The usual tech support search:

• First hit is a thread describing your exact problem, marked as [SOLVED]. Clicking it goes to a 404.

• Second hit is a thread describing your exact problem that goes to an actual thread, but the message has been edited to just say “Solved” with no record of what was done.

• Third hit is a thread describing almost your exact problem, with the first response calling the poster a noob for asking and then 15 pages of arguments.

• Fourth hit is a thread describing something in the same general area as your problem, which you try anyway and makes the thing you’re trying to fix break in a different way, but it’s progress at least.

• Actual solution is somewhere between the 5th and 8th hit, or you give up and come back to it in about a week and solve it instantly without trying for some fucking reason.

So to answer the question, I can usually tell I’m getting close to the solution when I say “Oh for fuck’s sake” as I’m closing tabs lol.

Yeah I was gonna say, I dunno if my distro is the best (Arch BTW) but it’s the best for me. Doesn’t give me any nonsense and lets me tinker as much as I want. Other people just want their OS to get out of their way, which of course is equally valid. Whatever works for you!

As a side note, a couple of things that might be handy for you:

Bottles is a GUI for running Wine things that might make it a bit easier to navigate. It’s helped me out a few times.

Also there’s an AppDB on the Wine site where you can search for specific software to find out how well it runs/tweaks that people have used etc.

ALSO yeah games are in a pretty good place on Linux nowadays. I have a Steam Deck and it runs a surprising amount of stuff, even things that aren’t listed as being compatible. I think the main source of trouble is the online AntiCheat stuff, that’s not always compatible with Linux (although sometimes those work too, I think it just depends on the game.) There’s also protondb for checking which games work in Linux.

Hopefully some of that is helpful!

Exactly this. The new game cycle these days is:

• Game is announced with shiny video showing all sorts of cool stuff.
• Release date is announced.
• Game is delayed.
• Reviewers/early access people get it, turns out it has none of the cool stuff form the announcement video.
• Game is delayed again.
• Game finally comes out, with 3 different tiers that are like $80, $100 and $120 CAD depending on if you want the version of the game that’s 30%, 40% or 50% complete.
• Game doesn’t work.
• After about two years and 10 DLC packs you have about 80% of the functional game, the other 20% being stuff they were supposed to add but just never bothered, what are you gonna do about it? By this point you no longer care about the game anyway.
• Sequel is announced with shiny video showing all sorts of cool stuff, devs promise they’ve fixed all the broken stuff this time for real.
• Company gets bought by EA or Epic, all devs are replaced.
• Game is delayed.

Like genuinely who wants to bother with that nonsense anymore TBH.

Smashing Pumpkins 1996-05-15 at Brixton Academy, London

It starts off kind of low-energy and then for whatever reason about halfway through they just start blasting it.

Sample

For me, I find it handy because it catches a bunch of stuff I always forget, like updating Docker containers. Also if you have Am installed it’ll even update your Appimages.

I use Topgrade, but I use the alias update to run it lol

I guarantee they’re also adding AI slop trained on other people’s work into their own content, while simultaneously suing anyone who does the same with theirs.

Fuck Disney

I’m currently playing:

• Star Citizen (I know I know. I paid like $40 into the Kickstarter years ago and I dip in about once a year or so.)
• Last of Us 2 (again)
• Schedule I on Steam Deck is pretty fun.

I’m also currently gearing up to get horrendously addicted to Rimworld again since there’s apparently a new DLC on the way.

Since OP mentioned that they used Plasma in the past and don’t like GNOME, it might be worth mentioning that KDE is developing their own OS which should be immutable.

Might have to wait for a little bit though.

Calibre can do this! If you go to ‘Edit metadata’ there’s a button to download a cover. There are also plugins that expand the search, so you can include Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Amazon etc.

Yeah it’s pretty much the same whenever the Money People get involved in anything. It inevitably stops being about making something really cool, or even just making a living from making something, and becomes all about shipping the absolute minimum viable product and then strip-mining as much cash as you can out of it at all costs, and then dumping it when people stop buying it.

And the thing that gets me is that this makes nobody happy. The creators hate it because they’re making trash, consumers hate it because they’re being ripped off, and the Money People aren’t even happy because they never are. They always want more.

I got curious and had a quick poke around, seems like it’s called “Prue Leith: Journey With My Daughter” from 2020, but the only copy I managed to find is in Chinese on the Internet Archive. If I find an English copy though I’ll let you know!

I have some mapped to super simple aliases too like e1 to reboot, e2 to shutdown etc. I don’t remember why I started doing that, but that way I only have to remember which number does what lol.

Yeah that was it for me. Just keep regular backups and bear in mind that you’ll probably break stuff at first. But once you get the hang of it, it’s like a whole other level of control over your system.

Also I’m not dyslexic but would things like tab completion and aliases help maybe? I sometimes shorten often-used commands with aliases just for convenience (as an example, I use rsync a lot, particularly the command rsync --ignore-existing -ravwhich I just shorten to rs to save time) so maybe that could also be used to avoid mis-spelling?

Yeah I used to be super addicted to Overwatch 1, but I bailed as soon as 2 came out. I can honestly say I’ve never played it since.

Yeah my VPN (Mullvad) is super affordable and I just leave it on all the time so I never have to worry.

Also maybe a seedbox could work for this sort of situation? I’m not overly familiar with them but I assume that would also just be running no matter where OP is.

You still can, it’s on archive.org!

Edit: not sure if I’m allowed to post the direct link, but it comes up right away on the search.

Oh yeah same here, I’ve been using Linux in some form or another since maybe 2006 or so, and I still have a folder in Obsidian that’s just notes about Linux lol. Usually if I customize something or fix something or learn something new, I’ll chuck it in the notes along with the link to where I found it so I don’t have to retrace my steps looking for it again.

Yeah same here, my Deck in its case easily fits into a backpack, I think it’s portable enough. At a certain point you can only make things smaller by cutting essential stuff I think.