BananaTrifleViolin

@BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft is testing full-screen Microsoft 365 ads in Windows 11 for expired subscriptions⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  So I’d honestly recommend Mint if you’re new. It has a Windows like interface making the change easier. Or install KDE on Ubuntu - it also has a default Windows like GUI but is very flexible and can be anything you want.

  The Ubuntu interface sucks to be honest, and you don’t have to be stuck with it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If the UK government proposed to increase tax by 1% and make trains free would you be in favour?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  No, there are other priorities. I want to see reform.of teh railways for sure, including renationalisation and a proper long term plan. HS2 should have been completed but not it’s too far beyond the scrapping to resurrect. But there are still lines that need electrifying and Northern Power House Rail makes economic sense.

  I think renationalisation and increased subsidy for the railways is good but not free - people who use the railways should be paying to support it more than other tax payers, and international visitors also use the railways and should be contributing.

  If we had a 1% tax rise it’d quickly disappear as we have a national deficit including a large amount of interest going to pay for the national debt.

  Rather than income tax rises (which hit ypunger working people more than any other group) I want to see asset taxes that actually hit wealthy people, including the wealthier asset rich elderly who want to pass on their money to their children rather than pay for the expensive services they use (like the NHS). So I’d favour a property tax (that would also encourage people to downsize to houses they need instead of sitting in big family homes), and taxes on shares and other assets. It doesn’t have to be punitive, just fair.

  Instead younger working people are subsiding the elderly in this country - the elderly are the wealthiest group, who got all the benefits of free university, free Healthcare, cheap housing etc which the younger generation have it tough, paid for university, pay exorbitant prices for rent or home buying. The wealthy elderly hide behind the sympathy people show for the poorer elderly; people who won’t be hit by an asset tax as they are asset poor and deserve to be subsidised and supported.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why Shouldn't I Use A Small Gaming PC⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  There is nothing wrong with that PC but there is an opportunity cost to be aware of - upgrades.

  A PC like that is static - you pay £600 and you get the PC, but after a few years if you’ve out grown it then you need to get a whole other PC. It’s the same with laptops.

  However if you spend the £600 on a case, a motherboard, a cpu with a gpu, ram and storage you have a full starter PC. You can even save money by not paying for windows (built into the price of the mini PC) and get Linux for free. PCs are modular and any component can be upgraded and switched out at any time later.

  So in a couple of years you may decide the PC is slowing down, or you’re out growing it, and you can swap in some more RAM or upgrade the CPU. Or you decide you can afford a dedicated graphics card, you can just buy the card and slot it in, and every £ goes into getting a great graphics card instead of starting again from scratch

  Think of it like this: if you buy an all in one device you might spend £600 now and say another £600 in 3-5 years if you need to upgrade and fully replace it, and probably are still very limited in what you can get. A replacement will still have integrated graphics and still be behind cutting edge games, and just be a newer version of the same problem you have now. But with a full PC build you might spend £600 now for an OK PC and in 3-5years time you pay £600 just to add a great graphics card and have something way better than any mini PC. Or you spend £400 now and £200 in 2 years and £100 in 3 years and £500 in 4 years and gradually keep the PC how you want it without having to start from scratch. You end up with a decent PC now and gradually something powerful but without the upfront cost and without “wasting” money having to get a new device with a new motherboard, new cpu, new power supply, new RAM every time.You want an uplift .

  It’s a crude example but the point is a full size PC can be expanded and switched up continously, and you can adapt it, and likely get something far better for the same money long term, while a fixed spec all-in-one device can serve a purpose for now but then needs total replacement when you outgrow it.

  Building a full PC from scratch is easy - genuinely it’s plug and play, and only takes a bit of basic research to see what components are best to buy. There are loads of tutorials on how to put it together. Meanwhile your money goes much further over the longer term as you’re not having to buy a whole new PC everytime you need/want an upgrade - you can instead focus your money on the bits that need to change.

  Even if you get a prebuilt tower PC now (ATX or Mini ATX) your money will go further AND you have something that you can upgrade and adapt. Although I think building from scratch is the best option as prebuilt Pcs are a false economy - they save money with cheaper components and you pay for labour on the build, when you can build it yourself for free and put every £ into better components.

  Don’t be intimidated by building a PC - it’s nowhere near as difficult as it seems, and is an easy to obtain skill but worth learning as it’ll save you money, and allow you to fix and problem solve if you ever have problems in the future.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨DDR4 costs soar as manufacturers pull the plug — panic buying and stockpiling impact DDR4 spot pricing as supply dwindles⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This version of the article misses important information from the original source Trend Force who issued a report on DDR4 prices which news sites have been quoting.

