YouTube's plan backfires, people are installing better ad blockers

ijeff@lemdro.id to Technology@beehaw.org – 305 points –
YouTube's plan backfires, people are installing better ad blockers
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The day i remove my adblocker is the day... ah who am i kidding, i will never uninstall my adblocker.

t doesn’t say more people overall use ad blockers. It says people that were already using them are now switching between different extensions. Let’s wait and see if this increases Firefox’s market share. This could be the real good outcome of all this.

That's literally the first thing after I install any new system.

  • get firefox on a stick so I don't have to open deprecated explorer or have to download Edge
  • install firefox, get ad blocker extension
  • then remove/turn off all the recommended shit that are now embedded to your start menu and task bar and lock screen. (I wish there is a github FOSS script that does this for new windows builds. )

I will abandon windows when the games can all be played on Linux properly.

I will abandon windows when the games can all be played on Linux properly.

I feel you there. I'm just about at that point, although I also need better support for music software (FL studio, VSTs, etc) and hardware before I can fully switch.

I will abandon windows when the games can all be played on Linux properly

Sooo.... today? Sweet! Welcome to the club! :)

Is there a compatibility list and performance difference?

I have games that are not from steam so they will need to be able to run as well.(and games that requires their launcher, like EA/Ubisoft. Oh and some of them have denuvo.)

How about other driver functions(recording game clips, instant replay buffers) that was provided on windows drivers?

I am planning a new build(so many new hardware's) so if all above are possible and don't need some arcane knowledge (like suddenly you need to upgrade your libc and install new kernels and fuck around with driver compatibility) then consider me in.

What/where would be the guide and distro to start with?

I'm eagerly awaiting an answer here. Every time I read "Gaming on Linux is already pretty good!" the further instructions read to me like having to write your own game engine (straight up incompatibility of some games aside).

I'm willing to fuck around with Linux on a similar difficulty to tinkering with somewhat hard to install mods or slightly difficult Windows troubleshooting (such as tinkering with individual registry entries or editing .ini files).

I haven't had a single game that needed editing ini files in ~ a year of gaming on linux. Most of the time it works straight from Steam as you'd expect on Windows. If not it's usually just checking protondb.com to find out what launch arguments and proton version a steam game needs/works best with.

If a game is not on steam it's usually easiest to use Lutris to handle the launcher setup as most other launchers like epic and uplay do not run natively on Linux so they need to be launched in the same container as windows games which Lutris fully takes care of.

Note that some games have kernel level anti cheat which will never work on linux. (eg valorant)

Is there a compatibility list and performance difference?

The closest thing I know is ProtonDB

Sadly, Fortnite doesn't run on Linux. EAC has Linux support in general but Epic doesn't it for Fortnite...
Was one of the first things I tried on my Steamdeck after installing HeroicLauncher. Would have been nice with the gyro.

I love Linux but this just isn’t true. There are still quite a few games like PUBG that can’t work thanks to anticheat, which are often the kinds of games I’m less likely to stop playing to switch because I’ve got friends I’d like to play it with

I’m about a week off coming back to Windows from Linux.

Some things that chased me off:

  • Alan Wake 2 used too new of GPU features
  • Once after playing a game, my cursor was just gone—not invisible, just not there. Only keyboard.
  • A few times after quitting games, something was broken about the desktop experience and I had to reboot the machine to get things working again
  • Discord crashed any time the machine went to sleep (or woke up? Hard to tell which)
  • Several games only worked if I manually put in Proton launch options
  • No support for DLSS framegen
  • Cyberpunk had to be given a fake driver version to support ray reconstruction
  • No support for GamePass games still, which is how I’d been playing Starfield and Lies if P, and planning on Cities: Skylines 2.
  • No native support for middle-click scrolling without pasting (I don’t count editing low-level X config files)
  • [edit] Also Lords if the Fallen thought I was using a modified game and wouldn’t let me online—solo play only, thanks to EAC

I keep feeling like Linux is just a year or two away from being good enough for common folks to switch over, and I guess if all you need if Firefox, it’s probably there. But the experience is just so subtly, but consistently, bad year after year.

For reference, I was on Pop!_OS (whatever their latest stable was, I think based on Ubuntu 22?). I had read that Pop!_OS was one of the better distorts for games.

I've done that very long time ago even custom build linux kernels and compile drivers, but the experience is not really good cause it's basically a waiting game. You wait for updates and fixes and drivers etc cause no one owes you anything and even for gaming updates you might not be priority. (I used to pay money to a side fork of wine that has a paid member voting which game's compatibility to work on first. I don't have to pay/wait for anything just to have a game working on Windows. )

I switched to Linux a year or so ago and kept a Windows partition just in case. I've only had to use it once for an online exam.

What games have you played since then? For reference. I go check my most recent played game https://www.protondb.com/app/2009100 and I am not really convinced by the result. And the game I am going to play https://www.protondb.com/app/835960, very mixed results. Consider both are UE5 engine games. I will check back like in a year or 2 once UE5 games runs on proton smoothly I will switch.

Yeah I don't play any UE5 games. Although it looks like both of those you linked mostly work. If you're not willing to tweak your proton version or settings every once in a while then Linux probably isn't for you.

That's why I say maybe I need to give it a year then visit the protondb again. I am too lazy to tweak those per game or doing all the extra works(some people have their own Custom Proton??) just to play a game. It's also why sometimes I just buy games on console cause it's way easier to play game on it. (the suspend feature is a big win, I wish PC game has this as well. )

Custom proton usually means the glorious eggroll version, it's just a community maintained version you have to install on your own.

The real villainy here is that Google is trying to project this practice as stealing. They have started dictating what you can or can't do on your system (this has parallels with their crooked WEI efforts).

Just in case you are worried about the moral implications of using ad blockers on YouTube, remember this - they didn't become the video hosting monopoly by playing fair. They waited till all their competitors were dead, to start demanding money and aggressively pushing ads. If you are worried about the income of the creators, please pay them directly - don't feed a false 'dont-be-evil' corporation.