Thanks for the summary!

Awesome! I didn’t know this existed, but I definitely have to check that out. Thanks!

KDE Connect has a remote feature for presentations. Maybe one can create a small interface/ WM for it?

For example, Niri WM, configured with just left, right, and laserpointer as confirmation button. Based on uBlue, so it updates itself. Does that sound practical?

Not only that. It can either be an almost 1:1 replacement for SteamOS (if you choose the -deck variant), or just a normal desktop distro with a lot of gaming optimizations, like the fsync-kernel, gamescope, hardware enablement, and quite a lot of QoL improvements.

It’s basically a “Download the iso and begin gaming in 30 minutes”-distro.

It also ships some additional software that is optional, but quite neat. For example, I discovered LACT through it, which made over a year of GPU humming gone by allowing me to set fan curves.

For some diehard Arch users, it might be “bloated”, but I find it just right. I never had the feeling that the included tools are useless, and those that might be (e.g. Discord, OBS, etc.) are only installed when you tick the checkbox in the installer.

I’m using it for years now to control the laptop from my couch? And it works great.

Bazzite

You could maybe get an advertisement screen. You know, those you find at train stations and stores.

Maybe, you could even get something like those touch panels McDonald’s uses, that would be nice!

The option(s) other commenters gave are great! But just to give you more options, I’ll give you a few additional ideas.

1. KDE Connect: You can still use a normal desktop (preferably KDE or Gnome), set your display scale to 150+%, and then use your phone remotely to control the cursor, media playback, and more.
2. Bazzite: often used to replace SteamOS, it also boots into Steam big picture mode by default, where you can set applications in the start menu. It has a nice console-like interface, and you don’t have to maintain anything, e.g. updating. It also supports Waydroid and webapps by default.
3. An old laptop or mini-PC with Bluefin or Aurora. They are basically like Bazzite, but without gaming stuff. You can set the display scale to 200% and enjoy a worry-free experience. Optionally, you can install Phosh or Plasma Mobile on top, which is made for mobile devices.

I think Bazzite will be way better than SteamOS when it comes to hardware enablement. After all, that’s uBlue’s main priority.

SteamOS is quite a bit behind when it comes to new features, and HDR/ VRR is improving everyday under KDE.

I didn’t use Windows personally for 3 years or so, but I don’t miss one thing when it comes to gaming.

Sure, HDR and VRR are still a bit on the experimental side compared to Windows, but even if it doesn’t work as great, I wouldn’t even miss it when disabled tbh.

The ability to not having to use Windows is far outweighting the lack of some features for me personally.

I can still recommend you Logseq and Obsidian.

They store their database mostly as plain markdown, so you can just use your sync app of choice (Nextcloud, Syncthing, etc.) to sync everything between devices.

Maybe Logseq offers their sync as self hostable service too, I don’t know.

I find Logseq extremely awesome and would recommend it to you.

I’m on Bazzite, and AFAIK all drivers are already pre-installed.

I already tried using a VM with passthrough, but it didn’t work. I’ll try using my brothers’ Windows PC next.

(Read this in capslock) How did you get the Xbox controller firmware to work?

Seriously! I tried it for a whole afternoon, before I gave up and just bought a generic gamepad. This was the last time I bought a Microsoft hardware thing. Fuck u MS!

I chose to continue with my current setup until I get the time and motivation to upgrade.

I will build a new server from scratch. For that, I bought an used mainboard for a few bucks, which has 6 SATA slots.

Can 100% recommend.

The only difference between -deck and the classic one is the default environment it bolts into.

With -deck, you boot into the Steam big picture mode, and with the normal variant into normal KDE.

If you chose -deck, you can still enter desktop mode by clicking the power menu and then “Exit to desktop”.

I use Casa"OS". It’s fine, but nothing groundbreaking. Cockpit for example can do pretty much the same, and for Docker containers, I nowadays mostly use docker compose.

