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thingsiplay

@thingsiplay@kbin.social

What is the point of Flatpak, AppImage, Snap, etc?

I don’t understand what problem they are meant to solve. If you have a FOSS piece of software, you can install it via the package manager. Or the store, which is just a frontend for the package manager. I see that they are distribution-independent, but the distro maintainers likely already know what’s compatible and what...

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar
  • package it once, instead many times by many different maintainers
  • solves the dependency hell
  • makes it easier to run multiple versions of same program (or driver) or install a program without it's complete desktop environment
  • sandboxed, better control of permissions (at least with Flatpak) and makes easier to backup the whole program version and state
  • same package manager across distributions (at least with Flatpak)
  • useful on LTS distributions which does not get new packages or programs or even beta software, other than security fixes (think of Debian)
  • useful for write only distributions such as SteamOS
  • does not need sudo to install new programs (at least with Flatpak and AppImages)

For simple applications this is probably not that wild. But the more complex programs we talk about, the more helpful are these formats. Programs like OBS or Firefox in example is a lot of trouble to compile quickly. And imagine more of these programs. Package maintainer of your distro could use the time in a better way. Those who want to package it themselves (probably Arch) could still do, but most who want to provide the newest Firefox could just use Flatpak, coming directly from the developer day 0.

One also does not need to wait until its packaged by your distro maintainer and it comes directly from the developer instead (maybe). The original developers often do not support all distros and would like to have a known state and version of the program that they can rely on, like a Flatpak.

That being said, I don't use Flatpak. But I used it in the past and it was helpful in some cases. Even on an Arch based distribution. Currently I use an AppImage for a program that is not in the official Arch repos. The AUR has it, but the -bin is outdated and the -git version building from source takes too long and power. Even on my new modern machine it would take at least an hour for every new version. Or I just download the Applmage once (88 MB) and use the self updating system of it (which downloads newest version automatically and renames it to current executable filename). I'm talking about RPCS3 emulator.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

I have some questions: How fast are read and write operations and random access? What are the expected prices, once it hit mass production for the average consumer? And how long is expected to take until this happens?

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

Makes sense. I hope Nintendo uses these as game cartridges in the future. :D

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

Matrix is decentralized, as the servers are independent from each other. They choose to cooperate, so that people can talk to each other. But the servers are run by different people or organizations and act independently. Or do I get it wrong? If so, can you explain why Matrix is not decentralized?

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

Interesting interview worthwhile reading. Thanks for the link.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

It's a Lose-Lose situation. Reddit has a fetish for that...

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

Reddit might cut off Google and force users to log in to Reddit itself to read anything, if it can’t reach deals with generative AI companies to pay for its data.

On the one hand I really hope this happens. On the other hand, it would be devastating to the communities. But this shows how Reddit has the last say and can hold the content hostage on their platform. People need to stop using Reddit and switch to open and free alternatives, that is not controlled by a single entity / company. The problem is, there is lot of good legacy content and solutions that would be not available for most people searching the web.

But for the search engines who do not respect robot files, would still be able to index. Right? Ironically an AI could also write summaries...

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

Google: Please let us use data without the consent of the authors and the license.

Linux way way slower than Windows?

So I jumped ship from Windows to Kubuntu last night, and It’s mostly been pretty good. However my general performance of the computer has been abysmal. Like it takes upwards of 5 seconds to open anything. All of my hardware seems to be running at max speeds, so I have no idea why it would be so sluggish? It’s as if I’m...

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

From what I have read it's only the initial phase when running the Snap for the first time. The package is setting up the environment and does some things only once. And the first iteration of the Snap concept was very slow, which is improved a lot. Didn't use Ubuntu in years, so cannot test it myself at the moment.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

But only the first time you open it, right?

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

I like Romhacks (in other words modding of old games) that bring Halloween themed specials to known games. I haven't looked into it this season yet, but here is an example The Quest for the Candies (Super Mario World).

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

A platform driven by customers, I would say this has direct impact for Amazon too, if it impacts the customer.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

Fake reviews with false information or recommendation could lead to a lot of wasted money and disappointed people. Even refunding in mass. And probably avoiding to buy from Amazon. Well it's a bit dramatic, but I don't see a positive effect for Amazon with many fake reviews in place. I'm sure Amazon want them removed, but it is hard to do this automatically for millions of products and reviews. It's hard to find out automatically which one is real and which one is false. They don't want delete legit reviews either.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

But Java and WASM doesn't solve the compatibility issue on ARM. Games and other programs for x86 are still something people want to execute on ARM machines. That's why compatibility layers and emulators are build for. And having a dedicated CPU would help with that. And if you do not use the x86 "extension", then you won't pay for power consumption. And if you aren't interested into x86, then you simply don't buy a dual architecture motherboard.

I'm not looking this from the perspective of laptops or handhelds BTW, but from the perspective of desktop PC. Overall I think its not practical to have them both on a single motherboard. But you know, the industry is full of non practical ideas. So it's not unimaginable this could be reality someday. Maybe just for a small audience.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

My hope, no... dream, is that we get both ARM and x86 compatible chips on the same motherboard one day. Off course the operating system needs to support dual architectures. Then they could run ARM binaries directly without any major compatibility or performance hit, without the need for recompilation.

A man can only hope. Is this something that could happen? Technically it should be possible, but realistically, probably not.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

Having compatibility to legacy software is a pretty upside. Either you use an application that runs power efficient, maybe the entire operating system uses the power efficient ARM at default and then for compatibility or for faster calculation (games?) the x86 cores could be used. Intel already does two different kind of cores, performance and efficiency cores. And smartphones have something similar too. I imagine this would be expensive and it is not for everyone. And who knows what other cutbacks and drawbacks it would require.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

I don't know who said this, but my bet would be Intel. Without AMD, we would probably still stuck on 4 cores.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

while our team has worked tirelessly to deliver the best experience possible, we have not achieved the benchmark we targeted.

In light of this, we still think for the long-term of the project, releasing now is the best way forward.

At least they admit the game is not finished yet. But sad another company pushes an unfinished game.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

Don't underestimate the dumbness of people.

Space sim Squadron 42 is "feature-complete" and gunning for Starfield's lunch with massive new video (www.rockpapershotgun.com)

Squadron 42 is the single player campaign of Star Citizen, that is supposed to launch as a separate game. It's basically a small portion of Star Citizen, but with a story and ending. I'm still not confident; waited too long for that.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

But there is a big difference to all those games: Star Citizen (and therefore Squadron 42) is backed and payed by customers already.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

It's even worse if you look further down on the other unofficial figures list at Marvel's Avengers. It nearly costed as much as Red Dead Redemption 2 (also unofficial numbers). My assumption is, that the license is in these costs included and why it balooned it.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

I know about Heroic, but I refuse to support a company that is so much against Linux. They purchased Rocket League and took away the perfectly functioning Linux version back then (and made it unplayable for a while for me). Why would I pay Epic Games money, if they don't support Linux, while Valve actively pays developers to program and help the Linux world of sides?

I'm not interested into Heroic Game Launcher. It does not address the problems I have with Epic and does not support everything Steam has, when I purchase it on Epic Games.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

In the past I have used Lutris for itch.io and Humble Bundle (and GOG), plus the additional games provided through Lutris scripts itself. So I would use Lutris over Heroic, as it supports itch.io and Humble and for the familiarity I already have with the software.

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