The Steam client is 32-bit, the majority of games on Steam are 32-bit, and very popular titles like Left 4 Dead 2 are 32-bit.
The last time a distro tried to do this Ubuntu caved and continued supporting it with an extra repo. Fedora has no chance of winning that argument.
The good news is the incident you're talking about was a change proposal proposed by a single person and never even voted on. It did not survive the comment stage.
"The next generation of Linux gaming - Bazzite makes gaming and everyday use smoother and simpler across desktop PCs, handhelds, tablets, and home theater PCs."
That could apply to everything from some sort of software service, to a game installer, to a streaming service, to an App Store for cross-platform games. You have to take into account the chaos that is the Internet and the promotional material shit storm of marketing speak. A sentence extremely close to this could easily be found on the top of the Razer Synapse promotional page. Why not lead with a simple description that uniquely describes what THIS is? I work in both development and psychology, and it’s frustrating when tech people make fun of others for not understanding their jargon, but those same people get extremely annoyed when they don’t understand anything outside their area because other fields use unnecessarily indirect and convoluted language. Why don’t we just help each other out and try not to create unnecessary cognitive load, just to understand what something is? It is actually possible without dumping down, it’s just a little framing that is needed.
If you're trying to argue that this snippet should answer the question of "what is Bazzite"... have you looked at marketing-speke websites lately? Think of how many different categories of service / product / platform / technology call themselves "the operating system for the next generation of XYZ".
+1 to jtrn's complaint here; when Bazzite's homepage doesn't own up and immediately say "Bazzite is a Linux distribution", it's being unnecessarily unclear, and it loses my trust.
It is true that it amounts to the same number of words, so why would it look more like a wall of text when the text is narrower? Perhaps it has to do with the number of lines?
I believe you are. Or we are. The quoted line tells me nothing. Is it a new game engine? Or something like winetricks to tune wine, maybe more streamlined? Or is it a some kind of app store? App launcher?
It is the site made like a presentation, in my experience they are all suck and like a real presentation are impossible to comprehend without accompanying speech.
It does say very clearly on top of the page that it is an "operating system", what is so unclear about it?
If you want to know more, just scroll down and read more detailed explanation
Not sure in what way some people expect to be fed the information. If you did not understand what it is from the first couple of sentences then maybe it is not for you.
They JUST changed it (probably reading the HN feedback). Now the title on tip reads "The operating system for the next generation of gamers" while just yesterday it was simply "The next generation of Linux gaming".
The change is for the better, but I would still like to have words like "Linux" and "distro/distribution/pack" be used.
I agree with the author. Is that an OS image you put on a machine to make it a game box? Or is it a piece of software you put on your existing Linux? Or a framework for game developers? Not clear.
Then let us understand will it be a separate PC (or mini computer) solely for gaming, or is it still some familiar OS that can be used for other purposes too? Arch? Debian?
Now the title on tip reads "The operating system for the next generation of gamers" while just yesterday it was simply "The next generation of Linux gaming".
The change is for the better, but I would still like to have words like "Linux" and "distro/distribution/pack" be seen somewhere soon after the visitor loads the page.
Gaming on Linux: The Final Frontier.
These are the voyages of the Linux distribution, Bazzite.
Its continuing mission, to support all computer games.
To seek out new gamers and new platforms.
To boldly go where no distro has gone before!
The current version is clearly better than the old one, that's for sure.
Since you are receptive to feedback, I will give my marketer/PR-professional's opinion that hopefully you put in use.
I recommend checking out the "Don't make me think twice. A common sense approach to web usability" book by Steve Krug. It's an old book, but most of the advice is common sense and still applies. I especially want to point out the "Chapter 7. The Big Bang Theory of Web Design".
The basic idea is that:
1. the information you want to tell visitors has priority. You should make a list of all (everything, not only the things that are currently visible) the things you would want to communicate to visitors and rate it ("Linux" before "gaming" before "smoother, simpler" before "next generation", etc).
2. The home page is the most important page. The visible first-view of the home page is the most real estate.
3. The home page and first-view content should be organized according to the priority list. The longer the visitor stays on the page, the more of the more important stuff he should see. The progression should be logical; the 10th item should not come before item-5. All the important things should be read in 5s and the rest of the important things should optimally be read without scrolling at all.
The organization of your website is currently extremely suboptimal. The first view of the main page has hardly any information, even on 1440p screen. The problem lies in both:
1. amount of total information. So much wasted space, instead of engaging/revealing text and compelling/informative images.
