Parlez-vous f*ck you.

But can I get it for $400? Because if not, then why are we talking about the Steam Deck.

I only have anecdotal evidence here, but I know two people who have switched their main gaming computers and laptops to linux recently, and in both cases the Steam Deck played a big part.

I’ve tried convincing people to move over, but in these cases, it wasn’t until they owned the steamdeck for a while and wanted to do something like adding emulators or games from another source that they dropped into desktop mode on the SD and had that experience.

I need a better analogy, but right now I think the Steam Deck is an outstanding Trojan Horse for linux adoption. Many people won’t bother going out of their way to use it as a computer, just a console, but it’s there if they do.

The Steam machines were a similar idea but linux wasn’t useful for gaming until DXVK, several years after the Steam machines. I was dual booting when they came out simply because running games on Linux at that time was a nightmare

Yes, if the issue was a moral one. This issue, however, is a legal one.

I mean sure, but I’m not always connected and my cell plan has a limit.

I never understood these things until I went back to university. Now I totally understand having my life on my laptop and just being able to sit down and plug in for a gaming experience.

I don’t like using my desktop that much anymore because I spend so much time on my laptop, and syncing files over nextcloud is meh.

It sucks if well meaning people are caught up in this, but it also sucks if you’re living in the aggressor state of an ongoing war.

I left windows years ago. I only need it for a couple really restrictive apps, so I dual boot, but I only boot in every few months.

I stopped playing games that use aggressive anticheat as well. 99% of the games I was playing work great, all I lost really was Fortnite and destiny 2, which is worth my sanity dealing with Windows nonsense.

I e been telling people who switch to; think of it like moving house. When you move to a new house, the bathroom isn’t in the same place and the kitchen is different, it’s up to you whether the new location is better or not. If you expect your new house to have all the same rooms in all the same places as your old house you’ll always be disappointed the whole time. Linux is a different house, pick a house that suits your needs and you’ll be happy.

Imo, your biggest enemy here is going to be battery life. I bought a sale-priced Lenovo t14s and I always keep a battery back in my bag just in case.

With a low power profile, having Eclipse open, a web browser to view slides/ documents and Logseq for notes my battery lasts most of the day but if I forget to charge it, it’s a pain to use pen and paper for notes.

An older laptop will have a degraded battery, and you really want maximum lifetime with multiple classes in a day.

I don’t think it would matter that much since a desktop at 3k is very similar on modern hardware to a desktop at 1080.

But I’d be interested in someone who had the hardware to test this. Right now I use my laptop for school work, and in trying to squeeze every ounce of battery life I was running my display at 45hz instead of 60hz. I had a free day during the summer so I charged it up, ran a YouTube video on repeat and timed the battery life, then changed the display frequency and it was like a 2 minute difference. I also tried it while running a second 1080p monitor through hdmi and the difference was something like 10 minutes. Like, so small a difference or didn’t matter.

I don’t have the data sheet anymore so these numbers are anecdotal etc etc YMMV. The biggest change for me was buying a 65w PD battery bank and keeping that charged in my bag.

If people want to use Brave, or Windows, or install screen doors on their submarines who am I to complain?

The fact is for a lot of people, Brave offers a superior out of box experience compared to firefox or almost any other browser. In terms of ad blocking, speed and ease of use, it’s pretty much second to none. The fact that you install it and go is really appealing and how easy they make the slider to adjust the aggressiveness of the script blocking is great ui that my dad mother could use.

Yes, the company isn’t very good, it’s headed by a guy with a questionable history and has a poor track record when it comes to monetization strategy. I stopped using Brave this year, but for ages it was my goto because I could just install it and have an improved web experience.