  In addition to the supply constraints mentioned, the original report also cited Trump’s tarrifs which alongside the manufacturing supply slump could cause panic buying in the US specifically. This is speculation but based on the possibility Trump could “issue new tariffs or restrictions related to production capacity against China. This, in turn, may trigger another round of panic buying,”

  The original report was posted to twitter with “Tarriff fears may trigger further panic buying”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why I Ditched Spotify, and How I Set Up My Own Music Stack⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The absolute basics:

  1. Install qbittorrent
  2. Install a VPN and run it so that all your Internet traffic goes down it
  3. Open a Web browser and search for top torrent sites 2025. There are articles with lists of the big ones.
  4. Go to a torrent site and search for what you want.
  5. Download the .torrent file and open it in qbit torrent Or copy the magnet link and paste that into qbittorrent

  Always use the VPN when searching and downloading.

  There are lots of steps to make it more convenient - things like using a Virutal machine so the vpn and torrent do their thing while you do whatever else you want on your PC, or setting up a docker Servarr stack to make things more convenient, or setting up a Raspberry pi as a servarr stack. But for the basics all you need is a torrent client, a VPN and a Web browser.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft Store application updates can no longer be disabled⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Death by 1000 cuts. This may seem like a reasonable change but there are situations where people don’t want software updated - and those can be reasonable. There are also sitatuons where bad updates break software or companies like Microsoft replace software with a “new” but shit version, and not updating can be a way to opt out.

  There are many reasons to leave Windows, and this is another small one to add to the mountain.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump says Xi told him China will not invade Taiwan while he is US president⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Because that’s all that matters.

  Trump is such a pathetic weakling, and the US is a joke.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI experts return from China stunned: The U.S. grid is so weak, the race may already be over⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  More AI shilling. The central problem of the US grid being a mess is a reasonable concern, but not because of the AI speculative bubble. The idea that the US grid needs to be reworked so that AI companies can easily get their data centres built is nonsense.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Personally I’d be pissed off to be honest. It’s none of his business and this is crossing boundaries.

  Being set up with random women you’ve never met and he himself likely barely knows is very unlikely to be successful. He’s also aggressive and rude about it. Why is he so angry you’re single?

  This isn’t about the random date, this is about the way your dad treats you. You’re 22, not a child, it’s none of his business. How you react to this determines how he behaves in the future - if you don’t want him doing this again you need to tell him where to go.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nintendo sold almost 6 million Switch 2 units in less than a month⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d take some of the claims with a pinch of salt. Selling faster now reflects better availability of the Switch 2 compared to the switch 1 at this point in its cycle. The switch 1 was also sold out this close to launch but Nintendo wasn’t able to manufacture as many to keep up.

  All this shows for now is that the Nintendo is meeting the initial demand better than it could with the first switch. It does not tell us it’s more popular or how well it’ll do overall. In other words all this stuff about it “out pacing” the swith 1 reflects better manufacturing availability rather than how popular the console itself is going to be long term.

  While the switch 2 has undoubtedly had a strong launch, it remains to be seen if the mass market are going to clamour to buy them for Christmas when they’re relatively expensive, with a limited selection of exclusive games. Adult gamers/early adopters being enthusiastic about getting the switch 2 is a good sign but doesn’t necessarily translate to parents buying the console for their families.

  The family and casual gamer market is the bigger one for Switch, and I honestly don’t yet see a compelling reason they’d rush out to buy one? 1080p.gaming, better performance and game chat certainly isn’t it. It needs some really compelling 1st party or excluaive games. Mario Kart World and Dokey Kong Bonanza plus a raft of old games really isn’t great.

  I’m not seeing a big new must have exclusive game to help drive sales for Christmas. No big new Zelda, Mario or Pokemon game? Maybe Nintendo intend christmas 2026 to be the mass market year for the switch 2, and this year be to keep on top of initial demand but it seems a bit of a risky strategy to me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Age verification and the enshitification of streaming will help reduce the decline in computer literacy in under 18s⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah the Act shows the wilful stupidity of politicians who pass legislation without understanding the areas they’re legislating on. It’s a nonsense act that tries to look like it is “protecting children” and is performative nonsense for MPs to pass moral judgement on things they don’t agree with.

  But in practice it’s a security and privacy nightmare, it’s restricting and interfering in the freedom and rights of the majority of the population all to satisfy a stupid moral panic, and it makes the UK look like a backwards state.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why abc, xyz, etc.?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  A lot of it comes down to convention and convention is often set by those who did it first or whose work dominated a field. The whole mathematical notation system we use today is just a convention and is not the only one that exists, but is the one the world has decided to standardise to…

  Rene Descartes is usually regarded at he originator of the current system. He used abc for constants and xyz for unknown variables amongst other conventions.

