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  • Showing only topics with the tag "linux". Back to normal view
    1. Linux gaming and the Steam Summer Sale: What are your favorites?

      I've gamed my entire life on Windows until about a month ago, when I switched due to my dissatisfaction with it as an operating system (another thread, another time). After years of hearing that...

      I've gamed my entire life on Windows until about a month ago, when I switched due to my dissatisfaction with it as an operating system (another thread, another time). After years of hearing that gaming on Linux was improving thanks to Steam Deck and Proton, I took the plunge and installed Pop!_OS on my desktop and loaded my favorite games. Holy smokes, it's amazing. I haven't found a game yet that's required any custom tweaking; download the game through Steam, let it install whatever it needs to on first run, and away they go. I'm blown away.

      However, I want to start exploring Linux-native titles in a more deliberate manner. Do many others here game on Linux, and if so what are some of your favorites that you would recommend now that the Steam Summer Sale is on? I mostly gravitate towards builders and colony simulators, RPGs, and 4X games, but I'll take any recommendations that people are excited to share.

      [Edit to add:] Thanks for your recommendations everyone! I'll definitely check out several of these.

      37 votes
    2. What are some great time savers on CLI that you would recommend?

      I use these right now on Debian: ncdu ncdu (NCurses Disk Usage): A disk usage analyzer with an ncurses interface, providing a fast and easy-to-use overview of disk space utilization. Ideal for...

      I use these right now on Debian:

      ncdu

      ncdu (NCurses Disk Usage): A disk usage analyzer with an ncurses interface, providing a fast and easy-to-use overview of disk space utilization. Ideal for identifying large directories and files in a user-friendly terminal interface.

      duf

      duf (Disk Usage/Free): A modern disk usage/free utility with a beautiful interface written in Go. It provides a quick and easy way to check disk usage across various file systems with color-coded output.

      tldr

      tldr (Too Long; Didn't Read): Simplified and community-driven man pages. Provides practical examples for commands, making it easier to understand and use without wading through lengthy and detailed man pages.

      nala

      nala (Next-Generation APT Frontend): A modern frontend for the APT package manager, designed to provide a more readable and user-friendly output for package management tasks.

      Speedtest-cli

      Speedtest-cli: A command-line interface for testing internet bandwidth using speedtest.net. Allows you to quickly check your upload and download speeds directly from the terminal.

      htop

      htop: An interactive process viewer for Unix systems. It provides a real-time, color-coded display of system processes, making it easier to monitor and manage system resources.

      powertop

      powertop: A tool for diagnosing issues with power consumption and power management on Linux systems. It provides detailed information on power usage by various system components and applications.

      thinkfan

      thinkfan: A simple fan control program for ThinkPads. It helps manage the system's fan speed to balance cooling and noise levels based on the temperature sensors.

      tlp

      tlp (Linux Advanced Power Management): A power management tool for Linux. It provides various configurations and options to optimize battery life on laptops without requiring manual tweaks.

      flatpak

      Flatpak: A system for building, distributing, and running sandboxed desktop applications on Linux. It provides a universal app distribution system that works across various Linux distributions.

      neofetch

      Neofetch: A command-line system information tool written in bash. It displays an aesthetically pleasing summary of system information alongside your terminal prompt.

      iftop

      iftop: A real-time console-based network bandwidth monitoring tool. It shows a list of network connections from/to your system and the bandwidth usage for each connection.

      nano

      nano: A simple, user-friendly text editor for the command line. Known for its straightforward and easy-to-use interface, making it a go-to for quick text editing tasks.

      Edit
      Oh wow! Thank you all for your suggestions!

      I was looking around and found cheat; it's defined as a cheat that allows you to create and view interactive cheatsheets on the command line. Hopefully, someone else might find it helpful as well.

      38 votes
    3. How bad are Nvidia GPUs for Linux really?

      I've been interested in switching to Linux, or at least dual booting, for some time now as Windows has kept getting worse and Proton for Steam has been getting better. I'm particularly interested...

