Linux 2024 Challenge: No gaming on Windows

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I'm trying to not let my PCMR get the better of me. A 7900XTX was my initial thought as a good step up from a 3060. And Linux support if better. But if you plan on going back to Windows then maybe a 4080 Super could work...

I couldn't even fit a 7900XTX into my PC even if I wanted to. My PC as shown in the neofetch is an HP Omen Obelisk 875, and the case is only big enough to fit GPUs that are less than 266mm in length. It's why I have a RTX 3060 because the bigger GPUs don't fit. So I'd have to get a new PC for all that. Next PC though, I'm going full Team Red.

I just wanna give rant for a second but I wanna give a special shoutout to Hewlett Packard for making absolute garbage in all their products. I haven't had a single thing HP made that didn't suck or break. The worst system BIOS I have ever seen. My first college laptop was an HP Envy M4, and it's cooling died after a year. Absolute eWaste. God I wish I had a Mac back in college but hey it's probably better I didn't because a couple years later Jony Ive decided to do his little trolling and set Macbooks back five years.

 

[MRMSFC]

Way simpler that way and Windows can be easily tamed by third party solutions.

Q-6

“Easily” I would say, is relative.

If you’re brave enough to edit registries, root your OS, sure. But most people aren’t that technical or brave.

 

[diamond.g]

I couldn't even fit a 7900XTX into my PC even if I wanted to. My PC as shown in the neofetch is an HP Omen Obelisk 875, and the case is only big enough to fit GPUs that are less than 266mm in length. It's why I have a RTX 3060 because the bigger GPUs don't fit. So I'd have to get a new PC for all that. Next PC though, I'm going full Team Red.

I just wanna give rant for a second but I wanna give a special shoutout to Hewlett Packard for making absolute garbage in all their products. I haven't had a single thing HP made that didn't suck or break. The worst system BIOS I have ever seen. My first college laptop was an HP Envy M4, and it's cooling died after a year. Absolute eWaste. God I wish I had a Mac back in college but hey it's probably better I didn't because a couple years later Jony Ive decided to do his little trolling and set Macbooks back five years.

Ah the 4070 would work but it has to be the nvidia reference card. The made by AMD 7800xt is 267mm long so I guess it won't fit.

 

[MRMSFC]

I just wanna give rant for a second but I wanna give a special shoutout to Hewlett Packard for making absolute garbage in all their products. I haven't had a single thing HP made that didn't suck or break. The worst system BIOS I have ever seen. My first college laptop was an HP Envy M4, and it's cooling died after a year. Absolute eWaste.

HP is leagues better than Dell at least. Though my first inspiron laptop took a lot of abuse and kept ticking, others were nothing but problems. Not to mention feeling cheap, even in the higher price points.

And the HP printer I have at home has been soild, as far as printers go. Dell printers blow.

God I wish I had a Mac back in college but hey it's probably better I didn't because a couple years later Jony Ive decided to do his little trolling and set Macbooks back five years.

My 2016 mbp was a good little performer in my last year of college. And usb-c only didn’t bother me much.

The keyboard did die though which put it out of commission for a week which was annoying.

At least you can rest easy since I turned it over to Apple to be recycled (and for the trade in discount) so it won’t pain anyone else.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

HP is leagues better than Dell at least. Though my first inspiron laptop took a lot of abuse and kept ticking, others were nothing but problems. Not to mention feeling cheap, even in the higher price points.

And the HP printer I have at home has been soild, as far as printers go. Dell printers blow.

You must have a really old HP printer then because HP printers are the worst printers you could buy right now due to their proprietary driver software, and more egregiously their ink cartridges. HP printer ink cartridges have silicon in them that actively checks to makes sure the ink in the cartridge is from HP, and the printer won't even let you use the scanner unless there's ink in it. (They're getting sued over that right now)

My 2016 mbp was a good little performer in my last year of college. And usb-c only didn’t bother me much.

The keyboard did die though which put it out of commission for a week which was annoying.

At least you can rest easy since I turned it over to Apple to be recycled (and for the trade in discount) so it won’t pain anyone else.

Fly on little butterfly. We actually had some 2016 MBPs at our data center. No one used them because of that keyboard.

Man Intel era went out with a whimper didn't it?

