For my main workstation and main laptop:

• Cosmic themed GNOME - I just like the way it looks and works without any changes. The basic tiling functions are something I find helpful at times too.
• Plasma 6 - It works pretty well and looks nice. I don’t do a lot of customization, so it’s not a big deal to me. For my other machines I’m currently using Cinnamon, GNOME, Budgie, and LXDE.

https://blissos.org/ is another one I just remembered as well.

https://www.android-x86.org/

It looks good! I was hoping to get some pictures of it, but we had thick clouds the entire time.

I can appreciate a website making a list like this rather than putting five games to a page to garner more clicks! I definitely have different tastes than the reviewers though, which is fine.

Yeah, I would put V in there as well! I still don’t like VI nearly as much, even though I’ve played it quite a few times.

You can (at least the last time I ran an install) get both 10 and 11 installed without a Microsoft account, 11 just requires this process to do it. If you have an old ISO of 11 around it should allow a local account if you don’t connect to the internet, but they apparently patched that out now.

I’ve been playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance again. It’s just a great world to just ride around and do things in for a few hours. They unfortunately had to delay the sequel until the beginning of next year, so I’ve got to wait a little longer before I can do the same in the new one!

Yep, I didn’t convert either of my accounts over as well.

I would just try it and see what you think of it! It’s completely free. Minetest is the program you install on your computer, and then there are lots of different games that you can download and try inside of Minetest. There’s more besides Minecraft-likes that you can try, and there are definitely mods available. I never modded Minecraft though, so I’m not sure how they compare.

As to system requirements, it could run pretty well on a six year old Android phone the last I tried. It might be worth a shot on your laptop! Be aware that it’ll probably be a somewhat different experience than Minecraft, but not necessarily in a bad way!

Yes, it often is!

Exactly! Better all around for me. The player base isn’t as big, but I’m not really an online player.

Yes, it’s certainly changed for the worse since I’ve played it. I quit fairly soon after they announced that I would need to eventually migrate to a Microsoft account. Seeing some of the things they’ve done since then doesn’t make me miss it!

I haven’t had the urge to play it recently, so I haven’t tried it since the name change. I heard they were diverging a bit from being a Minecraft clone, are there many large changes?

I primarily prefer it because it does pretty much all the Minecraft stuff I want it to do, and it’s got other games available as well. Plus, completely Linux compatible and no Microsoft account!

Oh yes, I fully expect it. It sadly happens way too often.

I had a lot of fun with the original Backyard Baseball when I was younger! I’m afraid I’ve aged out of the franchise now, but hopefully it interests a new generation! I just hope they don’t go the mobile/microtransactions route. Even though it’s apparently the most profitable model, it doesn’t usually make good games.

What pushed me over the edge was how much worse the user experience became with 8 & 10.

I really disliked the lack of control over updates, settings and defaults being reverted after minor updates, and the constant pushing of Microsoft accounts and services. The data collection and privacy issues certainly didn’t help either. I switched from 7 to 10 for a period of time, but eventually started using Linux for everything except for games. I started realizing just how good Linux gaming was getting, and I eventually had one too many issues with my Windows partition and just quit using it entirely.

I don’t remember having a lot of the frustrations I hear some talk about when switching, but I think that was because early on I realized I just needed to start figuring out the Linux way of doing things rather than bringing my Windows experience over.

I’ve had an account on RetroAchievements for a few years but never logged in on any of my emulators for some reason. I just started doing that, and it’s a lot of fun trying to get some of the achievements! It gives me a good excuse to replay some old favorites, and I’ve discovered some new things on games I’ve replayed many times.

It’s back up! https://retroachievements.org/game/14772

I was in the middle of playing Zelda when the servers went down yesterday. I’m guessing it was something about the GameCube achievement launch.

Sounds interesting!