circuitfarmer

Maybe too simplistic for what you’re looking for, but Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager allows you to do some of it.

It’s based on an older title IIRC, and it’s a game more tuned towards education with relatively few graphical elements. You won’t be flying missions directly, nor do you have sandbox capabilities, but for mission planning / R and D / mission control, there is some fun to be had.

I go back to it occasionally.

I leave my Steam update settings to only update on Play. This allows me to pretty easily review what is being patched in to any particular game and choose if/when to apply it (true that choosing not to apply means no longer using the Steam client for that game).

It’s also trivial on Linux to keep the Proton prefixes and game installs backed up automatically. This has the added benefit of making all game installs portable.

Unfortunately GOG still has no official Linux client, though there are workarounds. The “apocalyptic scenario” would ultimately kill either company, so you’re right to think it is moot.

Neither can Steam. Then the difference is down to those games on Steam which are not DRM-free.

Oh, I absolutely would – I’m just making a point based on a previous statement earlier in the thread:

Considering games with no DRM can have it added retroactively, that Steam pushes updates I may not want with no option to decline

If the practice is that you need local backups on purchase anyway, then I fail to see the difference between non-DRM games on Steam and those on GOG. It feels like a different goalpost is being used depending on what service is being discussed.

Does it? What recourse do you have if they change their policy and you don’t have local backups of your games?

Maybe. If you trust them, though now… I don’t.

Depends on the game. As I mentioned in another thread, there are many games on Steam which are DRM-free and do not require the client. GOG’s advertising suggests they are the only method for getting such games, but as always, the devil is in the details.

Mostly it comes down to how much you feel about one issue over the other, but I don’t see how they can be unrelated if there’s a monetary transaction involved.

Because supporting GOG now means supporting unfettered AI usage. If you disagree with such policies, the only way to voice that discontent is with your wallet.

I’m guessing by your wording that you’re aching to bash Steam, so I’ll preface this with: no corporation is ever going to get this 100% right; the world is drawn in greys, and only a Sith deals in absolutes.

“Better” is not very useful without context. In the context of AI usage, Steam is better. In the context of GOG, their main claim about game preservation is “no DRM”, but there is an important point often missed: lots of games on Steam also do not have DRM.

I have no issues “buying” games on Steam which have no DRM. For others, I factor the DRM into the price I’m willing to pay for access. These tend to be larger titles anyway, so I’m not terribly worried about it long term.

Long term game preservation? More about unofficial channels than relying on yet another corporation. GOG wasn’t changing that before, and they definitely aren’t now.

Something tells me the “double down” is to distract from that fallout

I care. Enough to abandon my qualms about AI usage? Not really, it just means GOG is not the answer.

Definitely makes a lot of sense to use a VM for it. Though there is something fun about having a spare laptop and just playing on bare metal.

Vibe hacking is the future. Really.

I’m running Mint currently

I’m wondering if there is a lot of benefit to going more barebones

Not really. On the scale at which homelabs operate, I doubt you’ll see any difference at all – except what might be the significant time sink to set everything up again.

I’m not having any issues with my current setup

I’d put this firmly in the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” category. Mint is already a distro which is ultimately a Debian derivative. It operates more like Debian as opposed to, say, Fedora or Arch. While it can be enticing to explore the many options of Linux, the benefit isn’t clear here.

Now, distro hopping on a nonproduction system? Something where you don’t care what’s on it and you just want to experiment? That’s one of the best parts of being a Linux user. But at least do that first before even approaching breaking something that isn’t broken.

It sounds more like you want to have fun distro hopping, and believe me: I can tell you from experience that distro hopping isn’t fun if you have to rely on that machine.

This is exactly why this shit constantly annoys me. Steam is not unique in how they handle their store. If you don’t want to pay Valve a fee as a dev, then don’t put your game on Steam. No one is forced to do that.

Now, you will lose many sales. But a service being popular does not make it a monopoly. Other stores exist, and are even discussed in the article. All of them have some similar method of getting add-ons. Steam’s happens to be very easy – again, that doesn’t make it anti-competitive.

Also: the fact that this is about “PC monopoly” and “Microsoft” is not mentioned is just… wild. And sad.

Xero is publicly traded. Generally it’s shareholders wanting endless return that pushes every company to enshittify. The specifics of the company matter less if they have public shareholders.

Valve is extremely unique in that it is absolutely giant by value but not publicly traded. For now.

Peggle. As a grown ass person I still play it at least once every couple of weeks. Stupid fun when you don’t want to pay too much attention.

In linguistics this is called “code switching”, and it is extremely common among native bilinguals.

To each their own I guess (which is the point after all :) ). I’ve never had an issue with Jellyfin for music in the few years I’ve used it. All setups are different though.

I’ve never had an issue, hm.