Comfort Replaces Linux

The URSA MINOR joysticks from Winwingsim were relatively cheap. But they were also obscure and consequently had little support. So, while it was annoying, it wasn’t surprising that the joysticks weren’t automatically detected under Arch Linux. Although, Arch Linux actually detected the joysticks without a problem, it was Elite: Dangerous that didn’t. The chain between the joystick, Arch Linux, Proton, and Elite: Dangerous is just too long.

At the end of the day, I’m just a kid who wants to play. I had two cool joysticks in front of me, and they weren’t working. After two hours of searching online, I couldn’t find a solution and grew impatient. So I opted for the quickest fix: I plugged in the Windows 11 boot stick, wrote the OS from Redmond to my hard drive, and two hours later, I was cruising through space. And to be honest, the simplicity of Windows for gaming is and always will be tempting. You keep the drivers updated, GeForce Experience adjusts the settings automatically, and you can just play.

Breaking Out of the Window

But there are also some downsides. You have to pull some serious tricks to prevent Windows from collecting your data. Just installing it without a user account requires some effort. With O&O Shutup 10, you can then disable most of the other stuff. But not everything. Microsoft still diligently collects data. Do you need more reasons not to want to be dependent on Microsoft and, by extension, the USA? This has been bothering me since I installed Windows, and now it’s become too much.

Since Dune: Awakening is still a few weeks away, I took the time to install Arch Linux again. Unfortunately, the beta weekend was already over, and I’ll have to hope that Dune: Awakening runs well on Linux. The benchmark tool runs, at least, and just as well as it did under Windows. On top of that, Funcom seems to want to release Dune: Awakening on the Steam Deck, which should basically guarantee playability on Linux. I also tested Helldivers 2, Trackmania, and Warhammer 40,000: DARKTIDE. They all run largely without any issues.

And Elite: Dangerous? It runs. The joysticks, as expected, were not functional again. The game was convinced they were Xbox controllers. But thanks to help on the Discord of the Stellanebula Project, I found a solution. I’ll archive it here as a separate post in the next few days. I’ve been syncing my data between my NAS and PC with Syncthing. Except for my keybindings for Elite: Dangerous. At least I still had a printed version and, with a bit of searching and time, was able to set up my usual layout again.

Pushing the Envelope

Linux has come a long way, and many things work surprisingly smoothly. Driver problems are a thing of the past, at least with reasonably standard hardware. Sure, Windows programs and games often require a few tweaks and some online research. For Linux this time, contrary to my usual habit, I decided against Gnome and installed KDE Plasma instead. Supposedly more flexible, innovative, and a bit more secure. The Gnome web extensions are indeed not an ideal solution.

KDE Plasma is customizable, much more so than Gnome. It also fully supports Wayland and Variable Refresh Rates (also known as G-Sync or Freesync). Within a few minutes, I understood the environment and had it customized to my liking. The panel moved to the top and made smaller, program menus placed there, and instead, the program windows themselves are in a dock at the bottom, like on macOS. All of this was also possible with Gnome, but not as straightforwardly. On the other hand, Gnome has one huge advantage for me. It’s much more beautiful. KDE and Qt applications look inconsistent to me. They remind me of a 2010 layout combined with an attempt at a modern look. It doesn’t feel quite right or cohesive.

What I definitely still need to check is the stability of a few things. Syncthing on my NAS stopped working and couldn’t be persuaded to cooperate again. Probably too much resource demand for my NAS. But Arch Linux has its little quirks too. The Deej software can’t be started at login, otherwise it starts before the audio devices. The program also doesn’t like it when you switch devices. Plasma has already gone through several automatic and manual restarts. It has frozen on me multiple times and had to be restarted via the terminal. And why the hell does nothing happen when I left-click on an icon in the system tray? I always have to right-click to open the context menu and launch the actual application from there.

Better, but Not Perfect

So, I have my problems; Arch Linux and KDE Plasma don’t always behave the way I want them to. I’ll have to do some research and adjust things accordingly. Nevertheless, it’s already better than the Windows 11 interface, even if it’s slightly less stable. Well, it is Arch Linux. I didn’t choose the most stable system; I made a conscious decision to be on the cutting edge rather than stable.

But I can research and adjust. With Windows, the ability to customize and personalize is being gradually removed. Thanks to data collection, Microsoft seems to know better than its users what they really want. Although, at work, I’m often amazed at how often I see taskbars that are still in their default state. A colleague, an actual developer, still has the search box in his taskbar to this day, even though he doesn’t use it. It wasn’t easy to remove with a right-click, so he just didn’t bother looking for the setting. With Plasma? Right-click and then remove widget.

I’m glad to be back on Linux. It takes more work and is harder on the nerves. But in return, it doesn’t cost me my data and doesn’t dictate what I can do. Freedom, now more than ever, has to be earned.