Almost everything that runs on Windows was built for Windows. So it’s a true statement, but pointless. That’s like BF Goodrich advertising their tires as “built for cars”.
You’re right, clicked it away so many times over the years and never stopped to think what a silly statement that was. I feel like it was for a time when 10 was a new shiny ‘mysterious’ thing, that it might convince people into thinking it needed something special, but has just aged like milk.
Microsoft Edge is integrated with File Explorer in Windows 10 through a feature called “Pick up where you left off”. This feature allows users to resume their browsing session from Microsoft Edge directly within File Explorer.
That unlike teams, which they didn’t bother to build for windows and instead used a webapp, they actually bothered to use their own ui tools on their own operating system for a change? (But I guess they only did that so that teams could be a webapp, based on edge…)
linux gaming is basically there at this point proton can run most games flawlessly unless you wanna play games with hyper aggressive drm or anticheat it mostly “just works”
ah haven’t tried vr too expensive for me and not enough space really wanna try it in future though alyx and beat saber look really cool hopefully that’ll improve soon with all the rumours of valves deckard headset and them dedicating so much to linux I mean deckard will probably still be tethered to a pc so it’s not a guarantee since most people will be on windows then but maybe it’ll come with improvements to vr on linux
As a linux noob, I’d say it 90% there. I got a new computer recently, decided to only install linux to see if I could dump windows entirely, expecting to dualboot eventually. The only problems I’ve had so far are Curseforge, MC realms, and One Shot. I’ve got Modded Skyrim and modded Hollow Knight working, I’m incredibly happy with linux gaming.
yeah I’m also quite a noob with linux I’ve only been using it for about a year and also dual boot my pc for the few games I have to for me it’s actually bethesda games mostly due to no mod managers on linux and I know there’s the workaround for MO2 which is what I use anyway but fomods didn’t work :/ I’m also actually playing through hollow knight on my deck at the moment though vanilla and that’s been working flawlessly as for curseforge dunno what you’re modding but if it’s mc I used prism launcher and that worked flawlessly way better than curseforge on even windows with that being full of bloat
Prism is life, I agree. My friends don’t, so I need a curseforge pack to distribute server updates with. The stupid part is curseforge has a working linux version, but it only does WoW.
The other one is playing on a realm. The desktop solution is supposed to be the Win10 version, but screw that. I’d love to see a mod that lets java join bedrock servers, but they all run the other way. The solution is running the android version with a third-party launcher.
As Phuntis said, curseforge is easily solved with prism launcher. They have a nice GUI to browse modpacks and set up everything automatically. For mods that don’t allow direct downloads over the API, they give you a browser link you can open and automatically pull the downloaded files from your download folder.
The launcher also has integration into modrinth and a bunch of other useful features. IMO the better launcher compared to the official one, even if you don’t play modded.
Love Prism, love Modrinth, still can’t make modpack updates curseforge clients can use. Since everyone else on the server uses CF, I need to build the modpack on CF then import to Prism for myself.
I did see that making a CF modpack file might be possible soon though.
Man, I just tried for a few weeks and just had no luck on the games I was trying. It maybe is there for most people, but I still ended up in the “google for commands that might resolve these weird crashes / errors” and building random packages from source. However, I tried on a gaming laptop, which have notoriously had worse support than standard discrete cards. I wonder if my experience would have been different with a standard PC. I also recognize that Steam is the answer for a lot of people, but I just don’t have that many Steam games.
I was on Mint and primarily using Lutris, but tried many different WINE runners. I would have tried Ubuntu, which I think is a little closer to upstream updates, but I only had a 4gb USB stick to install from. For games, I tried Horizon: Zero Dawn (which I finally got to open, but it was running 0-3 FPS), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Baldur’s Gate II (which seemed to work). I’m not giving up forever, my next gaming tower will likely run linux of some type. I do lots of self-hosting on a Ubuntu PC, so I’m pro-Linux. Just ran out of patience with the laptop!
Interesting. Got Horizon Zero Dawn to work out of the box myself but I’m using Garuda. Any chance you’re using an nVidia GPU? They tend to be a lot more fussy with Linux than AMD
Yep, sure enough nVidia 1650 laptop GPU. I tried the proprietary drivers, forced so many versions of VKD3D and DXVK to try for better performance. Oh well, my next box will have an AMD GPU.
