Web Excursions 2021-10-08
After Epic v. Apple, a small developer is challenging Apple’s in-app payment system - The Verge
A company called Paddle has announced its own in-app payment system
that will take 5 to 10 percent, instead of the 15 to 30 percent cut claimed by Apple.
It’s a way around the commission fees that started the fight with Epic in the first place and likely to be the beginning of a new fight for developers.
Paddle’s system is designed to take advantage of the Epic v. Apple verdict, which required Apple to allow external payment links.
Paddle is offering a 10 percent cut on payments less than $10 and a 5 percent plus $0.50 charge on payments above $10.
The real test will be seeing how apps that include Paddle’s payments fare during App Review. If Apple wants to find violations of its rules in apps using Paddle, it very likely will.
HN Comments
[Seems that indie vendors generally have positive experiences w. Paddle, while users are suspicious of Paddle's ability to keep consumer data private and safe.]
The best part of Windows 11 is a revamped Windows Subsystem for Linux | Ars Technica
Microsoft has traditionally made installing WSL more of a hassle than it should be,
but the company finally got the process right in Windows 10 build 2004.
Just open an elevated Command prompt (start --> type cmd --> click Run as Administrator),
type wsl --install at the prompt, and you're good to go.
Windows 11, thankfully, carries this process forward unchanged.
A simple wsl --install with no further arguments gets you Hyper-V and the other underpinnings of WSL, along with the current version of Ubuntu.
you can see what other easily installable distributions are available with the command wsl --list --online.
If you decide you'd prefer a different distro, you can install it instead with—for example—wsl --install -d openSUSE-42.
You can install as many as you like,
simply by repeating wsl --list --online to enumerate your options and wsl --install -d distroname to install whichever you like.
Installing a second distribution doesn't uninstall the first;
it creates a separate environment, independent of any others.
You can run as many of these installed environments as you like simultaneously.
In addition to easy installation, WSL on Windows 11 brings support for both graphics and audio in WSL apps
there is one obvious "killer app" for WSLg that has us excited—and that's virt-manager, the RedHat-originated virtualization management tool.
virt-manager is a simple tool that streamlines the creation, management, and operation of virtual machines using the Linux Kernel Virtual Machine.
The cherry on top of this virtualization cake is just how well those console windows work—
I had no trouble getting flawless YouTube playback on my Hackintosh VM console, complete with working, glitch-free audio.
Limitations
there's still no networking bridge mode—
which means it's difficult to run a network server application (Apache, Nginx, MySQL, Samba, etc) on your WSLg guest and expose its services to other machines on the network
GNOME's Software Center app
GNOME shell desktop environment
OpenZFS support
Nintendo engineers suggest Switch Joy-Con drift will never be fixed - The Verge
In a new Q&A about the development of the Nintendo Switch OLED, the company reveals that it has steadily been making improvements to the Joy-Cons to try and make them more reliable.
Ko Shiota, [a Nintendo executive who also serves as GM of Nintendo’s Technology Development Division]:
Yes, for example car tires wear out as the car moves, as they are in constant friction with the ground to rotate.
So with that same premise, we asked ourselves how we can improve durability, and not only that, but how can both operability and durability coexist?
It’s something we are continuously tackling.