Have you tried installing MTGO using Lutris? Apparently it works fine, but you’ll need some tweaks. The key is to use windowed mode, disable music and card animations:

Runner options: -Use the latest version of lutri-proton if it’s not the default. -Use windowed (virtual desktop) mode and the display resolution of whatever device you are playing on. This was the biggest fix of most problems for me with stuff related to proper rendering of windows. -All else is default from Lutris install

System options: -Uncheck restrict number of cores -Disable desktop effects -All else is default from Lutris install

In-game options: -Disable or silence music and Uncheck play client startup music -Disable card animations(summoning sickness and foil treatment)

I’ve also found that it is always better to close the program using the Stop button on Lutris, there’s a bug where sometimes if you close out of the game via the Close button in the window, it will not properly stop the game, and will prevent starting the game back up again. I also tend to start the game in Lutris instead of via a desktop shortcut.

https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/101262d/psa_mtgo_on_steam_deck/j9bqck9/

Party Rock is one of my karaoke staples lol. Plus, it gets everyone shufflin’, which is always fun.

Thanks! We have Lana Del Rey, Caravan Palace, The Doors, Nirvana, Basement Jaxx and The Beatles in common, but they’re not on the pic below. :(

How did you generate this picture? I’m on Pro and I don’t see a 2023 rainbow option anywhere. I can get the album grid view, but it also shows the number of scrobbles etc and not just plain album covers like yours.

Yes, in theory. In practice, Github has become a hub for such living documents, especially in the Linux/OSS world, so it isn’t strange for people to look there for guides and recommendations.

I’m not opposed to it, but is there demand for it to be on GitHub?

There is! These sort of guides are best suited to be hosted at Github/lab because of their dynamic nature. Any recommendations and “best practice” today might easily become outdated tomorrow in this fast-moving Linux world! Plus you can have contributors too submitting corrections and updates (if you wish to merge 'em), so you’re not left alone doing all the work.

Here’s an example of one such guide I’ve used in the past that’s still being updated:

https://github.com/AdelKS/LinuxGamingGuide

Mini all-in-one PC are expensive, just buy a used/refurbished regular PC. If you want, you can get them in SFF (Small Form Factor), which are still upgradable and a better option than AIOs. Here are some results on eBay for reference.

I’d recommend getting AMD because of their excellent Linux support and overall better gaming performance. Also, you don’t need a dedicated GPU for playing old games, even more so since AMD’s integrated GPU is a lot better than Intel’s, and works better on Linux too.

But it you want to play current games, you’ll need a dedicated GPU, and that $250 budget isn’t going to cut it unfortunately. However, you always have the option of buying a cheap used GPU later on, when you’ve got some cash to spare. But for now, if you focus on older games then the integrated GPU on an AMD will do fine.

when the ntfs3 driver was released I moved my games to an NTFS partition, i don’t remember precisely but some wouldn’t work, and then unlike my ext4 or btrfs partition which were unbreakable, a lot of things became unreadable and undeletable after a forced shutdown

Did you symlink the compatdata folder?

now I’m planning on making a btrfs partition for my games and using winbtrfs

I heard that with winbtrfs, you run into permission issues where every time you boot back into Linux, you’d need to chown any files you’d created in Windows, which would be a PITA. Also, I heard winbtrfs in Windows isn’t as stable as ntfs3 in Linux. Neither solution is unfortunately perfect so you may need to try and see what works best for you.

In general though, I believe regardless of what filesystem you choose, it’s recommend to NOT share everything and instead maintain a copy of the library native to each OS, and just share the “common” and maybe the “download” folder, and let Steam discover the existing files when you proceed to install the game.

The PS1, such an iconic console. Some of things I loved about it:

• The popup lid where you’d insert the black-colored CDs in, it all felt so futuristic at the time.
• The memory cards for saving games, again, had such a futuristic feel to it.
• The graphics. Some of the PS1 games still look good to this day - try playing some PS1 classics like Crash Bandicoot using Duckstation and you’ll see how good it is, no need for any graphics mods.
• The games themselves - so many iconic and great games: NFS Porsche, Crash Bandicoot, Abe’s Oddysee, Tekken 3, Spyro, Wipeout, Metal Gear Solid…

LoL and WoW basically work perfectly on Linux (platinum rated). As for BG3, it works fine for the most part with Proton-GE / Proton Experimental. But since it’s still very new though, expect bugs, but also expect the compatibility to get even better within the next few weeks.

My question then is “Well, do you game?”

Really though, the question shouldn’t be “do you game”, but "do you like tinkering around, fixing things, troubleshooting, and learning new things, in your free time? ", or, “do you like major changes, and having the patience to make a major change in your life work, or would you rather prefer familiarity and stability, a mindset of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’?”

If someone has been running Windows for 35 years and hasn’t checked out Linux already in some capacity, I doubt they’re the kind who likes change, the kind of person who likes to experiment and tinker. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend Linux to them based on that reason, unless they’re also the non-tech-savvy kind who have very simple requirements - like my Mum and Dad, who’ve been running Linux for over a decade now without any issues (because their requirements are very simple, so Linux fits their needs perfectly).

Also, since you’re already on Fedora, you should check out Nobara, which is gaming-optimized Fedora-based distro made by GloriousEggroll, the guy who makes Proton-GE.

They said Proton-GE btw, which is a custom build of Proton by GloriousEggroll, which has a bunch of tweaks to make various games run, or run better.

https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom#overview

Proton-GE (or Lutris with Wine-GE) is what you really should be using, if you intend to game Linux.

