IdlePX

To my mind, consoles and PCs aren't comparable. I love both, but nothing a PC offers will compare to a Nintendo Switch experience. Or even a PS4. If someone loves their console gaming, no PC will tempt them to the master race side.

But if you buy ton's of games, the second hand games stores can easily outweigh the initial cost of a Gaming Console.

@JZStudios Le sigh, I'm not talking about other people boycotting Epic, I was talking about my own personal experience. I certainly do not shop from Tesco, as on the sliding scale of companies I hate, they're well down the bottom end. With regards to my comments on Tim Sweeney, the man is a blistering thunder-twunt, and if I can avoid giving him money, I do. It's really very simple. I make sure he gets the least amount of my money as possible. I'm sorry to say, your idea of absolute black and white extremes does not even remotely match my view of the real world. I can only end this by saying I'm genuinely baffled by people assuming folks have to take extreme stances of flat out boycott for companies they don't like.

I'm on 4G internet only from my home through an aerial fitted to the outside of my house. I live 5 mile out of my local village. I can't get anything better than 128k through my phone line (yes, 128k still exists). I've worked from home since 2016. This week my internet speeds have plummeted off a cliff. Thursday and Friday I couldn't even play a YouTube video on 240p. I need a working internet connection to work and pay my bills. I've had countless "failed to send" emails on Thunderbird. Loading web pages has taken up to 15 seconds at a time, sometimes they just haven't loaded at all. I've given up on video calls. I know some folks are angry at Netflix for the quality drop. I know some folks blame Netflix or the ISPs and are demanding refunds. But come on people, these are unusual times. The demands on our infrastructure during these times is completely unique. Chill out, wait until this over. Demanding you get full 4k TV, while our digital infrastructure is so overburdened, which can have the knock on effect of people unable to work from home and pay their bills... Well, it is like the toilet roll hoarding of the internet.

Following in the vein of what @comander said, back in the 2000's the Linux community was all over optimising the bejeesus out of everything. Folks were obsessed with squeezing every single MB out of an operating system. Debates raged about what desktop was lightest, XFCE, Enlightenment, or LXDE. Optimise enough, and you could get Xubuntu, the XFCE Ubuntu running in 128mb of RAM. Dropping from Ubuntu with Gnome desktop using 512mb of RAM to Xubuntus 128mb of RAM made a huge difference when we only had 1gb to play with, at best. Nowadays, most folks are getting computers with 16gb of RAM, and soon that's going to double to 32gb of RAM as 32gb PCs become more common. At some point between us all having 1gb of RAM and 16gb of RAM, everyone stopped caring. It made little to no difference if you ran Witcher 3 on Ubuntu with full Unity desktop taking 3gb of RAM vs Elementary OS using 1gb of RAM. It's the difference between me having 13gb to run the game or 15gb. Now this isn't all to say a super optimised PC OS couldn't improve things. Seeing what the Nintendo Switch can do with 4gb of ram, an arm processor and Nvidias Tegra, packed into a tiny package boggles my mind. But when we've all got overpowered PCs that can already stomp over most games we play, would it really be worth investing in a new platform for PC gaming? You can't build it on Windows, obviously. So it's a situation like Steam OS/Linux, or something different. If it's different, then you need to build an OS from scratch to support all the components out there. All those drivers. Then get the games creators on board to release games on your platform. Then you've got to sell it to PC owners, who mostly already own a copy of Windows or Linux. That's a hell of a lot of R&D, a hell of a hard sell, and is addressing a problem that mostly stopped being a problem 10 years ago.

@JZStudios Did I run over your cat or something? Or are you usually this angry? Haha. Please go back and read the first line of the post you quoted. Again, I'll repeat myself for you. Because you're missing the point. Actively reduce Actively reduce. Reduce. Say it with me, reduce. That's not the some as boycott. I can not install the Epic launcher or buy Epic games and reduce as much money as I can give them. Using Unreal made games sucks, but I feel enough Epic towards epic to spite them every penny of possible. Different shades of grey. OK, a better example. I live in the Scottish Highlands. I have a a tesco on my doorstep. An asda 5 mile in the other direction. Then a morrisons and Iceland 40 mile away in Inverness. I hate tesco, don't really like asda, but consider them better than tesco. I like morrisons and Iceland. Every two to three months we make a trip to Inverness and get shopping from Morrisons and Iceland, along with stuff from the pet shop and B&M. In the in-between weeks, if we needodd bits like cheese or milk, we get it from Asda. Despite Asda being further away than Tesco, and despite the fact we don't really like Asda. I'm not driving for 80 mile total just to get some odds and ends. Tescos did a good job of wrecking small business in my area, which is low population as is. There's an example of using a brand I dislike while actively reducing money given to them. I have a feel you're still going to come back and call me idiotic, but eh. I'm not sure I can make my point clearer.

Steam have already tried it. Why would I have a gaming only OS on a PC that can game and do other stuff? How much of an FPS difference did we see between using Steam OS and a normal Linux distro? It wasn't much,and at the time, didnt have the Windows library of games on it. Even now though, Steam OS v Windows? That'd be a hard sell to a lot of people. That thing you spent hundreds of pounds on, let's reduce its functionality drastically for 5 FPS? Maybe?

@JZStudios Different shades of grey... *Shrugs* Not weak. I can dislike something without having a deeply embedded hatred of something that'll make me choke on my own vomit if I have to deal with said something. I dislike Windows, haven't had it on one of my own PCs for years. I love my Microsoft mouse. The love I have for my mouse does not diminish my dislike of Windows. Seems like everyone has to be on a sliding scale nowadays with two options. Have a deep love for something or straight up pure hatred. The mere concept of having balanced opinions triggers people, eh.

@JZStudios Quoting the very top line of the post you just quoted... "You can still actively reduce the money you give to people/companies you don't like." Heck, reading the whole post... "Do you still give them money when there are alternatives? I don't. if possible. I shop elsewhere." Bold text there, because I don't think you even read the post. If you did, you certainly didn't understand the intent. If I can actively reduce the money I give to a person or company, I can live with myself. Life isn't all about extremes. There's a million shades of grey in-between.

@mr moose I'm not going into it with you. You're impossible to talk too. I was only commenting for anyone that saw my post quoted by yourself.

For anyone spotting my quote in this post, I didn't say ESD won't damage your PC. I would say the risk is so minimal for me historically, I don't worry about it. Weigh the risks up for yourself. Know that there is a chance it can happen. But a lot of folks really don't care or worry enough to take any precautions, because it's a very small chance it can happen. Now, I'm off to eat jam on toast, while wearing a white shirt WITHOUT wearing a bib, because I'm just that kinda guy, YOLO.

Pssh, you'll pry my Surface mouse from my cold deaded hands!

@RonnieOP Fair doos. I was just making the point in reference to your first post, that for some of us, there is a good reason to not install the Epic launcher. We'll agree to disagree on that one and move on I guess, heh.

@RonnieOP So then reduce the money you give to Steam, as well? FWIW, I used to try and buy as many games as possible through Humble Bundle. It's been a while since I bought a new game though, and I'm not sure if they got bought/who owns them now.

@RonnieOP You can still actively reduce the money you give to people/companies you don't like. If you intensely dislike a company or person, do you still give them money when there are alternatives? I don't. if possible. I shop elsewhere. Not installing Epic is just another case of voting with my wallet. Something I wish more shoppers would do with more businesses, instead of grumbling without looking for alternatives.