In 2016 you had 2 or 3 AAA games releasing Linux native versions. Now you are lucky if you get a working proton version. Linux has moved backwards. Honestly I think people tried it and hit a lot of problems with it then left. 2016 was the year of the Linux desktop but it failed to capture the market.
One of the biggest problems with Linux is simply additional hard drives. If you fill up your / drive you are basically screwed of you don’t know how to use the command line. Even the easiest Linux distros suffer from this problem. With windows I just reinstall programs to a different drive. With Linux you have to learn about symlinks, create then in the right spot and even then it doesn’t help unless you have a bigger drive. Alternatively you can learn about lvm and combine your drives in to one large monolith but this is even far more work for what’s it’s in Linux literally at worst a 10 minute fix and 0 second if you just install stuff to the right drives.
Honest question - what is the current problem(s) in Linux gaming? And I don’t mean that the way it sounds, I just haven’t done it in a long long time. I mean back then it had to have a linux specific version and you had to deal with X11 mouse input.
Now with Wayland and things like steamdeck existing I’m surprised it’s not more viable.
I’m sure it’s a long list but what are the main factors? Just a curiosity. Unfortunately I just don’t get to play games these days. Still GPU and sound driver issues? Publishers refusing to take the extra steps to make a multi platform engine work on it? Too many unknowns based on flavor of Linux installed?
I’m not the guy you asked but I can answer for myself - it’s still not nearly as effortless to use for gaming as windows. I work with computers all day, so when I sit down to game at night I absolutely refuse to debug shit. For Starfield as an example, it works via proton, but the protondb page is full of “to get around X issue use the following workaround”, and I just can’t be bothered.
I use Linux for work and hobby software development, but for me to switch my gaming pc over would require it to not just be “viable”, but effortless
Thank you, that’s the perspective I was looking for.
And while i understand, it’s certainly not limited to games or Linux. I too just want things to work and it’s become a struggle for one reason or another. I can find a common thread on that but probably not the place for that.
I am optimistic though that gaming will continue to get better and that will be helpful. Despite all the faults it’s at least going in the right direction.
I will say this - nowadays I have to figure out maybe 5% of games I play on Linux, and often times those games have issues with certain windows setups too
That’s actually pretty positive. Probably a multitude of reasons but in my very limited experience with recent games they are pushed out with tons of problems on any platform. Sometimes the game was just rushed out and this is what turned me off of games for the most part. “It’s online, we can just patch it later!”
Also not a fan of paying for the privilege of being a beta tester. Open betas used to be fun times.
That said, based on yours and others replies i think it seems worth it to dig up an old ssd and try some of my games out on Linux on my main. Honestly it seems way better than what it was years ago so I should go see for myself. Thanks!
Absolutely. It’s honestly the older titles that tend to work better as well, perfect for an older setup. A nice static target for the conversion layer. Proton was pretty good 3 years ago, now it’s amazing.
Lots of Devs I’ve noticed tend to be happy to tweak things on their end to get something to work better with Proton as well, or if we’re lucky they just use Vulkan out of the gate and make it a very straightforward job.
A good benchmark is seeing how steam deck users get along with that game. If they don’t hit any snags it’s a very good chance you won’t either
Great info, thanks. Most of my hardware is old. But that’s actually a good thing I think. I have a Lenovo ideacentre i plucked back from a friend as it was gathering dust. I upgraded the ram and SSD and installed neon on a whim and it’s amazing.
That’s what sorta started tracking me back… have continued using Linux for servers but i was impressed at that desktop. Now I know neon is a bit bleeding edge so any recommendations on a distro? I started with freebsd back in the day, then gentoo for desktop, then Ubuntu minimal for servers if that helps. Not afraid to get my hands dirty but prefer simplicity.
I found a 256GB SSD that should be enough for some testing. I need to grab some files off it but then it’s ready to go. Distro advice appreciated. Remember i just want to test :) TIA
I’ve gotten Linux to work with all games I care about.
Oldschool Runescape, fully supported natively unless you have a Jagex account, then you need to download a stupid launcher that is windows only, but it works fine, through Lutris.
