As if it wasn’t enough of a surprise that Sony created an official driver for the DualSense on Linux a few years ago, they’ve now upped their game and have added initial support for their upcoming DualSense Edge – basically Sony’s answer to the Xbox Elite gamepad. The funny thing is the controller won’t even be on shelves until early next year. But by sending the patch in this early, hopefully it will be merged into the Linux kernel by the time you get your hands on one.

WinesapOS – the brilliant Arch-based gaming distro created by Luke Short – has evolved from 3.2.0 alpha to beta. Noteworthy updates in this release include: support for VMware Fusion/Workstation bauh replaces Pamac – this is evidently more stable now built against “the latest Arch Linux” rather than targeting the outdated SteamOS 3’s packages – provides a more stable graphics library progress bar is now shown on initial setup rather than using terminal minimum requirements to run the distro have been lowered – you can run it on a single CPU core and 2 GB RAM!

New Deck client update (beta) mostly focuses on bug fixes. It improves the login time for users with big game libraries. DPI scaling should now be proper on initial load, and the OSK in Desktop Mode should be properly resized. All of this and more: Improved login times for users with large libraries Fixed links to store/discussions/etc in the Library Fixed crash when trying to view emojis in virtual keyboard in desktop mode Fixed improper DPI scaling on initial load Decreased load time of virtual keyboard and standalone controller configurator in desktop mode after the first time Properly resize virtual keyboard in desktop mode Streamlined joining a voice chat in groups without multiple voice chat channels.

Earlier today Phoronix had noticed a new patch being submitted for the Microsoft HID Linux driver. The patch was created by Google engineer Siarhei Vishniakou, who is “in communication” with engineers from Microsoft. Last year, a firmware update had apparently broke the rumble compatibility with Xbox One controllers. This patch fixes the problem, and also works with the newer Series X|S controllers. It might even work with the Elite pad.

Today’s beta Steam Deck client update allows the user to check the individual components that make up their Deck. As you can see in the cover photo, I can see how much memory is in the Deck, who the supplier is, the part number, and I can see these same statistics for every nook and cranny that make up the device, including the: controller board thumbsticks LCD eMMC module PSU custom APU speaker module fan thermal module Per Steam’s blog post, this was made in the effort “to provide further clarity and transparency about the components and their sources for your specific Steam Deck.

The Thelio desktop family by System76 recently got a visual refresh. Now the base Thelio, as well as the Thelio Mira, are receiving a refresh in the processor department. Previously, if you went with Intel, you would have a 12th-gen processor. For AMD, you had the Ryzen 5000 series. Now, Intel has been upgraded to 13th-gen. Per the press documentation, this new CPU clocks in “about 40% faster with multithreaded tasks” over the previous generation.

Not too long after yesterday’s beta Deck client update, Valve pushed an update to the Stable branch with these additions. This update brings improvements to the Quick Access Menu, adds an external display safe mode, increases boot video duration to 30 seconds, adds controller-specific glyphs to the Lock screen, fixes for Steam group chats, the Lock screen, the OSK, the performance overlay, and Steam Input. Patch notes are as follows:

In case you hadn’t caught up on the news, the founder of PolyMC – a popular Minecraft launcher – was exerting toxic behavior towards the other developers and to the project itself. Fortunately we have our alternatives. Prism Launcher happens to be one of them. This launcher was actually created by the developers who got kicked out of the PolyMC project by the creator. It’s open-source, mostly written in C++, using Qt as the frontend, and has the GPLv3 license.

Today’s beta Steam Deck client update adds a toggle in the Developer menu for safe mode when connecting to an external display. Enabling this will force the Deck to use a low resolution when it’s docked; this might help if the external display has issues. An in-game crash has also been fixed with regards to Steam Input, and “the previous behavior of using stick deflection” has been restored, rather than “the capacitive sensor for Radial Menus that don’t have center buttons bound.

Proton 7.0-5 is now available as a release candidate. Included in this update are 15 newly playable titles: Rift Unravel 2 Airborne Kingdom ToGather:Island Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull Re-Volt Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Aspire: Ina’s Tale Battle Realms: Zen Edition Deathsmiles II Primal Carnage: Extinction Pico Park Classic Edition Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind Darkstar One Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb Several bugs have been fixed: