Isn’t the thing with this that the Switch 1 compatibility layer isn’t on the factory firmware since it was a later developed piece of software? That’s probably why it’s asking for an update, as these units were made months ago (firmware 19.0.0 according to that leak out of Russia, and we’re on 20.1.0 on Switch 1 at the moment). I remember on the box they showed on the Nintendo Today app, there was something in the fine print about needing a system update both to use Switch 1 games and to use MicroSD Express cards. Very few if any people have a Switch 2 with a Switch 2 game cartridge at the moment, so they’re going to run into this when they run a game. The only way to rule this out is to put in a Switch 2 cartridge into one of these systems on the factory firmware, but as far as I know even now if you put the cartridge in it will run the game.

Edit: Can confirm that it is the case you need the Day 1 update to play Switch 1 games from one of the crunchiest images on the internet (it was the best one I could find of the box)

Have a six speed, can confirm it works the exact same.

So it appears the screw holes weren’t just on my Joy Cons. I guess at least it gives some comfort to know they were all built terribly (my Joy Cons even had missing solder on the supports for the button), but I really do hope the quality on the Joy Cons improves with Switch 2.

I get you so much. I used to also be the kind of kid who would disassemble pretty much anything in sight (thankfully nothing too expensive was broken) and I definitely get the purpose of the tri wings, as pretty much nothing outside of electronic specialised kits or specific drivers have those bits. My DS thankfully did not end up being the subject of experimentation (until I got my iFixit kit-). I wish Security Torx was the solution to this problem (high torque, but can’t open it with a regular Torx driver) but at this point there’s probably more Security Torx drivers out there than non-Security since Security Torx is used seemingly everywhere.

Also I must accept the reality of the screw quality - very few people are probably disassembling their Switch at all, so they can get away with poor quality screws since if you go to Nintendo (at least here in the UK) they’ll just send you a refurbished unit and you can be on your merry way. Unfortunate for hobbyists though, especially considering Nintendo’s turnaround times sometimes.

Also, if you’ve still got the bits of the Walkman lying around somewhere, it might be worth giving fixing it now a shot. The old Sony service manuals (which are amazingly written by the way, I wish every manual could be like it) are usually widely available across the internet, and there’s now a fairly active community who make items like replacement drive belts and gears. Can’t really say much more though, I’m mostly a retro iPod guy (love my 4th gen).

I hope so as well. Switch 2 using magnetic attachment rather than the crummy plastic buckle locks for the Joy Cons is a good sign, but we’ll wait and see what the final product is like. Got one on pre order, so will probably post about it not long after I get it.

Today I learned that for some reason some DNS servers don’t like SRV records, so had to troubleshoot it when people were unable to log onto my Minecraft server that is on a non-default port.

Thanks for the data sheet! I struggled to find anything even vaguely official about the X1, so this is quite helpful. I think the throttling at around 70 could be our culprit, as (assuming most of the docked power goes to the SOC) I’ve had processors in portable devices in that sort of power class with similar size coolers have junction temperatures go into the 80s and 90s regularly, so probably in heavier games the temperature goes past that threshold regularly on a lot of systems. This is not helped by the thermal compound both ageing and probably not being the best thing even on day 1, in comparison to something like PhaseSheet that is among the top performers.

Part of me is curious as to if Nintendo have a low temperature target set for the SOC that could see the boost stop early, and the lower temperatures from a repaste allow us to get past it. The data sheet suggests that the throttling thresholds are configurable considering there are no default numbers in the document at all, so Nintendo might have gone more conservative to increase system reliability. If you can, try and get some frequency data, as this might be the reason as to why I’m seeing an improvement.

I am excited to see your results, as it’ll give some hard numbers to see if this is worth all the trouble for everyone to accomplish (the heat spreader is quite the pain to remove).

Unfortunately, I’ll probably not be able to confirm the results with hard numbers for a while until a new way to modify the Switch is found, as I have a system with a patched chip that blocks one of the main current methods, and I’ll probably leave mod chipping it as I have a PC right next to it for all the stuff I would do on a modded system. I might try and see if I can borrow an unopened Switch some day for a side by side comparison. Also a heads up in case you do try this, the thermal paste on top of and under the main cooler is fairly accessible, but getting to the one under the heat spreader is quite a task involving prying in just the right spots to not break the spreader or the board. Just be prepared to take your time, and that you are kind of risking your Switch doing that final paste. The other spots however are easy to get to, so if you are experienced taking apart electronics they aren’t too much of a hassle and can still provide some benefit, especially if you’re on an older system.