      I've been interested in switching to Linux, or at least dual booting, for some time now as Windows has kept getting worse and Proton for Steam has been getting better. I'm particularly interested in trying Mint Cinnamon.

      In every Linux thread on here or Lemmy, I always hear people complaining about Nvidia drivers for Linux or other hardware problems that they avoid by having AMD.

      I have an Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU. How big of a problem is that, really? Does it make it an unbearable experience? Does it make it a lot more work to get things working? Does it make certain things impossible to get working? What's your experience?

      Also for dual booting, I hear people have problems with Windows messing up their Linux install. Is that a common problem, or a few people having bad luck? Is that avoidable?

      30 votes
    4. “It can’t be that easy, right?” (a Linux desktop environment appreciation post)

      I daily drive Pop!_OS, which uses the GNOME desktop environment. I know that DEs are a hotly contested space among Linux users, and my use of GNOME wasn’t so much a choice as it was a default:...

      I daily drive Pop!_OS, which uses the GNOME desktop environment. I know that DEs are a hotly contested space among Linux users, and my use of GNOME wasn’t so much a choice as it was a default: it’s what came with my distro.

      I like GNOME. I don’t really understand the hate it often gets, but I also don’t really have the legacy understanding of Linux that a lot of people do, and it seems like a lot of distaste lies there. I’m as casual a user as they come — Linux for me is like a Chromebook: it “just works” in that I pretty much need it to get me online and manage some documents. (I do also play games on it, for which Steam and Proton have been a huge boon.)

      I also have a Steam Deck, and it uses KDE’s Plasma on the desktop side, so I got to see what that was like. I also like KDE. It’s very different from GNOME, but I can see the appeal. It feels more like Windows but also has a lot of little nice touches and additions. Also, no ads.

      This got me thinking: what if I tried using KDE instead of GNOME on my laptop?

      I assumed that this would be a big deal. Like, I would have to completely gut my distribution, or reinstall it fresh. Multiple hours of work. Lots of preparation. Looking up myriad terminal commands I don’t understand and hoping they do what they’re supposed to, because if they don’t I’m really screwed — as soon as something goes wrong “under the hood” I’m dead in the water when it comes to fixing it.

      But I was looking on System76’s support site and they made it seem super simple. A single terminal command to install the whole DE?

      It can’t be that easy, right?

      I am astonished to say that it WAS.

      I ran the command, had to select between gdm3 and sddm (a choice which I didn’t understand at all so I searched around a bit before just going with the default: gdm3), and then rebooted.

      I can now select between GNOME and KDE on the login screen, and both work flawlessly. It was so easy.

      I don’t know who to credit for this. Did System76 do a great job of making this easy on their distro? Did the KDE team work hard to make their DE effortlessly plug-and-play? Is this just a general product of the way Linux handles its different components?

      I don’t know but I’m willing to spread the love around to anyone and everyone who contributes to Linux and all of its facets. It’s wild to me that I can so easily reskin my entire operating system in the same way that I used to do with Winamp back in the day. I keep waiting for something to go wrong, but after a few days of this, I’ve realized that everything still “just works,” automagically.

      A big thanks here to anyone who has a hand in open-source software and making computing better for people like me, who have (mostly) no idea what they’re doing.

      56 votes
    5. How do you organize your Linux packages?

      Hello everyone. I am planning to get back into Linux development after working with Mac only for almost a decade. On Mac, one of the most important lessons that I learned was to always use...

      Hello everyone.

      I am planning to get back into Linux development after working with Mac only for almost a decade. On Mac, one of the most important lessons that I learned was to always use Homebrew. Using various package managers (e.g. Homebrew, NPM, Yarn, Pip, etc.) creates situations in which you don't know how to uninstall or upgrade certain pieces of software. Also, it's hard to generate a complete overview.

      How do you Linux folks handle this?