2. the importance/uselessness of such information. E.g. "for the next generation of" - what does it even mean? What purpose does it serve? Why is it there? Couldn't valuable space be used better? For sure it can.
You don't need to scroll at all in order to see what the page is about and what are the distros' USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
- "Linux Mint 22.2. The latest version of the friendly operating system is here. Linux Mint is an operating system for desktop and laptop computers. It is designed to work 'out of the box' and comes fully equipped with the apps most people need."
- "Omarchy. Beautiful, Modern & Opinionated Linux by DHH"
- "Tails is a portable operating system that protects against surveillance and censorship."
- "ParrotSec. The ultimate framework for your Cyber Security operations."
- "Manjaro Linux Empowering People and Organizations. Taking the raw power and flexibility of Arch Linux and making it more accessible for a greater audience."
Not all the first-views of distro pages are as good as they could be, but they are way above what Bazzite displays. To be clear: the content of the main page as a whole is fine, it gives the necessary information and is quite well organized. It is only the first-view side is what I have problems with; it is not worthy of the rest of the page.
Before you respond, also check the "The Top Four Plausible Excuses for not Spelling Out the Big Picture on the Home Page" in the same Chapter7. :-)
It does not matter what you want to call Bazzite. It only matters what words people (your visitors, your potential "clients") know and have associations with. I haven't seen you complain when you are featured in the "Best Linux distros for gamers" lists. :-) And that's how it should be. Don't fight the society, go with the current.
Communication is about clear positioning through clarity, not about muddling through obfuscation.
Your website has a good core (base under the first-view), but the first-view needs A LOT of work. Just a little effort would go a long way. Let me try to make quick changes to the first-view:
1. Add tag line at the top. Part of the logo, instead of "Become a Supporter" (this is not a correct place to ask for that)?. If not in logo, then separately to the right/bottom of it. What kind of tag line? E.g. "Gaming in Linux? Easy-Bazzizy!". Sounds corny, but it works. Honestly! This is something I came up with in under 1 minute, but even this is better than not having anything.
2. Make site og title/description something useful/searchable/identifiable.
3. Get rid of "load/show/animate pics only after scrolling". This is highly irritating for people who want to quickly find out about Bazzite.
4. Change "The operating system for the next generation of gamers" to "The operating system for X gamers". X stands for 1 or even better 3 (3 word rule) words like: serious, no-nonsense, busy, dedicated, passionate.
5. Change "Bazzite makes gaming and everyday use smoother and simpler across desktop PCs, handhelds, tablets, and home theater PCs." to "Linux distribution made safe, easy and efficient. Focus on games and gamers. On desktop PCs, handhelds, tablets, and home theater PCs."
6. On the right make list of main USP ("Play your favorite games", "Take your game library anywhere", "Upgrade and rollback fearlessly", "Secure by default", "Hardware compatibility out of the box", "Supporting Handheld PC and couch gaming setups", "Run your favorite containers") with headers that jump to appropriate parts of the main page.
7. Make a list of usual complaints/opinions of OS switchers, so visitors could associate and see themselves switching. In form of questions: "Are you tired of watching ads in your OS?", "Do you enjoy all the AI Microsoft is trying to push down your throat?", "Want an Operating System working for you, instead of against you?", "Tired of unnecessary hassle and slowness of OS and simply want to live and play?", "Don't want to be a slave anymore?", "Desire to be treated as an adult instead of a child?", "Make play, not fray?", "Linux-curious, but afraid?", "Want an easy and safe way to play on Linux?". You can come up with a lot of stuff that resonates with visitors, who are thinking of switching OSs (imo you should mainly target switchers from Mac/Win instead of linux distro hoppers). These questions can be rotating, adding animation/liveness to the first-view. Make clickable to take to Testimonials.
8. Add some small images/screenshots as well.
One can always argue with the specific details, but I think I managed to demonstrate the overall point of these changes making the website and the experience of visitors much better.
I hope you will put my friendly feedback to use. Best wishes.
My thoughts exactly, linux gaming really doesn't tell me much, beyond that I might be able to use it if I was using Linux. Could be some controller or a Proton-something for all I can tell reading the phrase.
Yes they did. Now the title on tip reads "The operating system for the next generation of gamers" while just yesterday it was simply "The next generation of Linux gaming".
The change is for the better, but I would still like to have words like "Linux" and "distro/distribution/pack" be visible somewhere on the first visible page.
To the downvoters: client-side anticheat simply cannot stop all the cheaters. Why? Because it's running on hardware that the cheater has full control over.
It has been (and continues to be) an enormous amount of effort, and some cheaters are absolutely going to get through anyway.
