This looks like a good build.

A couple pf considerations; which really come down to your budget and future plans.

The Ryzen 7700 X is a good value per £ spent, and a good chip. But if your budget allows then £140 more gets the Ryzen 9 7950X, which has twice the threads at 16, better specs generally and nearly double the bench marking scores. Obviously prices vary in different regions but I’m seeing the 7700 X at £330 and the 7950X at £470. For 40% more you’d get about 100% more power. Those sorts of things are worth considering when you build - a higher budget now may save you money longer term as you may not need to upgrade for longer and youre already sinking the £330 in which you wouldn’t get back when you upgrade.

However you would also need to think about CPU cooling and may end up spending more on a fan too. But fans are generally cheaper and if youre already getting a good fan it’d be moot. Do get a fan; I dont think the 7700 X cones with one and generally stock fansnwith CPUs are OK but not the best for high performance use like gaming.

For graphica the RX 7900 GRE is a slightly better AMD graphics card. Its about 11% more powerful. I’m seeing t at £560 versus £520 for the 7800 XT. About 7% more expensive. 11% is a more marginal boost but again might be worth it. I’d definitely go with AMD at that price range - Nvidia 4070 is similar performance to the 7900 GRE but I’m seeing the 4070 as more expensive and Nvidia drivers are not as good on linux.

Thats not to say the drivers dont work - I do have a 3070 on Linux and I have a good experience gaming. The problems are ive had bad driver updates ive had to roll back, and I have problems with Wayland so use X11.

However if money were not a limit, the top end cards are Nvidia and you’d still get your gaming power from them on linux. Its just frustrating and annoying when drivers lag Windows, or have buggy updates. In terms of value for money and Linux, the AMD RX 7900 GRE is the better buy.

(Edit: worth saying too for single player gaming the ones youre playing are the ones that make good use of ultra high end graphics - so for example Witcher 4 is going to making use of top end graphics in the years ahead. GTA VI too. Not sure that justifies the cost of high end cards though - they are rediculousl overpowered and overpriced fr current uses)

Last thing, again coming down to budget vs future proofing. 32gb of ram is good but maybe worth getting 64gb if you can afford it to future proof. However if sticking with 32gb get a brand and combination you’d hopefully he able to buy more of down the line. Its not a good idea to mix ram sticks so you could get 2 16gb sticks now, and then another two 16gb sticks in the future - so make sure its a decent brand like Corsair that will still sell in 3-5 years. However if you get 64gb you might be OK for 5 and maybe even 10 years.

RAM is also always one of the cheapest and first and easiest ways to boost performance in a systemif you had to pick just 1 item to boost. (Edit: but in your case 32gb is already top end so you probably wouldn’t notice the 64gb unless you have some very memory intensive scenarios. I do have 64gb - which I do use for Cities Skylines as I load so many mods. So 64gb can still be a good buy if you’d use it)

Edit 2: also get a 4k gaming monitor because with the specs youre considering you’d be playing at 4k. I play at 4k with high and ultra settings still on my 3070, and that’s less powerful than what youre buying.

Out of interest, when GTAVI comes out will it matter?

Will the next game need a new from-scratch RP mod? Or will some of the open source components of FiveM be reusable?

FiveM have an advantage being owned by Rockstar but if it all has to be done again from scratch, FiveM may be irrelevant? Interested members of the community will make their own thing like they did before. Or is that wishful thinking?

Neither of these systems are powerful, and they’re also running Intel integrated GPUs which are frankly generally poor.

If you want to game with Proton, then the device still needs to be able run the game well if it had Windows installed.

As a general very rough rule, most games will work with proton if other games work with proton on your system. Its basically a compatibility layer between the game and your linux PC - if Proton can communicate well with your graphics card and CPU, and it has the right specs, it should just work - proton does the heavy lifting. But if no 3D games are running then most of them wont.