Other than that, I’ve gotten RDR2, GTA5, Witcher 3, Elden Ring, and more to work. Never had an issue with stuff not working. Definitely more work to set things up the first time, though
Definitely more work to set things up the first time, though
This is ultimately my point - looking through protondb, it looks like all the games I play today work, but a good few require some workarounds, hacks, or just have crashes reported while playing
Gaming is my escape from my day job of working on software, fiddling with configs and whatnot is really the last thing I want to do when I have free time to play.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m stoked that gaming on Linux is improving so much, and I deeply look forward to the day that I can ditch Windows for good on my gaming PC, but for now its just the best tool for my requirements
Only reason I don’t switch to linux is because of both riot games and easy anti cheat(you can kinda play league of legends most of the time)
but valorant’s vanguard is just straight up built for windows so you can’t cheat in their game, so you can’t even open that game in linux
And 99% of games that use easy anti cheat are also unplayable (except elden ring somehow)
Tbh I haven’t really played their any games that fall into this category lately, but I don’t want to have to install windows every time I get a urge to play league and tilt myself
and I know that dual boot exists but I have a very limited storage right now (I’m only on a 480gb ssd since my hdd broke)
An interesting point… i didn’t even think about the anti-cheat engines nor considered they’d be bound to windows but yeah i get it, i deal with that on licensing services.
I feel your pain on storage. It’s cheaper now but it’s all relative. I’ll save your UN and hit you up if i stumble into something that may help.
A lot of EAC games work just fine on proton now. For any game released and/or updated since September 2021 enabling EAC on proton for the devs is as easy as ticking a checkbox.
My main issue is a lack of support from games like DCS, which will never get Linux support, and not having trackIR support, but I suppose that just needs someone who is experienced.
Also I can’t play fortnite/cod and that’s what my friends play.
Hah I had to look some of that up. I bet I could guess your age within a couple years. :)
DCS seems like a cash grab and travkir thing seems quite the gimmick. But i understand you wanting to play with your friends and so do they and they aren’t going to bring Linux support despite it’s likely built on it.
Windows is essentially free anyway these days so you’ll just have to suck it up for now. You can disable things like realtime scanning for a performance boost. If you can’t make your own DNS try quadr9 to block a majority of the telemetry and shit.
Being able to play with your friends is more important really. Just dual boot or use a VM to get your nix skills. I’m sure many won’t agree with me and that’s cool. There is nothing Linux can’t do, yet there are apps (or games) that will simply require windows to participate. Sucks, but that’s reality.
Sorry yo, wasn’t intended that way I promise! I don’t have great people skills text based or otherwise. And actually I’m the one that sounds like an idiot anyway haha In my defense I’m quite tired and seeking excuses to not be working so yeah, my bad, no offense intended
Appreciate that but now I don’t know how to reply without sounding condescending… dammit! :) but you know, if you go back to 1995 bad boys that was how i communicated. Years later i relocated and nearly got killed for pointing out a funny and quite justified slight at a certain NFL team.
I’m not sure I have a point beyond stay trigger happy and call fuckers like me out! We all make mistakes and I have no problem being called out.
Shit, i still sound condescending don’t I? It’s just hard not to after a while. I don’t know if it’ll be Linux worthy but hit me up if you decide to try out borderlands 4. We’d be happy to have a new player in the group.
Genuinely no idea how Linux gaming could be better. I’ve been playing on desktop and Steam Deck for years, both “flat” games and VR games and it just works. Sure I don’t try literally everything but with ProtonDB I’m confident it will work, or not, and decide accordingly. Obviously not all games work on Linux but definitely more quality games that I have time for. For me it just works, I spend at least 99% of my time gaming on Linux actually gaming, in fact I can’t even remember when is the last time I tinkered. I don’t even have problems with GPU drivers despite tinkering with containers with machine learning. I’m not trying to say nobody has problems or dismiss problems people do have, just sharing my experience.
I think this is overselling it a little. I still run into issues with Proton from time to time that require sigkilling it and its children, and some games (especially EA titles) are finnicky and can take a few tries to launch properly.
As for VR, SteamVR on Linux outright sucks. It virtually never works the first time I launch it and requires some combination of reconnecting hardware and restarting software and the computer, and it’s plagued with bugs (most recently the UI rendering upside down in the new beta).
