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I belong to a couple of small forums where the person running it can afford the costs and does it as a hobby. If a forum like that grows then the owner won't be able to afford it and if it grows too much s/he'll need staff - that's the biggest cost. So, eventually a free forum will be hit by its own success and will have to find ways of making money. Whatever method the forum uses someone will be upset. People have stomped out of flickr at regularly intervals. People have left youtube in droves. But both sites are still there... either the users have put up with the implications or new ones can't see what the fuss is about because they never knew the old system. I paid for premium lifetime a few years ago when I was seriously ill and I wanted to make sure that a few places I cared about got some money. If I hadn't got better then Nexus would have done quite well but as HadToRegister has shown, Nexus's 'profit' from me is falling all the time I stay alive and I now think I got a bargain... This site depends on very special users (mod builders) for content and the content is useless unless other people download it and respond to it... that response becomes the 'payment' to the modder if you like for the effort. flickr operated like that and so did youtube. But that doesn't pay for the site. The current issues with youtube are all about it moving from running at a loss, to making a profit. Being generous to everyone is really easy if you have magic money falling out of the sky or you can tolerate operating at a loss. However, even that can be a problem. One site I belong to uses buying through Amazon to help finance the site. Sadly, my morality forbids me to buy from Amazon so I can't join in with that bit and the site doesn't accept donations... I stay away out of embarrassment... I have no idea if it's possible to be a really massive site and still retain the sense of community. The really big sites I know are communities inside of communities and I suspect it's hard for new people to join in existing communities and they probably have to bring their community with them. But whenever those sites change the way they finance themselves (and for some make a profit) they inevitably upset the people who remember what it was like when it was small. The only forums I've seen stay the same are the ones that aren't going anywhere partly because they are so esoteric that no one goes there except a handful of us... The rest have to deal with the logic of financing themselves. And yes, I have also run a forum I paid for but it was small and stayed small enough for me to run it alone and pay for it alone... Notice I talk in the past. Eventually, it was all too big a sacrifice both in terms of time and money. I really sympathise with those here who mourn what they see as a change for the worst but I also sympathise with a site trying to find ways to pay the bills. I don't know the answer. I never found one and I quit... However, I have found a way of dealing with sites I no longer 'like'. I just walk away in the knowledge that they will very likely survive with new users and people who won't walk away. But at least I feel better... Notice that flickr, youtube, gmail, Amazon are all still there! Even if I'm not part of them. Apparently I joined in January 2008. There were a couple of modders here I really admired. They've long since gone. There are now a lot more modders I really admire and some new ones just starting out... So, hopefully, plus ça change; plus c'est la même chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same).

It'd be really useful if something like this was posted somewhere prominent (if it isn't already) and on registering to the forum as part of the process. I'd probably add : If you don't want to risk being cheated or hacked at all then don't go on line... ever... but your 'trust no one' says that...

The first game I remember is The Warlock of Firetop Mountain running on the ZX Spectrum but as I had a ZX81 before that, I must have played other games... alas, I've forgotten... too long ago...

Hi again tekmage. I'm not the best person to answer that - I suggest going to the Lutris site and seeing what they're up to! I will say that Lutris installed very fast - even though it updated Wine first. Vortex took ages and ages and ages... and then some more ages... However, when all was done, Vortex recognised Fallout, Skyrim and SE immediately. And although Brough had warned me I might have to manually point, I didn't have to. In fact, it was easier via Lutris and Linux than via Windows because on Windows I put my games on my D: drive. As you know, Linux doesn't view it that way so Wine creates a pretend C: drive. Vortex was very happy to be installed in what it thinks is a Windows C: drive... it grumbled more on my real Windows D: drive :-D The only issue is that you can't launch SkyrimSE from Vortex. It has to be launched via Steam. I know there are Linux gamers here and they'd like Vortex for Linux. And I understand the arguments both ways. I too would love to see people taking Linux more seriously and realising it is now a much easier, robust and elegant alternative. I'd like to see more support for it. However, the reality is that Lutris is more than capable of delivering Vortex... so to a certain extent, problem solved. Now, if someone would just do that for my TomTom, I'd be happy... :-D