  Sequential letter sets are easy to use as they are easily recognised, and convenient as a result, plus are generally accepted to have non specific or less specific meaning. For example:

  a^2^+b^2^=c^2^

  That formula is a much simpler concept to get round using sequential leffer than:

  V^2^ + G^2^ = z^2^

  When you don’t use sequential letters it also implies much more specific meaning to the individual letters, and that can introduce ambiguity and confusion.

  When writing a proof there can be many many statements made and you’d quickly run out of letters if you didn’t have a convention for accepting abc are variables and can be reused.

  We also do use symbols from other alphabet sets, and allha/beta/gamma is commonly used trio. But in mathematical notation there are a huge range of constants and symbols now that many have been ascribed specific uses. Pi for example. So you risk bringing in ambiguity of meaning by moving away from the accepted conventions of current maths by using other sets.

  Even e has specific meaning and can be ambiguous if you need to stretch to 5 variables. When working with e it’s not uncommon to use a different string of lwtters in the latin alphabet to avoid confusion if you need to use variables

  And we don’t stop at 3; abcd etc is used.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reddit users in the UK must now upload selfies to access NSFW subreddits⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is a combination of terrible legislation in the UK meets awful social media site.

  The Online Safety Act is an abomination, compromising the privacy and freedom of the vast majority of the UK in the name of “protecting children”.

  I’m of the view parents are responsible for protecting their children. I know it’s hard but the Online Safety Act is not a solution.

  All it will.do is compromise the privacy and security of law abiding adults while kids will still access porn and all the other really bad stuff on the Internet will actually be unaffected. The dark illegal shit on the Internet is not happening on Pornhub or Reddit.

  The UK is gradually sliding further and further into censorship, and authoritarianism and all the in the name of do gooders. It’s scary to watch.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jell-OH MY GOD!⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just cover it in some chocolate sauce. That’ll make it look better.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Scientists make game-changing breakthrough that could slash costs of solar panels: 'Has the potential to contribute to the energy transition'⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe I’m misunderstanding but would diffuse light be what it’s going to be best at? While it’d be worse on a sunny day when there is an optimal direction for the light?

  It’s the opposite of a light house fresnel lens - instead of scattering the light source evenly out, it’ll capture diffuse even incoming better and concentrate it on the photovoltaic cell? However it would be at the cost of being able to capture direct sunlight as only some of the lens would ever be in the best position to capture the direct rays?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨PieFed.World is now open⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That link is for Piefed.world; run by the same team that run Lemmy.world

  There are other piefed servers which may have different email requirements. But the most likely reason Piefed.world requires real emails to prevent bots making fake accounts and also reduce the risk of bad actors making numerous accounts to avoid bans. As it’s hard to get multiple real emails it makes it hard to make multiple anonymous accounts which is unfortunately a tactic of trolls.

  You can of course create a dedicated “private” email account on an official service and use that to sign up if you’re worried about sharing your primary email account. A lot of people do this online to have a legitimate email but essentially in it’s own silo separate from other personal emails.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You can still enable uBlock Origin in Chrome, here is how⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah all you have to do is circumvent the security settings in your browser and suppress warning messages to enable Manifest 2, all in 8 easy steps. For now. Until Google switches it off completely.

  Or, drop Chrome and Chromium based browsers (such as Edge, Vivaldi, Brave etc) in one easy step. Install a privacy respecting Firefox based browser like Firefox itself or Librewolf.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And yet we’ve had numerous terrorist attacks in the UK involving explosives. That is both northern Ireland related terrorism and Islamic terrorism.

  We just had the 20th anniversary of the 7!7 bombings of the London underground where 3 separate suicide bombings detonated.

  Such events are thankfully rare and very difficult to pull off, but unfortunately it only needs to happen once to be a “success” for terrorists. While the police and intelligence services have to stop every single potential attack to be successful.

  Sadly I think OP is right. There will eventually be a successful terrorist attack involving drones. After which, attitudes to drones will harden.

  It’s very difficult to get explosives and it’s very difficult for terrorists to get a explosive to a target. Unfortunately drones make the both potentially easier.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Vernon Dursley, uncle of Harry Potter is just a normal bloke that loves his wife and gets roped into a paramilitary war for it.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah… Except he makes the “freak kid” live under the stairs and neglects him compared to his own son. Kinda hard to redeem the guy by him being otherwise average.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨jobaphobia⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  True. Bit of a tangent but one issue when you have free Healthcare the cost of smoking to individuals is lower. Genuinely it’s a problem - sometimes people don’t value their health as much as they should because of ease of access to Healthcare. I’m 1000% in favour of free Healthcare, it’s just an interesting paradox.

