I mean, there is nothing stopping you from installing whatever version of the library that is required in tandem with the latest version. You could even put it somewhere other then a standard library location and start executing your binary with

LD=/my/old/library ./myoodbinary

and have it dynamically loaded at runtime.

The only time this doesn’t work is when it is something in the kernel that breaks the binary… But you can run an older kernel that has back ported fixed.

I get where you are coming from with proprietary binarys that the devs have abandon. But to me that makes all the more reason not to run that software in the first place.

Edit: also the kobo desktop Windows app runs under wine I think…

I got you fam /s

https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox

I ran UT2k4 in 2016 or so, it was dynamically linked but brought its libraries, I had to replace some IIRC but afterwards, it ran.

There’s a massive difference between saying “noooooo!!! That’s too old!!!” And saying “you don’t have the right libraries”

Also because it’s a dependency issue, won’t flatpaks fix it?

Yes but most people aren’t doing this unless they are insane and finding these libraries is borderline impossible and I personally in my search have found a bunch of dead links for them. So no Linux isn’t backwards compatible to me and never will be backwards compatible because it fundamentally can’t be because even libc and it’s changes have broken stuff in the past with some Steam Linux native games I was trying to run.

I could root it, I just haven’t yet because I’m learning the Android system.

Somebody else already replied, but for clarity: Installing an OS is usually done without an OS already running. To this end, installation media comes on a disk image - in the past, you’d burn that on a CD, but these days you can flash it on a USB, and then reformat/reflash it if you want the stick “back”. You can also check out Ventoy, which basically lets you instead drop the .iso files on a stick instead of having to flash a specific one.

Afterwards, you can boot up the installation media from your USB. This is probably another peculiarity, coming from windows, because Linux installation media often comes in the form of a live image - it’s basically just the distribution you’re installing, set to load itself into memory from the USB stick, alongside all the tools needed to install it onto permanent storage in your computer. This means you can just boot it off off a USB stick and try it out without installing. Performance might suffer and any changes won’t be saved (by default), but that’s what the other commenter is talking about.

Anyways, once you’ve booted into the live image you can actually install it. This is where it gets more complicated, since the exact steps depend on distribution, especially when dealing with dual-booting. If you have two drives in your computer (SSD or HDD), I’d recommend installing Linux on a separate one from Windows, for simple reasons - it makes it harder to accidentally wipe your other system by mistake, and windows likes to overwrite the bootloader with its own one.

Also, personal recommendation - if you use a Linux bootloader as your main one (that is, the one where you select whether you’re booting into Linux or Windows), I’d recommend rEFInd - it has a simple graphical interface and automatically detects boot options on launch, so it requires very little configuration. And if you actually install on the same drive, you might want to look up a way to add Linux as a boot option in Windows’s bootloader, since that helps avoid hassles with the bootloader being overwritten.

There are live images where you can test and run Linux out of an USB, but most of those are not persistent (start from scratch once you reboot), the other option is called dual boot where you have Windows and Linux installed in parallel and you select which one to use during boot.

I would definitely recommend trying Ventoy if you haven’t. Instead of flashing one image on your USB stick, it creates a small bootable EFI partition and a storage partition. You can then drop .iso images on the storage partition, and when booting Ventoy from the stick, it scans the isos and shows a simple interface to select which one you want to boot.

This means you can keep multiple installation media and/or tools on the same stick, with management being as simple as adding/removing files, while also being able to use it as storage in a pinch.

Why is anyone requiring an Apple developed piece of software in Linux these days?

Yeah I ran cups from when the distros first started pushing for it hard and it always just worked at the office.

Recently at home my wife’s been complaining about air print not working well, so I decided to throw CUPS into a docker and have her use that as the interface. I don’t know if it’s my Wi-Fi network my printer or what but I’ve been fighting it for a solid week it’ll work for a print or two maybe three and then nothing. Nope sorry that printer’s not reachable anymore. Meanwhile all the windows boxes print to it just fine.

But that is because they are printers, and printers are gremlins that make sure to keep you off your work whenever they can.

Seriously, it is because printers need to convert analog to digital to analog, which is crazy difficult to get right.

I used one for a long time with no issues.

Desktop Linux is well known for how compatible it is with proprietary graphics card drivers. I can only imagine the world of pain you’re going through with them being un/pluggable.

My laptop on battery lasts about 6 to 7 hours on Linux. It’s about an hour shorter than Windows but nowhere near “drained fast” territory.

Now… if I use X11 that’s a whole other story! Somehow the battery life is cut in half because of higher GPU usage, and I still can’t figure out what causes it.

Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and saviour, PopOS?

Fractional scaling is per monitor on Wayland. (Unless it’s GNOME that you are using?)

I hear Redhat is the best!

Fedora or Arch, considering it’s on the Steam Deck.