same!

because by that logic steam controller 1 and steam controller 2 are also completely different devices and your past experience is inapplicable.

or we can accept that it was valve’s first foray into making hardware and they probably learned a thing or two in the last 10 years on how to make something that doesn’t fall apart. don’t quite understand how you can overlook what I’m saying

not completely. the deck had a lot of time to get trackpads and steam input right. and build quality is great on the deck, it’s a much more complex piece of hardware and it didn’t have too many issues for first revisions

yeah, but that was their first experience with hardware like this. there have been 2 steam decks since then.

I just realized this almost reads like a Terramaster ad, that’s not my goal; you can search for similar options from other fabricants.

I don’t mind that, I’m actively looking for recommendations. I also got pointed to https://www.minisforum.com/products/n5-air, but that one is 500 with no RAM at all, which is quite hefty.

So far I’m leaning towards trying to assemble something generic from used components, though I’m not quite sure what to pick best, motherboard being the hardest one.

As for TrueNAS - I might check it out if I do get off the shelf NAS, but I don’t imagine I’ll be using the Web UI much, to be honest. And I know about Jellyfin, I’m sticking to Plex just because I already have a lifetime Plex Pass and I like the app on my TV. If they keep shoving “community” features down my throat though - I’ll do the switch.

same. I’ll use vi if there’s nothing else available, but I default to nano if I can

ECC is not a hard requirement for me, but if I can get it - I’ll try to, as to me it makes sense for something that runs 24/7 and handles my personal data.

I have a very strong aversion to separating storage from my server. I just don’t see why I need to route power and network to 2 small boxes (none of which would do what I need it to do on its own + considering very crappy room layouts in rented apartments) and then fiddle with network access, when 1 slightly bigger box would do what I need it to do. Some 7-8 years ago I’ve bought dirt cheap second-hand Huananzhi x79 with Xeon E5 and DDR3-ECC with some low profile NVIDIA GPU and it all still works now - and something like that would mostly be OK for me even now (except I left it in another country).

That said, it’s possible a reasonably powerful NAS will be enough for me on its own?

storage box and a services box

That’s exactly what I want to avoid though. I see no reason to power and network 2 different small boxes when just one slightly bigger one will do. And as mentioned - 500 is without HDDs, I plan to use the ones I have for now and extend it later.

Ahh, I was wondering why there’s a Projects next to my projects, I thought I just made a typo at some point

I was not arguing against it functioning as a barebones xbox-like gamepad - that should’ve been done IMO. I was arguing against “splitting up SteamInput from Steam” - that would mean extracting all the fancy stuff too, and that’s the difficult part.

I play a ton of mouse driven games that don’t have gamepad support and it works great there. I would not even consider emulating the mouse with regular sticks, but with touchpad it’s very comfortable

Most likely your software will work via bottles or wine

No, for the examples above it will not. Quite a lot of professional software will not run under wine (and a lot of hobbyists use professional software) - games work particularly well because they mostly do their own thing and depend less on Windows-specific APIs. And if you use a VM via Winboat then you’re just using Windows in the background, which is a workaround, but kinda defeats OP’s argument that there’s “no difference”.

To be clear: I’m daily driving Linux and I’ve not booted into Windows for more than a year. But it’s just wrong to say that they are on par with each other for a lot of usecases.

I thought I was going to pass on it, but now I’m kinda hyped to replace one of my aging xbox controllers with this one.

so they would have to write and support a completely new userfacing application that would have to run on 3 different OSes and inject into games upon launch. a bit too much effort considering 99% of the audience will use it with Steam.

that leaves browsers,

That leaves audio production (with a bunch of Windows-only plugins), video production, photo editing, CAD…

Sure, you can re-learn your entire stack and get by, but that’s a far shot from “ridiculously little difference”. Dropping familiar complex piece of software like Ableton is a hard sell for folks (and it’s OK).

Played the demo and liked it, but way too many games in my backlog at the moment, so will pick it up later at some point

By remaking those games they could indruduce the game to whole new audience who would never play the yanky outdated versions.

This is where we disagree.

1. I don’t think we should try to re-introduce those games to new audiences - they can seek them out if they are interested. I haven’t played Planescape Torment until 2017, I haven’t played Gothic/Deus Ex/Thief games until 2020s. I liked them just fine having never played them in my childhood, I thought they were great. But by remaking influential hits of the past we water them down to “just another mediocre remake that released this year”.
2. A remake by definition will not do anything new, and if we spend resources on remakes (and sequels) then we are robbing the current generation from having their own formative experiences. I want to see new IPs come out that try new and different things and move the medium forward. So far indie games are doing a great job with that, but I also want AAA games to not get stuck in regurgitating the same material year after year. What is this generation’s Half-Life, Roblox?

Most gamers now will never experience that story and those who do, will not get the same experience i got, because they will look everything in the game as a product of its time and the focus will be on the retro aspect, not on the game it self.

If they play a remake - they will not get the same experience you did either. It will be different even if they remake it shot for shot - because story is also a product of its time. And if they don’t remake it shot for shot and make changes to adapt it to modern “standards” - then it’s a different, derivative game vaguely inspired by the original piggybacking on the name.

I take it you haven’t played Pentiment

I’m of a firm opinion that no game needs a remake. Fixing up old games so that they can be played on modern systems - yes please. Remaking the same game but “”“better”“” - no thanks, I’d rather see something original and new come out

There are some exceptions like Pathologic 2 which is basically a remake but also a reimagining, but those are exceedingly rare.

DX12 games suffer a pretty hefty performance penalty on NVIDIA videocards. It’s getting better with the new drivers and recent fixes in Proton, but for now if you own NVIDIA - it’s usually on par or below Windows performance, for the more recent games. Still acceptable in my case tho

Does it get to occupy it for pouring their money into finally making gaming on Linux viable?