When it doesn’t work, the first place to look is your drivers and hardware. There are then certainly lots of caveats for specific games which may behave peculiarly with certain hardware and needs adjusting but I find that is the exception rather than the norm. Start with your drivers and hardware.

Yes: Five has four letters. Nine has four letters.

There are no more.

If you meant to ask if there are any more whole numbers with the same number of letters in the name as the number, then the answer is no. It is fairly simple to check - you only have to look at the numbers 0-30 before it becomes clear no other number will fit this pattern.

If you went into fractions like 20.12325 then there will be many numbers where all the letters added would get close but the fraction itself would mean you couldn’t quite reach the exact number as you can’t have fractions of letters.

If you included negative numbers then “minus eleven” has 11 letters. Minus thirteen has 13 letters. It seems to again break down once you go beyond 13, and its dodgy to include negative numbers as you can’t have negative letters.

So, no.

“publishing director”. So Marketing.

As for game prices, in fairness to the industry prices have actually come down since 2000.

AAA Games on consoles in 2000 were around $50; that is $92 now due to inflation. Games went up to around $60 on consoles in 2006, that is around $93 now due to inflation. By 2019 they were still $60 but inflation eroded the value, and that had become equivalent to $73 today. When they then went up to $70 in 2020, that would be equivalent to $84 now.

So a nominal price of $100 is not as unreasonable as it sounds. It’s higher than games were in 2000 but in the future if static would erode back to equivalent to $90 in probably 3-4 years.

But the problem is people do not think in terms of inflationary value, and instead in terms of nominal value. And the bigger problem is most peoples earnings are squeezed by inflation and we have not been having pay rises to account for the inflation, so games are more expensive as proportion of income.

The law bans the distribution of the app and applies fines to the app store companies of $5,000 per user who is able to access the app to download it.

So yes, TikToks position is theatrics - current users could continue to access the app but that would mean a slow inevitable decline as no one new could join and the user base would inevitably decline over time. Its not in TikToks interests to allow that and it would take pressure off politicians to do anything. So they’re within their rights to muddy the water and block access with a message blaming it on the politicians.

If tiktok were to distribute the app for side loading - like Epic did withita game store - they would probably be open to the same fines as they would become an app distributor.

I dunno if this is the best approach to compeletely cut off your windows access? what if you need it for some unexpected critical reason? Would be a ball ache installing it again. I main Linux but I’ve kept my old windows install on it’s own drive. I barely use it but very very occasionally I have (and it has just been for gaming but I got the game working in Linux in the end). It’s Win 10 and I have no intention of "up"grading it to Win11.

I do actually have Win 11 set up to run in a KVM virtual machine from within Linux (I bought a Win11 key cheaply just for convenience with the activation nonsense tbh). I made the VM partly because I wanted to see how well it’d work as I like tinkering (it works fine, little bit laggy but does the job) and also to give me some easy access to the full MS Office suite in-case I want them and can’t be arsed to go to my work device. I barely ever use it (2 times so far, both just to use full Powerpoint of web powerpoint). If you have your Win 10 license you could potentially do the something similar to avoid a total block should you ever need to access windows for something and wine doesn’t cut it?

The article suggests alternative fixes were implemented in Proton - esync and fsync. On searching, Esync is available already in proton everywhere and fsync is a newer better fix but depends on the users kernel build. Steam Proton uses both apparently, with fsync used if your kernel supports it.

So the performance increase may not be as marked or even present on the Steam Deck. The NTSYNC patch will make this universally available including in wine, while Proton already has fixes in place.

It would be interesting to see how NTSYNC compares to fsync. Again on searching, NTSYNC does seem to offer a performance uplift over Fsync, but it doesn’t seem to be a dramatic improvement.

I suggest the infrastructure. A high rise apartment block will have much better plumbing and capacity as it is designed to handle every apartment having at least one bathroom and toilet. And realistic expectations would be many of those are in use at the same time as people get ready around the same time in the morning for work.

