For personal things, computer, phones, etc. Big corpos cover this by a EULA. EULAs also covers forums controlled by the companies. For public places like websites, you can control search engines by using a robot.txt file.

I don’t tend to rely as much on Valve’s compatibility rating as I do ProtonDB’s. Even though it takes extra steps.

As Mr. Miyagi would say:

“Walk On Road, Hmmm? Walk Left Side, Safe. Walk Right Side, Safe. Walk Middle, Sooner Or Later… Get Squish Just Like Grape!”

Or, how about Yoda:

"Do or do not. There is no try”

What I’m saying either Linux rules the roost or Windows does. The “roost” in this example is your hard drive.

Probably the safest, most cost effective approach is to use WSL.

Is Talos Principle 2 any good? I got stuck on the latter puzzles in the Road To Gehenna expansion and didn’t want to progress in case TP2 needs knowledge of this expansion.

After watching Nerd Cubed play Coin Pusher Casino, I also got hooked. Bit of a guilty pleasure, that. But, three things to recommend it, though:

1. Realistic physics throughout make it quite a technically advanced game despite it probably all it took was a toggle in Unity.
2. There’s a native Linux port.
3. Other than the initial outlay for the game the only resource you’ll expend is your precious time alive. So, there’s no freemium model where you pay to advance. And no payment for additional unlockable content.

You play tables to get credits, to get perks that make it more pleasurable (not to mention possible) to play tables, to … The very essence of an RPG grind. And a bit of a skinner box.

I was on Mint over 10 years ago and noped out of it when an auto update borked my system. I can’t remember what it was, and maybe if it happened to me today, I could work my way through it. But, as it stood at the time, I remember feeling rolling was the way to go.

This is why I moved to Linux Mint. Then, when I got tired of having to reinstall the entire OS every time there’s a new version I moved again. Spare a thought for the poor saps who feel stuck with an OS from a single vendor. And sometimes even paying for the privilege. That being said fund open source. Freedom isn’t free.

Slightly OT but hasn’t Fedora gone all in on Wayland? Maybe it’s an attempt drive critical mass of adoption and concentrate developers’ minds to closing the gap between now and fully production ready. As such, maybe moving to Fedora will net you the best support and smoothest Wayland implantation.

I am using GraphineOS right now. Here’s my answers:

1. Accounts are local. They don’t necessarily have an online component. Aurora store works fine. The only major issue is some apps from the play store will break if you don’t have Google services installed. The level of breakage really depends how the app handles this lack. Sometime you may not have a feature and other times it will just not run. You can install and run Google services but I’m unconvinced that your privacy will be protected just by the sandbox. A possible solution is to run all that stuff in it’s own profile. You can’t run both simultaneously, though.
2. For synchronization, I use Syncthing. It’s not to the cloud but it’ll get files and photos off your device. As for notes Turtl and I believe Obsidian sync to their own servers. Mega.nz runs on GraphineOS also. I don’t know if it syncs, though
3. Notes - no. I use Turtl. But I’ve heard good things about Obsidian. Drive - don’t know wouldn’t think so. Photos - yes. Messages - yes. For the last two, you’d have to find a solution if you want to back them up.

For backup, GraphineOS will also backup to USB drive.

Like all things, it a trade off. You trade security for convenience.

But one very nice surprise is I now have so much better battery life. I’m getting nearly 3 days off a charge!

I’m reminded what GabeN said: Piracy is an issue of service, not price.

I agree with him up to a point. As price gouging is a feature of modern day streaming.

One reason Steam became the defacto standard is because the insane Steam sales that Valve put on in the early days.

They kept their monopoly in the face of other stores giving away games mostly due to service, though.

While I’m no fan of the crippleware, I don’t think this product from them would effect your average gamer. It looks to be focused on beta testers and reviewers.

But, knowing the human’s facility for laziness, odds on it will filter into general release.

Was it an LTS release? 2016 is a long way to go without a major update for Ubuntu.

Maybe I’m just spoilt as I have a rolling distro.

In the interest of balance. I’m rocking a Pixel 7 Pro with GraphineOS and, it’s been fine, so far. It does get light use, though.

Hades. Was grinding on that sucker for weeks. Finally got to the start of the final battle the last of my life. Got scared haven’t picked it up for fear of going down, way down. I’m not very good at this game. I keep hearing people completing a full run within 30 tries. For me, it’s like 30,000. I know this run was just a lucky fluke as the runs before it I kept dying on the threshold to the exit if Tartarus.