I don’t play anymore, but I sank over 1500hrs into it. They’ve had several content updates since then, too, so there should be plenty to keep you busy.

Word of advice for starting: focus on opening up every planet in your star chart. After that, you should have access to every mission and event.

Warframe? Third-person, but shooting is still a fundamental element (in addition to powers and melee).

Has one of the best F2P models out there, and runs on potatoes.

Similar experience. The building doesn’t feel as nice as you’d expect, and it’s often more satisfying in traditional Lego games. Still, the overall gameplay is a unique divergence from their usual game design.

Too late, in my case. Already got Bazzite running full time on a laptop! rpm-ostree and package layering are definitely a different way to think about things, but it’s nice having a system that’s kind of unbreakable.

I agree, though, that jumping into immutable distros shouldn’t be a glib decision for newcomers, though Aurora might be a good option for anyone that just wants to set it and forget it.

There have been major strides to make first time setups stupid-proof in a lot of distros, to the point that I think we’re seeing the beginnings of a demographic shift.

And like in your dad’s case, sometimes browsing the internet, getting on Zoom, and printing some files are all people really want.

PopOS is one I’m going to be looking at today, along with Aurora!

I mentioned to someone else that I practiced installing Arch in a VM, and while I got everything working, it wasn’t what I would consider a fun experience (and I’m not implying that nobody would find it fun). Just a level of system admin I’m not that interested in taking up. 😅

But that’s good advice to just take the plunge. Most of my important info is already backed up, so making sure my WFH software stack is ready is probably the final significant hurdle.

Ah, backups. That’s on my list of things to check. It would be terribly inconvenient to have to manually pull up a web interface just to do backups.

I like the way you think.

I’ll have to give Ventoy another try, since they just had some updates. I had originally tried booting it on a spare laptop (multiple times), but it would never boot, as if the MBR was broken.

That particular Edimax dongle I mentioned was sold as an 802.11ac option for Raspberry Pi’s. I didn’t know at the time that it was a unique case, so even the best of intentions can still sometimes wind up biting you. I would have bought something else, had I known!

At least you can find the package module in most community repositories, now.

• Great advice. I had specific apps I have or was planning to research, but it would probably behoove me to double check everything.
• A live USB is advice I hadn’t considered. I’ve done that several times, and I’ve done a handful of VMs, but I never considered it might help sus out some potential hardware issues.
• I’ve actually practiced setting up Arch in a VM, and while I got everything to work just fine, I think pure Arch is just not for me. Something Arch-based would be okay, like BlendOS, but I don’t get that nice feeling of accomplishment in pure Arch from tinkering with every little system config file and dependency—just annoyance and exasperation.

Windows VM is what I plan to do. I’m already running Bazzite full time on a spare laptop acting as an HTPC, and I’ve dabbled for the last several years and feel comfortable in the command line, so I don’t really see a need to waste an entire drive or partition just for Windows.

That’s good advice, though, to learn how to fix the bootloader. That’s something I don’t currently know how to do, so I’ll get on that! Thanks!

I have two drives, but I don’t really want to be part of the AI/Recall machine anymore. I’ll install Windows in a VM for the rare times I absolutely need it and forget about it the rest of the time.

Why does Leap Micro have such a better logo than the parent project?

Good to have the facts straight. It’s creepy enough on its own without inventing details.

• Castle Crashers is a classic multiplayer beat-em-up. Plays great on Proton (if that’s important).
• Lost Castle is in a similar vein, though more roguelike.
• River City Girls (and sequels) is either great arcade brawler.
• Neurovoider

Great indie co-op games:

• Deep Rock Galactic. No split screen, but endlessly repayable with goals and targets in each mission. Also fun in solo.
• Caveblazers
• Guacamelee
• Tunche

Upcoming games to consider:

• Wizard of Legend 2

A good sign. Other community distros have already done that, but this is a good sign to the larger community that Wayland is basically ready for prime time.

Thank you, Larry. You will be missed.

No offense intended, but you seem to have missed the point.

Calling Plasma the best is an opinion. Liking Gnome or any other DE is an opinion. The things you like about Plasma may not be things that somebody else likes or cares about, and that doesn’t make them wrong.

“Chocolate is the best ice cream!”

“Yeah, unless you like other flavors.”

“You mean other gross flavors?”