Is anyone else anxious about effortlessly running Android games & apps on Linux?

KDE Plasma mobile is integrating Waydroid and desktop Plasma is next.

Steam Machine's launch is imminent, Steam Frame is next. And with it, Lepton. Valve's way of running Android games on Linux.

Waydroid has been working fine for a while but it requires quite a lot of setup for the casual user. Anyone looking to avoid putting the effort will see their opportunity in the coming months. Thanks to both KDE & Valve.

I honestly don't know exactly what I'll do with it, but I freaking love that it is being made available. Personally, I won't be running any Android games, but my kids might want to. And I'm very motivated to try it. I think my biggest reason to be interested in it is the possibilities it opens for Linux phones.

Sure, Google's integrity API will still block some apps from even working, but the amount of mainstream apps that will work is immense.

For those curious about this: Do you have any specific reason for it or are you interested in the tech?

For those out of the loop:

GameNative is an open source app to play PC games on Android, it supports Steam, Epic, GOG and Amazon.

https://gamenative.app/

Get 0.9.0 here: https://downloads.gamenative.app/releases/0.9.0/gamenative-v0.9.0.apk Or on Github here: https://github.com/utkarshdalal/GameNative/releases/download/v0.9.0/gamenative-v0.9.0.apk

Includes exciting changes like initial Pixel 10 support, Steam Workshop support, Steam branch support. Full changelog in thread 🧵

Changelog:

What's Changed

Fixes since prerelease:

Fix touchpad right-click by @Nightwalker743 in #1071
fix: remove 30s brightness blackout from ambient download overlay by @xXJSONDeruloXx in #1086
add OpenAL Soft Audio support, added presets for WINEDLLOVERRIDES for Quick Audio fixing by @Catpotatos in #1102
BCN emulation was hidden from Proton x86_x64 by @Catpotatos in #1109
Fix old installs for storage mgr by @xXJSONDeruloXx in #1111
Handle store-specific best configs by @utkarshdalal in #1115
Reduce GC pressure in CaseInsensitiveFileSystem by @jeremybernstein in #1120
Fix crash on game start on Meta Quest by @lvonasek in #1105
Don't show logged out steam splash when offline by @utkarshdalal in #1138
Hide local saves only setting by @utkarshdalal in #1139

Fixes from 0.9.0-prerelease:

Updated Wrapper - initial PowerVR (Pixel 10) GPU support - thanks to @sharpy66 and @Pipetto-crypto
Added "use known config" and automatic best configs for Epic, GOG and Amazon by @unbelievableflavour in #892
Added Steam workshop implementation by @Nightwalker743 in #977
Added support for Steam game versions/branches by @morganwalkup in #870
Added "compatibility" filter by @unbelievableflavour in #813
Added downloads & storage manager by @xXJSONDeruloXx and @eredisg in #878
Added carousel layout by @xXJSONDeruloXx in #797
Fixes for launching from frontends by @jeremybernstein
Fix Steam cloud saves for games like Cult of the Lamb and Blue Revolver - apply UFS rootoverrides for Windows save paths by @kiequoo in #839
Screensaver for download screen OLED protection by @ObfuscatedVoid in #1017
fix for games with Steam Input by @kiequoo in #1026
Samsung DeX support by @AndreVto in #793
Upload achievements in real-time & custom achievement pop-up placements by @phobos665 in #975
Fix display of game playtime by @kiequoo in #957
Preserve settings on Steam logout by @xXJSONDeruloXx in #903
Winlator ludashi effects by @xXJSONDeruloXx in #803
Improve boot splash tip readability on dark displays by @nacl-dev in #823
Launch games in the correct workingDir, fix some cloud saves and no launches by @kiequoo in #775
Reduces boot time on external storage by @giovannygb in #747
Fix CursorWindow crash on large Steam libraries by @jeremybernstein in #961
add battery temperature metric to performance HUD by @xXJSONDeruloXx in #991
Nicer amazon images by @unbelievableflavour in #1021
Nicer images for in GOG detail screens by @unbelievableflavour in #998
Reduce buggy game calculation size (eg in RE4) by @jeremybernstein in #929
Adjust color scheme of the External Display Input (on Thor-type devices) by @MayRedBeWithYou in #838

From their repo:

Plasma Login

Plasma Login provides a display manager for KDE Plasma, forked from SDDM and with an new frontend providing a greeter, wallpaper plugin integration and System Settings module (KCM).

What we want

• Great out-of-box experience in multi-monitor and high DPI and HDR
• Keyboard layout switching
• Virtual keyboards
• Easy Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Vietnamese (CJK) input
• Screen readers for blind people (which then means volume control)
• Remote (VNC/RDP) support from startup
• Deeper Plasma integration including:
  • Display and keyboard brightness control
  • Full power management
  • Pairing trusted bluetooth devices
  • Login to known Wi-Fi for remote LDAP

I just read about people struggling with Next loud in the OpenDesk thread and wanted to share this in case someone is interested in contributing to this project.

I thought this would be relevant to Linux, since the options available to us Linux users are either unmaintained, hard to use, require a subscription, an account, or to upload your content to a server.

BentoPDF is the opposite of all that.

I just hope they add a dumb-proof way to install it (PWA? Flatpak?) for easy access.

I just found this interesting PDF tool:

https://github.com/alam00000/bentopdf

Fully offline, everything is client side, the files get edited in the browser, there's no server uploads.

Does anyone know anything about it? Any thoughts worth sharing? Is it trustworthy?

What I want to achieve:

I'm subscribed to Home Assistant Cloud, and I want better location history but integrated to Home Assistant.

What I've tried:

I've tried to setup the server integration, I have traccar running successfully, but I don't know how to reach traccar without exposing it to the internet too, is that even possible? I know there's a script that feeds a HA device's location to Traccar, but I would prefer to use the official integration if possible.

Questions

Can I avoid exposing Traccar server to the internet without using a VPN?