It’s time to seriously consider LaunchBox on Linux.

[duerra]

On 1/7/2026 at 9:22 AM, Fursphere said:

People have been hailing the death of Windows and the beginning of Linux's rise to the top since the early 1990s.   (Remember slackware and their "f**k you, figure it out yourself" welcome message?)

Yet..  here we are.   Value is pouring R&D money in Linux... for Steam.  With Steam being the front end and operating system (more or less).  The Steam Box may die and early death due to the RAM prices skyrocketing due to the AI data-center slop rush currently happening right now.  We'll see.   But the Steam Box (Steam Console?) is going to be more akin to Apple Mac than Linux.    Its going to be a fit-for-purpose OS on fit-for-purpose hardware.   Most people aren't going to buy a Steam Box to NOT use Steam big picture.    That's the whole point.    They'd just buy a regular computer instead...   and SteamOS is only putting in drivers for the hardware they're selling. 

Anyway, long story short.   Yes, it would be great to have a mainstream alternative to Windows.   But Linux ain't there yet, and probably never will be since the solution to every major problem is "these guys are doing it wrong, I'll make my own fork and do it right!" (insert Bender quote here) - and now we've got thousands of forks.  

Things are genuinely different today than they were back then, for many reasons.  Never before has the desire to exit Windows been as strong as it is today due to spy tech and the decline of the stability of Windows, things like Microsoft account requirements for Windows 11, etc.  Never before has the stability of the Linux desktop ecosystem been as strong as it is today.  Valve's investment into Proton has also created a trail specifically for gamers that everyone else is benefiting massively from.

There are certainly still things here and there which creates a Windows dependency for some things for some people.  However, most of these challenges have been adequately overcome in the open source community where it matters.

[Fursphere]

I agree with almost everything you've said, with the exception of leaving out the key phase "...for enthusiasts"  

That phrase belongs after every statement you made, because at some point (I've been in tech professionally for 30+ years now) I don't want to "play tech guy" at home anymore.  I just want to use my flipping computer.   And Linux is still a tech research tweaky quicky nitemare bullshit game.  If I want to deploy kubernetes, linux is my go to node choice.  If I was to build a webserver, I'm probably using linux.  If I want to play a game on steam?  Or use my collection of high end game controllers (Fanatec, VKB, light guns, LED controllers for arcade shit, blah blah blah..) Linux ain't it.  

Yes, you can most likley absolutely get almost anything to work on linux.  It may take minutes, it may take hours/days/weeks to figure out a particular quirk / roadblock.   I have better things to do with my time these days.   If I was still a young guy in my teens or twenties, I'd probably just white knuckle it and plow through.  But those days are long gone.   I'm older now, and I don't see value in endlessly searching forums / reddit / youtube / github / etc to get a trivial thing to work.

If you do, rock on man.  Seriously.   Good on you.   

And.....   all of my Win11 machines do not use Microsoft accounts.  Its a trivial workaround.  If you choose "home / personal" when you're installing, you'll get pushed into a Microsoft account (you can still avoid it, but its harder).  If you choose "education / work" - no requirement at all.