Vivaldi’s take on the antitrust case against Google
-
@devoman said in Vivaldi’s take on the antitrust case against Google:
@jamesbeardmore: The issue you're describing is similar to the zombies that insist on using Microsoft Windows. There isn't a known computer user that couldn't benefit from a Linux installation.
I consider myself pretty computer-savvy - and I honestly probably used Linux before anyone else on this forum since I shared student digs with electronics and maths nerds in the early 1990s who were excited about initial test releases of some project by a guy named Torvalds. But even I have been mostly Windows over the years for the simple reason that some software I use - notably games - is only available on Windows.
Until the event of the smartphone, that was just the harsh reality... and even now I can't uninstall Windows on our two main PCs since my wife and I occasionally play games which don't exist as Linux versions.
I type this from Vivaldi on our one Linux device, coincidentally.
-
@mossman , currently a lot of games also exist for Linux. They even work better on Linux than on Windows.
The only problem is that commercial or even free games do not appear in the Linux repositories, there are exclusively only OpenSource games, which are mostly too 'Vintage'.
For Example the game that I am currently entertaining is 'The Dark Mod' which is FOSS and multi-platform. It naturally depends on which games you use, many have equivalent alternatives, which also work on Linux -
@mossman There are over 12.000 games on Steam playing native in GNU/+Linux or with the help of Proton, https://www.protondb.com , many popular engines are Linux-compatible too, like Unity which is widely used because it's multi-platform, it's not the 90's anymore. And as @Catweazle said, older titles that use DX9, 10 are playing faster on Linux because they don't use a compatibility layer like Windows does but an API "translator", which is pretty wierd seeing Linux playing Windows games better than Windows itself lol. There is also Lutris for Blizzard games etc. https://lutris.net
There's literally no excuse for not using Linux except for some AAA titles, but the world is today moving around indie and games involving more interesting gameplay than those AAA titles which are usually fancy but shallow in gameplay.
-
@npro What is this thing called
lovegames? -
This post is deleted! -
@npro , ultimately there are tons of online games of all kinds, where the OS is irrelevant (Html5, WebGL, Unity, etc).
In general it is more difficult to find games for Mac than for Linux. -
@Steffie you always crack me up with your replies! Your summary nicely summarises my experience with those search-engines. I'd also add in SearX: "Never heard of Elgar, but perhaps you'd like to drop acid and listen to some Grateful Dead instead?"
-
@mossman I'm really not a gamer anymore, but I heard Steam is a "thing" that everyone uses now to get games. It appears to be available for Linux - meaning (I think), that almost all games are now available for Linux as well as Windows.
I don't use Steam, though... and to be honest, I'm not even sure what it is. All the games I own for the PC platform are Dos/Windows games from around 1985-2002. Every single one runs perfectly on Linux, using either Dosbox or Wine - even ones that require DirectX. The only one I have trouble with is Activision's "Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure", which requires a Windows 95 virtual machine because it uses some obscure Windows-only function to verify that it's running from a genuine CD. All the non-PC games I own work perfectly in their respective emulators, which are generally available for Linux as well as Windows (although the best C64 and Spectrum emulators I've found are both Dos-based, which means I'm running the emulator inside Dosbox on a Linux machine)!
I do sympathise with you needing to retain a Windows installation though. The tuning software I use for remapping the ECU on my 1 modern car only runs on Windows, so I maintain 1 installation just for that.
-
@jamesbeardmore , Steam is more than this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(service)
-
@Steffie Olympic?
-
@npro said in Vivaldi’s take on the antitrust case against Google:
@mossman There are over 12.000 games on Steam [...] There's literally no excuse for not using Linux except for some AAA titles
You think people CURRENTLY ENJOYING particular games in Windows will have no problem completely forgetting about that, voluntarily (and with no real reason) submitting themselves to the learning curve of switching OS and then looking for DIFFERENT games to play? That really isn't how most people behave...
Of course I know that games are now more widespread in Linux than they used to be - particularly due to Steam (in fact this thread made me curious this morning if the two games I play on Steam work in Linux and it seems they do)... But I also know for damn' sure that the big online RPG my wife and I would play all the time only works in Windows. So that's it - dealbreaker. I can not uninstall Windows. (...yet)
That's not an excuse, it's my reality.
(And there are other things I've just checked which also can't be run in Linux. And no way I will change things my wife is comfortable with as I prefer to stay married to her...)
-
@ayespy: government is a monopoly itself... so what?
-
@Vladimyr In the Western world, the only monopoly government is supposed to have is the monopoly on use of force to ensure the effectiveness of law - nothing to do with who may trade with whom. That is the very reason for anti-trust laws in the West - to preserve the ability of every business to compete with every other business, and let the chips fall where they may. It is not permissible in a true democracy for any company to establish itself as having essentially imperial powers - for that defeats democracy altogether, in fact, if not in law.
In the US, we had the Boston Tea Party. What was that in protest of? Of the ability of the East India Tea Company to unilaterally set prices, terms of trade, who did and did not have access to the market - and all with the imprimatur of the British government. The entire reason the United States divorced itself from the Crown was to eliminate such imperial abuses.
So, yeah, governments have monopoly power, but governments are supposed to be expressly independent of parties engaged in commerce - not like in fascist and autocratic regimes.
-
@Gwen-Dragon Not sure that's true. The EU enforced browser competition as to MS, and the United States never did. It could be that EU law is more potent in this regard, as practiced.
-
@Gwen-Dragon, the only solution is to use decentralized networks, that is to say, gradually build our own internet. But this maybe my great-grandchildren will see one day. Until then there is no choice but to try to make their lives as difficult as possible to manipulate us. Resistance is what we have left.
-
Olympic?
Hmmm, maybe, but tbh i've long had a softspot for bridgestone. If the price was right i would consider avon, goodyear, michelin, even olympic... but probably not pirelli due to my disgust at their rank prurient sexism wrt their annual calendars.
-
One of the issues I see that creates a lot of the problems, is that the platforms are also the advert vendors.
If I were to break up google, The one thing I would focus on above all is making the advert industry not allowed to also be their own platform.
It is an obvious trap for fish in a barrel.
FB, Twitter and Google now primarily exist to pump adverts at you.
The provision of social media or search is secondary to merely allow an advert framework.
They don't even care if you buy products, only that you saw adverts they will be making money from. -
@Dr-Flay Come the revolution, the "advertising industry" will be the first against the wall. Or second. Maybe third. Might be a fence. At the very least we'll tell 'em to just stop it.
-
@steffie: Back in the day Google was the smarter choice, much faster and better than the competition. Actually in fairness they still are.
-
Back in the day Google was the...
...company who publicly promulgated an ethos to Not Be Evil. Indeed back then, they were fabulous, after the utter uselessness of Alta Vista & such to produce actually pertinent search results.
That was then, this is now. They became evil.