It’s not. Imagine Immich required library X to be at Y version, but another service on the server requires it to be at Z version. That will be a PitA to maintain, not to mention that getting a service to run at all can be difficult due to a multitude of reasons in which your system is different from the one where it was developed so it might just not work because it makes certain assumptions about where certain stuff will be or what APIs are available.

Docker eliminates all of those issues because it’s a reproducible environment, so if it runs on one system it runs on another. There’s a lot of value in that, and I’m not sure which resource you think is being wasted, but docker is almost seamless without not much overhead, where you won’t feel it even on a raspberry pi zero.

There are two ends here, as a user and as a developer. As a user Docker images just work, so you solve almost every problem you’re having which would be your users having them and giving up on using your software.

Then as a developer docker can get complicated, because you need to build a “system” from scratch to run your program. If you’re using an unstable 3d party package or missing packages it means that those problems would be happening in the deploy servers instead of your local machines, and each server would have its own set of problems due to which packages they didn’t have or had the wrong version, and in fixing that for your service you might be breaking other service already running there.

• Factorio, I know you said you couldn’t get into it, but try peaceful mode, it’s a great game even without enemies
• RimWorld, it’s an excellent colony management game
• Dwarf Fortress, this is the big boss, it’s really hard to start, but it’s the most complex simulation game out there. If you can get into it, it’s infinite hours of fun.

It sure does, just put them in an external library and scan for them, that’s what I do and it works flawlessly

Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

Depends on what you play. As a general rule I would say that unless you like competitive multiplayer games you’re probably going to be fine. That being said the vast majority of games don’t support Linux natively so you need to use workarounds. Steam has a workaround built-in, so if most of your gaming is through Steam it should be an almost seamless transition (all you need to do is enable a checkbook in the settings). But like I said, it depends on what you play, I recommend you check out https://www.protondb.com/ and look for the games you play to see how they run on Linux.

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

Same answer as before, if the game runs okay then modding it would also work okay, but if not it might worsen an already bad situation. Also be very careful here, because when you run Windows games on Steam they’re sort of sandboxed, i.e. they’re running isolated from other stuff, so installing mods is not as straightforward as it would be on windows where binaries are installed globally. It’s not a big deal, but just the other day someone was complaining that they installed a launcher needed for a game and the game wasn’t finding it and this was the reason.

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

As a general rune there’s a workaround, it’s called WINE (which is an acronym for WINE Is Not an Emulator) which is an “emulator” for Windows (except it’s not really an Emulator as the name implies). Then there are some apps built on top of that like Proton (which is what Steam has embebed) that include other libraries and fixes to help. It’s not perfect, but unless the program is actively trying to detect it or uses very obscure features on Windows it should work.

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

Yes, you can use WINE like mentioned above to run Windows binaries that use .NET, but also .NET core is available for Linux.

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?

Oh boy, this is the big one, this is the Major difference for m Windows to Linux. Linux has a thing called a package manager, ideally everything you install gets installed via that package manager. This means that everything gets updated together. And here’s the thing, we’re not talking OS only stuff, new version of the kernel (Linux)? New version of the drivers? New version of Firefox? New version of Spotify? All gets updated together when you update your system. This is crucial to the way Linux works, since it allows Linux to have only one copy of each library. For example, if you have 5 different programs that use the same library, in Windows you’ll have 5 copies of that same library, because each program needs their own in the specific version, but in Linux since they will all update together it’s easier to have just one library that gets updated together with the programs. This makes maintaining Linux a piece of pie in comparison, just one command or one click of a button and you’re all up to date with everything you have installed.

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

As a general rule open source programs are more secure than their counterparts. Closed source programs always remind me of Burns going through several security measures, that sort of thing is imposible in open source because if everyone can see all of the security measures, so someone would notice the gaping hole in the back, whereas in closed source only attackers might have found it. Like cyber security experts say: Security by obscurity is not security. As for Antivirus you don’t need to worry, Linux is inherently more secure than Windows, and also has a small enough user base (most of whom are security experts) so the number of virus written for Linux is extremely small. Also because you should install stuff through a package manager it’s very difficult to get someone to download a bad binary since there’s lots of security in the package manager to prevent this sort of thing. In short almost every antivirus program for Linux checks your computer for Windows viruses to avoid being used to store or transmit viruses to Windows computers, so it’s completely pointless in your home machine (it’s used for example in email servers).

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?

Yes… But actually no. It depends, if you have a relatively modern AMD GPU (as in last 10 years) the answer is a resounding YES, AMD currently has wonderful Linux support and their cards work excellently with drivers being fully open source and integrated into the Linux Kernel. For Nvidia the story is unfortunately not as nice. Essentially there are 2 drivers available, nouveau (open source driver written by the community and purposefully hampered by Nvidia) and nvidia (closed source driver written by Nvidia that has gaping incompatibilities with Linux). Since you game your only option is nvidia, while nouveau is great for several reasons it can’t match the performance of the nvidia driver. For 99% of stuff the nvidia driver should work fine, but I haven’t had good luck with getting Wayland to run on it, which means you’re probably stuck in X11 (I know this doesn’t mean much to you, but in short it means that you’re somewhat limited in your choice for graphical interface and have to use stuff that people are trying to deprecate but can’t because of Nvidia)

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

Technically yes, so can Windows by that matter. But realistically no, unless you’re writing your own kernel drivers you won’t be in any position to cause hardware damage.

