You might be right. However, the experiences of my own and many others seem to ‘contradict’ this.
FWIW, I’ve run Arch and EndeavourOS in the past. And, for some reason, (seemingly) entirely out of the blue, it just stopped booting. I put in some effort with troubleshooting. But, at some point, I just got tired and/or didn’t ever want to deal with this anymore and left it for what it is. I’ve left Arch behind me ever since.
To be fair, I’ve had a similar experience with Nobara. So, this is not necessarily an ‘Arch-thing’. However, a significant part of the community has experienced similar issues on non-stable distros (i.e. distros that don’t have a slow release cycle).
While I’d be the first to admit that this is (perhaps) merely a skill issue, the fact of the matter is that similar experiences on other OSes are practically non-existent. Hence, it’s a hard sell to someone that has enjoyed ‘stability’ in the past.
All the ID Software stuff worked ( eg. DOOM, Quake ) but outside of them and Loki, not a lot of commercial stuff. And I don’t think the Loki catalogue was very current or extensive.
There were lots of Linux native games but they were much more primitive ( though not necessarily less fun ) like Tux Racer and Pingus. There were also adventure games.
There was also a thriving game engine “clone” scene, especially for Blizzard stuff. Not all of it ever really got there in terms of features or quality. These were designed to work with the “assets” from actual commercial games. There was Stargus for Warcraft and StarCraft for example. There is DevilutionX for Diablo which is great. Often there were fully open source games built off these same engines ( BosWars? ).
By the standards of today, the Linux gaming scene would have seemed pretty shitty. You were not playing the same AAA titles as your Windows friends. However, if you were a Linux enthusiast, there were plenty of really fun options to keep you entertained.
I think Linux has always been a bit better off than Mac with regards to gaming.
[ Edit: Memory correction - DevilutionX is way more recent. Even Stargus did not appear until 1998 as did Pingus. Tux Racer was not until 2000. Loki was a 1999 thing too. So, my comments above are perhaps more valid for 1998 - 2005 than 1991 - 1998. DOOM was 1994 at least and Quake was 1996. ]
Success! This is certainly a niche issue, but since it’s taken a pretty lengthy amount of research to resolve, I thought I’d add some resources here in case it’s helpful to anyone else.
After exploring others’ recommendations, I’ve saved hardware solutions for tinkering in the future and was also not able to find a way to temporarily disable mouse movement through gnome. I finally landed on python-evdev as my solution. With this, you can read input from one or more devices simultaneously, create a virtual input device to write events to on-demand, and (maybe most importantly) retain exclusive access to the original hardware devices to absorb their input. I’ll also shout out evsieve which lead me to python-evdev. The python-evdev documentation is quite thorough, and it’s quite a custom solution based on your own needs, so I’m not going to go into great detail on my python script - but it’s only 27 lines long, nothing major.
Be aware that you may need to write some udev rules to allow access to the physical devices and to allow the virtual device to be created. This was the easiest part for me to find help with, so I’ll leave some abridged copy/paste details below:
Find your device Vendor and Product IDs cat /proc/bus/input/devices | more
Write a udev rule (I used priority 71) to allow access to the device: SUBSYSTEMS==“usb”, ATTRS{idVendor}==“”, ATTRS{idProduct}==“”, TAG+=“uaccess”
Add a very poor udev rule to allow a virtual device to be created by python-evdev (there’s probably a much better way to do this): KERNEL==“uinput”, SUBSYSTEM==“misc”, OPTIONS+=“static_node=uinput”, TAG+=“uaccess”, MODE=“0660”
I use Fedora 40 workstation (Gnome) , run everything (Outlook, OneDrive, etc.) on browser, Teams as a FlatPak, and use Only Office for Excel, which I then upload to One Drive.
Do you use it for work or personal? I have aerc installed and working for my personal email, but I found it harder to sort through HTML emails as quickly as something like Gmail. I gave up on it after a couple days, but really liked the keyboard-centric workflow.