An office block has to fit minimum requirements so that is enough toilets per floor to meet regulations and unlikely many or any showers / baths. And not every bathroom is going to be in use at the same time - there will peak times of course but not every employee on the toilet at the same time.

When building an office block they’re not going to have anywhere near the same infrastructure as an apartment block. It’s one of the reasons it’s expensive to convert an office block to apartments.

To be honest you can get any decent Linux distro working for games; I run OpenSuSE Tumbleweed with an Nvidia 3070 and it works great. Steam works great, and as desktop it runs perfectly.

I also have a miniPC in my living room that I got after loving my SteamDeck being docked but a bit frustrated by switching between Desktop and the gyroscope modes. I have Nobara running on that, with Steam in big picture mode when I use it, but plenty of other things set up on there too and again it works great. I like to game but also watch twitch or browse the net on it, plus run GOG games via Lutris, and SteamOS isn’t really meant for all that even with desktop mode (as it’s not default)

So while it’s great that SteamOS is coming, I think it’s redundant in the desktop space and probably not their prime target. Getting it onto as many handheld PCs as possible is a very good idea and will give Windows a run for its money (Windows + custom interfaces from other handheld manufacturers are all a bit shit right now).

I don’t see SteamOS as it stands as a good design for a living room PC or gaming rig; but that’s not it’s target and I think it’s not realistic for people for expect it to be good for that. There is a huge range of hardware to support, while Valve targetting it’s own hardware + partners + main competitors in the handheld PC space is manageable.

Yes but this is the streaming software service not the tool to optimise the local Nvidia GPU. Steam Deck has an AMD GPU.

This is purely about their cloud streaming service having a native app.

You can already use GeForce Now cloud gaming on Linux if you want. There is an unofficial electron app, or you can use Wine to run it. It can also run in a browser with some tweaks (to pretend you’re running a supported OS).

But a native app makes sense for steam deck and is a good thing for Linux. Hopefully it is made widely available for Linux in the same way their proprietary drivers are now relatively easy to install on most big distros.

Disable the Firefox Color extension to use the light/dark themes.

Or use Firefox Color itself to change the colour scheme to what you want/

I use the new tab screen as my homepage, I’ve set it to show 3 rows in the grid and it’s populated by the most visited sites. Make sure to turn off sponsored links and pocket.

I pin my personal favourites so they stop moving around in order.

It’s not the functionality you use. I agree I find the default list from the address bar pointless - I don’t need my search history, and when I do type to search I want to see my bookmarks but instead I get a confused list of history and bookmarks mixed up.

I don’t like how Firefox has taken so many design cues from Chrome. Chrome is not the epitome of browsers or good design - it dominates because of Google shoving it down everyone’s throats. Some of what it did to streamline and speed up browser made sense but mostly what it does is push Googles products, so of course it pushes search and your search history in the address bar - Google wants you back on its site where it cna sell you to advertisers.

Interesting, although in your screen shots the Linux version looks better? Are the screenshots the wrong way round or maybe just not able to represent the other changes you mention in the game?

The lighting looks better in the first shot and the items like the bin look better. But the textures of the posters look less good.

It seems very odd the game would use different textures at the same resolution and settings. Maybe they made some compromises to get the Linux version working as you say?

Also HDR is notoriously messy on Linux - maybe the Proton version of the game is managing to use it better than the native route on your system? Or maybe they didn’t do a good HDR implementation on the Linux version as you say.

Would be interesting if people notice the same of the issue is the Proton version is better than the Linux native version.

This is a slightly dodgy comparison - a native linux version versus a windows version run through Proton?

Bearing in mind Valve make Proton they may have done zero optimisation or work to ensure the Windows version and Proton work together. It’s possible settings need tweaking in Proton to make the game run optimally, but given there is a Linux native version of the game it’s unlikely anyone is going to have spent time doing that.

So the windows version may not be running optimally at the moment in Proton and may not get there as people aren’t going to be motivated to optimise settings.