      Bonus question: How do you manage your dotfiles securely? I use Bitwarden, and it's a bit clunky.

      If that helps, I want to try Mint and always use Oh My ZSH!.

      6 votes
    6. Project Zomboid - What compares for gameplay?

      So I have heard of the game for a while, but I am not a fan of zombie games. I was recently shown a video apparently about it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XuKU2RziLo), and the game itself...

      So I have heard of the game for a while, but I am not a fan of zombie games. I was recently shown a video apparently about it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XuKU2RziLo), and the game itself looks pretty awesome from my point of preferences.
      The problem? None really, except... zombies. Just not a fan at all.

      Edit: I like the menu options, though they seem like they could be clunky. I like the survival and crafting aspects.

      So my question is this: Are there any games similar to this style of gameplay that might do without the zombies?

      Would prefer on Steam/Linux, but if you have a similar equivalent that's great. Thanks. :)

      12 votes
    7. Linux Distro Recommendations

      I know this can be a bit of a heated debate sometimes, and with so many choices people will have their preferences. I wanted to hear some noob-friendly suggestions for me and some friends. What...

      I know this can be a bit of a heated debate sometimes, and with so many choices people will have their preferences. I wanted to hear some noob-friendly suggestions for me and some friends.

      What distros would work well for an old laptop repurposed as a glorified Chromebook (web browsing, Netflix, emails, etc) with some light Steam 2D indie game usage? It would be borrowed by less tech savvy people.

      What distros would work well for gaming desktops? Either current high end desktops or desktops that are a few years old.

      47 votes
    8. The more I use Linux, the more I hate every distro

      It's funny. I've been using Linux since the old Mandrake days (year 2000 I think). I've used Slackware, Gentoo, Void, Fedora, OpenSuse, Arch and so on. I love Linux in general, there is not other...

      It's funny. I've been using Linux since the old Mandrake days (year 2000 I think). I've used Slackware, Gentoo, Void, Fedora, OpenSuse, Arch and so on. I love Linux in general, there is not other OS I would use.

      Every distro has it's ups and downs and the only one I am content with is Void Linux, but I still don't really love it.

      Void uses runit instead of systemd, which I prefer as an init system, but this means that if you want to use a major DE like Plasma you end up with some functionalities not working right.

      So I want a minimalish system like Void that has access to the latest KDE Plasma, uses systemd and all the regular stuff, but IT IS NOT ARCH.

      Why I don't like Arch? I think it tends to break too often, you have to stay on top of updates and having only one version of the kernel installed bugs me. Void Linux is rolling and NEVER breaks. I'm not exaggerating here. It never broke on me.

      OpenSuse Tumbleweed is an alternative, but like Fedora, it does not ship with proprietary codecs so you have to jump through hoops to install the correct packages. It is just a matter of installing opi and typing "opi codecs", but you can bet that in the next weeks some breakage when updating will happen.

      This happens to me with Fedora too. I install the RPMFusion repository and install the codecs. Every now and then things break because of it and I need to troubleshoot things.

      Not to mention that when you install Plasma with Fedora or Opensuse, it ends up installing a thousand unnecessary things. I can disable the recommended packages/weak dependencies, trim things down and cut here and there, but I always feel like i lost control of things.

      Oh and OpenSuse TW always gave me trouble with the wayland session of Plasma not working properly.

      Gentoo is out of the question. I used it for years and had fun, but I don't care about all the compilation anymore.

      Debian would be a great choice if packages weren't too old. I prefer a rolling release model or at least something like Fedora that is pretty up to date.

      So in the end I stick with Void (without using Plasma), but still bitter about it.

      55 votes
    9. Can anyone recommend a printer/scanner combo that works with Linux with no additional drivers?

      I'm looking for a black & white laser printer with a scanner for home office use. The only fancy thing about it is that I'm running Linux and I don't want to install any driver packages from the...