I would also say “just install debian and then you can install cinnamon, uninstall Gnome, and bam, debloated Mint is yours.”
But outside of that, I’d back up important files and try uninstalling some shit, fuck it. Worst case scenario you have to reinstall (or since it’s a VM just snapshot it or whatever, you know what I mean, the thing where you can revert changes, like Jim Browning uses for scammers), live and learn. All the packages you listed so far should be no problem.
I have a Surface Go 1 with 8gb running Fedora Workstation. It has a typecover and it spends most of its time linked to a monitor through the USB-C port. It charges this way and can also send data to the monitor which is used as an USB hub.
As I’m never using it only as a tablet, I can’t give you more informations about the touchscreen functionalities.
I have a Surface Go 1 with 8 GB RAM running Aurora-DX, which includes the linux-surface kernel. It works great, and I find that modern KDE works quite well with touch, even though I mostly use it with the type cover attached. I only use the surface connect port for charging, but I do use the single usb-c port with a usb-c hib, and it works well. The Fedora atomic distros work great on little machines like that.
Edit: I’d add that Bluefin is the same with Gnome.
Why the fuck does it ask for root password to change every little thing? Want to change network password? Root password. Install a flatpak? Root password. Sneeze? You guessed it, root password.
I’d be using it instead of Fedora if it wasn’t for that shit. I even tried to spin myself a custom OpenSuse ISO…
It might be a bit tighter than Fedora, I haven’t tried Fedora so I wouldn’t know but Flatpaks can still be installed as user, no pw. All mine are, by default.
Probably trough the commandline, it has been a long time since I last checked, but not using the gui, which asked for the password for any repository modification.
The default config for sudo is to ask for root password. I too was annoyed by this and had to change the setting to ask for the user password, not root, every time I used sudo.
Thanks for the suggestions! With these, do you get a full desktop environment or are they quite specific to being that home entertainment experience, more like a smart TV?
With these, do you get a full desktop environment or are they quite specific to being that home entertainment experience, more like a smart TV?
So, if intended as a HTPC, both Bazzite and ChimeraOS are ‘meant’ to be used with Gamepad UI; i.e. the one found on the Steam Deck. Of course, this is your console experience. However, just like the Steam Deck itself, it offers access to its so-called “Desktop mode”. Which, as you’d expect, is a full desktop environment. For Bazzite, you get to choose between GNOME and KDE Plasma. While ChimeraOS currently only offers GNOME.
LibreELEC, on the other hand, is a distro that merely functions as a wrapper for Kodi. Hence, there’s no desktop environment (by default).
Thanks! From a suggestion from someone else, I’m thinking of separating out the machine that runs Kodi and the rest of the stack. I have an old laptop that’s currently running Kodi + server, and a desktop machine that is used for games.
I’m thinking of installing Linux Mint on the desktop machine and using that for games and for the server, and then using LibreELEC on the laptop to run Kodi.
That makes it a bit easier if I decide LibreELEC doesn’t work and I want something else.
Yes, cinnamon is its own DE. Its similar to KDE in layout, but iirc it’s a fork of a very very old gnome version. I remember seeing a benchmark at some point that Cinnamon was less resource-intensive than GNOME or KDE
yep, im using cinnamon.. its based off of gnome but is its own thing. i thought i read something about the mint guys wanting to control bigger portions for stability hence their curated app store and desktops.
Do you need the Windows partition for something specific? I used to dual-boot because I needed Windows for a previous job but have been Linux-only for years
If you need to use windows because of a software issue, not a hardware issue, you’re probably best off running windows in a VM.
That way your linux install is making the WPA3 connection, and as far as the Windows install is concerned, it’s on a wired lan.
This has the added benefit of not having to reboot, you just always start linux and turn the windows VM on and off as required.
Have you talked to your professor? You could always explain that the use of Lockdown browser is unjust. Also you can find professors that don’t require it.
I do have professors that dont require it, but I also have professors that have a stick somewhere it doesn’t belong and just expect the computer to teach us everything. I understand where youre coming from though
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