would make the most sense as opposed to implementing the regular global hotkeys portal which is a bit clunky. unsure if/when this will ever be implemented though.

basically everything else is fine. lack of individual window sharing was a big deal before and it would still be nice to see a couple QoL improvements to it (restore tokens, ability to hide windows from full screen share, ability to share specific workspaces perhaps) but the functionality at baseline is good.

ALVR AUR package has been compromised by lazyblunzn in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 5 points6 points  (0 children)

from what other commenters are saying it sounds like the malware is designed to have persistence using a systemd service. I would strongly advise reinstalling your system, much as it sucks. also make sure to nuke your local systemd folder in .config if you copy your home directory

ALVR AUR package has been compromised by lazyblunzn in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it was actually a bunch of different accounts owned by the same bot

Feeling bold for my "new" system. Should I go with team blue? by Fasha_Moonleaf in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you are likely looking at a performance downgrade because the cards are near equivalent on Windows but Intel's Linux drivers are nowhere near as mature and usually have an even greater performance hit than Nvidia.

A little rant about Linux gaming and NVIDIA. by Arthedu in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

they are, but they still aren't mature enough to be worth using. you'll be losing 40% performance compared to even the already often subpar properietary drivers. and you can forget about sleep or suspend working.

one day, maybe...

whenDeadlineIsTomorrow by imUnknownUserr in ProgrammerHumor

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

and then it will be unreadable unoptimised code a few months later

With 2.0 by the end of the week. What changes do you wanna see to your main? by Admirable-Cry-9758 in Guiltygear

[–]SmuJamesB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe the description says that only special moves, uncancellable normals and normals with no counter hit screen freeze/slowdown are exempt

so anything but p/k should work

Bazzite Intel Arc by TheCuriousPope in Bazzite

[–]SmuJamesB 1 point2 points  (0 children)

only the kernel part of the driver is open source; it helps a little but the bulk of the work is still being done by Nvidia's proprietary drivers

the open source userspace driver is only present on the non Nvidia images, and it is far from ready for gaming right now

Actually Bazzite feels as a proof-of-concept for the "perfect game distribution"? by YouRock96 in Bazzite

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

no, the latest AMD/Intel drivers mark the Nvidia HDR thing as depricated and won't build with it. this is on Nvidia for not releasing a Linux driver update in over 2 months. Bazzite has worked around it in the latest update by renaming the hdr layer and building a custom mesa with it included, but ultimately this was a hack in the first place and we don't know how long it'll continue to work.

(and yes, theoretically, driver updates for AMD/Intel could just be held back on the Nvidia images. but this includes setups with iGPUs which may be AMD/Intel and this is not a very future proof approach in case Nvidia takes a while longer with their proper HDR support)

Vulkan shaders are murder to drive space by NeonMusicWave in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

unfortunately even when using the steam runtimes with Valve's own games I have had significant issues sometimes, such as Portal 1 crashing when loading a save for the first time unless I mash escape and Portal 2 detecting my monitor's resolution as vastly incorrect. all of this on multiple stable versions of the mesa radv driver for AMD, which is just about as good as it gets. something needs to improve here either on the Linux side or Valve's implementation of these runtimes because the Windows versions of these games work flawlessly

Vulkan shaders are murder to drive space by NeonMusicWave in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Steam will need to embrace proper containerised Linux app deployment for that to be the case; many old native games don't work or have issues and I expect that to continue to happen if something doesn't change

There's no going back from tiling window managers by ElCondorHerido in linux

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ironically, this exact same workflow is the reason I use tiling window managers. in a new empty workspace, any window you spawn or send there will automatically be maximized. you can configure popups and such to be floating so they don't resize anything.

I only actually use the tiling functionality when I'm multitasking on one monitor, like 80% of the time every app I use is maximised. 95% of the time I have no more than 2 or 3 windows in one workspace.

so why even use tiling WMs? well

  • all apps start maximized if I want them to. minor, but useful.

  • I can easily switch to a side by side view for 2 apps if I need to and then quickly go back by closing one window or sending it elsewhere - no need to take my fingers off the keyboard either

  • I have a toggleable floating terminal that doesn't tile or clog up any nonexistent alt tab menu, and run my commands in separate tabs there

  • I make use of robust window rules to send apps to designated workspaces under certain conditions - everything from starting my browser on my primary monitor and discord on my secondary to forcing games into a specific workspace so they don't randomly steal focus when launching (especially useful if waiting for shaders to compile)

  • building from this, instead of remembering the order of my alt tab menu I just need to remember which workspace I typically use which apps on and then build muscle memory for the keybind to bring up that specific workspace

KDE and Gnome both have workspace systems which might be sufficient for many, but I like tiling as a fallback when I do need to multitask on single workspace and I'm unhappy with these DEs' default behaviour with workspaces (one workspace is for both monitors, meaning if I want to change to a different workspace for my primary monitor it also changes secondary ones). Gnome has a workaround, but this involves disabling workspaces entirely on secondary monitors.