  Public health measures focusing on increasing the cost of smoking through tax work but we don’t have the pressure to stop smoking due to the cost of Healthcare itself which can make it harder to get people to understand the effects. Meanwhile public organisations understand the cost of smoking and invest in trying to reduce it as it puts huge pressure on Healthcare systems.

  Smoking is in decline across the west but we’ve known since the 1940s and 1950s definitely that smoking is bad yet smoking rates have been persistently high in Europe until more recently - last 20 years or so.

  Smoking rates in France for example - 23% still smoke but there has been a huge decline in the last 20 years. Yet smoking was banned on public transport in the 1970s. To be clear I’m not saying it’s because of free Healthcare - just that in countries with good Healthcare systems there is more going on. People have known for 80 years smoking is bad and there has been a gradual decline but big shifts have happened surprisingly recently.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What else should I self-host?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I went down the route of a Raspberry Pi 5 and dietpi. Dietpi has loads of recipes in its main app that makes it easy to get going, plus if you install docker you have a huge range of stuff to try.

  There is a learning curve but it’s not too steep and I’ve enjoyed it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What else should I self-host?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve been going down the slef hosting rabbit hole recently.

  First, Home Assistant is worth doing - you’ve not got a smart home yet but this is the easy way to get one going. So worth it. You can buy a few cheap WiFi plugs, and plug in devices like lights or stuff you don’t want on stand by and you have the start of a smart home. A smart thermostat and smart radiator valves are surprisingly easy to set up if you want to save some money and keep your home efficient.

  I recommend Pihole - it’s an ad blocker for your entire network. You can run it on Docker on x86 machines - you just point your router to use it as the DNS and it then filters all requests for you. It’s really improved my experience on all my devices.

  Next, Paperless NGX - scan your documents and paperless NGX will OCR read them to make them searchable and keep them in a database for you. You can use it to go paperless. Just make sure to sort our a backup.

  Joplin is quite a good note taking app which you can self host to sync your devices and keep your data secure.

  Syncthing is fantastic for syncing files between devices. I sync my main PC and living room theatre PC, plus in my case my Raspberry Pi as an always on broker and local backup.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do you all keep the area around the toilet paper dust-free?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve never had toilet paper like that. I buy supermarket own brand stuff here in the UK. Even when I’ve bought cheap stuff I’ve not had that issue.

  Switch to a different brand. The paper they’re using is bad of it’s flaking off all the time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah the urinary bladder doesn’t just stop working and burst. There will have been an underlying cause, but it was not picked up at the time so now all we have is a garbled version of how he died.

  People can go into acute urinary retention - where they are unable to pass urine. That can be extremely painful and it can lead to rupture if it’s totally untreated.

  But it doesn’t just happen - and choosing not to go to the toilet is not going to cause it. Underlying causes might be prostate enlargement (common), a kidney stone getting trapped in the urethra or bladder neck, or cancers of the prostate, bladder or bowel, amongst others.

  In the modern era urinary retention is easily diagnosed with an ultrasound and usually a CT to assess for causes. Urinary catheterisation can be performed either through the urethra or a suprapubic catheter through the skin to bypass the blockage.

  None of that was available when he was alive - he’d just have been in extreme agony and there was little anyone would know to do. When he died they might have done an autopsy and found the burst bladder but workinf out what happened would be difficult and depend on the skill and knowledge of the person who did the autopsy.

  So it’s extremely unlikely he died because he didn’t go to the toilet during a banquet. Something else happened that precipitated his urinary retention and eventual bladder perforation.

  Once the bladder perforated he was a dead man as there was nothing they could do to repair the bladder or clean out the abdomen in that period. He’d have rapidly become more ill and died from infection and organ failure.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Glastonbury 2025 live: Festival says it is 'appalled' by Bob Vylan comments after controversy⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  A festival being “appalled” is ludicrous. A festival is not a person. What the article actually means is that Glastonbury PR has decided to condemn the comments and chant as they don’t think it fits their brand.

  I’ve had enough of having to pretend the “opinions” of companies and entities matter. They are just a business and will go along with the perceived status quo to protect their business interests. Their stance on anything is bullshit and they should be told to shut up - we don’t need Glastonbury telling us what we can or can’t hear or think.