So, finally, I installed Lutris and then Vortex on top of that. All works fine straight out of the box... Bourgh - if you ever, ever come back to this thread you've made this person extremely happy! If anyone else is running Linux and wants to use the mod manager then make sure Wine is at its latest version (though actually Lutris will fix that too). Install Lutris, install Vortex and sit back and all of your favourite Nexus mods are once again playable! :laugh:

I said I'd come back and say how the move to Linux was going and I haven't so here's my update. I still haven't tried to install Vortex via the method Bough suggested but that's partly due to a house move and partly because for some reason Seven Kingdoms is more stable under Linux than it ever was on Windows... Anyway, I eventually managed to drag myself away from 7K and found in the meantime that either Steam has done something to SteamPlay or the Ubuntu community has done something to Ubuntu but Skyrim SE is now a lot more stable as well. I've stuck to Ubuntu and Gnome 3 on my main machine but have Cinnamon and Mint on another but I really have to do some more playing on that platform to say whether or not it is different from a games perspective. So... bottom line - so far, so good and I'm in awe with the Linux community which has been extremely kind and helpful! And thanks again to those of you who helped here! :smile:

What a nice thread! For rpgs - Baldur's Gate I & II. Neverwinter Nights... I used to play Baldur's Gate from I to II every summer with any new mods people had developed. And Morrowind will always occupy a space in my heart... But currently playing Skyrim (not SE) because it's sooooooooooooo stable under Linux... The thing about Skyrim that has got to me is just how good (and imaginative) the mods for it are/were! My favourite strategy game is probably still Seven Kingdoms (1997) - though I haven't tried running that for a while... :whistling:

Bough - thank you * n (where n is extremely large)! The ProtonDB site is seriously impressive! I had no idea that support for Linux gamers had come so far. I went back to Windows (for gaming) in 2016 because my games were so unstable. I eventually gave up dual booting because it was so annoying. But this time, I'm determined it will work for me! I'll give Lutris a go and see if I can use (the much missed) Vortex!

There was major celebration here yesterday! I love the Gnome 3 desktop - it is very, very attractive and it feels right. I was already using a lot of open source apps so it hasn't felt like a huge change app-wise and the PC feels like it's mine again. It didn't under Windows 10. It was a lot easy to do this time round as well - Ubuntu has come a long way. And Steamplay make it much easier than getting Wine to work though Wine Tricks makes Wine easier anyway. Most of my time was taken up with the missing voice and incidental music issue. I didn't realize I had a problem at first as I had Live Another Life installed and it dumped me miles from anywhere so it wasn't until I stumbled across someone that I found the problem. I agree with Steam working on Steamplay it feels like Linux is a real alternative for gamers. I'll give it a few weeks and report back. There might be others who are wondering if this is a way to go. But thanks sooooo much! I really appreciate the positive input! PS - I miss Vortex - it feels like a huge chasm has been left. :sad: In fact, it's all I do miss from Windows 10...

:ermm: Yepo. That's where we're going, like it or not. Ah, team Dallas. nvm Weeps, weeps and weeps buckets... Tries to look on the bright side - can't see one - weeps again...

