I haven’t even tried Windows on it, but the handheld mode for 11 that was leaked a while back very much feels like Microsoft seeing the success of SteamOS on the Deck and all the x86-based handhelds coning out, and panicking a little.

Which is kinda ironic, because Windows 10 used to have a Tablet Mode, which was coincidentally also a pretty decent interface for a controller, as far as the start menu was concerned, until they removed it.

So it’s LineageOS.

If you put Michelin tires on a Ferrari, and sell it in that configuration, then it doesn’t turn the tires themself into a sportscar.

…why is MicroG mentioned? It’s not a custom ROM, it’s a GApps replacement for custom roms.

Also, MIUI is not a public custom ROM, it’s the official one for Xiaomi’s devices, also it does feature bloatware, and I don’t think that it’s especially privacy-focussed either.

The article itself says it was a DDoS attack, not a hack.

I have been using the Debian-based Open Media Vault on my home server for… probably four, five years now, at first just for a cheap dumb “NAS”, which has slowly featurecrept itself into being my personal replacement for damn near everything except E-Mail.

On my daily driver(s) though… tough to say, because I was distribution-hopping for a while. But currently, I seem to have found my home on Arch. I had tried Ubuntu, Linux Mint and a few others every now and then, but at the time always went back to Windows for one reason or another.

But… ironically, since I am now working for a Microsoft Partner and thus play a lot less games and no longer have to send out applications or use specific tools for vocational school or uni or something, I am no longer bound to Windows in my time off, so I have been using Manjaro for a few months at first, before I reinstalled and went to Arch proper, and have been using it now for… well over half a year at least, maybe a 3/4 year at this point?

My absolute favorite parts of the deck are the bang for your buck and the input options.

The Deck might not be the most powerful gaming device out there - heck, not even the most powerful x86-based gaming handheld - but it is suprisingly performant nonetheless. Part of that is the 1280x800 screen, which sounds small if you are used to 1080p or even 4k screens, but allowed Valve to use a less powerhungry APU, which resulted in the battery lasting a bit longer.

And frankly, the part where the Deck absolutely shines is the fact that they gave it trackpads with haptic feedback, gyro controls and a touchscreen plus the four extra triggers on the back. The gyro is perfect for shooters, and the touchpads for games that would normally need long mouse movements, or assigning them to radial menus or whatever. And you can just remap everything on a game-by-game basis.

The only flaws in my mind - nitpicks, really - are twofold:

1. It has the USB-C port at the top, so you cannot just slot the Deck into a dock and be done with it. As someone coming from a Switch, it is a slight loss of convenience.

2. You cannot use external GPUs*, so if docked, the Deck might struggle to play games on 4k. I think the ROG Ally had the right idea by allowing you to use a dock with a GPU in it, which gives you greater portability on the go and a beefy GPU when docked. I wish the Steam Deck could do the same thing.

Another thing that depends on the user is that with the stock Steam OS, some games will not work despite Proton because of anticheat software or DRM that is incompatible, but that one can be easily mitigated by installing Windows, if you absolutely have to. Personally, I strongly recommend sticking with Steam OS though, but that’s from the perspective of someone who usually plays singleplayer games anyway.

• Yes, I know, you can do a hardware mod that replaces I think the SSD with a GPU, but it’s still not as easy as plugging in a USB-C cable and be done with it.

Not in terms of the recommendations, but if you want a client for Subsonic or Jellyfin that is close to the Spotify UI, then I can recommend Sonixd.

Bubble Bobble Intro, but RPG

Oh, I know that one!

I actually started giving my home Mastodon instance 8 bucks a month as a little “thank you” for hosting and maintaining it, because I think they’re doing a solid job at keeping the place wholesome and curbstomping less wholesome instances, and keeping it up and running.

Also, I pay the subscription for Home Assistant/Nabu Casa, because I think it’s worth for having a locally-hosted home automation platform that is completely independant from any cloud provider, but can make use of cloud features if need be. Yes, I could set up my own SSL certificate for the instance, and set up the connection to Google Home manually, and run a completely local TTS (which I actually have as a backup in case the connection drops), but there, I pay for the convenience on top of supporting the developers a little bit.

And before I switched to Jellyfin, I was happily using Plex and paid for the Plex Pass.

Well, it requires some more work, but you can also in theory set up a Linux box (or, heck, also a Windows one if you are so inclined) and use something like Electron Player (https://github.com/oscartbeaumont/ElectronPlayer) as a “frontend” for YouTube TV, Amazon Prime, Netflix,…

…or you tell Netflix Amazon and co. to stuff it, buy BluRays, rip them onto a media server, and set up Jellyfin, Emby, Plex… or, heck, just a fileshare and play the files using Kodi or something.

…nah.

The Metaverse is just a buzzword, with my favorite example of the new Tamagotchis just slapping it onto their newest line of virtual critter to mean “Yeah, it has basic online functionalities”. NFTs can go shove it. It’s for money laundering at best, and scam artists enriching themselves with minimal effort at worst. Cryptocurrencies may have a use in theory, but not for the environmental impact they cause. Same with the blockchain.

The future - I personally believe/hope - belongs to free, decentralized online services that anyone can host themselves if they so please and have the skills.

I think sometimes they just disappear for a bit. Have you checked for them underground yet? They hang around there sometimes.

😱 IMPOSSIBLE!

So I take it that you also played Celeste and own a Blahaj? 😉

I use RSnapshot and make incremental backups to an external harddrive, and (I know it’s not a backup) run my two RAIDs (one for media, one for general data) in mirrored mode.

When I eventually upgrade my home server, I will upgrade from 2x2 2TB drives in RAID1 to four 8TB drives in either RAID5 or 6 - I am still undecided if I am willing to sacrifice 4TB of capacity to the redundancy gods and get an extra harddrive that can fail without data loss in return.

On my “home server” (an old office PC we were about to throw into the junk at work that I installed OpenMediaVault on):

• Portainer (Docker container manager)
• AdGuard Home (DNS-based ad blocker)
• Audiobookshelf (Audiobook library)
• Bitwarden (Password manager)
• Jellyfin (Media server)
• Kavita (eBook library)
• LetsEncrypt + NGINX (SSL cert + reverse proxy)
• Nextcloud (cloud storage, notes, calendar, contact and browser bookmark sync)

And on my Pi 4:

• Home Assistant (smart home management and orchestration)

On my “home server” (an old office PC we were about to throw into the junk at work that I installed OpenMediaVault on):

• Portainer (Docker container manager)
• AdGuard Home (DNS-based ad blocker)
• Audiobookshelf (Audiobook library)
• Bitwarden (Password manager)
• Jellyfin (Media server)
• Kavita (eBook library)
• LetsEncrypt + NGINX (SSL cert + reverse proxy)
• Nextcloud (cloud storage, notes, calendar, contact and browser bookmark sync)

And on my Pi 4:

• Home Assistant (smart home management and orchestration)

(EDIT: Apologies for the double post, the post button kept showing the loading throbber, so I thought I may have had connection issues and submitted it again after refreshing the page)