 

[MRMSFC]

You must have a really old HP printer then because HP printers are the worst printers you could buy right now due to their proprietary driver software, and more egregiously their ink cartridges. HP printer ink cartridges have silicon in them that actively checks to makes sure the ink in the cartridge is from HP, and the printer won't even let you use the scanner unless there's ink in it. (They're getting sued over that right now)

I mean, it's like 2018? It's not that old. It's an $80 wal mart printer but works good enough for printing documents.

I'd recommend laser printers for that reason though.

Fly on little butterfly. We actually had some 2016 MBPs at our data center. No one used them because of that keyboard.

I think the criticism was a little overblown, honestly.

Was it a good keyboard? No. Was it an enormous step down from the 2015 mbp keyboard? Very yes.

But some people treated it like it ran over their dog and pissed on their mom's grave.

Man Intel era went out with a whimper didn't it?

Lesser men might suspect a "New Coke"-style conspiracy.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I mean, it's like 2018? It's not that old. It's an $80 wal mart printer but works good enough for printing documents.

I'd recommend laser printers for that reason though.

There's another option: Brother. Brother's printers are really great. They're plug in play not requiring any proprietary driver software, and you can use whatever ink you want on them.

I think the criticism was a little overblown, honestly.

Was it a good keyboard? No. Was it an enormous step down from the 2015 mbp keyboard? Very yes.

But some people treated it like it ran over their dog and pissed on their mom's grave.

Lesser men might suspect a "New Coke"-style conspiracy.

I almost bought a Macbook in 2020 (before quarantine.) I had managed to successfully make a macOS VM on Windows so after playing around with the OS I thought might as well try it for real. So I went to my local Best Buy to try it out to see if the keyboard was that bad.

After three minutes of typing, I just walked away. Typing on the Butterfly Keyboard felt like typing a lot on a touch screen. Just pressing down on a static flat surface. It hurt

So thanks Butterfly Keyboard because a few months after that, WWDC happened and the Apple Silicon transition was announced. I love you M1

 

[Queen6]

I don't disagree, but I also see value (and fun!) in the challenge of making alternatives work. I have a 4070, otherwise I'd likely be giving it a try myself.

Up for such matters myself see here Doom 3 like you've never seen before, running natively on Apple Silicon...

A 1070 does this, then there's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to be precise Radiophobia 3 plain and simple the best shooter out there with a superb expanded storyline, see you in the Zone...

Radiophobia 3 is free and open source, wanna play this one will mess with you LOL.

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

“Easily” I would say, is relative.

If you’re brave enough to edit registries, root your OS, sure. But most people aren’t that technical or brave.

True enough, Windows has few secrets from me, therefore I'm happy to dig into the inner workings of the OS. Even easier these days with the rise of A.I. which can machine read entire libraries in a matter of seconds. Just need to ask the right question and your Gold. Once you figure out how these tools work they are very handy indeed...

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

Taking one for the team...

Not the place to be; pinned in a corner by a 10 foot (3m) tall demonic beast from Hell...

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

If really wanting play Total Chaos, exceptionally good not for the weak of heart mind...

Is free and stand alone. The rest is up to you, hell of a game...

Q-6

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Up for such matters myself see here Doom 3 like you've never seen before, running natively on Apple Silicon...
View attachment 2336010

Speaking of Doom 3, John Carmack has said something interesting this week

Team Beef, the mod team behind VR source ports of a lot of old Id games like Doom 3, Quake 1-3 (and soon 4) has said that apparently Id Software is in contact with the team, and wants to make those VR source ports official and sell them on the Quest store

id Software Has Contacted Team Beef About Official Quest Ports Release

id Software has been in contact with Team Beef about officially releasing its VR ports on the Quest Store.

www.uploadvr.com

 

[Queen6]

There's another option: Brother. Brother's printers are really great. They're plug in play not requiring any proprietary driver software, and you can use whatever ink you want on them.



I almost bought a Macbook in 2020 (before quarantine.) I had managed to successfully make a macOS VM on Windows so after playing around with the OS I thought might as well try it for real. So I went to my local Best Buy to try it out to see if the keyboard was that bad.

