After months of testing and improvements, security engineer and modder Andy Nguyen has finally released PS5-Linux, allowing users to turn their console into a functional Linux gaming PC.
I personally think there’s a law of diminishing returns with things like graphics and resolution, and as technology advances, what used to be good or even amazing becomes our baseline as expectations shift.
Somewhat related to that, I’d also say there’s merit in sometimes analyzing if our chase for ‘better’ is truly bringing us enough value to warrant the downsides it brings. As an example, the market’s desire for the new and novel, for better graphics, for higher resolutions, feeds into a consumer culture that brings with it a tremendous amount of greenhouse emissions to produce and ship all those new consoles and higher resolution monitors/TVs, environmental destruction to mine the raw materials for them, exploitation of third world workers to gather those materials and assemble them into those products, products which as the OP points out, are increasingly user hostile and enshittified alongside those better graphics.
When looked at objectively, a Wii is a comparatively low resolution, but it is also widely available used (so while it did initially contribute to the downsides I mentioned above when new, as a used object on a second-hand market, it does not), and despite that lack of resolution, still brings with it the capability of giving us great fun, which is ultimately the reason we want to experience them, is it not? And due to its age, it has no enshittification whatsoever, the user completely owns the experience.
Sure, but that’s not better than playing games in 4k now is it? Yes it’s fun, but it’s objectively not “better”.
I personally think there’s a law of diminishing returns with things like graphics and resolution, and as technology advances, what used to be good or even amazing becomes our baseline as expectations shift.
Somewhat related to that, I’d also say there’s merit in sometimes analyzing if our chase for ‘better’ is truly bringing us enough value to warrant the downsides it brings. As an example, the market’s desire for the new and novel, for better graphics, for higher resolutions, feeds into a consumer culture that brings with it a tremendous amount of greenhouse emissions to produce and ship all those new consoles and higher resolution monitors/TVs, environmental destruction to mine the raw materials for them, exploitation of third world workers to gather those materials and assemble them into those products, products which as the OP points out, are increasingly user hostile and enshittified alongside those better graphics.
When looked at objectively, a Wii is a comparatively low resolution, but it is also widely available used (so while it did initially contribute to the downsides I mentioned above when new, as a used object on a second-hand market, it does not), and despite that lack of resolution, still brings with it the capability of giving us great fun, which is ultimately the reason we want to experience them, is it not? And due to its age, it has no enshittification whatsoever, the user completely owns the experience.
But that’s just my 2 cents.