Linus Torvalds said 10 years ago that Valve will save the Linux desktop, and here we are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzl1B7nB9Kc

He says it after 5:10

It's mostly just ArchLinux with preinstalled steam, booting into "big picture" ui. You can do the same thing as with any linux distro. Nearly all non competitive games from steam should work ootb.

The important part is a lot of people don't really care about operating systems, a big part of home usage of windows comes from being preinstalled on a lot of laptops. People just switch on their new computer and use it, if the preinstalled os is good enough they don't search for replacement. This is consumer device from a well known manufacturer. Before this other similar devices had to use windows, as Valve didn't have installers for steam os, didn't supported third party devices.

As the usage of linux grows with this, more (game) developers would choose to also develop for linux or at least make sure their programs run fine with wine.

They have an example service on the website:

(define sshd
  (service
    '(sshd ssh-daemon)                ;the secure shell daemon
    #:start (make-inetd-constructor   ;start on demand
             '("/usr/sbin/sshd" "-D" "-i")
             (list (endpoint
                    (make-socket-address AF_INET INADDR_ANY 22))
                   (endpoint
                    (make-socket-address AF_INET6 IN6ADDR_ANY 22)))
             #:max-connections 10)
    #:stop (make-inetd-destructor)
    #:respawn? #t))

(register-services (list sshd))
(start-in-the-background '(sshd))

Let's see how the same service looks like with systemd:

[Unit]
Description=OpenSSH Daemon
Wants=sshdgenkeys.service
After=sshdgenkeys.service
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=notify-reload
ExecStart=/usr/bin/sshd -D
KillMode=process
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I have some lisp knowledge, so the scheme version doesn't look frightening to me, but I guess for sysadmins, who should write these kind of files frequently systemd's TOML like language is much more easier to understand.

Some differences I see: Shepherd does some firewall management with ports, and I don't see the services it depends on.

Why this kind of files should be written in a programming language at all? I guess it's a remnant from the old times, but I like when tools abstract away the programming parts, and users shouldn't have to deal with that. I like the same thing in docker-compose: I can configure a program whatever language it's written, I don't have to deal with what's happening under the hood.

I guess there is some usefulness with defining services as code, if you need more complex situations, but it should the more rare case nowadays.

The problem is not building a new operating system, but app support. We have and used to have a lot alternatives, but because mainstream apps are missing no one wants to use them. They don't have enough users, so developers won't develop for them, egg-chicken problem. Everyone tried to solve this by android compatibility layer, but android apps will always run better on android...

I use microG since years at this point, and while most things are working, I always find some quirks, and some random apps not behaving as they should. I'm fine with that, but a non-tech guy would freak out from that. And it's not even a completely different os, only an alternative implementation of GMS aka Play Services.

See previous and current examples, all of them was/is a good or at least usable as an os, but if you can't use your bank's app or whatever app you need in your daily life, you won't switch to it. Even M$ couldn't solve this problem, why Mr. Pei could solve it.

Edit: Obviously in the article they don't speak about an actual OS, but one more Android skin... So Mr. Pei is not planning to solve this, they are just redefining the meaning of words, Android skins are called "OS"s in entrepreneur speak nowadays.

The latter: https://vscodium.com/

Microsoft’s vscode source code is open source (MIT-licensed), but the product available for download (Visual Studio Code) is licensed under this not-FLOSS license and contains telemetry/tracking.

The VSCodium project exists so that you don’t have to download+build from source. This project includes special build scripts that clone Microsoft’s vscode repo, run the build commands, and upload the resulting binaries for you to GitHub releases. These binaries are licensed under the MIT license. Telemetry is disabled.

While I see DXVK was important, Valve's history with Linux is much older. I would place "anime girl thighs" on the second domino

SteamOS was first released in 2013, just before they released there first hardware running Linux, the duly forgotten Steam Machines in 2015.

It's a remote desktop client, so it won't. OP read only the title of the article

Use debian oldstable, usually 1-2 security updates each months, nothing else. If you need a newer app, install it as flatpak, they can't bork your system.

Start menu was separated from explorer.exe since 8 or 10, it's called StartMenuExperienceHost.exe nowadays. Taskbar is also a separate process since 11. It also means that they can freeze separately

What exactly is a KYC selfie? Is it a photo of an ID card? I figured out WUI is WebUI. The author uses some strange acronyms I never heard before.

It's very American that they can steal your identity with just one photo. My European state issued ID has data on both sides, so if someone would take a photo of it won't be enough for anything. Also if you loose it you just get a new one and noone can use the old one for anything.

Unlike well-moderated torrent sites, Bitmagnet adds almost any torrent it finds to its database. This includes mislabeled files, malware-ridden releases, and potentially illegal content. The software tries to limit abuse by filtering metadata for CSAM content, however.

There are plans to add more curation by adding support for manual postings and federation. That would allow people with similar interests to connect, acting more like a trusted community. However, this is still work in progress.

I think it's not ready for mainstream use yet, but seems absolutely promising. This will be the most important, how they will solve this without a central authority. Here in the Fediverse admins are basically this authority, I can't imagine how it could work in a true P2P fashion.