Right, you cannot control hardware you do not own and have in your possession. A cheat that uses another computer and a camera to watch the screen and emulate a mouse is an effective aimbot that no client side method will ever detect. The future must be server authoritative net code and behavior-based server-side cheat detection.
> The future must be server authoritative net code and behavior-based server-side cheat detection.
If they actually cared about stopping cheaters (rather than pouring tons of investor money into the appearance of anti-cheat), then yes, the future must be that.
But. I'm a USian and I notice that the TSA is still strip-searching people at airports and -worse- wasting assloads of everyone's time, effort, and tax money. I have zero faith that a sudden attack of common sense will redirect efforts (whether they be in the arena of airport security or eviction of match-damaging video game cheaters) in a more sensible direction within what's left of my lifetime.
Day Z’s authoritative server‑side detection performed so flawlessly, it let me breach the network bubble and force other players to defecate themselves. 10/10, would recommend.
While what you're saying isn't impossible, it's unlikely. In the event it did happen, Bazzite is a fork, a signing key, and a couple forked Fedora Copr repos away from being made completely in someone else's control.
> As much as I’d like this change to happen, it’s too soon. This change would kill off projects like Bazzite entirely right as Fedora is starting to make major headway in the gaming space.
> I’m speaking as it’s founder, if this change is actually made as it is written the best option for us is to just go ahead and disband the project.
Now, whenever you would've actually shut down the project is a different story, but your messaging was very clear.
What is the point of this line of questioning? They stated that the proposal as-written would make maintaining projects like Bazzite untenable. That's a valid thing to say and not that much of a "threat", but even if it were, most people involved here is effectively unpaid and can do whatever they want with their time.
The point is the original commenter said there’s a risk of these kinds of projects getting shut down. The creator chimed in and claimed there wasn’t much risk, and then someone posted comments from the same creator in the recent past talking about shutting the project down if an upstream change was made, validating the original comment and making the creator sound less valid.
I totally get that and personally would never hold that against him. Nor did I interpret it as a threat.
However, this comment chain was of how vulnerable non commercial projects like it are to outside factors making causing exactly this issue, making further maintenance on the project infeasible... Consequently ending it, effectively.
There is no blame in play here. haunter merely quoted this as a reason for why theyre worried about it longevity - and considering there was a discussion about an upstream change which would've realized his worry... It seems not at all misrepresented?
Fwiw, I personally don't share the same worry as haunter, because I don't see the chosen distribution nor OS as a significant investment. I feel comfortable switching things around occasionally
No that appears to be directly in line with what I said. What's missing here is your understanding of a proposal vs an actual change Fedora is going to make.
Oh no I didn't mean as a personal attack or anything so thanks for taking your time and for the reply! I know the chances are miniscule but there is that 1% in the back of my brain because it happened in the past with some distros I've really liked
The quality of games on Google Play is much worse than what is available on Steam and the variety of titles are much greater on Valve's platform too, with far less in the way of microtransactions and other exploitative behaviours (though Steam isn't free of this) and a back catalogue stretching as far back to the mid 2000s.
Both Microsoft and Sony AAA titles, most third parties publish there and most indie games release there first. Steam's library is unparalleled in the industry, the only thing it's truly missing is Nintendo's games.
Ok, but the market is absolutely flooded with exploitative stuff, laden with micro transactions and a trickle of miniscule rewards, in attempt to addict the user, rather than genuinely provide enjoyment.
How do you even discover the good games that are worth being played on Android?
I don't doubt it, but I actually really hate that the build system is a bunch of bash scripts, github actions and assuming the previous stage builds fine. Especially when the custom image forkable repo has an action commented out to squeeze more temporary storage out of GHA hosted runners because some images don't even fit on those (like the gnome-deck). I wish the entire setup was a little more decoupled and maybe allowed you to build multiple stages in one go so the entire system was more "forkable" and less spread out. I went on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to build Bazzite without the Firefox RPM removed (rpm-ostree doesn't like adding and removing and then adding packages again).
I did voice that concern in some Bazzite-related spaces before and it felt like it got brushed off with a weird undertone.
is the link to the file as it exists on "main" currently, or at a specific revision, so in three years, it will still refer to that version of the file?
We're working on porting unl0kr from postmarketOS to Fedora to allow for LUKS on the Steam Deck without an external keyboard, that should also work well for a tablet use case once it's done.
The last time a distro tried to do this Ubuntu caved and continued supporting it with an extra repo. Fedora has no chance of winning that argument.
The good news is the incident you're talking about was a change proposal proposed by a single person and never even voted on. It did not survive the comment stage.