The code is there, yes, but it’s skipped entirely, so the binary size stays the same, but it’s faster because it skips parts. The big brain on the person that wrote that must also tell him that skipping a scene on a movie means the movie takes the same time because it’s the entirety of the movie plus the skipping of the scene.
They do the same with all games that I have from them. Crusader Kings, Stellaris, etc. The base game is always great on its own, then you have very cheap cosmetic DLC and more expensive content DLCs which add new mechanics and expand the game (they also always release a free update for everyone who owns the base game when a new DLC gets released. Oh, and all of their games are moldable, which means you could just implement the cosmetics (and even lots of the other parts of the DLCs via mods).
Paradox gets shit for their DLC model by people who either don’t play their games, or by people who are so obsessed by them that they think you NEED a given DLC to play it (just because they know of a strategy with it).
To be fair GoG selling point is that it doesn’t use any external software, it tries to emulate the old disk feel.
Personally I identify much more closely with GoG philosophy, i.e. mostly no DRM, manage the games on my own, etc. However I use Linux, and Steam has been investing into it so I’ll keep giving them my money (the input management is indeed great, but not enough on its own for me).
How? I’ve installed Debian with KDE
Mistake number 1, Debian is not beginner friendly.
downloaded the .deb from steam website
Mistake number 2, this is windows mentality, if it’s not in the package manager it’s too advanced for you for the time being. Beginner friendly distros would have had steam in their package manager.
learnt to install that using sudo dpkg -i steam_latest.deb
You could have also double clicked the Deb file, but this is a bad way, dpkg does not resolve dependencies, so you would need to figure those out and install them by hand, which can be tedious at best.
opened the app and i’ve been welcomed with a text inviting me to press enter to continue, pretty simple. The program downloaded stuff, steam is ready now. Not bad.
You lucked out, your system had all of the requirements met.
Repeated the exact same thing on Debian with xfce, that apparently doesn’t come with a software installer, nothing works. An alert says i need to download dependencies (i know dpkg doesn’t resolve dependencies). Where’s the “enter to continue”?
No such luck therez remember when I told you to use the package manager? This is why. Possibly missing something stupid like an i32 library, which you could manually install, but you shouldn’t, you’re making things hard for yourself for no reason other than wanting to avoid beginner friendly distros.
How is this my fault??
It’s your fault because like I’ve been saying since the beginning you’re trying to use Linux as if it were Windows and getting frustrated because it behaves differently. Trying to do this will be frustrating and you will become angry because nothing works like you expect, but you must understand that it’s not that things don’t work, it’s that they work differently.
You might be thinking this is stupid, an installer should install everything it needs, right? Nope, that’s a windows mentality, in Linux the main idea is that an installer only installs what it’s supposed to, any dependency should be system-wide. Why you might ask? Simple, imagine if every single GUI app had to include it’s own copy of the full GUI library it uses, your system would quickly become bloated, not only that but each program would open it’s own copy of the library using more and more memory, not to mention the interoperability problems between programs using different versions of the same library. In Linux the standard is for programs to use system libraries, it’s the convention, just like how on Windows it is to not (which has its own set of problems). This is why package managers are important, they’re not just downloading an executable and running it, they’re doing lots of stuff behind the curtains, all of it can be done manually, but like you found out it’s troublesome, so best is to avoid.
That’s one of the things I miss the most in Gentoo, having the packages of your system defined in text files so a fresh install was just copying those files and running an update.
I’ve tried similar things with other distros, but it’s never the same, the list of packages ends up getting out of date or ends up with too much garbage.
Currently I have a home server so I took the time to get an Ansible playbook setup for running, maintaining, and maybe migrating the server if needed. Since some stuff is also run on other machines that I have (update system, update some docker images I run in multiple systems, etc) I did setup some minimal packages that I need on my main system, it’s easy enough but I wouldn’t recommend using Ansible just for this (but if you also have dotfiles it’s a great tool for automating lots of the initial setup).
All of that being said, the reason I never bothered with this until I had a home server is that usually there are years between system installs, so even if what you had was exactly what you wanted the last time you installed your system, it’s unlikely to be exactly what you want next time you do. Since the last time I installed my main system I switched from X to Wayland, from i3 to Hyprland and then Sway, etc, etc…
I’ve never, ever got a virus on any of my pcs. I grew up with internet, since the ADSL days, i know my shit.