You raise some fair points. I’ll answer to the best of my knowledge:

• Dust: There was nearly zero dust in the system, as it has been kept in a clean room and has been used outside only rarely. Therefore, the only dust was a bit on the speakers.
• Temperature sensors: There were no temperature sensors on any of the parts I removed, so I assume the Switch is like a PC GPU where the sensors are integrated into the chips rather than being external. The fan still spins at a decent pace to keep up with the heat, so those sensors still appear to be working.

I think with the expanded third party support we saw on the Switch (and will likely follow with Switch 2), handheld PCs will still remain a mostly distinct market from the Switch. They are more of an alternative option - more choice from the massive PC backlog + emulators, but none of the heavy hitter Switch 2 exclusives. They will keep the pressure on Nintendo, however, to keep indie developers happy enough to go through the extra work to make Switch ports of their games, as the PC development experience is far more flexible. For PC gamers, the Switch serves as what I like to call a “gap filler” - anything that doesn’t get released on PC almost certainly gets released on Switch, so the platforms complement each other quite well.

Works fine for me in KDE when icons are also set to Breeze Dark. Page goes dark, icons go light, toolbar goes dark.

I would suggest holding off on buying an ARM laptop specifically for Linux at the moment (maybe not too long from now though). Although there is an increasing amount of support, it’s still not fully there, and there is most likely going to be quirks here or there that can throw some issues you would rather not deal with on a daily driver machine (e.g. having to extract firmware from the Windows partition in order to get some features working for the Snapdragon devices). Probably your best combination of power efficiency and performance on x86 at the moment will be something like the Ryzen AI 300 series CPUs. If you like ThinkPads, I would suggest the Ryzen version of the T14s Gen 6, which is essentially the same as the ARM version bar the CPU. I’ve been using a P14s (very similar to T14s just with some tweaks as it’s marketed for mobile workstation users) Gen 5 and even with the lower capacity 39.3Wh battery (compared to the 57Wh battery you can get on a Gen 6) I’ve easily been able to get 6 or 8 hours in the balanced power profile with ~70% brightness on Fedora, so probably the T14s Gen 6 can do 10 or 12 hours on a charge.

Without a doubt. Very good MS Office compatibility now, alongside a user interface that gets me to what I need and is heavily customisable, and very well done integration with Zotero (the best thing ever for citations) through an extension comes together to being by far my most preferred office suite even when I have to use Windows. In addition, Draw has saved me at least a few times when I’ve had to deal with some PDFs that other software finds difficult to work with.

I do wonder what console manufacturers will do in order to keep at least some all-physical releases around as game sizes grow. Blu Ray has topped out at 128GB on the highest end discs, and flash storage isn’t dropping in price as quick as before for making larger cartridges. Maybe we will see more cases like Mario Kart World where the physical version is more expensive? However, I do think there might be less key card games as Switch 2 goes on, as likely a big motivation for key cards at launch is the current low production volume and high price of SD Express cards (which the cartridges are based on). Shelf space and shipping are a considerable cost to publishers, so they would have some motivation to avoid any costs related to the eShop hosting if possible.

Pre ordered the day it was available here in the UK, so excited for release day! Just wondering from everyone who pre ordered in the US, did you have some stores do in person pre orders only too? Here, Currys (major electronics retailer) did in person pre orders only, which I thought was a good idea to prevent scalping as the online stock everywhere was bought up nearly immediately.

On the gaming side, it depends a lot what games you play. Generally the rule is (at least for single player) that it will work through Proton or a native version, unless otherwise specified. Personally, pretty much all of my Steam library works perfectly on Linux, even some games on launch day (Persona 3 Reload was flawless day 1). For modding your mileage may vary but if the game runs there’s a very high chance the associated modding tool will work too, although it might require some more tweaking than you are used to in order to get it to work properly as quite a few tools will assume you are running Windows. Multi player games are where there can be some trouble - for example Fortnite is a notorious example of a game that refuses to run on Linux because Epic Games does not allow its anti cheat to work on Linux. ProtonDB and a good old fashioned go on your favourite search engine should be able to tell you if what you play works, doesn’t work, or needs tweaks to get working.

