People who pirate games are generally young and have no money. (like me a long time ago)
People who have work and money, will buy games to support the devs. (like me right now)
People who still pirate games (or any content) are trash, maybe you can just ignore them?
Pirating is not a bad thing, since people will discover your “brand” and when they can, they might buy your games. (I remember playing Starcraft 1, D2 and AOE, all quakes pirated when I was young, now I have all of them in my steam library)
OSS your game but the assets could be a great way, it feels similar to openTTD in a way.
But supporting Linux is great thing, (Fedora user here) and I try to buy games to support devs that support Linux natively. I have about 900+ games on Steam (Mainly Win titles), and I have finished only 30 or 40 of them. Now that Linux is getting more popular and because Steam makes playing windows games so seamless, it’s not worth the assle of pirating IMO.
But that just me. I am sure there are many others with similar opinions out there ;)
Here’s the straightforward version of why I use it:
The entire state of your operating system is defined in a config file, and changes are made by changing the config file. This makes it super easy to reproduce your exact system many times and to know where all the many different configuration elements that describe your system are located.
Updates are applied atomically, so you don’t have to worry about interrupting the update process and if it fails, the previous state of your system is still bootable. By default every time you change something, you get another option in the boot menu to roll back to.
Making container-like sub systems is super easy when you’re familiar with nix, so you can have as many different enclaves as you like for different software versions, development environments, desktop setups, whatever without taking a performance hit. Old versions of stuff are very accessible without breaking your new stuff.
The package manager has a lot of software and accessing nonfree stuff is straightforward. Guix looks rad, but nix ended up being the more practical compromise for my usecase. I didn’t want to have to package a heap of software the moment I made the switch.
I'm generally a Windows user, but on the verge of doing a trial run of Fedora Silverblue (just need to find the time). It sounds like a great solution to my.. complicated... history with Linux.
I've installed Linux dozens of times going back to the 90s (LinuxPPC anyone? Yellow Dog?), and I keep going back to Windows because I tweak everything until it breaks. Then I have no idea how I got to that point, but no time to troubleshoot. Easily being able to get back to a stable system that isn't a fresh install sounds great.
I've been using the same distro for at least 4 years now and I haven't ever had any issues. Fedora on a desktop at home. It's very stable. You don't even need to know too much... although obviously knowing your way around the terminal and knowing some basic things about Linux helps
They are very very different, much more so than say arch and mint are different. Listing what makes nix better than mint would be just a list of features mint is missing, wether these are relevant for you or not would decide if they make nix better. However there are some objective technical points that are just flat out better:
One config file describing your system. You change that file, you change the system. The system always is in the state described in that file.
Complex system changes that would require many steps are trivial since you only have to describe the outcome in your configuration file instead of how to get there. For example I can declare in the config file that I want a system using the current stable linux kernel with zen patches and Nvidia drivers that have 32 bit support.
Every update is a (seamless) reinstall. The entire system gets rebuilt as if it was a fresh install, sans your home directory and the settings you made ofc.
Concept of generations. Every time I change my config file or rebuilt my system(update) it is a new generation with its own entry in the bootloader. Btw, the config file also controls which bootloader your system uses, you can just say grub or systemd and nix takes care of the rest.
‘nix-shell -p program’ that little command will open a shell with the specified applications installed in it, after you close that shell the programs are gone. This is great for trying out apps without cluttering your system with their dependencies, or quickly using a app you know you won’t need permanently.
Choice between release based updates or bleeding edge rolling. Concept of generations does still apply, you can quickly try out the rolling release channel and if it doesn’t work out you can easily go back.
Trivial to change midstack applications. With midstack I mean things like cinnamon, gnome-shell or plasma base files. For example what if you wanted to switch from gnome to kde? A single word changed in the nix config file will rip out all of the gnome stack and put the plasma stack in instead. As if you never had gnome on your system, a reinstall for all intents and purposes. Again, trivial to change back.
