TL;DR: Basically gaming compatibility and additional complications, on top of all what is new due to Linux.

I have a brother trying to convince him to use Linux over Windows (or at least dual boot). I could make him use Manjaro (back then when I was using Manjaro myself) on a laptop. That was his first experience and he is a gamer who likes multiplayer games. So the experience was a bit mixed. Later I borrowed him my Steam Deck for 2 weeks and it was a torture to myself, as it was the launch period of the hardware. And then I convinced him to buy Steam Deck instead a laptop.

He still loves the Steam Deck and uses it here and there, especially on vacation. But as lot of primary multiplayer games he play do not work on Linux and because of complications with some non Steam games and lot of applications he had, such as Discord, he went back to Windows on his new PC. Some complications arised because of the Steam Deck and its limitations, but that did not change the fact how games he plays are not working.

But he admits that SteamOS is the better operating system. And he understands why it is what it is, but as said, that does not change the fact he cannot play some of his favorite games on Linux. But that is not all. You have to understand that newcomers who experience LInux for the first time, and switched reluctant without research, don’t know what Wayland is, don’t know differences between desktop environments and has to deal with compatibility layers on top of all other new Linux stuff for them.

Why your sister felt she has less control is just a feeling, because she know less, therefore can control less. It makes sense from her perspective, so I would not say its entirely wrong.

Honestly, I am grateful that the FSF is a bit more strict in this definition. While I do not care too much about this, I think it is good that we have some ideal to follow and look forward. And its good, because anyone who wants to go that route, have a community and direction.

Agree to fully switch to a 100% free os? No. I need the nvidia driver.

Well, there is an Open Source Nvidia driver nowadays (not talking about Nouveau, but the new Nova). I don’t know how good it is and my old Nvidia 1070 card is not supported by Nova. So cannot do any comparisons sadly. I think in the future Open Source Nvidia drivers could be in a similar spot as AMD.

Calling a “regular” Linux desktop operating system being Black boxed or closed source is a bit too far in my opinion. I do not agree 100%, but I understand the concerns and points brought up in this discussion.

I would just use an old phone, either yours or maybe from your family. A dedicated alarm clock that stays at home and is always charged. It has only one job: alarming. No need to make yourself dependent on a random online website. This can be done offline.

If no password is needed to do authentication, then any script and any user is able to do whatever they want on your system. Basically every script and application has root access by default. That is something you do not want to have. Even more important in multiuser environments.

Looks like one of the better tutorial / documentation series in a blog I have seen a while for Bash. Most are short and shallow. I think this is NOT an Ai slop. I won’t read it, because I know most of the basic stuff and some advanced stuff too. But from quick look I could recommend this. Well done.

Right, I completely forgot about “Super”. It might even be the more common term.

The “Windows” key is just called “Meta” (Edit: or more commonly “Super”) key in Linux. It’s used for hotkeys, especially stuff that has to do with window management. I also set a simple press on it without other keys, which would open up “krunner” (to search or run apps).

Thunderbird. I even use Thunderbird as my RSS reader too.

JSON output support for various commands, making it easier to parse flatpak command output programmatically

Nice. Instead manually parsing the stdout data, now there is a “proper API” to get information.

You shouldn’t feel any lag at all, even on Bluetooth if its working properly. Maybe there are other things going on that adds to the overall lag. You should test another controller that is not using the xpadneo driver.

I quickly searched the web: https://superuser.com/questions/1653283/how-to-resolve-the-input-lag-when-using-xbox-series-xs-with-bluetooth-on-linux and the person solved the issue by updating controller firmware, the Linux Kernel and the xpadneo driver itself. But its an old post, so maybe not what you need to do. I don’t know what distribution and version you have and if you can update at all.

I used the Xbox 360 game controller for years on PC, then switched to Xbox One, then Xbox One S and then to the Xbox Series S controller. So we speak about decades at this point. I played extensively Steam games and emulation for all kinds of systems (where input latency is extremely important in some games). At the same time I also have used extensively a wired classic SNES like shaped controller that is wired connected and recently I replaced my Xbox controller with a 8bitdo wireless controller.

So you see there is some experience in using and in comparison. Latency was never an issue and I never felt it. But the common theme here is, I never used Bluetooth and always use the (even if its proprietary) dongle by Microsoft for connection. That’s because it should provide superior connection stability and better input latency. I always had issues with Bluetooth before (I mean with any other kind of hardware connection) and always hated it and avoid it.

Having said this, Bluetooth can be good. In example the Playstation consoles and their controller are using Bluetooth and its not an issue there. But you have to make sure that the driver and the Bluetooth dongle (or chip) is compatible and working fine, in combination with the controller. If you notice a difference between wired and wireless, then its a sign that the wireless connection doesn’t work properly for your setup. I think my best advice is to buy the proprietary dongle from Microsoft (as I hate doing this, but its the best for Xbox controllers). You will also need to change the driver from xpadneo to xone.

However I switched recently to a different controller because I experienced a few issues with the driver. Because the driver wasn’t updated for a while and it broke with a new Linux Kernel update on my Archlinux based system.

Warning! The protocol described in this file is experimental

Nice, I didn’t know about that. But the problem with Wayland is like always it takes too long. That’s why nobody implements it.

(Edit: I always mix up the terms server side and client side decoration. Hopefully by my description its clear which one I’m referring to.)

Pro SSD: the window manager should decide how the apps look

• user: consistency across the operating system usage
• dev: generalized and less burden on the dev, less dependencies to worry about and development specific to GNOME
• both: flexible, change your window manager and the app changes without modifications (at least in ideal world)

At least for a normal window. I wouldn’t mind if an application can request with a high priority that it wants to display its own decorations. In that case there should be an option to disable decorations from the window. That is how some applications do work and allows for a flexible usage based on users configuration. Now if there was just an official API from all window managers that can check this configuration, then the user wouldn’t even need or know there is a setting for.

Evil person. :D

No, you misunderstood my reply. I was not complaining about not having a package manager. I’m making fun of Windows.

what

I also recommend EndeavourOS. But maybe instead i3 or sway, Qtile is also a good alternative for everyone who knows and wants to do it in Python.

This mainly depends on the distribution and default configuration of the desktop environment. You can make KDE Plasma use less RAM comparable to XFCE, but that’s not the case with the default setup which most people compare.