bruce965

Iirc I had a Windows 7 (maybe 8 or 10) Home OEM, original (not cracked), but it still worked. Perhaps if I had kept using it for long periods in the VM it would have started complaining? Anyways I booted it baremetal from time to time, so maybe that's why it kept working.

That would definitely be a technical challenge, but also it's absolutely possible.

I used to do dual-boot Windows + Linux and I could run the Linux installation from a VM in Windows as well as the Windows installation from a VM in Linux.

When rebooting between metal and VM, Windows would always spend a few minutes "doing things" before continuing to boot, but it worked.

Linux would not even fret. It would just boot normally without any complaints.

I don't remember exactly which distro I had at the time, but probably it was Linux Mint.

If you don't want proprietary drivers the choice is quite straightforward: AMD. The official drivers are open source.

As for my experience, I've had absolutely no problems in the last few years with AMD, but I have to admit that I have always been using an iGPU, which has always been good enough for my needs.

I used to have problems with Nvidia proprietary drivers, but that was at least a couple years ago, things might have changed. I've never had issues with the free unofficial drivers, besides worse performance.

Yeah, I realize that and that's a nuisance for a videogame... If the game is small enough, OP might be able to give it a virtual GPU with VirtualBox, I did it in the past to play with friends on a single computer. I don't know if the usual KVM-based VMs support it as well.

Keep in mind that non-hardenized containers only protect you from bugs, they don't protect you from sophisticated malware. If you suspect the software you are trying to run might be a virus, don't run it, or run it in a virtual machine.

I would recommend using containers only if you absolutely understand how to make them secure AND you have no reason to suspect the software you are running might contain nefarious code. In any other case use a virtual machine.

On Windows: VirtualBox (free and easy to use, but still advanced/powerful) or HyperV (already included if you have Windows Pro).

On Linux: anything based on KVM, my personal favourite is virt-manager, but QEMU is also great.

I would stay away from VMware because the free version is quite limited, and the pro version is not free. The free alternatives are equally good or better, so no reason to use something paid imho.

I filled your survey. It would be nice if you could share the results once it's completed.

We do have a federated GitHub alternative. Perhaps not too mature yet, but it does indeed exist. Forgejo

1099$, seriously? 😅

Do you happen to own one? If yes, how do you feel about it?

For example, in the PineTime there is a heart rate monitor, but it's too slow and imprecise. Notifications work great, and the battery lasts 20 days or more. How about the Bangle.js 2?

https://pine64.org/devices/pinetime/

Be warned though, the hearth rate monitor doesn't work particularly well. And there is no sleep tracking afaik.

If you'd prefer something more reliable (but less open), GadgetBridge is an Android app to interface with commercial smart watches through reverse-engineered protocols.

https://gadgetbridge.org/

For reference, this is what the "Checking for Updates" page on the Pop!_OS store looks like for me. This icon feels out of place, that's why I assumed this is a placeholder that replaced the correct icon that went missing due to some kind of minor problem with my installation.