Programming is really not as hard as it looks to start, just don’t start with C++ for the love of god lmao

There’s a lot of projects working to make VR on Linux a reality, although SteamVR technically works on linux it’s really only if you have a Vive/Index or third-party drivers. That, and SteamVR on Linux is a buggy mess anyway lol. I’m definitely not an expert in any of this though, I’m only just now going into college to pursue this stuff further lmao. Here’s some projects I’ve been following if you wanna look further:

• Monado, an OpenXR runtime built to run on Linux natively, and it provides features like finger tracking using the cameras on an Index along with other headsets
• V-Sekai, a framework for building social VR games built on the Godot 4 game engine
• Godot itself, while not explicitly VR-focused I think it has great potential for making VR content in the near future, and it’s also where I want to focus my efforts (I already made my first game, sorta lol)
• Hearth, I don’t understand it fully but what I gather is that it aims to be a shared virtual space, kinda like those “3D” desktops from the 90s but with multiple people and super extendable
• SlimeVR, open-source full-body trackers for VR. Mostly used in VRChat lol
• Stardust XR, a VR display server for Linux that supports stuff like widgets and filters (I think)

There’s tons more but I can’t think of all of them lmao, but there’s definitely cool stuff going on in the space and worth checking out.

Open-source virtual reality, usually just any VR works too lmao but especially FOSS VR

Mississippi teen death at poultry plant, July 26th 2023, AP and New state laws are rolling back regulations on child labor, April 27, 2023, NPR

It sucks

It does go down if you pay things off early, though

Yes, I would want to resist it. Life is about ups and downs, and I think the better idea would be to have an open-source augmented reality, maybe through glasses that you wear or contacts on your eyes, that can project shared images, like virtual props that everyone else can see, or just act as a VR HMD and replace all your vision with a virtual world for a while.

But bodily autonomy is very important, give people a choice and let them be informed by publishing the source code, PCB diagrams and all that kinda stuff so they know how it works and that they’re not being controlled.

Got a long one. I’ve gone back and forth a few times (I’ve landed on a dual-boot Windows 10 and Arch setup, maining Arch) (btw) and my biggest takeaway is this:

Mainstream Linux distros, like Mint, do have admittedly very polished basic experiences. The problem is, though, is that it breaks down as soon as you introduce it to unique use-cases or hardware features.

Linux, specifically stable distros like Mint, are already ready for mainstream use for people who use it for basic stuff like email, web browsing, desktop social media like Facebook, and so on. It’s also very usable for gaming, as we saw with Steam Deck, but still has issues primarily with adoption.

But if you have for example, a 2-in-1 laptop or a VR setup, things break down very quick. I had to configure my 2-in-1 manually and not everything works still, and VR is a joke if you don’t have a Vive or Index, and even that’s iffy. SteamVR is still extremely buggy and missing features.

Linux is, by design, configurable and open. This is both its greatest strength and weakness, because it allows users to set up their systems how they want, but only if they know how to. A truly “user-friendly” distro is simply not possible if you retain the configurability, which Valve knows, and is why SteamOS is locked down the way it is. This model is growing in popularity but it’s not quite here yet.

At the end of the day, I still use it despite these shortcomings because I feel it’s important. I should be able to look at the code and know what my machine is doing, and trust that it respects my rights and freedoms. This is why Linux, and maybe BSD, have to win. But for now, I still have a drive with Windows 10 because it’s just simply not a full experience yet, and that’s okay. For now

I don’t remember messing with the computers thenselves, but I do remember my friends and I finding the password to the public wifi and connecting to it for all of like a day (w/ a VPN so as to not get caught) before getting booted off and the password reset. Rinse and releat a couple times before we couldn’t crack it anymore

For everything but VR, Arch Linux with KDE Plasma. For VR, Windows 10

I’ve played VR on Linux before with my Vive but it’s definitely not feature complete yet. I just got Knuckles for it though so I’ve been using the Vive with them a lot recently, so I might start trying it more often. The lack of desktop view in SteamVR on Linux is really annoying though (I got it to work once, but that was the only thing that worked at the time lol)