Great that people are developing tools but personally I use OpenRGB as its broader focused than just one manufacturer. It also uses the same underlying OpenRazer drivers for Razer devices as well as supporting other other RGB devices.

RazerGenie seems a little too focused to me but maybe there are benefits of such a tool I’m missing?

It is but it’s also one of the few options available to devs. They can sign up with a big publisher and then be beholden to them financially and creatively. Or they can try the kickstarter route, or they can take out huge loans or investment and be beholden to them. If they’re lucky they can get grants from governments but that is sporadic and uncommon. Or they can scale back projects to reduce financial risk.

Some devs can self fund once very successful, but even a successful dev like the makers of Subnautica won’t have lots of money on hand. Plus even if they have cash, it is also about risk and sharing that so they don’t go completely bankrupt on one project and all their employees lose their jobs.

Early Access has its down sides for definite but it does allow game devs to get revenue in while developing, and also (if done well) focus on delivering a game the players actually like. The biggest benefit is definitely that it allows devs as much independence as feasible.

Of course for the players, it can be hit or miss but that is the risk with any game. And no one forces anyone to buy an EA game - if you don’t like it, don’t buy and wait til 1.0. That’s no different than waiting for any game to release so not sure what the problem is from that point of view?

For players in terms of a pure “investment” then of course it’s a bad deal - the only return you get is the hopeful 1.0 game, and you get no share of any profits. You’re actually just another customer, who has been tapped very early. But again, it’s a choice and gamers can just not buy early access.

I’ve bought quite a few games via kickstarter and EA routes, but only games that I’m passionate about and are relatively niche (like small indie projects, or genres that don’t get much mainstream action now like Adventure games). As much as I enjoyed Subnautica, I personally wouldn’t buy its sequel on EA except maybe if it was very close to release.

May be less Nobara and more KDE. I love KDE but 6 defaults to Wayland and that is not a good mix with Nvidia in my experience. I am on OpenSuSE Tumbleweed on my main gaming desktop and had numerous problems at the beginning of the year when KDE 6 launched but since switching to X11 have had no issues. I have tried Wayland a couple of times since KDE updates and it has improved but remains flaky in my view. On a separate home media PC I use Nobara with an integrated AMD GPU I’ve not had any issues with KDE and Wayland.

When it comes to immutable desktops, I like the idea but be aware they do have their downsides. Installing custom software relies on universal formats like Flatpak (which have their own overhead and downsides, and not all of the packages are “official”) and if what you want is not available then it can be a pain having to use virtualisation and containers for a less locked down system, especially if dependencies for software are complex. They can bloat quickly but storage is dirt cheap these days so might not matter to you. I still find it too much faff. These are not insurmountable and may be worth it if concerned about the security and stability benefits. For me that’s particularly problematic as I like to try out niche programmes and play with the latest versions of emulation tools. If you like to tinker then immutable can get in the way.

I must admit though, I am someone who is (generally) quite happy to reinstall if I break the system. However the purported stability and security of immutable systems does make sense if you want a good system that “just works”.

Overall, in my experiences with Nobara and separately KDE and Nvidia have been good, as long as you avoid Wayland. May be worth a relook if the immutable nature of Bazzite isn’t for you.

Edit: should say I did consider Nobara for my desktop PC but opted to try OpenSuSE first. I really like it and haven’t had issues setting it up for gaming so I’ve not bothered switching. But Nobara in my media PC in my living room has been super convenient as it “just works” when it comes to controllers and all the gaming set up, so I also haven’t bothered switching that to OpenSuSE. Both are good.

Well planned obsolescence is a good thing for the content maker - the customer has to buy it again if they like it. The ultimate DRM?

So you kind of miss the obvious long term application in this scenario: buy a totally realistic dildo clone of my penis, buy a clone of my boobs etc. A step beyond just meat but the more realistic application of this technology in the sex world.

I think they’ll be eating their favourite onlyfans creators, just not in the way you’re suggesting.