And also, what distro might be best for me?

I would probably go with Mint, it’s beginner friendly and I’ve been recommending it for decades. One thing to bear in mind is that in your knowledge level the distro you choose won’t make that big of a difference, try to pick something beginner friendly and you should be fine, no need to overthink this.

PS: some extra notes that you didn’t asked but I think are good to know:

• Any Linux can look like any other, it’s just a matter of installing the right packages
• You should keep your / and /home in separate partitions, this makes it possible for you to reinstall (or even change distros entirely) without losing your files and configuration. This is due to how Linux manages partitions, which in short is not like on Windows where you have a C and D drives but instead any folder can be a different partition or disk.
• You can dual boot, i.e. have 2 OS and choose which one to use every time you turn on your computer.
• You should probably install Linux on a virtual machine first to check it out safely. And do a backup before installing it on your computer just in case you make a mistake.

Huh? Interesting, guess I’m out of the loop, since the install guide doesn’t mention it I didn’t even realize this got added back to the iso. When was that? I should check this out, I really missed the installer all these years, I understand why they did removed it originally, but if you know what you’re doing it’s just tedious work.

Arch is much more difficult to install now than it used to be as well. I remember when Arch had an installer.

I tried Tandoor and Mealie. Currently I use Mealie because Tandoor crapped it’s pants on me and I lost everything I had there, Mealie is simpler and allows export/import to JSON or similar so I can keep a backup that can be converted into any other format I want to.

That being said I don’t use the list feature, and we use Bring at home, so KitchenOwl mentioned here also seems like a good idea for lists and I might check it out.

The only reason to switch distros is because you’re unhappy with some aspect of your current distro (doesn’t sound like it) or you want to try something on a different distro (also doesn’t sound like it). So in short no, you shouldn’t switch unless you have a reason for it.

I agree with most of what you said, I don’t think the price is as high as people make it out to be, but:

So if it will be the cheapest console of its generation

Cheapest version of the Steam Deck is still cheaper for very comparable hardware, and while generations don’t align I think the Deck is closer to the Switch 2 than to the switch 1, and a Deck 2 would be miles ahead of a switch 2.

Not always, they only started to offer Linux support after Steam, and even then it’s just a very small part of their catalog and none of their own games/products, so I think it’s fair to say they don’t offer Linux support but sell some products that do.

Home: Arch, because I’m a lazy ass who likes the AUR.

Work: Ubuntu, because the laptop they gave me came with it

Servers: I don’t have a particular distro I use for all my servers, it depends on what’s my frame of mind when setting the server up. But I’m considering learning NixOS for this use case.

It is still being released but they had the designer/writer from the 1st one leading the writing team, but fired him due to “creative differences” so don’t expect anything similar.

This one gets me as well, Paradox had a great history of maintaining and upgrading the base game with money made from DLCs, some of which are content/feature related and others are way cheaper and are cosmetics, all of that while providing mod support. And that model would have been awesome in a sims like game.

Then why are you getting angry while checking this sub and this post? Seems like you’re also getting worked up over it.

I’m sorry you’re in a bad situation, I get it, I’m also not in a situation where I could even buy the switch 2 even if I wanted to. But this is a big deal, the USA have fucked themselves up in the ass so hard that people outside of it might get hit with it. The price of the switch 2 is just one of the tips of this iceberg, the price of the PS5 is another, but in a short while the same thing will start to happen to lots of electronics, including hospital ones, which could increase the price for everyone depending on how this plays out.

Unfortunately for the rest of us the US is a BIG extremely consumer market, and if they get taken off the picture the profit margin decreases and prices need to hike to keep up.

I have also recently been playing Mini Motorways and found it more fun than Mini Metro (too bad it’s not available on Android, since mini metro is one of my favorite phone games)

CK can be daunting, I recommend you choose which time period you like best and go with that game, e.g. if you like sci-fi go with Stellaris, if you like WWII go with Hearts of Iron 4, etc. liking the time period where the game is set can make a huge difference in you willingness to learn it. For example if you don’t like medieval it might be daunting to track lineages and hereditary traits and how the ownership of land works (I once lost an entire kingdom because of it on CK2), but if you like WWII maybe seeing historical facts reflected on mechanics or learning military tactics is more interesting to you. All of those games are very different from one another, but they’re also very alike, starting with one that’s just the right one can help you pass the steep learning curve.

Depends, here in Europe they use GoCardless, which has a free tier. As long as you’re okay with syncing your accounts only once a day, or once every couple of days you should be good. Not sure how it is in other countries though.

Whoosh?

You still need a GPU, otherwise your CPU is wasting precious operations drawing the screen instead of simulating dwarves.