What I’ve done is set up a default DNS block list for the whole home internet, and given others their own. I’m using NextDNS, so profiles are easy to set up for individual people with different tastes. I have my own that is relatively strict, and I have lighter configurations for others so that less things are blocked for them. I think you can do a similar thing with a PiHole, but I’m not entirely sure on that.

Great point. I still don’t have an HDR monitor but that could be nice. Plus, if everything’s working for you no need to switch it up! It’s great that Microsoft is adding the ability to remove some of the programs a lot of people don’t / wont use without having to copy and paste powershell commands. I remember there were some scripts / instructions on how to uninstall what would otherwise be uninstallable programs by opening a powershell as an administrator. I don’t have anything against Windows, I just got tired of having so many ads put into my start menu and ads in the weather widget they added to the task bar after I paid $100+ for the OS way back when. But I’m not sure how their handling the “price” of Windows now.

The biggest one I miss, and it works, but the anti-cheat keeps me from my favorite servers is anything from the Red Orchestra series. I really enjoy their newer game Rising Storm 2 but the vast majority of the servers are protected with an anti-cheat that keeps me from joining. I’ve found a couple servers that don’t use the anti-cheat and I can play on those, but they’re not quite the same as some of the servers I have as favorites that are playable on Windows. Otherwise, most things generally work good, biggest problem is with launchers, and even those can be bypassed or fixed, but I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I just want things to work without having to remember what config files I’ve changed or futz with that may break in the future. The other games that I’ve had that don’t work may as well now, but honestly I’ve forgotten what they were. One that I don’t play, that I know a lot of people do is Destiny and I saw that they’ll ban you if you try on Linux. But I’ve only heard that as I haven’t played that on PC.

I agree completely. I’ve been lucky enough to have only an issue where Steam keeps my computer from sleeping regardless of power save settings. I’ve had friends that have tried the same set up as me, and for some reason the computer fails to boot after a simple upgrade (apt upgrade). So I really do mean it when I wouldn’t recommend it. But if someones feeling adventurous it can be fun to try out and see if it works for you.

Using Windows primarily for gaming, I eventually got tired of some of the issues I had with it (ads appearing in the start menu). I gave Linux a try and it was so so for a while. I kept going back and forth but it’s been 2 years now and I haven’t had Windows installed and can play 90% of my games without issue. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone. But for those that primarily use their computer for gaming and non-windows specific applications (like web browsing or other various things), Linux is offering some competition for desktop people.

That’d be nice if it actually applied, but Apple has already made exceptions for X among other large companies to allow them to play by different rules in the store. So I’m not holding my breath for any sort of punishment.

Examples:

• X got a one letter App Store name that was previously against the rules (other devs need their app name to be at least 2 characters) (more info)
• YouTube had been blocking iOS PiP background playback (not sure if they still do) and put that feature behind the YouTube Premium subscription. Background playback and PiP is part of iOS’s system capabilities and the rule specifically says it’s not allowed. See Apple’s guidelines section 3.2.2 (ii) here. With this, one could make the argument that PiP would only support system supported video decoding, and YouTube uses DASH for higher resolution videos, but YouTube does offer video and audio streams that are natively supported by Apple as well so I don’t hold much support for this argument.

I’ve used this with much success (NanoPi r4s). It’s a mini board based off raspberry pi like system with an extra Ethernet out. It does not have Wi-Fi so you’d need to get an AP, but it’s swappable if you ever want to upgrade. With that and a switch for more Ethernet it’s fully open and customizable to put things like OpenWRT or whatever else you may want. Plenty of storage too.