After three minutes of typing, I just walked away. Typing on the Butterfly Keyboard felt like typing a lot on a touch screen. Just pressing down on a static flat surface. It hurt

So thanks Butterfly Keyboard because a few months after that, WWDC happened and the Apple Silicon transition was announced. I love you M1

Same the 2016 redesign of the MBP was a disaster for many professionals. Terrible, unreliable keyboard and thermals that were an utter joke out the gate. Well over a decade with the Mac, had to switch to Windows to get the job done. Thankfully Apple seems to have partially woken up.

While professional users are in the minority we still have the voice that many listen too. Whoever designed the 2016 refresh should be fired as they clearly didn't understand the needs if it's users...

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

Speaking of Doom 3, John Carmack has said something interesting this week

Team Beef, the mod team behind VR source ports of a lot of old Id games like Doom 3, Quake 1-3 (and soon 4) has said that apparently Id Software is in contact with the team, and wants to make those VR source ports official and sell them on the Quest store

id Software Has Contacted Team Beef About Official Quest Ports Release

id Software has been in contact with Team Beef about officially releasing its VR ports on the Quest Store.

www.uploadvr.com

Try Doom 3 on the the dewm3 game engine with the D3HDP graphics package. Tell you dead straight puts the Dead Space remake to shame. Want links let me know, hell of a play and then some...

n.b. Need do own the original game rest is free.

Q-6

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Day 12:

So remember the black screen issues I had last week? So we found the culprit: It's Wayland.

For those that don't know, Linux operating systems use one of two window system protocols: X11 (which at this point is old and dated) and the more recent Wayland. X11 has been the standard for UNIX operating systems for years, and macOS even uses it somewhat (though theirs is a proprietary revision Apple made called Quartz.) In recent years though Wayland has been growing in popularity due to how it handles window management a lot simpler, and is a lot more secure than X11.

So what's the problem? Well recently, Wayland has become unusable for Nvidia users. Nvidia graphics cards have always been a crapshoot on Linux but ever since Nvidia released that "open source framework" (and I use that in quotes because Nvidia did the bare minimum and is essentially forcing the Linux community to figure this **** out on their own, like how Apple is) things did get a little better. We have more up to date drivers...kinda.

Wayland on the other hand in a recent update around New Years has become completely broken and usuable for anyone with an Nvidia card. Nvidia driver 545 is working better with Wayland, but I'm not using 545 because it's currently buggy while 535 is more stable. So because of this while I wait for Wayland to get fixed I'm having to use X11. X11 is fine though, however there's one thing it can't do: Virtual reality. Well not like I could do VR right now anyhow since I own a Quest 2, but if Valve is gonna announce Deckard this year...then that's gonna be a problem.

Valve though is working on a solution: SteamVR Link. Currently it's only available for Windows but they're working on getting it working for Linux as a Valve contractor shared a screenshot of SteamVR Link running on Linux

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1742365358647058606

With SteamVR Link, I could use my Quest 2 on Linux even though I'm on X11. SteamVR Link also doesn't use your Wifi network. What it does is it uses your PC's wifi card to make a separate 5ghz network for your headset to connect to, and only your headset, keeping latency low unlike Quest Air Link. From the patents we saw regarding Deckard this seems to be their plan for getting low latency wireless PCVR. (Pretty ironic as that was what Apple Vision's original plan was before they decided to go standalone.) I can already see it now: Linux Spatial Computing 🤤

Now for today's game highlight I played, another pull from the backlog. This next game is by Remedy Entertainment, who you may know as the guys who made Control and Alan Wake. This is their 2016 Xbox exclusive: Quantum Break

Quantum Break is a action third person shooter where you're generic white guy #1 fighting generic white guy #2 as you essentially broke time and now your brother generic white guy #3 is gotta try to fix it before the end of time or something I dunno and honestly I don't care. Remedy tries to make their games formatted like they're television drama shows, with everything episodic (which is great for me since that means I can play this bite sized per day like I did with Alan Wake.) Frankly I just play the game while high on edibles since all the graphical effects of time breaking down looks trippy, but it's moreso how the game plays. Mechanically it feels a lot like Uncharted but without the puzzles and parkour of Uncharted, but it makes up for it by giving you time powers. You can make bubbles where time slows down and combo bullets with it, can skip across time and then slow it down to dodge danger and get closer, and more. I'll play some more to see if it clicks.