Running non-Linux apps is a mixed bag. Some things (most notably games through Proton) can work through compatibility layers perfectly fine, even if they need you to install .NET or some other dependencies. Others will be totally unusable, at least for now. Make sure you check all the applications you need to work on a regular basis work before jumping in, so search up their compatibility with tools like WINE (translation layer to let Windows apps run on Linux, also what Proton is based on).

For updates, you’ll love it far more than Windows. Since almost every app you could ever need is installed through either a package manager or Flatpak (closest analogy I can give is like a phone app store, but allowing you to install pretty much anything, including system stuff), your updates will all come in one place. For example, on my Fedora KDE install, all I need to do for updates is go into the Discover app (KDE’s package management software) and into its update section, download, and install. This not only updates system software (desktop, kernel, drivers, so on) but also your applications. This means updating your system and apps is a breeze that’ll take far less time than the usual pain that is Windows Update.

For security, you’ll have a lot less to worry about than Windows, and I have to admit part of it is because Linux has a fairly small user base. Few malware writers are going to care about a few Linux desktops compared to plenty of unpatched Windows systems out in the wild. However, the open source aspect also helps a lot - rather than showing vulnerabilities to hackers, it’s been valuable more to show these vulnerabilities to people who can fix them since the software is on public display. There’s more eyes on the code, and more people who can fix problems before they become major vulnerabilities. For most regular desktop users, you will not need any antivirus. If you’re really worried about viruses, I have heard ClamAV can scan for some things, but I haven’t tried it myself as it really isn’t necessary for desktop use.

GPU drivers can be a bit complicated. AMD and Intel are incredibly simple, since (at least for anything made within the last 10 or 15 years, if not older) the drivers are built right in and need zero configuration (it just works!). NVIDIA cards can be a bit more of a challenge. On a lot of distros, you can install the NVIDIA drivers usually during or right after install fairly easily, but they will be separate from the rest of the built in drivers. You can have a good experience with NVIDIA on Linux, but just expect there to be anywhere from a bit to a lot more effort needed to get some things working compared to AMD and Intel GPUs due to this separation. Of course, this will depend on your exact set up.

There’s no real risk of damaging your hardware installing Linux, the only real danger is deleting files already on your main boot drive during installation, so make sure to double check your installer to see if it’s doing what you want it to. Make sure you have a back up of your important stuff too, just in case. The only thing I can think of maybe is extreme overclocking through LACT or something maybe causing damage, but that’s part of what you sign up for with overclocking even on Windows anyway.

Distros are a very debated topic, and there’s no real “best” one, just one that fits your needs. If you’re new to Linux, my personal recommendation is to go with something boring and well supported like some variant of Fedora or Ubuntu. There will be plenty of documentation for both to help you with things, and they both are fairly solid distros with good track records. However, one thing to keep in mind is what kind of desktop you want. Linux has multiple desktop environments (DEs) that can provide differing experiences (different way of launching applications, arranging icons, file managers, that sort of thing). If you’re used to Windows, KDE definitely has the smallest learning curve, as a lot of things will be as you are used to, so it may be best to go for either the KDE variant of Fedora or Kubuntu. The main difference between Fedora and Ubuntu you will notice is that Fedora has a far faster update cycle, which means you get new features quicker, but you will have to restart for updates more often. In addition, I have heard that the NVIDIA drivers can be easier to handle on Ubuntu, so if you have an NVIDIA card it might be more optimal to go for an Ubuntu variant.

I’ve been daily driving Fedora KDE on two different systems (both all AMD, one laptop and one desktop) for nearly half a year and have experienced almost zero crashes or other issues. Maybe it’s something to do with your hardware? I do know of some issues with NVIDIA graphics cards on KDE, so that might be a cause.

I haven’t tried it myself yet, but there is a GPodder sync server app for Nextcloud that can let you sync subscriptions and play time to any compatible app. This would probably be the best solution as it would use your existing setup.

Died 1990s, born 2025 - welcome back Mac hard drive firmware lockdowns

Just a heads up, in a lot of motherboards the WiFi module is just an M.2 card in a special case. Therefore, it would probably be better to change out the card inside for something like an Intel AX210, and keep a PCI Express slot free for other things.