"ProtonDB tracks compatibility, and counts 7000+ games that are verified to work as well or almost as well as on Windows" - I always laugh when a media outlet uses ProtonDB as an example as the reality is something different. I have a ~1500 games big Steam Library and I'm also a Linux User for 20+ years - yes, I do use Windows only for gaming and on my work pc.
When I fire up my linux workstation or steam deck and browse my library, there are countless games, marked as "platinum" in ProtonDB, but do not work OOTB. Sometimes it's a later Proton version that broke the compatibility, sometimes you still need to tinker in the settings in addition to choose the correct proton version. All in all, I've spent quite some time getting games to run I just wanted to play a single afternoon as nostaliga hitted hard.
As long as issues like this are not resolved, I don't believe in Steam Machines as alternatives for consoles in the living room space.
And yes, I'm still considering a steam machine for my living room, even though I will need to support my wife and kids in getting games to run on the TV.
> I always laugh when a media outlet uses ProtonDB as an example
I'm not a media outlet! Just some dope who noticed a thing and wanted to get the thought that wouldn't leave out into the world so I could use my brain for other things.
> as the reality is something different
That's fair. My anecdotal experience (as outlined in another comment) is that platinum has generally just worked for me. That's probably because I'm on Steam Deck rather than a "generic" Linux install (I also use Windows for my desktop gaming).
That said, do you think a parenthetical note is necessary for accuracy? I figured it might be getting too into the weeds since the article is primarily about the platform/ecosystem/hardware comparison between Apple and Valve...
gamer!==gamer. These are your own choices. For me Assetto Corsa + other racing games + CS2 work perfectly. And with sway/i3, unlike in Windows, I can throw the game around in whichever way I wish. No laggy alt-tab or random crashes that my Windows user friends often have.
Simracing is the only reason my gaming rig runs windows. I never even thought my hardware would work on linux (especially my motion hardware). And stuff like crewchief and race telemetry. How do you deal with all that on linux?
To be honest, I've never had any issues with 'Platinum' games on Proton. But I somewhat agree, starting with 'Gold' and below, it was a hit-or-miss situation.
ProtonDB is a great resource for tweaks like you suggested and I find proton works OOTB quite often. But I agree, they seem to be operating under an alternate definition of what "platinum" means which is setting everyone's expectations to high.
I'm happy to edit to correct, but my own experience on Steam Deck has been that anything that's platinum (or native, but that goes without saying) basically just works, minor UI issues and the like notwithstanding. Considering that even Windows versions can have those kinds of issues depending on drivers and hardware, I figured it was a fair comparison.
As chiii already pointed out, you are looking at the wrong end of the spectrum.
Decision in Enterprise organizations are not done by the end user and non of your options, not even Google Docs, offers the equality of features.
M365 is far more than just Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams (apart from some apps depending on the M365 tier you are in like Access, Project, Visio etc.), you buy a whole workspace. Users can seamlessly share and work together on documents, not only in their organization but also with others. It's easy to process information from one app to the other etc.
Yes, Google Docs might be the closest thing when it comes to features (but no match), however, looking at local restrictions and laws, Microsoft is one of the few companies that can host you M365 solution in an environment that, for example, matches european laws.
And that is the big problem, there are no alternatives for companies that are already on M365 and using the features of it.
"Seamless" may be irrationally exuberant but it's better than the others _at scale_.
LibreOffice, etc. may see similar from the UI end but if you're scaling across multiple sites/archetypes/employee models/regulatory environments, -and- want access to a wide and deep pool of administrative labor, M365 is seamless by comparison.
"If they’re really so confident on the LLM’s effectiveness, why not just keep it voluntary, why force it on people?"
To answer this question: To justify the investment.
No, for real, LLM solutions costs a shitload of money, and every investment needs to be justified on a management level. That's the reason they are enforcing it.
My bigger problem is that there are a whole lot of "developers" who do not read the generated code properly, why do you end up in review sessions where the developer does not know what is happening and why the code acts in a particular way. And we have not yet discussed clean code principles throughout the whole solution...
That's what you call a DOM Parser - the problem with them is, as they serialize all the elements into objects, bigger XML files tend to eat up all of your RAM. And this is where SAX2 parsers come into play where you define tree based callbacks to process the data.
Depending on the XML structure and the servers RAM - it can already happen while you approach 80-100 MB file sizes. And to be fair, in the Enterprise context, you are quite often not in a position to decide how big the export of another system is. But yes, back in 2010 we built preprocessing systems that checked XMLs and split them up in smaller chunks if they exceeded a certain size.
Did you start it with two spaces? That's how HN does code blocks. Two spaces added before each line. The other lines look fine because they were already indented, add two spaces before all of them and it'll look fine.
As someone who uses macOS for 11 years as the daily driver for his work, I can just say that it would be a bloodbath.
Not only is the driver support abysmal, kext are gone, and the actual quality of macOS has declined significantly over the years.
10 years ago, there was the rule of thumb to wait one update before you do the “big” OS upgrade, now it's better to wait for 3–4 updates as Sanoma crashes on our working machines (1500 people company) frequently.
Speaking of crashes, my m1 MacBook Pro 13, still running Ventura, has crashed more than ANY OTHER mac before. And I'm talking about crashes like, you close the lid, drive to the airport, take a seat, open the lid and just see that macOS starts completely fresh and presents you with a system crash message.
And this is the first Mac where I don't use any kext, strange tools, and completely abandoned software development…
The only thing that let me keep the m1 is the battery life...
Try creating a new user profile (keeping the old untouched). I had the same problems on my M1 MBA and assumed complex hardware or OS issues. But all problems are gone on the new profile (still existent on the old one when used). Strange.
On the topic of Hackintoshes: They are becoming more and more obsolet with Apples focus on Apple Silicon, Neural Engines and so on. Not spec or price wise, but regarding feature parity and Apples OS support for the Intel architecture. Lots of old „Hackintoshers“ abandoning the hobby.
It's interesting as my M2 machines of which I have two, have never crashed on me once. However, I'm very choosy about the software I run on them, and the said software doesn't do weird bollocks like trying to extend builtin frameworks with plugins. I mean, those are not weird bollocks per se, but Apple seems to be actively abandoning any and all effort it has done to make their own stuff (for example, Mail) extensible. So be it. One day I'll surely flip them a bird as I install Linux on my remaining mac.
Wonder if your M1 might have a hardware defect lurking, though — the vast majority of kernel panics on real macs come from hardware malfunctioning.
I have a different perception; Apple Vision Pro is not the MVP for AR but just the next iteration of these devices.
The original MVP for AR was Microsofts HoloLens and especially HoloLens 2. The later one has many of the AVP features already in place (hand and eye tracking, spatial awareness etc.) and has proven on a professional level to be a useful tool.
When I fire up my linux workstation or steam deck and browse my library, there are countless games, marked as "platinum" in ProtonDB, but do not work OOTB. Sometimes it's a later Proton version that broke the compatibility, sometimes you still need to tinker in the settings in addition to choose the correct proton version. All in all, I've spent quite some time getting games to run I just wanted to play a single afternoon as nostaliga hitted hard.
As long as issues like this are not resolved, I don't believe in Steam Machines as alternatives for consoles in the living room space.
And yes, I'm still considering a steam machine for my living room, even though I will need to support my wife and kids in getting games to run on the TV.