It’s not just about malware, but more about system stability and avoiding breaking your system by bad updates. Updates are atomic (all or nothing) Ideally if something goes wrong, the update isn’t applied at all. If you manage to boot to a bad config, you can fix it by rebooting in to the previous known good config.
This is immensely valuable for appliance-type devices that aren’t meant to be “administered” by end users, like the Steam-deck, set top boxes, even Android phones. For laptops / desktops I’m sure it has some value for people who want a stable base, with newer flatpak/AppImages for day to day use.
As for how updates and system packages are installed, I can’t answer the specific technologies used, but I believe the principle is that an entirely new/complete filesystem “image” is created / layered on top. Then you reboot to the new image.
An immutable distro, to my understanding, locks core components of Linux (mainly /sys afaik) from interaction from not only bad actors but also the user so that you can’t fuck up you’re system in a way like Linus from LTT (removing X11 by forcefully ignoring all warnings). Applications can be installed as Flatpak, AppImage, Snap or through OverlayFS from regular repositories.
Advantages to (non- tech savvy) users are an additional layer against their own mistakes and easier support since the important stuff is identical on every install of the given distro.
This is, IMO, the biggest yet least obvious advantage of immutable systems. A traditional Linux environment is "just as safe" as the immutable setups, if only the user/administrator is perfect, never makes a mistake, and always makes the right decisions for now and the future.
Given reality tends to differ from the above, having a system that, at a bare minimum, provides you the "oh shit go back" button to system-level changes, and at best provides a clear, reproducible, trail of actions, is a huge advantage for long-term stability for all users, experienced or not. I've been through the school of hard knocks far too many times maintaining everything from server setups to gaming desktops the traditional way, and have committed to "early adopting" immutable distros for pretty much everything except the gaming setup (given the whole suite of proprietary and out-of-date/out-of-touch applications that are basically necessary in that space and not-fully-compatible with the sandboxes and abstraction layers necessary).
applications are installed with flatpak - basically little containers that contain everything a program needs. sort of like docker
so normally if you wanna install something - let's say minecraft. you would also need to install java. the flatpak for minecraft would have java inside of it so it can be run in its own little container and you don't need to install either
Interesting read, although a bit too preachy at times.
In my opinion, this is a utopian point of view that does not work in real life and glances over a lot of good things of GPL.
Linux and a lot of open source would not be here today, in this shape, without big companies using it for their commercialized software. You really think Microsoft would contribute to Linux source code if it can not use it commercially? You really think ANY company would contribute to ANYTHING if they can not commercialize it?
Linux is what it is today because not only volunteers, but companies depend on it being stable and feature-full. If companies did not care to contribute to it, it would be dead and only a pet project of few volunteers.
Who would pay all these people to work on it? Sure, some of them would work for free as a hobby, some of them coud get paid from donations. But its nowhere near enough to make Linux or any other FOSS project big and popular.
Until people need money to survive, AGPL will never be the most popular license and it should not if you want to have FOSS.
And what is so bad about it? You still have base open source code that they use to make their software, make your own. You are mad because companies take open source code, and charge for it. Then, you take it and make the software free.
You want everybody to use FOSS, sure. Who will be customer support? Who will fix and be responsible for stuff when they dont work? How will you pay these people?
Free as in, free to do whatever the fuck you want with it. Not free as in free to do whatever you want, except make money to survive.
The problems you describe are due to capitalism: profit motivated commerce. The open source business model has a focus that monetizes the human actions that are a value-add, such as continued development of targeted features, tech support and other things it makes sense to pay for specialized knowledge, but the tangibles are still open for all to modify, audit or use as they want.
Damn, all this nix hype has me wanting to jump off of my Kinoite install. Maybe it’s time to dust off my old nix config I’ve tucked away. Found a new Youtube sub too. Thanks OP!
I keep seeing trends with Linux distribution like teenager looking for new fashion.
I think it’s mostly the very young Linux user who hope from one distribution to the another over and over whereas many just stick with what they got : Ubuntu, Debian, mint, maybe fedora.
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