But I do wanna mention something else about Quantum Break. This game is significant as it's the first game that Microsoft made day in date with PC. If you remember the Xbox One was not doing good at all. After the horrible reveal of the Xbox One with it's focus on TV and always online DRM requirement and destructive used game policy everyone was pretty much vowing to boycott Xbox. Then E3 2013 happened in which Sony gave the press conference that essentially gave them console domination for the next 10 years.

Microsoft is still feeling the pain from that even after all this time later. So they needed to make some changes to save Xbox, and one of those changes was doing day in date PC releases. Of course...the Xbox fanboys did not take that news well, but Daddy Phil put a stop to that fanboy nonsense immediately

I still keep this bookmarked whenever a PlayStation fanboy says something stupid all because one of their precious exclusives gets a PC release. You know if you think about it, Quantum Break did more than just break the fabric of reality, but it also was the first domino that lead to where we are now, with Microsoft and Sony both having their library of 1st party titles on PC, and who knows maybe one day Nintendo will follow suit. I honestly think consoles as we know it may be on the way out, and in the future they'll become lite PCs that can do more than just play games. We already have a taste of that future with the Steam Deck, a Linux based handheld PC who's OS has a standard console mode but can switch into a desktop mode to do more, and when Deckard arrives we'll have another gaming PC in a console form factor

 

[Queen6]

While Nvidia makes a good product, they suck as a company. Next box I buy or build will be team red, CPU & GPU.

Q-6

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Day 13

Okay so new problem, but it's nothing involving Nobara. I'm bored

Completing Act 2 of Quantum Break, I just do not want to play anymore. It's soooooo boring. Shooting is repetitive, I am not engaged in the story, and to add insult to injury I learn ingame that there's live action cutscenes that are as long as actual streaming TV shows being half an hour each, but Microsoft in their INFINITE WISDOM, just like a streaming show MADE THE CUTSCENES NOT IN THE GAME FILES BUT YOU STREAM THEM FROM A SERVER, AND THE STREAM QUALITY SUCKS AND DOESN'T WORK! But that's not a problem as there's an option to download the cutscenes...on Xbox or the Windows Store version of the game. The Steam version DOES NOT HAVE THE OPTION TO DOWNLOAD THE CUTSCENES THAT DON'T WORK! So if you play on Steam, I hope you like watching 30 minute cutscenes on Youtube just to figure out what the absolute hell is happening with this generic CW tier plot. Yeah I'm done I do not wanna play this game anymore

But then comes the classic problem of mustering energy to play something. I tried a couple simulators I bought from the Capitalism and Economy Fest sale which I didn't like so I refunded them. I played a tiny bit of Battle Chef Brigade then wanted more. Tested Command & Conquer 3 which worked perfectly and played a couple missions but stopped because I played that game so much already ten years ago.

So what happens when I don't have any energy to play anything that I should play? Well, I hurt myself and load Dead by Daylight

God why do I have so many hours in this trash? I need the energy to really play something and fast otherwise I'm gonna continue hurting myself playing this. Please for the love of god help me I do not wanna go back to DBD!

 

[Queen6]

Play Total Chaos the will sort you out...

Q-6

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

If into mod games have you played Total Chaos? Game will mess with you on so many levels, not for the kiddies so be warned...

If you haven't, you must play it's a thing and then some....

Played the game out, what a trip. Gonna come back to Total Chaos as has multiple endings and an insane hard mode that is so perfectly executed being it's integrated in to the game.

n.b. current version is a full free standalone game, so have at it L&G

Q-6

If really wanting play Total Chaos, exceptionally good not for the weak of heart mind...

Is free and stand alone. The rest is up to you, hell of a game...

Q-6

Play Total Chaos the will sort you out...

Q-6

ALRIGHT FINE I'LL PLAY TOTAL CHAOS! Just give me a bit to install GZDoom on my Mac

(That does remind me I need to get Treasure Tech installed. I do love me a good Wariolike)

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Day 14

Okay good news, I managed to break free from Dead by Daylight's evil with Lethal Company

I love this game. It's just endless comedy and makes perfect use of proximity chat especially if you play stoned like me. I'll probably highlight it in a future entry

Additionally another backlog dig: Fashion Police Squad

Fashion Police Squad is a NuDoom style FPS with no violence. You're fighting fashion crimes, like dull grey suits, or socks with sandals, or saggy pants revealing underwear, and more. Each enemy has a weapon that deals with them. The saggy pants guys for example the only thing that hurts them is your belt of justice.

