The more concerning part is the bootloader that keeps being made more and more cumbersome to unlock. Not as easy to install one’s system of choice when you need to beg the device maker to allow access to the part of the system required for that. =/

I mean, slap a proper desktop system and plug some bluetooth devices like a controller or a keyboard and mouse, and you got a makeshift laptop / notebook / whatever-the-current-name-is.

For finding content creators on alternative services, maybe use Grayjay for Android? It aggregates multiple services into a single, mostly concise UI, and when you do a search, Grayjay can search all services at once. Also recently it added a recommended tab, which should help finding new channels on the go.

Whether it’s a rage-click community, a community made for an agenda, or both, I don’t know, but in either cases, I wouldn’t see as surprising for the mods in such a community to be very trigger-happy. Best you can do, I think, is to block communities and individuals with such a profile, and to recommend others to not engaging (remember to explain why if you do it, btw).

I’d have 4 main solutions I can think of, and that can be used together if needed:

• VMs for running Steam and for games that MUST use Steam.
• Emulators, wrappers and source ports for games that allow that, e.g. BSNES for running River Girls Zero, Joiplay / Artemis / EasyRPG / AquariaOSE for games that use compatible engines, etc.
• Having a separated computer you can use 100% offline (requires sideloading games)
• The annoying idea some users give that strays from the original question, but that I think that is valid for once - to get the games from places that openly distribute it DRM free

Mint seems decent all around. No cutting edges nor it’s specialized in any areas, but it’s a jack of all trades, and rather stable.

Short version I wrote for another news piece but that, to my understanding, should apply for this too:

The text is obtuse and the article’s title and cover are pretty clickbaity, so here’s a tl;dr:
In the US, according to the article, it’s possible to lend multiple forms of digital medias and software as you’d do with physical medias. But when requested to extend this understanding to games too, the US Copyright Office denied the change.

Blocking, yeah.

Putting the tone aside, I usually browse the All tab for that reason, and also because subscribing in Lemmy is weirder than it was on Kbin (even if it doesn’t crash the page like Kbin did). Nothing personal against the communities, and sure, it’s an exercise on patience, but after some time, the results become noticeable as my feed gets fine-tuned into what I want to see.

Been using NoPhoneSpam. While it won’t automatically block any numbers, it will cancel incoming calls not matching its filters. Only issue is that, some times, it takes a few seconds for it to recognize not passing calls, but I think it happens when the phone is under a higher load and the system starts lagging a bit, like when downloading bigger files and playing games.

Something I personally do is to load games from their entries in the start menu. And when there’s no installer to set the start menu item, a program like Alacarte, or manually editing the files that handle those entries on Linux, the .desktop files. Alternatively, linking the executable files to either Heroic or Steam can also be viable.

As for how Linux handles executables, if it’s a native Linux program, you usually need to set the read-write-execute permissions to be able to launch them. Tutorials usually suggest to run chmod 777 /path/to/executable, or other variants that set full permissions to all users and user groups, but as a security concern, I would suggest running chmod 700 /path/to/executable, as this would give the full permissions only to the current user (there’s a bit of a formula to come up with this number, btw).

And regarding VMs, they are as fast as the hardware allows minus the host system’s demands, so it will always be slower than baremetal installs. But in some specific cases, it’s still the best option.

Regarding gaming support, Heroic Launcher also help a bunch, since you can easily set up multiple versions of forks of Wine (Valve’s Proton being one), or even to use the system ones.

About the wifi issue, maybe it is some oddly specific hardware that the devs tackled only in Mint 22. And in a bit of a humorous tone, what’s learning without a bit of struggle? 😅

And lastly, besides dual boot, you could also set up a VM with the secondary system(s) you want. Just worth noting hardware-dependent games, e.g. many from the Windows 9x time, will struggle on VMs.

The Royal Spanish Academy’s dictionary, most likely. While I can easily have conversations in Spanish, the similarities with my mother language every once in a while make me get words confused, specially in conjugation (why does B and V need to sound so similar…). I’ve had it for a while, and although it was a bit pricey, it has saved me quite a few times from awkward mix ups. Also bonus points for working completely offline (looking at you, Yomiwa dictionary…), and having no problems being sideloaded into vanilla Android systems.

Also great for finding channels in alternative services, and even more so since Google breaks Youtube’s compatibility to 3rd party tools every once in a while.

Previously, the site had some info on the project, but for some years now, it has been in this current “coming soon” state. Makes me wonder if Nintendo preemptively sued Piko Int./Bleem (sarcasm but not fully). But I also wonder, since this news piece has been released now all of sudden, if the Retro News people know something we don’t and, aligned to that, if perhaps Piko Int managed to sort whatever made them shut the site down in the first place and want to set some hype for a more definitive release.

Safest measure, from what I understand, is to completely replace the system for a vanilla one - that is, without any software from Google or related - and then install alternatives unrelated to the datahoarding companies.

On the joke, define “sane”. 😬

On a serious note, I think there are valid reasons to have several VMs other than “I was bored”. In my case, for example, I have a total of 7 VMs, where 2 are miscellaneous systems to test things out, 2 are for stuff that I can’t normally run on Linux, 2 are offline VMs for language dictionaries, and 1 is a BlissOS VM with Google programs in case I can’t/don’t want to use my phone.

I don’t make many calls, but I have observed the custom ROM I use, ArrowOS, has native screen and audio recording, so perhaps it also has call recording functions, and even if not, I imagine the screen/audio recording could be used for that purpose too.

VPN maybe?

Samsung’s been around for a while, some of their devices even have locks on hardware features if the bootloader is unlocked, e.g. the camera in those fold phones, so I ask, what devices exactly?