But hey, it helped me a quite a bit in the beginning, and it’s cool. Pretty basic, but enough for most people, mainly beginners.

Logseq and Obsidian are only similar on the first look, but very different usage wise. Both are very open with a plugin system, and you can modify them to turn them into one eachother.

So, if you want only FOSS, then Logseq is the only choices you have.

But Obsidian is, even though it’s proprietary, very sane. Open plug-in system, active community, great devs who don’t have much against FOSS, and more.

Obsidian

• More similar to a classic note taking app, like OneNote, but with a lot of features. Hierarchical structure, and more of an “essay” style, where you store a lot of text in one page.
• Page linking is only done when you think it makes sense
• Has been a bit longer around than Logseq, feels more polished
• Great sync and mobile app, which support plugins from what I’ve heard

Logseq

• Non-linear outliner. Every page is on the same level, but within a text passage, the indentation matters (parent-child-relationship)
• You create a LOT of more pages. Most of my pages are empty. They are mainly there for linking topics. I rarely create pages manually.
• The journal is where you write most stuff. You then link each block to a page.
• Logseq a bit “special”. May not be for everyone. I for example am a bit of a disorganised thinker, who mentally links a lot of knowledge and throws concepts around all the time. Logseq is my second nature, because it’s more flexible. My GF on the other hand is more structured, and prefers something like Apple Notes, or, if she would care about note taking, something like Obsidian.
• The mobile app isn’t great. It’s fine when I’m not at home, but the desktop version is the “proper” one, and mobile/ iPad a second class citizen.
• Sync is only experimental for now. It will soon be officially supported (hopefully) and self hostable, but it worked fine for me.

I don’t see any problems with that. Even I (and probably most others here), who are FOSS advocates, think Obsidian’s model is fine.

The devs surely get why FOSS is important, and try their best to match the pros of open source. They even stated that if the company goes bankrupt or they stop developing the app, they’ll open source it.

One major thing they do absolutely right is how the notes get stored. On other note taking apps, it’s a proprietary database, often “in the cloud”, where your notes get hold hostage. Here, they’re just Markdown files, and the whole thing is pretty open, encouraging a strong community.

It’s similar to Valve/ Steam. Proprietary, but liked by most Linux people.

That’s not what OP was asking for though.

Why not? In my comment I explained exactly what benefits it would have in this case with a Nvidia GPU. I think it makes sense to at least mention the option.

OP tried Bazzite and wasn’t the biggest fan of it, but not because it’s image based, no, just because it uses the same Nvidia driver as upstream Fedora.

They could also have said that they really liked it, who knows?

And I don’t understand why the Linux user community on Lemmy pushes immutable distros so hard.

Because they’re awesome? They’re extremely low maintenance, just work (for me), are very robust, offer a lot of choice, and much much more.

I think they’re very underrated and should be used much more. Sure, some people just don’t like them, but some people would, and those should know this option exists.

I personally think X11 shouldn’t be used anymore. Fedora dropped official support for it recently iirc and it will soon be deprecated, so it might be even worse in the future.

Wayland works perfectly fine under Gnome from what I’ve heard, and with Plasma, it should be working great too.

You could maybe try Bazzite or Aurora/Bluefin.

They are all Fedora Atomic, the “immutable” Fedora variant, and offer baked in Nvidia support.

The cool thing is:

1. If the driver/ Wayland breaks on your install, then it will break on thousands of others simultaneously, and the devs can fix it very very quickly, because every installation is identical.
2. If it breaks, you can roll back in seconds and keep using the image that still worked yesterday. And in the meantime, the developers are already working on a fix, which takes just hours or a day max.
3. You don’t have to install and update anything yourself. Just do your computer stuff and stop worrying.
4. There’s also a GTS (or whatever it’s called) variant around, which is the last major version of Fedora. You won’t get the newest stuff and will be half a year behind in terms of features, but then there won’t be any surprises. I believe the bluefin:gts isn’t around yet, but will come with the next major release.