BallisticNG. Incredible WipEout homage, Linux native, VR compatible, runs locked at 60fps on Deck. Fun tracks, cool ships, nice lore. Physics and mechanics are by default more geared towards classic PSX games (1, 2097, 3), with “modern” physics and mechanics (Pure/Pulse/HD with absorb, barrel roll etc.) getting an overhaul in the next version.

Very good choice going with Debian. It is simple, clean, can be as minimal or as “bloated” as you wish, and once you’ve worked out the kinks it will happily run for years without maintenance (except updates of course).

There’s a steep learning curve because as a user you’re expected to configure stuff yourself (although defaults are most of the time very sensible), but if you’re willing and able to truly learn Linux and the terminal and you’re familiar with your hardware, it’s one of the best platforms out there.

You and me brother.

Which machine did you choose? I went for the Lelit Bianca, never regretted it.

Same. Old DB2 base from the 80’s that was migrated to Oracle in the 90’s then to Postgres in the 2010’s.

And the people there know all the column names by heart 😅

Go AMD. The open-source drivers already provide the best performance compared to the closed-source ones, and are included in the kernel and Mesa, which means the cards will work out of the box. For the best performance and latest drivers and optimizations you should switch to a distro with more up to date packages than Debian if you plan on buying a current gen card tho. For example, Fedora is a very good mix between working OOTB, ease of use and bleeding-edge packages.

nVidia is… difficult. The open-source drivers are getting better but are still way behind closed-source drivers, and each closed-source drivers version only works with a single kernel version. It might work OK as long as the drivers and kernel are kept in sync (I think Pop! or Nobara have nVidia specific versions for this reason), but otherwise each kernel upgrade is a risk. Plus nVidia drivers are basically shit with Wayland and cause a ton of issues.

Intel has a good track record with iGPUs so discrete cards should be as trivial to use as AMD ones, if more at the entry-level performance-wise.

Ubuntu’s version of Gnome is heavily modified to look and feel like their old Unity DE though. Vanilla Gnome like in Fedora or Arch is a vastly different experience.

pacman -Snstall -yefresh -yefresh -unly-upgrades

Man I love my Firefox/Gnome/Wayland/GNU/systemd/Linux/GRUB operating system!

I concur with the person above. I have a 4yo QcK Edge mat that still looks and feels almost new. If you thoroughly soak and clean them when they start to get grimy they’ll keep their properties for a very long time.

Debian has had MATE since forever. It’s as simple as typing

sudo apt install mate-desktop-environment

Honestly you don’t even need Ubuntu if you absolutely need snaps. You can install snapd on a lot of apt distros, or you can spin an Ubuntu container in Distrobox in a few seconds.

And that’s why we’re moving away from coding games where I work. Bad people try to cheat, good people can panic and shit the bed.

When I do interviews, I’m more interested in the candidate’s relevant experience, what kind of issues they faced, how they were solved, if they think they could have done things differently, and how they think. Code itself is irrelevant unless I can review a sprint’s worth of PRs.

When I ask more technical questions, I never ask for code but for an explanation on how they would tackle the problem. For example, I often ask about finding a simple solution to get all data relevant to a certain date in two, simple, historized tables. If you know window functions, it’s trivial. If you don’t, your solution will be slow and dirty and painful. But as most devs don’t know about window functions anyway, it lets me see how they approach the issue and if they understand what parts should have a trivial solution to make it simple.

Most proper denim pants are sized in inches, even from non-US countries.

But of course vanity sizing is a thing so a size 36 is closer to 38in unless explicitly specified, and most online retailers provide true sizing in cm anyway, so there’s that.

Here in the EU there are a few companies selling rebranded Tongfang or Clevo barebones without an OS. Some are Linux-oriented like Tuxedo, Slimbook or LaptopmetLinux, some are general-purpose or gaming oriented like Schenker/XMG.

Slimbook Elemental 14 start at around 600€, Tuxedo Aura 14 starts at around 840€ for what looks to be the same SKU but a bit more storage.

Where are you located and what’s your budget ? It might help point you in the right direction.

Luck has nothing to do with it. Daddy’s apartheid emerald mines money and megalomania got him there. He didn’t invent anything, he’s just a glorified investor. All of ‘his’ successful companies are other, smarter people’s ideas he ‘stole’ by forcing them to make him ‘co-creator’ as a requirement to invest his cash.

It’s all about pushing a narrative. If he did it the ‘normal way’, he would probably be seen as a decent VC, known in some business circles but in the shadow from a general audience perspective. By making himself the ‘co-creator’, he deperately tries to makes us think he’s the genius he believes he is, and gain the power and influence that come with it.

There are positions in all these companies where people are working roud the clock to prevent him from fucking everything up. And sometimes, even they can’t prevent idiotic bullshit like the Cybertruck. Tesla and SpaceX work because they actively spend a massive amount of energy to work against his moronic ideas. Twitter is the best example of what happens when he’s given free rein.

It’s like scrolling on your phone, where the content on your screen follows exactly your fingers movements. On Wayland you can do the same with a trackpad, like for example when scrolling, switching workspaces or invoking the activities overview. It feels much nicer, more immediate and more natural than on X.org, where gestures are just triggering a shortcut after a set distance.

X is not going to die, X is already dead.

(great write-up btw ;) )

All those filthy command line arguments <3

May I ask why you, as a beginner, specifically chose one of those distros instead of more “mainstream” ones?

Puppy Linux’s main use-case is to be a live ISO, that doesn’t need to be installed to run. It doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea to install it, but I think if you want to use an Ubuntu derivative, there are better options for a beginner like Pop or Mint that would let you install a lightweight desktop environment like XFCE, LXDE, LXQt and so on.

Alpine Linux is specifically designed to avoid all the core system tools that are pretty much universal on most other distros like glibc, systemd or GNU tools and libraries, which will make your life hell as a beginner if you need to troubleshoot anything as most “universal” documentation like the Arch wiki would be at best partially relevant, at worst useless.

Hey, we are all freeloaders here. How many of us can say they’ve contributed to every single component of the stack we use everyday to get our cat memes? Like GRUB, the kernel, systemd/whatever you prefer, Mesa, X.Org/Wayland, your DE of choice, Firefox?

We can even make a profit by using these tools :D

Probably LMDE?