Don’t get me wrong, Linux has been my primary platform for some 5 years and my only one for the last few and I’d never dream of going back to Windows, and gaming on Linux has progressed unbelievably in the time I’ve been daily-driving it. But it still isn’t totally painless and there’s definitely more room for improvement in the coming years.
Well, Elden Ring had a bug in it that killed performance, Proton was able to fix it without touching the game itself and resulted in Linux performance being markedly better.
Then with Starfield it performs about 30% faster than windows consistently.
I can force AMD FSR on any game (and I have an Nvidia card) to get a significant performance boost with no visually detectable loss in quality.
It’s 12,000 and those are rated as “playable”. The majority of games on Steam would be playable out of the box, but Valve is being cautious with their verified program.
ProtonDB has over 18,000 user submissions for playable games.
There are many games in my library that aren’t listed as Steam Deck verified or even on ProtonDB and they just work.
It’s a decent browser, but half the reason people hate it is because MS tries to force it on you. They should let it stand on its own merits then maybe it wouldn’t have such a negative reception.
I just opened my gmail in Firefox and I don’t see this Chrome notification right now. Maybe it pops up every now and then. I wouldn’t be bothered by it that much, since started using Thunderbird as mail client last month, and the interface is so much better and customizable than gmail ever was. I did use Thunderbird a long time ago, but stopped when I got gmail in 2004. And all this time I thought Thunderbird still had the old classic UI. Apparently it became a bit too messy with all different volunteer contributions and Mozilla didn’t have a project management to stay with a certain direction. In Feb 2023 they announced in this blog post to rebuild Thunderbird from the ground up and invest the resources to support the community again, although with more control. Then a few months ago this big update to 115 was released, which was featured in a computer tech website so I became curious again. One of the best decisions of this year (although I’m still using it to access gmail), together with joining Lemmy of course.
It’s better than chrome for sure. Depending on what your criteria for using a browser it, it might even be in the top 3 browser options.
But it’s still a Microsoft product filled with the usual Microsoft shenanigans. If you don’t care about your browser keeping track of what you do and that sort of privacy concerns, absolutely give it a try. You can even use it on Linux and Android and it works fine on those too.
One other negative aspect I can think of is that Microsoft is quite open to adhering to Google’s own shenanigans like that recent proposal they got ridiculed for. For that reason I’d rather recommend Vivaldi instead - there’s very little that edge does better than Vivaldi and there’s plenty that Vivaldi does better than it.
But also, please, consider using Firefox if you don’t have any problems with it. You’ll literally be helping make the internet a better place just by using it. So many people use chromium based browsers today that Google literally owns the way the internet works.
I’ve never really liked Firefox and I’ve tried it multiple times. As for big companies tracking data, I think that’s pretty much unavoidable at this stage and I don’t really care.
My only criteria for browsers is just stuff loading when it should and fast. Corporations are welcome to my shit data, the only thing that annoys me about that is they profit from it and I don’t.
I wasn’t a fan of Firefox either and personally lived using edge. When the whole web integrity thing started happening, I felt like I should switch to Firefox and haven’t looked back.
I still have some complaints, like you can’t install sites native app which I used a lot. I don’t think tab groups have been implemented yet, which isn’t a huge deal but very useful. And there were a few others I can’t remember off the top of my head. In the end I value my privacy a bit more so I’ve decided Firefox is worth it.
Sure, and there’s also an extension to install a web page as an app similar to Chrome. The point is that, out of the box, it lacks some features that I enjoy. Extensions are great and I use plenty of them, but that doesn’t mean that Firefox has those features, it just has extensions that have them.
Firefox is great, don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely preferring it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have all the features that I wanted up front.
The PWA app works decent, but, unless I did something wrong, it would open links in itself instead of my main Firefox window which wasn’t what I’d want normally.
I still use it, but it’s definitely not as nice as I’d want it to be.
Definitely one of those things that’s minor and I can look past though.
And this mentality is exactly why they keep shoving it down our throats.
People should stop equating Edge to Internet Explorer. It isn’t the same browser, it has a lot less problems, it is quite a lot faster, it it compatible with anything.
Edge shouldn’t have the stigma of Internet Explorer. It is a very decent modern browser.
