The more concerning part is the bootloader that keeps being made more and more cumbersome to unlock. Not as easy to install one’s system of choice when you need to beg the device maker to allow access to the part of the system required for that. =/

I mean, slap a proper desktop system and plug some bluetooth devices like a controller or a keyboard and mouse, and you got a makeshift laptop / notebook / whatever-the-current-name-is.

I’d have 4 main solutions I can think of, and that can be used together if needed:

• VMs for running Steam and for games that MUST use Steam.
• Emulators, wrappers and source ports for games that allow that, e.g. BSNES for running River Girls Zero, Joiplay / Artemis / EasyRPG / AquariaOSE for games that use compatible engines, etc.
• Having a separated computer you can use 100% offline (requires sideloading games)
• The annoying idea some users give that strays from the original question, but that I think that is valid for once - to get the games from places that openly distribute it DRM free

Something I personally do is to load games from their entries in the start menu. And when there’s no installer to set the start menu item, a program like Alacarte, or manually editing the files that handle those entries on Linux, the .desktop files. Alternatively, linking the executable files to either Heroic or Steam can also be viable.

As for how Linux handles executables, if it’s a native Linux program, you usually need to set the read-write-execute permissions to be able to launch them. Tutorials usually suggest to run chmod 777 /path/to/executable, or other variants that set full permissions to all users and user groups, but as a security concern, I would suggest running chmod 700 /path/to/executable, as this would give the full permissions only to the current user (there’s a bit of a formula to come up with this number, btw).

And regarding VMs, they are as fast as the hardware allows minus the host system’s demands, so it will always be slower than baremetal installs. But in some specific cases, it’s still the best option.

Regarding gaming support, Heroic Launcher also help a bunch, since you can easily set up multiple versions of forks of Wine (Valve’s Proton being one), or even to use the system ones.

About the wifi issue, maybe it is some oddly specific hardware that the devs tackled only in Mint 22. And in a bit of a humorous tone, what’s learning without a bit of struggle? 😅

And lastly, besides dual boot, you could also set up a VM with the secondary system(s) you want. Just worth noting hardware-dependent games, e.g. many from the Windows 9x time, will struggle on VMs.

[Copypasta of the other repost] While I know the situation described in the article can set a precedent, the title feels misleading at best, given the article describes a single case, and not (yet) a widespread practice.

Link for the platform: https://bandwagon.fm/

Maybe this helps?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/single-file/

I use it on PC, and from what I just tested on my phone, it seems to work fine.

Found something: Apparently Recochoku occasionally sells music videos, but the store is blocked outside of Japan.

Yeah, things like interest of the right holders, contractual limitations and availability of a given media do play a part on getting published on a given platform.

Other than GOG’s withering “movies” section, I only remember of two that aren’t overly niche, DLsite and Fakku (both mainly porn stores). Maybe Itunes’ videos are DRM free, but I haven’t tested and still it would break the “no app” condition since it’s required for payment and download. Also maybe Itchio and Gumroad have something on videos too, since they don’t limit the types of media allowed there, but I have yet to confirm.

GOG tried, but either gave up or wasn’t able to keep supporting it (their communication is bad so hard to pinpoint). Now their movies section is just collecting dust, like Humble Trove was in the months before the old model was axed.

Never saw it before, but going by its description now, it’s the “GNU version of the Firefox browser”, so I would presume you can import everything you could between two Firefox installations, like whole profiles and favorites back up file.