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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: January 5th, 2024

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  • Precisely! I like to describe it as: a portable external monitor, in the shape of a laptop, with a built-in keyboard and trackpad.

    Many Android phones support a desktop mode when connected to an external monitor. Most notably Samsung’s higher-end phones, and they call this feature Samsung DeX. Lapdocks are perfect to make use of this functionality.

    NexDock is a more reputable brand that makes high-quality lapdocks. Uperfect is another, but I get the feeling they don’t care as much about making good usable products, and instead just want to maximize their specs for marketability.

    ELECROW, I never heard of before and it looks like chinesium, but it’s the only lapdock I found that actually ships to me so that’s what I ordered. Should arrive in a couple of weeks.



  • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.detomemes@lemmy.worldX rays
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    20 hours ago

    I think a good doctor wouldn’t even say it’s safe. It’s more accurate to say: the potential harm of a single x-ray is small/negligible, and the benefit of being able to correctly diagnose you and create an informed treatment plan is well worth that risk.

    Crossing the street isn’t completely safe, but if you need to get to the other side, you take that risk because it’s worth it. But you shouldn’t cross the street willy nilly for no reason, that would be stupidly dangerous. It’s kind of like that.



  • When docked, the Deck works great as a desktop PC. But not as a laptop. It’s too much to carry (lapdock + deck). The lapdock would be more suitable for your phone.

    Thanks for the advice. I’m going to find out for myself either way though.

    I have a large backpack and I’m used to carrying a lot of weight. I often carry a laptop + Nintendo Switch + battery pack and a bunch of misc stuff. So size and weight will be fine.

    And part of the plan is that on days where I don’t need a full Linux OS, I would only take the lapdock and indeed use it with my phone. Thus my portable computing options are a lot more modular.


  • Thanks for the advice! I did already figure out the thing about the trackpads. I found the whole environment to be surprisingly usable in handheld mode, but definitely not ideal.

    Thankfully that’s not how I’m planning to use it. I ordered a lapdock (specifically this one, which is the only one I’ve found that ships to my godforsaken country) and it should arrive in a couple of weeks and be the main way I use Desktop Mode. Then I don’t need Steam input.

    If you’re using a customizer like DeckyLoader holding off on updates for a week or so until there’s confirmation of stability and compatibility is advisable, but that’s more for handheld mode.

    Can you tell me more about DeckyLoader and why I might want to use it? Or just link to a page with that info. I never looked into it, and I’m wondering what’s actually missing from vanilla SteamOS.



  • Thanks, awesome answers all around!

    Regarding another distro, I do use CachyOS on my desktop so that’s definitely an option, but for the time being I want to give SteamOS a fair shot before I go and install a different OS on it. There’s every chance I’ll cave and install CachyOS within a month or two.

    Don’t bother messing with the system files if possible. Try to use an AppImage or Flatpak instead, […]

    Yes, definitely; I was going to do that anyway. There are only a few corner-cases, like the PWAs For Firefox that I linked in the OP, where this isn’t possible or might require a lot more fiddling than I prefer. But in almost all cases, I can work with Flatpaks, AppImages, or through a web browser.

    Thanks for answering, I was honestly not sure I’d get much good info here but you proved me dead wrong :)