Even better. After you’ve explicitly triggered the default change MS is like “have you tried the all new megacorp spyware? It’s not actually new, but identical to the spyware we already installed and absolutely nothing has changed in the last 10 seconds since you made the decision, but we figured we’d throw another churn barrier at you because fuck you; we own your OS. You’re our product now bitch, and that’s all you’ll ever be”
Well, on the other hand, said megacorp finances the only other engine (Gecko, Blink being a fork of Apples Webkit), so they don’t have to bother with monopoly restrictions.
I realize this, but technically Mozilla is still an independent entity. They also fight some Google attempts at Web DRM, so it’s still healthy competition
and web standards! chrome doesn’t care much about web standards. they regularly add new nonstandard proprieties that eventually wins because of their market-size.
Bing chat has saved edge and bing search for me, it just works. I ask it a random question, like how many spiders you’d have to eat to have eaten a pound of them and it just tells me and shows the work. I don’t need to look up how much a spider weights and then do math myself, it just does it.
Firefox is still my main browser, but I’ll open edge to ask dumb questions and I have a lot of stupid questions and it has answers without me needing to dig through bullshit to find what I need.
With regular search, I have to look through all kinds of results before I find something, and often I have to adjust my search parameters until the search engine even understands what I'm looking for.
The AI still needs me to actually confirm what it's saying, but that's checking 1-3 links, not entire search result pages.
It's also just waaaaay easier to talk to my search engine in natural language than keywords imo. I never know what keywords get me to my intended destination, I guess the difference is less big for people that do.
It shows it’s work, you can follow it’s citations to ensure it’s not complete bullshit.
Also no seriously these are dumb questions, I was watching Fraiser the other day and it implied his ratings were in the millions, and I asked bing if that was even possible considering he was on AM radio in the 90s (it’s not), but even if it was completely wrong it literally doesn’t matter…
Not sure if it really could be faster than Chrome since they share the same web renderer (chromium) but Edge is definitely better optimised than Chrome when it comes to memory usage since MS has a better understanding of how its own OS works on a lower system level.
I wouldn’t have a problem with Edge if it wasn’t always running in the background, it’s quite spooky. Not to talk about when it gives me the popups to not change the browser, it is my computer and I will do what I want with it
Sometimes you let some apps linger but edge is in the background from the beginning. And I’m sure you can disable an option in firefox but to get rid of edge the only option is the command line and erasing all of its files until the next update comes around
There is a setting in Edge to stop it running in the background after it’s closed (it shouldn’t do that in the first place, but this is at least useful because if you don’t turn off the web links in your Start menu search results, Edge can be triggered to open by accident from there and then continue to run in the BG after you close it).
Still on Windows 10 and I haven’t noticed Edge running in the background on startup (and obviously I have it set not to do that in Windows). I’m guessing though that it’s possible it might always be on if you use Cortana? I always have Cortana off too.
We use Edge in our company for the integration since off of our users are on 365.
On some hold outs that kept trying to cling on to Chrome, I just changed the beachball shortcut on their desktop to open Edge instead. None of them have noticed the change over a year later.
I agree. But sometimes your pages won’t load with Firefox. For you and me it’s great. We can get around it. For your parents and grandma’s, it’s a nightmare.
ive heard of that, but ive never had that happen? stock firefox seems to load everything for me, but maybe its due to spoofing a chrome useragent, or bc i tend to avoid sites like that. librewolf with default setttings, or hardened firefox is admittedly pretty buggy for a lot of websites. i would say brave is an easy upgrade from other chromiums, for family members, but i still think stock firefox is alright for that too
When I see the current version of Edge I’m reminded of those bloatware-packed OEM Windows preinstalls adding useless toolbars to Internet Explorer, except this time it’s a sidebar.
I’m disappointed, and when asked by people I recommend replacing Edge. Preferably with Firefox, but even Chrome is better.
the most useful extensions for android firefox - ublock origin, there is already (and many more). Also, mozilla is working on bringing all desktop add-ons to mobile and everyone can contribute.
The Mull version of Firefox has always had extension support, never even knew the official version had even removed it. Mull is otherwise identical with some hardening against tracking and removed telemetry. I’ve also never had issues with sites breaking which can be otherwise common with hardening
pretty awesome, especially with extensions. I use it everyday.
In fact, I have two firefoxes. one of them reserved for slack as I don’t want to download the app and slack detects that I’m using desktop mode on android(on chromium-based browsers). but Firefox’s(with chameleon) spoofing saves my device from one of the worst proprietary applications.
It depends on what circles you’re in I suppose. But I suspect you’re right for most people that dislike it. For some of us it’s the Chromium engine it runs on, and/or the company it comes from.
Edit: So more ideological reasons. I imagine the browser itself works fine.
Yeah you’re right. I can see and I respect people’s reasons for not wanting to use windows / Microsoft products.
I just wanted to point out this as I think many people still consider edge as a bad browser. At least in my experience it works really well and I personally like the style it has and overall the “windows 11 aesthetic” Microsoft is choosing for their products.
I use Edge whenever something needs to stream on a Windows PC, unlike other Chromium builds it is capable of hardware acceleration and therefor 4k streaming. Whenever you watch 4k on Google Chrome it isn’t really that high quality.
You can add as much context and nuance as you want but at the end of the day the hardware usage is locked behind a door that Edge has the key to and Chrome doesn’t.
Except that you are literally saying that Chrome/Firefox doesn’t have the ability to stream HD when, in fact, they are. It’s just the shitty antics of one of the sleaziest companies in existence.
They are on higher end machines, but they don’t have the same capabilities of Edge on Windows. If it were Chromium on some other OS then they would probably be functionally equivalent.
As much as I hate Edge and Chrome, ,my 5.1 surround sound doesn’t work in Firefox. So if I want to watch something in surround on Youtube I have to switch to Edge. Then the nagging starts.
Ff has that feature too. It’s if anything more secure than remembering passwords because at least you still need the expiration date and cvc (unless edge saves that too).
already using chrome for that. nothing but random passwords for about 300 sites. edge: import? no thanks dis chrome if you like. G has been good to me so far. was ff for a spell, got bloated
I had it happen once after a windows update. What it has done is put a shortcut on my desktop enough times that I wrote a script to check for and delete them whenever it does.
What is does do way too often is make itself my default PDF viewer. I’ve got Adobe Acrobat Pro and Bluebeam. I have zero reason to ever want to see a PDF in Edge.
I think this has a lot to do with what license you bought. My old Win8 Pro key install has never had ads and shit pop back up or re-enable candy crush or whatever. One of our shitty laptops at work with a win10 home license I absolutely dread updating because there is some new bullshit nearly every time.
I’m still on 10, but half the shit I see people complain about with Windows I’ve never experienced personally. Maybe I’m just lucky? Maybe I just read? I don’t know, but I’m not having the same experience as a lot of people on here.
In general any bad thing about windows that it manages to fixes still gets commented about online for several years after the fact. For example: BSODs stopped being a regular thing in windows user’s life very long ago, but it took another 10 years after that for people to stop making BSOD jokes online.
Ironically enough, I actually did have my first blue screen in likely 5+ years yesterday. I was so shocked by it I wasn’t even mad, just impressed it’s been so long.
There was a while there where it would default to Edge for PDFs and as a web browser after a update. Quite annoying for a factory full of PCs that I wanted to use Chrome and Adobe Reader instead.
I tried Edge for a bit but stuck with chrome. Recently I’ve gone back to Firefox but I’ve not had one of those major updates yet that even tries to get me to log into Microsoft as a log in so it will be interesting when that happens again if Edge shows up as the default.
From time to time when you update windows it’ll show you a welcoming setup again similar to the first time you logged in. In that process it will try to convince you to setup some Microsoft stuff on your pc, including changing default apps, but it shouldn’t do it on its own.
But sometimes it does. It happened once for me this year.
Edge started itself on boot after a recent Windows update. It even had a little pop-up about how “helpful” it was to have it start right when my computer turns on so I can “get to browsing” faster. It’s never been set as my default. Uhg.
And then on next update go turn it off again, since they’ll enable everything again. Rinse and repeat for eternity. Or switch to Linux and be done with their shenanigans.
Run this after every update, specifically the tweak that uninstalls Edge. Makes things a lot easier. It also gives you the option to delay feature updates by two years and only install security updates on time.
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