this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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Here's to all 100 of us Linux couch gamers who all happen to own a Logitech K400 Plus. If you know, you know.
I barely couch game but when I do, I use a controller.
Mostly my Linux htpc is used for streaming but not doing a ton of that anymore. I started buying DVDs again.
But nice to have the option for the two streaming services I do use or YouTube.
Over time my strategy flipped from HTPC being my old desktop builds to becoming the newest build in the house that I do everything fun on. Since my friends still visit for local multiplayer, I have a bunch of 8bitdo controllers and arcade sticks. I primarily use them too yep.
Trackpad keyboard is great for general navigation/web browsing. The joke is there's very little competition in this form factor. Also have a cushioned wood lap desk with a proper keyboard+mouse. Mouse heavy gaming. Quake Brutalist Jam 3, Nova Roma, HMM: Olden Era, and Toxic Commando I brought out the lap desk for most recently.
This is all Stremio's fault 😅.
What was your motivation to start buying DVD again? I went all in on digital a decade back after being the guy who owned every major (and some flops) console dating back to the 1970's for so long. Pirate all in, software emulation all in. I bought a NAS. I hate subscriptions and minimise those. Never sold off vinyl or my movie collection however. Still buy vinyl but no new movie purchases in said decade.
Me and my girl are watching a bunch of different TV shows. Basically showing each other our favorites. While we were watching Dexter, it got removed from whatever platform it was on and moved to another one which meant we had to buy another service just to finish it.
After that, and seeing all of the price hikes, I realized I'd rather do a one time payment for any shows I watch especially because at the current pricing, DVDs are cheaper overall. That and streaming services are trying to add value to themselves by doing original TV. Most of it is garbage that I'll never watch, so there isnt much value in streaming for me anymore.
That sounds like a really cool setup for gaming. What games di you and your friends play mostly? My htpc is just a little used HP office PC. Far from cutting edge but great for my use case. I used to use a keyboard and mouse for navigation but I didn't like it. I settled on using an air mouse and keyboard combo. Its not perfect but it gets the job done.
Basically showing each other our favorites.
Very jealous lol.
...DVDs are cheaper overall. ...Most of it is garbage that I'll never watch, so there isnt much value in streaming for me anymore.
When going the legal route, can't argue with that logic fair enough.
...What games do you and your friends play mostly?
Mixed bag we're all variety gamers. Much like online gaming for us it's just an excuse to show up and talk. Lately it's been Sega Genesis emulation and getting through the harder USA version of Streets of Rage 3. A lot of shoot 'em up arcade titles via MAME. A ROM hack basically a combined version of all N64 Mario Party games into one. We were taking turns playing Death Stranding 2 in the winter. Xenogears before that, again with a hack this time just QoL features and a better English translation.
Or one of these little guys.
Ohhhh it's finally coming!
Looking forward to trying it.
I'm super pumped to finally have something better than Nvidia Sheild or Kodi
Honestly, I want to like Kodi, but even this first screenshot looks much better than anything I've been able to muster together in Kodi.
Same here. Kodi's UI was nice back in the days when it was XBMC. These days we have different ideas on usability.
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Yeah I feel the same way. I feel like Kodi, unfortunately, makes it harder to use my HTPC rather than easier
Yeah this has been on the books for ages. It's not being developed by KDE's core team and it wasn't making much progress for a while but I'm really happy yo see it come out.
I've been waiting for Plasma Bigscreen for quite a while for my and eventually my family's living room entertainment system.
Add a DVB receiver and you can just a normal, dumb screen and never have to deal with shitty "smart" TVs again.
Right now? Only buying Android TV because it's the only OS whixh I can manipulate (using ADB).
Reintroduces, really. Iirc it was originally made for plasma 5 and and was broken by changes in Plasma 6. This is "we fixed the stuff we broke".
there's a bunch of improvements too
Yup, it disappeared from Debian repositories in 13/Trixie.
Annoyed at slow release processes since I want this but I also hate the risk of crapping up my system by adding a new source. It'll be a dog's age before I can get it on a stable version of Ubuntu, but I've had so much trouble installing big corpo programs I need on anything but Ubuntu stable that I'm afraid to leave it.
I run Mint on a HTPC currently, but it might be worth switching to a different distro for this.
How do streaming services like Disney, prime, Netflix, and hbo run on these? Is it possible?
I need something dead simple for my wife.
Probably the same as on a Linux desktop now, the browser sites work fine but you won't get 4k or HDR.
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I set up Jellyfin and my wife and kids love it. We have no streaming services now.
Hell yeah!
Are there any distros yet that come with it? I have a pi I've been using as an htpc and I'm interested in switching
We are planning to join the Plasma release schedule starting with Plasma 6.7 (in June), which will make it possible for distributions to ship it in their repositories.
I’m imagining it will only be available in rolling release distros for a while.
i wonder if I'll be possible to flash this on my nvidia shield when it's out
That would be great!
How useful is this in the grand scheme of things if the applications themselves don't have a 10ft UI? I guess you'd need to limit yourself and find apps specifically made to be shown on a TV.. within a repository that caters desktop apps. Blending TV's and desktops is hard...
I have a Linux HTPC on Mint where I have the Pegasus frontend with Jellyfin, VacuumTube, and a bunch of games. The main usability issue is the need to exit each app differently to get back to Pegasus. There’s no notion of using a home button to go back to the home screen and pause the current process, which is what I’d be hoping to get with Bigscreen. Otherwise, Pegasus is fine for launching apps with a remote, and Jellyfin and VacuumTube work fine with a remote as well.
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