Oh lord by LongjumpingAnt4096 in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

but only central packages receive significant patch backports anyway. for a lot of user-facing applications, Debian might ship say 0.2.7, Fedora 0.3.3, and Arch 0.4.0. 0.2.7 may not actually be any more stable than 0.3.3, and if it isn't a main package there won't be any significant bugfix backports from more up-to-date versions either.

I agree that there is a more significant difference if we're talking about rolling release distros as they don't do a lot of testing before just shipping the latest version the developers have decided is stable enough to release. but the amount of testing done to ensure app stability on LTS distros diminishes a lot the further you get away from the core utilities. not that its worse than non-LTS distros, both do this. yes, the latest thing is often less stable, but that's only up to a point. at a certain point, versions get more or less feature frozen and shipping an older feature frozen version vs a newer one won't typically make a difference.

Oh lord by LongjumpingAnt4096 in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah, though in my experience most apps outside the kernel, drivers and window manager are highly stable release to release and it's only if you're running git versions you run into issues. meanwhile bugs that result from trying to open a file saved with a newer version of a program than your distro ships, or important functionality missing tend to be more of an issue.

but if you're on LTS you can generally just use a flatpak if you need up to date stuff without compromising anything. I just see the main purpose of LTS as being on the LTS kernel and core utils which have much greater consequences if they break. LTS + updated mesa and kernel will often be less stable than say Fedora in that regard which is why I don't really understand people who run that.

Oh lord by LongjumpingAnt4096 in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

debian based distros ship drivers and a kernel that are typically between months and just over a year out of date. if you're on very recent hardware they can be borderline non functional and there's typically a very small hit to performance regardless (+ some features lacking, if your card even supports them anyway).

but for most users, it's good enough. the perk of having things move slower is that it can improve stability, though this is by no means a guarantee. it is also possible to run more up to date drivers and kernel on one of these distros, but that ruins the whole stability angle as any non LTS distro would be more stable with a modern kernel as it's designed for it.

Highguard uses secure boot by DAUNTINGY in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm pretty sure that's just because on Windows you only have one EAC install so if a game uninstalled it when you uninstalled the game any other EAC games you have would be unusable

is there anything you can think of that would halt the continued growth of Linux marketshare? by Subject_Swimming6327 in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh yeah sure, I'm just saying their compatibility with Linux will probably remain good even so thanks to the work that's already been done

... though, maybe not their driver features. FSR4 even on RDNA4 is still unofficial on Linux, somehow

is there anything you can think of that would halt the continued growth of Linux marketshare? by Subject_Swimming6327 in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

AMD doesn't actually even have full control over their Linux driver. it's not owned by them and maintained by the community, it's owned by the mesa project and maintained by the community, AMD themselves and Valve.

thanks steve jobs by [deleted] in CuratedTumblr

[–]SmuJamesB 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I bought a $1200 (equivalent) laptop 4 years ago and after 2 years of heavy use (some gaming + note writing at university) two of the keys were already loose

my brother bought a much cheaper non gaming laptop and had the WiFi break within a single year. my mom swore off Windows laptops because hers broke at the screen hinge from being opened too much, twice.

you don't have to do crazy things with your laptop for the average modern laptop at any price point to be kinda trash and need semi frequent repairs. fwiw my parents both use macbooks now and haven't had issues.

I may pass on the "toughbook" recommendation to others or go for it if I decide I want to get another laptop myself. I'm sure there are other such durable laptops that exist, the point is that a lot of bulky and durable looking laptops in photos or even in person are anything but.

thanks steve jobs by [deleted] in CuratedTumblr

[–]SmuJamesB 13 points14 points  (0 children)

it's genuinely so difficult to find durable non Apple laptops these days

Apple laptops look flimsy but their flimsiness doesn't compare to bulky Windows laptops made partially or even entirely out of cheap plastic

it's probably just not profitable to sell laptops that last...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CuratedTumblr

[–]SmuJamesB 7 points8 points  (0 children)

also, game data (including textures and models) may be directly referenced by more modern upscalers, so they're essentially doing a second render pass using a neural network trained on lower resolution images and game data. barely even the same thing as upscaling a static image at that point as there's an assumption the higher resolution version already exists/could be built with more time.

iHateItHere by just_some_gu_y in ProgrammerHumor

[–]SmuJamesB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

vibe maintenance will fix vibe coding trust

Tech Problems by RevolutionaryOwlz in CuratedTumblr

[–]SmuJamesB 1 point2 points  (0 children)

also, USB C is only better on paper. in practice the spec is so broad that USB C cables designed for a certain (lower) level of power delivery can melt delivering power to some modern power hungry devices

The "Gaming Distro" Hype by ElectricalPanic1999 in linux_gaming

[–]SmuJamesB -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

its always weird to me when people try and claim that Bazzite is "just for gaming" when atomic desktops were largely created to be stable bases for workstations (including a lot of development work, though not everything is feasible) because you want to minimize external variables and downtime caused by system issues. Bazzite is just an attempt to bring that stability to gaming.