      I'm looking for a black & white laser printer with a scanner for home office use. The only fancy thing about it is that I'm running Linux and I don't want to install any driver packages from the manufacturer. I want to plug it into any laptop running any Linux distro and start printing and scanning with no fuss.

      Brother printers are very popular, but if I search for any Brother printer and "linux", all I can find is stuff about the drivers and how to fix the various issues that come with those.

      If I understand correctly, modern printers should just work via something called IPP/AirPrint and they should also work over USB. Is that correct?

      What about the scanner? Does that also just work over IPP?

      29 votes
    10. There has never been a better time to game on Linux

      I've been running Linux full-time pretty much since Valve released Proton. I remember submitting reports to ProtonDB back when it was just a shared Google Sheet! In the years that followed I made...

      I've been running Linux full-time pretty much since Valve released Proton. I remember submitting reports to ProtonDB back when it was just a shared Google Sheet! In the years that followed I made it a point to test and report out on different games as new versions of Proton were released and support improved. I thought it important that we have a good data set for what worked and what didn't. Over those years I tested hundreds of games and submitted as many reports to the database.

      In thinking back over my gaming in 2023, however, I realized that I fell out of the habit of submitting reports because I'm so used to Proton working that it's stopped occurring to me that it might not.

      That doesn't mean that there aren't some games that don't work -- it simply means that the success rate that I used to have (maybe 30-50% on average) has risen high enough that I'm genuinely surprised if something doesn't work (it's probably somewhere around 95% for me now, though that's biased by the types of games that I play). I actually tried to remember the last game that didn't work, and I genuinely couldn't tell you what it was. Everything I've played recently has booted like it's native.

      Honestly, I genuinely don't even know which games are native and which run through Proton anymore. I've stopped caring!

      I got my Steam Deck halfway through 2022. It was awesome, but it was definitely a bit rough around the edges. There weren't that many compatible games. The OS had some clunkiness. It matured though, and has gotten better. Among my friend group, I'm the only person who cares even a little bit about Linux. If you asked any of them to name three different Linux distributions they'd stare at you blankly because they wouldn't understand the question. Nevertheless, of my friends, SIX of them have Steam Decks and are now gaming regularly on Linux.

      There are currently ~4,300 Deck Verified games and ~8,700 Deck Playable games according to Valve. On ProtonDB, ~8,600 games have been verified as working on Linux by at least three users, while ~19,700 games have been verified by at least one user. There is SO much variety available, and the speed with which we've gotten here has been pretty breathtaking.

      This was my device breakdown for my Steam Replay for 2023:

      • 55% Steam Deck
      • 32% Linux
      • 10% Virtual Reality
      • 4% Windows

      The only non-Linux gaming I did was VR and some local multiplayer stuff I have on a Windows machine hooked up to my TV.

      I don't want to proselytize too much, but if you have a general interest in gaming, you could probably switch over to Linux full time and be perfectly happy with the variety of games you have available to you. Not too long ago, making the jump felt like a huge sacrifice because you'd be giving up so much -- SO many games were incompatible -- but it no longer feels that way. You can transfer and most of -- probably almost all -- your library will still work! Also, if a particular game doesn't work, there isn't too much sting because, well, there are thousands of others you can give your attention to.

      If you have a specific game that you must play, then it's possibly a different story. If you love Destiny 2, for example, then full-time Linux definitely is not for you. The same goes VR -- it's simply not up to snuff on Linux yet. There are other niches too that don't transfer over as well (modding, racing sims, etc.) so, of course, this isn't a blanket recommendation and everyone's situation is different.

      But for a prototypical person who's just your sort of general, everyday gamer? It's reached a point where they could be very happy on Linux. In fact, as proven by my friends and their Steam Decks, it's reached a point where people can be gaming on Linux and not even know they're doing that. That's how frictionless it's gotten!

      I don't really have a point to this post other than to say it's incredible that we are where we are, and I'm beyond appreciative of all the effort that people have put in to making this possible.

      83 votes