PIA also has port forwarding. I have been using it with great success for several years. Don’t know anything about their politics.

But… it’s not the only place to play mario…

Probably in the same dark pattern bullshit they do to get you to turn the rest of their crap on.

I’ll keep that in mind. So far haven’t hit any walls other than FreeCAD running like ass but I’m not sure that’s Bazzite’s problem or something else. Still digging into it.

I’m doing the same thing. Someone recommended Bazzite to me and it seems to come with a lot of the compatibility stuff ready to go. I haven’t really gotten into it much but my plan is to dip my toes in with it and at least learn the names of the apps and what they do. After that If I want to switch I hope it will be easier. The biggest hurdle for me is just knowing what’s what.

I do love the file browser on it already. I’m doing the same stuff with it I had to install 2 3rd party apps in Windows for.

I tried it for a while. Going back and reading it later just made me cringe so I stopped.

1. Yea, I had a throwaway account already to use for the login so I didn’t bother trying it. They still managed to make it annoying even when I did it their way and agreed it is horseshit.

2. Agreed.

3. I DID forget about that. Thanks for reminding me I need to figure out how to opt out (assuming it’s even possible).

Yea just set up a windows 11 pc for the first time and the experience was basically:

It forces you into making a Microsoft account or log in with one, then it told me mine was locked even though I was able to log in fine elsewhere. I had to use the alternate log in method to get in (I know you can make a local account but I already had one set up for this).

Then it tries to force you to “back up from your old pc” which this was an entirely different system so I’m not even sure why I would want that.

Then it tries to convince you to send them a bunch of telemetry while reminding you that you’ll still get ads if you don’t, they just won’t be targeted towards you.

Then it tries to push microsoft office on you.

Then it needs to do updates which took like 45 minutes.

Then you’re finally at the desktop where you get probably half a dozen othe pop ups between windows and the vendor.

Then it’s “usable”

By comparison Bazzite took like 20 minutes to get to a usable desktop and isn’t nagging me about ads at all. I have a laundry list of things still to figure out but so far way less annoying.

Just bought a laptop and put bazzite on it to try it out and figure out if I can do all the things I want to do on it. If that all works out I’ll be switching my desktop over.

Yeah, I’m not arguing with you, it’s just a pain in the ass to deal with. I don’t mind seeding the shit I download at all but it shouldn’t be a fucking competition when it’s a requirement to download stuff. Obviously they’re not hurting for seeders. IMO a better metric would be having a required seeding time (which they do anyway) and let you download as much as you want as long as you seed it long enough. Like you said I’ll never hit a positive ratio, even doing things your way I doubt I’d find enough shit I wanted to build up a big ratio. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing and rely mainly on public trackers and use the private ones only when I can’t find what I’m looking for. I actually have quite a high ratio on both the private trackers I use just from seeding stuff for a long time and trading points in so I can download stuff, it just doesn’t help my ratio.

For that to work I’d have to know what I’m looking for in advance… I don’t really have enough media exposure for that. I usually find out about shows/movies I might be interested in after they’ve been out for months.

I have yet to get a positive ratio on anything I’ve ever downloaded from a private tracker. Always have to sit and wait to accumulate points in their seeding time system… It’s annoying because otherwise I’d be seeding a lot more shit for them.