Just an update for anyone who's interested. I decided not to roll back to Ubuntu 16 (it's what I'd used last time round in 2015-ish) and I'm not going to dual-boot. I have no plans to revert to Windows. So, it's Ubuntu 19 with the Gnome 3 desktop and Steam's Steamplay. Skyrim SE is OK except I can't get the voices to work - all other sounds are fine but not that. I've tried all of the suggestions I can find and it doesn't want to relent! So, I've installed Skyrim (again via Steamplay) and that works very well. The only problem is it (so far) freezes on exit; however, because Linux lets you open a terminal I can easily 'kill' the process and get a clean exit. I remember there would sometimes be that issue on Windows in any case. I shall miss Vortex but I'm really hopeful that Steam will fix the issues with Steamplay and SE will be possible in all its glory. At the moment, SE is playable via subtitles in any case which is kind of reminiscent of Baldur's Gate! But if you have popped back here - thank you again. The last thing I wanted was a lecture on Windows and you didn't do that so thank you!!!! :-) *** edited to add that voices (and missing music) now work perfectly thanks to: https://steamcommunity.com/app/489830/discussions/0/3441214221459912300/ So, if anyone else is thinking of trying Linux then hopefully my experiences will be of some use...

OK - thanks! I'll look into that. Strangely the last time I tried moving to Ubuntu it worked very well for a while and then there was some change in one of the 'links' (Ubuntu, Wine or Skyrim) and it all fell apart. Actually, I'm impressed how much easier the process was this time round. And I do really like Ubuntu as an OS... :-) re Wine: I tried the Wine, Wine-Tricks before Proton. Proton is *much* better!

I did the dual boot thing last time round after Wine became too unstable for Skyrim and it's a pain... and I'd rather avoid Windows if I can... but thanks for the reply! I guess I want to make sure there isn't something I'm missing! :-)

Yesterday I totally lost it with Windows 10 and deleted the whole caboodle. I've installed Ubuntu 19.04 and I've got Steam running Skyrim SE via Steam Play and Proton 4.11-2. I've loaded (a few) mods via the Bethesda versions but the game is a bit unstable. I've frozen it three times in about 20 minutes... Has anyone got any advice at all about making the game a bit more stable? Or is it just flaky? I have tried the Wine, Wine-tricks path but that was even more unpredictable and ran so slowly I got seasick watching the cart in the opening scenes... I could try a different OS - apparently Fedora is a bit more stable - but I don't want to wipe the machine and try something else if it won't make that much difference. Thanks for any help!

The title made me smile... I was stupid enough to switch to Windows 10 during chemotherapy... I didn't read the small print. Chemotherapy is like a bottle of vodka with each meal... small print ha!!!! Who needs small print???? Anyway much too late I realised that the opportunity to switch back had long since passed. No problem... I'll reinstall 7 from disk... no... 10 doesn't like that. OK no problem I'll reformat the hard drive... no 10 didn't like that one either. At that point I got my husband to look as well (he wasn't on chemo and like me is a computer scientist - a much better one!). Nope 10 didn't listen to him either so while he was trying to sort a solution I wiped the whole caboodle with Ubuntu... I stuck on Wine, fiddled about and hey presto Steam runs perfectly (thus Skyrim is fine) and so is Oblivion under Wine... I haven't yet managed to get the mod manager to run under Wine - that's my next task but I've been clean of MS for nearly 3 months now. It's amazing how much freeware and shareware there is for Ubuntu. If I can once again add mods to Oblivion I'll be delighted... I must admit I did wonder why MS wanted to give 10 to me free. They never showed any signs of that before. Extricating yourself from 10 is really messy if you miss the deadline. I'd say don't install Windows 10... even if they pay you too!!!!!!! :laugh: BTW I didn't realise how fast my machine was until I switched to Ubuntu...

I read the rules before I joined and some of the posts to see what the forum was like. I've had enough of forums where egos rage. And I've read them a few times since because I was curious if the rules prevented people from behaving badly. I run a forum at a university so it's very controlled and I can 'warn' people in person if I don't like what they do but we get very few problems - most are of people wandering from the point but I use split, merge, lock and warn to deal with that (in that order). I found your strike system really interesting and if I had a problem with the uni forum I think I'd try something like it. It's pointless trying to get people to read before they download because they just want that mod but anyone who is serious about being in a community will read - just as people here are reading and having clearly defined rules makes it easier on everyone. I don't think you should be sad that the thread has only been read N times... you should think it has been read N-1 times more than you expected :whistling: