I‘ve played GW2 a lot and pretty much exclusively on Linux for a few years now and it‘s been pretty smooth.

For the best experience, make sure your graphics driver is up to date (as of now it should start with 550, 555 or 560).

I‘d also recommend installing the game via Steam, as this makes the whole compatibility stuff far easier. The Steam version also works if you want to log in with an Arenanet-account. Just add this launch option (note the capitalization; it has to be exact) and you‘ll be able to log in with your existing account:

-provider Portal

Just make sure not to buy anything via Steam as purchases won‘t be associated with the correct account.

You‘ll also want to make sure (although it‘s probably set as default by now) to use Proton 9.0 or above, as the game‘s launcher is really stuttery in previous versions.

There‘s a great video on that topic by Matt Parker (Standupmaths) which I‘d wholeheartedly recommend.

TLDW: No, terrain elevation isn‘t generally taken into account when calculating a country‘s surface area, though the actual method differs slightly from country to country. Switzerland would be around 7% bigger, if its mountains were to be taken into account.

I‘ve ordered an M8 to Germany last year, the import fees were 147.17€. The whole process was handled by DHL, so I just had to pay that fee online and got the package a day later or so.

I think we‘re in a very different situation right now. Proton has become so good that it‘s just not necessary for most developers to do anything to get their game running on Linux. When Macs peaked in the hardware survey, the compatibility tools were far less powerful and developers had to actually invest time and resources, if they wanted their game running on Mac.

I also think that the Steam Deck is absolutely being recognized by many developers. Even big publishers proudly announce their games being playable on it. And having games optimized for Deck often improves them on Linux in general.

So I really wouldn’t worry about developers not specifically targeting Linux. Even without that, gaming on Linux is in the best spot it has ever been and is steadily improving.

Although I’d love to see that happen more frequently, this is simply not realistically doable for most commercial games.

Almost all of them use licensed third-party libraries which are integrated deeply into the game’s code base, but which can’t legally be distributed as part of an open source project. So in order to be able to open source a modern commercial game, you’d have to put in quite a lot of work finding all of your code integrating with commercial libraries and either replacing or removing it. And if that’s not enough, you’d probably have to have your (expensive) legal team check the entire code base for any infringements just to be on the safe side.

All that work for no monetary gain just isn’t a very good business case. So, unfortunately, I wouldn’t expect a lot of modern games to be open sourced any time soon.

This is very speculative, but along the things they’ve learned for VR they‘re mentioning APUs and wireless streaming. This might hint towards a standalone device which can also be connected to a PC.

It‘s possible to use VR headsets with the Steam Deck. It‘s just far too weak for a pleasant experience.

It‘s worth noting though, that, according to this interview (37:30), Valve is probably working on a new VR HMD which will make use of the things they‘ve learned from developing the Deck. So I‘d guess there‘s a standalone headset coming from them at some point in the future.

You just need to learn from big automakers and use Volkswagen!

They also always have a countdown on the top of the page, suggesting their unbelievable 80% off deal is about to end and you should buy it now or it‘ll be gone forever! Quick!

It‘s not ending. It never ends. It just resets at the end of the day. The guys running this site are dickheads.

Great picture, but that‘s actually Tower Bridge, not London Bridge.

So ein Verbotsverfahren dauert zu lange, um bei der nächsten Bundestagswahl bereits wirksam zu sein. Selbst bei der offen als Nachfolger der NSDAP auftretenden SRP dauerte es 1951/52 fast ein Jahr von Antrag bis Urteil. Bei der KPD dauerte es ca. fünf Jahre. Der letzte Versuch, die NPD zu verbieten, zog sich über drei Jahre.

Bei der Bundestagswahl 2025 wird die AfD also mit großer Sicherheit antreten können. Umso wichtiger ist es, das Verbot zeitnah auf den Weg zu bringen. Sonst stehen sie 2029 mit Sicherheit auch noch auf den Stimmzetteln.

Die Angst, durch ein Verbotsverfahren sogenannte „Sympathiewähler“ an die AfD zu verlieren, ist leider offenbar weiterhin zu groß.

Es wäre nötig, klarzumachen (Demos, Briefe an Abgeordnete etc.), dass die Regierungsparteien für noch viel mehr Menschen unwählbar werden, wenn sie weiter nichts gegen Rechtsextreme unternehmen.

Der Argumentation, dass ein solches Verbotsverfahren nicht unbedingt erfolgreich wäre, kann ich auf jeden Fall beim besten Willen nicht mal mehr im Ansatz folgen. Natürlich ist bei keinem Gerichtsverfahren vorher das Urteil klar, aber wie sehr müssen die Erfolgschancen denn noch wachsen, wenn inzwischen selbst der Verfassungsschutz die Partei als rechtsextrem einstuft.

This is absolute nonsense.

In Germany, between 38-48% of plastic is recycled (source). Sure, that‘s far from all of it, but still far, far better than nothing.

The recycling rate might be lower in other countries, but just giving up and putting everything in the regular trash is probably the worst thing you could do.

I‘d be really surprised if Apple tried that.

They have to know that it violates the DMA. And the penalty for violating it can be up to 10% of their yearly worldwide revenue (not earnings!) for the first violation and up to 20% for repeated violations. I don‘t think they‘d risk that, especially as the EU really isn’t known for its leniency when someone intentionally breaks their rules.