  Whether you agree with what was said or not, we really need to push back against the corprotisation of opinion and discourse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Virtual Machines- is there a better way to jump start a VM?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Some good advice already in this thread.

  Also worth considering QEMU as an alternative to VirtualBox. The Virt-manager tool is decent way of managing machines, and it’s relatively straight forward to create a base machine if you’re duplicating it. Virtualbox is perhaps initially more user friendly for absolute beginners, but once you have any familiarity with virtualization I’d suggest QEMU offers much more.

  Also I find integration between the guest and the host linux system is generally more straight forward. Most linux systems already ship with samba and other relevant tools QEMU uses to interact between host and guest. There isn’t a need to faff around with the guest-additions stuff. Plus KVM virtual machines can run with near native performance.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I have one of these, it’s a decent mini PC. It’s decently powerful - I used to play some steam games on it; a bit equivalent to steam deck or a bit more powerful. I used it for streaming on my home TV. I upgraded to a even better one as I liked it so much - and wanted to do more gaming.

  It’s a full PC basically. Whether it suits your purposes really depends on what you want to host? It could be overpowered and a bit redundant for a lot of self hosting uses.

  I have a Raspberry Pi 5 which is cheaper than this, and am hosting docker with Home Assistant, Sync thing, and fresh RSS running on it at the moment with plenty of spare memory and cpu resource.

  This mini PC is considerably more powerful and will have a higher power use at idle. You may struggle to use it at capacity so may be a bit wasteful?

  And even the rasp pi 5 is over powered and expensive for a lit of common home server users.

  So whether this PC is a good price and choice really depends on what you want to do with it. It’s at the end of the spectrum of being able to comfortably play 4k video. So it’d likely be a decent Jellyfin streaming host if that’s what you want?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨U.S. residential solar on the brink of collapse⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  So to summarise the challenges the industry is facing:

  • Tariffs on Aluminium - Trump
  • Tariffs on Solar imports - Trump
  • Sudden loss of federal grants that covered 30% of the cost for installation (was due to run til 2030 now slashed) - Trump
  • Slashing of the fees owners get for selling money to the grid by 75% - Oil industry lobbying / Trump

  To call this “macro economic” issues is bizarre. All of this is due to government policy and actions. It’s also notable that the rest of the world’s solar industry is not collapsing. Trump.and the republicans are selling out US consumers to prop up the oil industry and tax cuts for the rich.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  PCs are generally based around the X86 chip architecture which is an open standard. PCs are basically modular and lots of manufacturers make components that are interchangeable, creating a huge variety of possible hardware. Hardware suppliers also sell.to big companies and individuals. It’s therefore in their interest to distribute their drivers freely even if closed source. If hardware breaks it can be replaced and the PC keeps going.

  Mobile devices are closed standards. They use a more limited range of off the shelf components which are deeply integrated into a device, and the hardware suppliers provide their drivers to the device manufacturer or the device manufacturer builds their own drivers and custom version of the os. Hardware can have very long retail lives selling for years and still being functional, so the manufacturers have an incentive to keep drivers available and even update them.

  It means mobile devices are more locked down, and the hardware drivers harder to come by. This makes it hard to build custom OS for them and therefore when the device comes to the end of its support from the maker there is limited options to keep it running securely.

  It’s effectively a type of planned obscelence that keeps the mobile industry going. Manufacturers stop supporting old devices (because it provides no income) and then consumers have to buy new ones as no one can provide the security patches to keep them secure.

  So for mobile there is nothing to force Android or IOS to be kept up to date for old devices. The money is in new devices, and for Android manufacturers are responsible for the mobile device anyway. While for PC it’s in Microsofts interests to keep updating and keeping devices secure via Windows becuase devices have long lifespans and old components can be in the PC ecosystem for decades. Similarly Linux is able to support hardware for a long time because drivers are more freely available and long lifespans to hardware incentivise people to put the effort in to write open drivers when they’re not there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ROG Xbox Ally Handhelds announced, the first real Steam Deck competition⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah its not a great headline. But in fairness Legion Go S extends SteamOS / valves reach so is part of Valves strategy. They make their money on the steam store - thats what matters to them most.

  The Xbox device is the first time Microsoft has actually got involved to help improve the windows experience on hand held. I suspect the Xbox brand will confuse people though, as theyre still just Windows devices with an Xbox branded interface. I dont see it as a winning strategy. People will still want to be using steam and a system that doesnt put that front and centre is not going to have mass appeal.

  An Xbox store would need time to catch on, and they havent managed it on windows. Steam dominates for good reason - convenient, aggressive pricing, and effective vendor lockin for many users who already have huge libraries of games.