Therein lies the problem, you’re a windows expert, moving away from your comfort zone will always feel bad. It’s okay to stick to Windows, no one should be forced to use an OS they don’t like. But if you ever want to try again, I recommend taking a step back and accepting that for all your years of experience in Windows you are a noob here, and trying to jump into the deep end is more likely to get you drowned than learning how to swim.
Also I recommend dual-booting, so you have the safe heaven of a known OS to reboot into in times of need. Most of us started that way and dealt slowly with the difficulties in using Linux with a windows user mentality, until at some point we realized we were spending the majority of our time in Linux and Windows had become unusable because we were now thinking like Linux users. I’m sure that if I had tried to do what you did I would also be frustrated, so I completely understand you. But let me tell you something which you might not want to hear, and will possibly even get angry at me for telling you, but there’s a fairly good chance that the majority of issues you encountered were self-imposed. Linux has near infinite possibilities, but that’s like saying the ocean is nearly infinite, it doesn’t mean you should try to swim across it just because you’re used to doing it on a swimming pool, you’ll drown fairly quickly and get nowhere.
I see a common trend here. You seem to be very tech savvy and a windows power user, and get frustrated with Linux because you’re trying to solve problems with a windows mentality and failing.
Yada, yada, yada.
That yada yada yada is the most important part from my entire answer, choose a beginner friendly distro and stick to it.
Things to do to install an app on Windows: download the exe, double click on the icon, follow the instructions, done.
Nope, things to install an app on Windows: Open a browser, search for the program, click the wrong link, download a virus, go back, try again, find a more reputable site, download another virus, run anti-virus, discover your computer has been completely overrun by viruses, format, reinstall everything, find the right site, download the installer, click next 20 times, accept to have a new service running when you start your PC by accident, done?. You don’t do all of that every time? That’s because you know what you’re doing, I certainly don’t do half the stuff you mentioned for Linux.
Things to do to install an app on Linux: check the package manager
That’s it, if it’s not there you shouldn’t worry with it until you’re a bit more experienced. This is why I recommend beginner friendly distro a, they will have more stuff and possibly have snaps/flatpacks by default which should cover most of your use ases and are installed via the same GUI.
Man, there are hundreds (nonsense) distros out there, i need something like 3 lives to try them all.
Precisely my point, don’t. Pick a beginner friendly distro and stick to it.
Apparently not. I’ve saved a copy of the saves folder and simply pasted it in the retroarch folder on linux but the game doesn’t read anything.
Have you tried saving something new to see if we have the correct folder?
There were no errors. Screen went black and then everything was reset.
That’s crashing, there should be some log somewhere, can you reproduce or is it random?
This is actually fun: i have Ubuntu Budgie on my laptop and i was trying to create a bootable win10 on my pendrive with ventoy given that jesus christ woeusb is super complicated to install with all those manual dependencies installs and woeusb-ng gives problem with python. Installed ventoy, copied the iso, pasted it, nothing shows up in the drive. Copied the iso again, pasted it again, file already existing. ???. I’ve extracted the drive, plugged it back in, nothing. Extracted it again, plugged it in on my desktop, iso is actually there. Wtf is wrong with linux?
Did you installed Ventoy properly on the drive? Did you unmounted before removing the first time? Otherwise you might have corrupted the file, remember how people always say to eject before unplugging a USB drive? This is the reason, the GUI that shows you copying stuff is just a FE to the calls to the kernel for writing, the kernel actual writing to the disk is done afterwards, so even after the GUI closes the file was not totally written. Again, regardless of OS, unmount/eject drives before unplugging them. Also is your desktop Linux or windows? Does the bootable drive works? You need to learn to provide more information if you expect help, saying “stuff doesn’t work, what’s wrong with Linux?” Will get you a lot of answers of the type “the problem is between the keyboard and the chair”.
What’s wrong with Ubuntu/Mint/PopOS/Fedora or any of the distros usually recommended? They’re easier to maintain and more up to date than Debian
Replace Arch with Ubuntu and the answer is yes. Arch based that’s not a good idea.
The reason is that in 6 months lots can have changed, and Arch is not guaranteed a stable base, so updates might assume you have certain versions or things might break because you should have done a middle step during the upgrades that you didn’t which is now buried in months of update news in the wiki.