Interesting, never heard of ReviOS before. Is there a list of changes they’ve made? I looked thru their site and couldn’t see any such details their docs. I’d like to know what sets it apart from the likes of Tiny11 and Ghost Spectre Superlite etc.

The other comments explained what a launcher is so I won’t go into that.

Instead, I’m here to plug one of my favorite launchers, AIO Launcher, which is a very different kind of launcher compared to the others.

Here’s what it looks like, on my Galaxy Fold 4:

AIO stands for all-in-one, and as you can see from the screenshot above, it has a lot of things, which is handy because I don’t need to open a bunch of different apps to get my news, weather, emails, calendar events, notifications etc - all of it is on my home screen, which makes it very convenient and saves me a lot of time.

AMD for graphics - RX 6600XT. Works flawlessly with the opensource drivers. I don’t use a webcam currently, but in my experience most Logitech webcams work fine these days. Before you buy one, look it up on Amazon and search for “Linux” in the reviews and usually you should find a comment indicating whether or not it works fine.

No Microsoft GamePass. Or none that actually matters, as the only solution is to pay for the higher tier and stream the games - so no game actually runs on the desktop. No, thanks.

Why “no thanks”? I use GamePass with xCloud and it works pretty well on Linux, and it’s a perfectly viable option - unless you’ve got really poor internet, or you’re into competitive FPS games or something that requires ultra-low latency.

NVIDIA support for Linux is far from being on-par with that on Windows, especially the open-source drivers. Is this still true?

Yes. If you’re planning to game on Linux, I’d highly recommend getting an AMD card instead, the AMD open-source drivers are excellent and see frequent improvements - both in terms of features and performance.

Many devices, especially those for gaming, might not have good (or even working) compatibility drivers for Linux. I know my UWQHD monitor works flawlessly on Windows, but requires quite a bit of tinkering on Ubuntu

“Many” -> citation needed. In my experience, depending on the hardware, you may find a better out-of-the-box experience with Linux compared to Windows. For instance, on my ThinkPad Z13, everything worked out-of-the-box on Nobara (Fedora) - including Fn keys, Wi-Fi, accelerated graphics/video drivers… everything. Same with my AMD desktop, didn’t have to install any special drivers or anything. But when I tried to install a fresh copy of Windows on my Z13 (dual-boot), there were almost no drivers - I had to manually install the Wi-Fi drivers first, and then grab the rest of the drivers via Windows Update, which was painful - took like 3 reboots to get everything installed, with long reboot times cause of updates. Painful.

In saying that, I’m surprised that your monitor - of all things - needed tinkering, when they’re usually mostly dumb devices that need no drivers or anything. But then again, it’s Ubuntu so… ¯\(ツ)/¯. FWIW, I have a fairly recent QHD monitor from AOC and it worked just fine on Nobara, no tinkering required.

The advantages: What else am I not thinking about?

5. Performance. Thanks to no bloatware like unnecessary background services/Defender/telemetry/Cortana/Bing etc, Linux in general would perform better, at least in theory. YMMV of course, depending on the game/hardware/distro. The good thing is if you use the right distro, or are willing to go the extra mile with tweaking, you can eke out way more performance, such as by using custom gaming-optimised kernels, fstab mount option tweaks and more. Using a gaming-optimised distro means most of these tweaks are built-in, saving you some time.

6. Arguably, a better gaming-focused experience, when you go for a gaming-focused distro like Nobara, or if you want to go the full mile and make an exclusive gaming box, you could install something like ChimeraOS, which is basically a community Steam OS. Imagine your PC booting straight to Steam, in the fastest possible time, with no distractions like Windows Update, Defender or other nonsense. Basically a console experience, with the power and flexibility of PCs and Linux.

What distro?

Nobara. It’s based on Fedora but optimised for gaming, made by the same guy who makes Proton-GE and Wine-GE (GloriousEggroll), so you know it’s the good stuff. Obviously comes with ProtonGE/Steam/Lutris etc out-of-the-box, custom kernel, patched Discord, codecs, nVidia drivers and more. Definitely give it a go if you’re considering Linux for gaming.

Why would you need a tempered glass protector on the inside screen?

Unlockable bootloaders aren’t a big issue - you can buy devices with unlockable bootloaders in NA, depending on your carrier - the bigger problem these days is the likes of SafteyNet and KNOX, which makes it a pain to live with an unlocked bootloader. What we really need is a change in thinking that an unlocked bootloader doesn’t necessarily mean a device is insecure, and instead of not giving the user a choice and locking them out, they should pass on the responsibility to the user. Eg, a banking app could make a user accept an agreement that the bank will not be held responsible for any hacking related losses etc, instead of straight up prevent the app from running. For this, Google needs to take the lead - they were the ones who introduced SafteyNet and caused this whole mess in the first place. Once Google takes the lead, Samsung and other manufacturers could follow, and the dev ecosystem will follow too. But I’m afraid it’s all a bit too late now, the best one could do, as an individual, is to boycott apps which use the likes of SafteyNet, leave bad reviews, complain to the CEO etc, but all this is unlikely to have any impact, given that we root/ROM users are a small minority.

Highly unlikely. The root/ROM community has always been a small niche - and these days, it’s even smaller that it has ever been. Such a minor audience means nothing for Samsung.

If the corporate policy doesn’t explicitly require you to wear pants (or prohibit shorts), then just go ahead and wear em I reckon, they can’t fire you for wearing shorts.