One aspect I really love is the soundtrack, as it really nails the feel of the Sega Genesis era.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Day 15

Played more Lethal Company on my Steam Deck. I love the company

Unfortunately I've started encountering Jesters, and my lord Jesters are evil. Basically if you start hearing the sound of a jack in the box winding, RUN

I also almost finished with Fashion Police Squad. Had to slow down because now the game is giving me dead memes. The second boss is some hacker nerd guy who you defeat by spraying him with soapy water, and then in the score tally his shadow clones started doing the Coffin Dance on the Parole Ball runway

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Day 16

WARNING! Prepare for comedy. Awful violent comedy

Lethal Company is getting even funnier. I met my foreman for today, a guy literally named "PHONK."

We begin our great work for the company we love oh so much, found a bunch of jars of pickles that make us already hit our quota. So we begin to explore more to see if we can find some extra loot we could spend on equipment. I found a stop sign, which if you didn't know can be used as a weapon against monsters. The old rundown facility was full of turrets at every hallway so we had to be careful, but just one problem: The hallways were pitch black and none of us had flashlights. To make matters worse, a Nutcracker appeared

Meet the Nutcracker, a recent addition to the game added during update 45 last month. These are tentacled eyeball monsters inhabiting big nutcracker statues armed with shotguns. While they're marching they don't see you but they'll stop and the eyeball will pop out to search for targets. If it sees you, it'll blast you. However, if you sneak up to it and beat the eyeball to death, you can take it's shotgun and use it on other monsters.

Are you tracking? Good, because here's where things go horribly wrong but incredibly funny. Myself and another employee are opposite ends of the dark hallway. Stuck in the middle are two turrets and the Nutcracker, but I got a stop sign so I have a means to kill the Nutcracker if I can see it. I'm yelling at my teammate across the hall my plan to deal with this guy and tell him to run back to the ship, and if I don't come back I'm dead. Problem is I can't see **** because it's so dark. I think I got behind the nutcracker but I can't see it's face so I run up to it, and yell "I ORDER YOU TO STOP" and proceed to start hitting it with the stop sign. Turns out I was facing it's front and I brought a stop sign to a gunfight

In the afterlife, I find my buddy there too. Turns out he got gunned down by a turret he ran into. After I got blasted we both were cracking up laughing. 😂🤣

But wait, things get even funnier. The next moon we go to my foreman buys a shovel to replace the stop sign I lost. He makes it clear with great shovels comes great responsibility (remember this, this is important.) Him and I go into the facility first and we begin finding loot. I pull out some loot for the others to take back to the ship, but then I find an airhorn. The moment I found it the boss was like "GIMME! GIMME THE AIRHORN NOW!" And here was the fatal mistake: I was held up at shovel point ordered to give up the airhorn I RIGHTFULLY FOUND. So I begin slowly walking backwards saying "oh okay we'll make the trade at the ship." He wasn't budging and got closer. Fight or flight instincts kicked in and I immediately began sprinting to the exit screaming and crying. He's chasing me outside yelling to hand over the airhorn while I'm spamming the airhorn and crying for help. He begins to catchup and starts smacking me with the shovel, and the entire time our other teammates have no idea what is happening. Long story short, he got his airhorn, but at what cost? When I respawned the team asked how I died, and I told them "lets just say trade negotiations got hostile." Phonk and I then friended each other on Steam after our session this day

God I love this game. It's even more hilarious playing it on a Steam Deck since I'd have to navigate using a touch screen keyboard to type stuff in the ship's computer.

 

[LaterWolf]

I'm a bit late, but I've took the same challenge, I still use Windows ofc, but only for work. Not like Mac/Samsung dex/ linux cant do anything a Windows pc can do

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I'm a bit late, but I've took the same challenge, I still use Windows ofc, but only for work. Not like Mac/Samsung dex/ linux cant do anything a Windows pc can do

So what have you played so far?

 

[LaterWolf]

A bit of lethal company (footage lost), and Minecraft... It seems we all are lethal company fans

So what have you played so far?