If you want to only update your system every six months, Arch is not ideal, it’s likely to work, but not guaranteed.
Acknowledging DRM free games on steam is absolute proof that steam is not DRM, you cannot hold both views at the same time, they’re contradictory. Either all games on steam have DRM or steam is not DRM. Again, replace steam with an actual DRM software like Denuevo and you’ll see why.
“Any” has those two meanings, the fact that you chose an ambiguous phrasing is your fault, and the fact you haven’t apologized while making clear what you meant, but in fact doubled down in the aggressive tone tells a lot about you.
Also the phrase doesn’t mean what you think it does, you should have said"you can play all games on steam without steam", which would be correct, not all games can be played without seam, but some can, you yourself recognize this when you say that the odds are against me when picking a random game, therefore there is a chance. And this is the thing that seems hard to comprehend to everyone who claims steam is DRM, they that same phrasing with Denuevo or other actual DRM things and you’ll see why it’s bullshit.
In other words, a software is DRM if and only if every game that contains it is DRM protected. Let’s go back to logic school: if A then B is negated as A and not B, for example"If a dog then an animal" is true, so the negation would be false: “dog and not an animal” is in fact a contradiction. Or on the other side “if animal then dog” is false, so the negation animal and not a dog" must be possible, and indeed it is.
In this case what you’re stating is that steam is DRM which means “if it’s on steam then it’s DRM protected”, that statement is false because the negation"game on steam and no DRM" is possible. On the other hand “if it has Denuevo is DRM protected is true” and the negation “has Denuevo and is no DRM” is an impossibility.
Writing is hard, huh? According to the dictionary Any means “some, or even the smallest amount or number of”, therefore “you can play any steam game without steam” means “you can play even the smallest amount or number of steam games on steam”, or in other words “you can play one steam game without steam”. And like I said you can in fact play more than one steam games without steam, therefore you’re wrong.
claiming […] you can play any steam game without Steam is flat out wrong.
You should go inform yourself, many games on steam can be played without steam. I’ve even shared my copy of a game with a bunch of friends and we all played together in LAN, with a single copy of a Steam game, and only I had steam installed since this was at work.
Steam does not enforce games to require steam, it is not a requirement, it’s available for those who want to use it.
You must sign into steam the same way you must sign in to GoG, i.e. to download the game the first time. After that you can just run the binary. In fact you can copy that binary to another computer without steam to play there. However Steam is not against DRM, therefore some games there do have DRM and need either steam or in this case PSN to run.
That’s an important thing, games CAN use steam as DRM, but they’re not forced to, so there are games in Steam without DRM, therefore Steam is not a DRM by definition.
If for every 41 games that had Denuevo one didn’t had DRM Denuevo wouldn’t be a DRM software. However Denuevo is a DRM software, a game cannot both have Denuevo and not have DRM, however a game can be on Steam and not have DRM, therefore Steam is not DRM.
Btw, I think the ratio is way off, the vast majority of games on steam are Indy which don’t usually integrate with DRM.
So i really wanted to ditch windows once and for all
Why?
so i’ve tried Linux for a week trying different distros (debian, manjaro, ubuntu, opensuse, mint)
Why? Choose one and stick with it, preferably a beginner friendly one like Ubuntu or Mint.
and first of all why? Why are there so many distros out there?
Because different people like different things and have different opinions. Some people like to have the latest packages and so they choose Arch, while others prefer to have a stable system until they want to upgrade core packages and so they go with Ubuntu.
What’s the difference between debian + kde and manjaro + kde?
One is Debian based and the other in Arch based. Debian uses apt, Arch uses pacman. Debian has a slower release cycle to ensure compatibility while Arch has a faster release cycle to ensure the latest versions of things are available. Like these there are thousands of small differences between any two distros. It’s mostly philosophical, so just pick something beginner friendly and stick with it until you find a reason to switch.
They look the same, they work the same. I don’t get it.
They don’t work 100% the same, that’s like saying that a car and a truck are the same because they’re both painted black and have a steering wheel. Under the hood they’re very different.
Also why do things have to be complicated?
They’re not, they’re different. Doing stuff on Windows is also complicated if you don’t know what you’re doing, excepts you’ve had years of experience, in a few years Linux will feel easy and Windows complicated.
