I used to love making text adventure with AGT the Adventure Game Toolkit. I’ve wanted for some time already to learn to make stuff with still images and click zones which is essentially the evolution of the text adventure. The audience for this stuff is tiny, but I’d still love to get back into making text adventure. If there’s an easy to learn equivalent of AGT that can be made either web-hosted or somehow platform-independent I’d love to do that. AGT was a real breeze to learn and it’s a terrific creative outlet.

Anything more sophisticated is out of my league as I’m not a pro coder; my development experience is limited to an array of projects in VB6, the biggest of which was a companion software for Team Fortress Classic to customize scripts and per-class macros. It was called TFCompanion. Got 1,000 downloads roughly. But I digress.

Also, Windows doesn’t “just work.” I’ve yet to encounter anyone who gets a Windows machine and has no problems at all.

My mother-in-law got a new laptop (didn’t consult me first) and it refused to even acknowledge her printer when plugged in. I plugged in my little transformer pad running an old Ubuntu and it printed in literally one second flat. She ended up having to get a new printer. Why? Because the existing one she had, the manufacturer didn’t pay their protectsia to have it in the included drivers base. And no, even a downloaded driver didn’t help.

So Windows has its own shit aplenty. That’s just one example of many. I think the idea that Windows is easier is a myth. Linux just happens to have a lot more to offer that requires a little learning, and most people are just too lazy or scared.

Anyone who takes the plunge and is willing to learn seems to be happy for having done it so… that should be enough testimonial.

I don’t know what your financial status is, but a nice Synology NAS unit is a terrific investment. I’m really happy with the one I got a while back.

Morale. Just fyi not being snooty :-)

It’s definitely click fodder like 99.99999% of today’s content. That’s where we’re at because many years ago we let the pigs into the palace.

Elementary OS, or something like Garuda or Debian with either Gnome or KDE desktops.

Exactly. And as I said in another comment, you can make a wrapper for it if their website is not the most mobile-friendly. Any browser can handle everything beneath the skin.

Well, they all have standard web interfaces, and so many apps are merely wrappers for it or a rebuilt front-end. On a Linux device one would presume you’ll have a standard web browser so all you need really is a wrapper for the website and the browser engine handles all security. Is there any reason not to just go that route?

Thank you, again, for the info. I’ll check out those links. I appreciate it.

Thanks this is what I am looking for because everyone else misunderstood that I could run software on the tablet to “host” it. I think there’s some limitation of the USB architecture that makes what I want not really possible except with some very specific computers. I understand it but at the same time I don’t understand why. You can’t output raw signals to USB in a way that something on the other end will just hear that data as pure data. There needs to be some kind of mutual agreement on protocol at the fundamental level, if that’s a sloppy way to phrase it.

Thanks I’m gonna look into this because it might be worth a small investment to be able to do this going forward with other devices.

I appreciate your reply. You got what I was asking for. I realize I was not explicit about the unique nature of my needs but you got it.

It’s not an anything tablet it’s x86 CPU architecture can run pretty much anything. Originally had a sluggish Win10 but I managed to install a Linux distro. But the idea is to do it without any software on the tablet to run, like even to bring up the BIOS.

Salud, cheers, prost, l’chaim!

I tried it out a while back it looks promising but long from usable yet really. But maybe……

I wish! I have a Samsung and I used to have an LG. One thing I anticipated which turned out to be on the nose is that these TVs stay operational just up until the maker decides they want your money again. I never bought into it to begin with. I only got a Smart TV to begin with because it has everything else I want. But I go straight to hooking up a computer. The apps on the TVs are all ooh and aah until a couple of years go by and then suddenly the apps are not compatible with the sites or backends what have you, and guess what? No more updates. You need a new TV despite the fact that yours is 100% perfectly fine, other than the inherent sabotage built in.

So that’s why I never even had any expectations. But I would love to find the best Linux distro for a media machine that my wife could learn to use. Right now I have to do all of it because it’s just browse to the files or load a playlist. I’d like something like Kodi or Plex but they have issues with one thing or another. I just want an SMB based connection in an interface that shows friendly thumbnails kinda like Nova player on Android. That app is highly underrated. Free, as far as I know open source and aside from a few control designs not being too great, the app is terrific. Kicks VLC’s butt. Why are they still designing the software like it’s 20 years ago and it’s on Windows XP?

Anyway I digress. Smart TV running Android or Linux would rock but I don’t expect it to be too feasible. But what do I know, because I’m not a professional dev.

Honestly fine by me. I prefer Linux remain non-mainstream. It has integrity like this. The moment any suits see dollar signs on it, it’s as good as ruined.

Why? Office is such shit.

Not at all. More like not wanting to see some corporate entity start to turn it into another monetized trash heap that’s enshittified to be sold to the masses in bloated and corrupt form. There’s a legitimate argument for remaining the way it is.

I’m just gonna run it solo either with multilaunch, or I’ll do separate vm instances for the different game instances. I don’t need Steam for anything as of yet.

Thanks for the info about the front-ends.

Yeah I don’t play it on Steam, I use the old launcher because I run multilaunch. I was playing it back in ‘06 and am stuck in my ways.

I’ll take a look in Lutris, though, thanks.

How different is it, then, functionality-wise, from VirtualBox or VMWare?