I’ve installed debian, installed calibre to manage my ebooks, created a library from an existing library on my hard drive (not the one with debian installed), ERROR! All the files are read-only.
Is the entire hard-drive read only? How did you mount it? What format is it on? You’re skipping a lot of important questions, that if you had answered (or asked about this issue) you would know the problem. My guess is that you don’t have ntfs-3g installed and the drive was NTFS.
What??? I’ve followed multiple guides on how to change permissions and finally solved the problem.
How? This might give us an idea of what was wrong with it.
Now let’s restart my pc. files on the hard drive are read only WHAT???
Yes, makes sense, did you applied a permanent fix or a temporary one? Since we don’t know what you did we have to assume you did a temporary fix, so it’s like asking why did Firefox not opened after I restarted my computer if I had open it before.
Fuck debian, let’s go on manjaro.
That’s a bad reason to switch distros, if you switch distros every time you run into something you don’t understand you’re going to run out of distros fairly quickly. Let me tell you right now, EVERYTHING one distro can do another one can, no exceptions. Something not working is a bad reason to switch distros unless you know why the other distro makes it work and are okay with the philosophical differences between distros.
No problems at all on calibre. Managed to create the library as easy as i did on windows. My question is: where’s the fun in this?
The same thing that’s causing you problems is an awesome feature, Linux is very modular, you can build yourself your system exactly the way you want it. That is very fun.
It’s just problems, after problems, after problems and i didn’t even start gaming.
Well, yeah, it’s an unfamiliar thing, I feel the same every time I have to use Windows.
I mean i tried installing retroarch and importing my saves but of course nothing works.
Why not? AFAIK RetroArch should have cross compatible saves.
Read this guide, read that guide. Nope. Nothing works. Ok, fuck retroarch let’s customize the appearance of my desktop: move some icons on the panel, center this, adjust height, move this on the left, spent 30 minutes tweaking, very nice…
Did you saved in the meantime? Let his be a lesson, save often, you never know when something will happen.
kde crashes, all back to default.
That’s weird, I don’t remember last time KDE crashed, but then again I’m not using Manjaro so maybe the current version there is broken? What was the error? Did you submitted a bug report? That might be an important finding.
Let’s download some apps. I want as many apps that i already know as possible. Let’s see if jdownloader is available for linux. Yep there’s one. Nope, not for manjaro (officially). There’s a AUR package available. Nice.
Not nice, don’t use AUR on Manjaro, you will break stuff.
What do i need to do to install a AUR package? A wall of text on the wiki, 20 minutes videos, yay.
That’s because AUR is not meant for people who don’t know what they’re doing. It’s dangerous and unstable, the way to get an air package is to build it yourself, the way to get an automated tool to install them is to build the package for it yourself, this should prevent people who shouldn’t be building packages from doing so. BTW, Manjaro is especially unsafe because it has an AUR manager in their official repos IIRC, which btw is called yay, so not sure if that was a joke.
Ok let’s call it a day. Do i need to live another life to make linux work?
No, you just need time to learn something new, instead of jumping around thinking that things would solve themselves. If you had started with Ubuntu you might not had either of those problems, and if you had learned what was wrong with the first problem on the first distro you would know how to fix it in every other distro and solve similar problems, just like you did with Windows before and now solving things there is intuitive for you.
Did you actually tried to launch the game? What error did you get? What game was it?
Steam launcher is not needed unless the game is programmed to fail if it doesn’t detect steam, not all games do, it’s usually a sign of a badly programmed game. Also the game might have had other DRMs.
But for example grab Crusader Kings or Stellatirs which tries to use the steam API bit if it fails it just keeps going without, and you can copy it to another computer and play without steam installed.
There’s a HUGE difference between a platform having optional DRM and a platform being DRM. Also it’s not opt-out, it’s opt-in, so by default games don’t have it, if they do it’s because someone on the game studio decided to add it, Valve does not force it or even encourage it, they just have it available.
It’s very unfair to say “Steam is DRM”, and a more accurate description is what I used “Steam has optional DRM”.
Because if you consider Steam to be DRM by the same token you also consider itch and GoG and any way of buying games DRM, which makes the term almost meaningless since companies should be allowed to charge for their products.
It’s not about nationality. Here are the facts:
Therefore to not remove Serge from the maintainers would open LF to legal repercussions.
You might not agree with what was done, I certainly don’t, but I understand it.