Steam for Linux...

Ok, time for a little summary of my "Steam for Linux"- / "SteamOS"-testing:

All of my current Linux-based Steam-games (50 out of 67) run flawlessly on both Linux Mint v13 (with backports) and Ubuntu Desktop v12.04 (vanilla).

• They do not require a top-of-the-line gaming graphics-card.
• They (also) do not require vast amounts of memory (8GB will do fine).

List of mentioned games is available on my Steam-profile.

Will be adding a new picture-album entitled "Linux-gaming" on my G+ profile soon. Stay tuned!

"Linux-gaming" Google+ photos:
https://plus.google.com/photos/104557379246577572135/albums/5977405744473413313

SteamOS is still in it's early testing-stage(s). You basically have to posess a fair amount of advanced Linux-tinkering skills to be able to utilize it properly, but things are progressing. There are some automated versions being made (custom ISO-images) to let anyone install, test and even debug it on hardware (without the earlier requirement of a EFI-capable motherboard, you can manage with a BIOS-version now).

New (old) mobile carrier...

Just recently switched my mobile phone carrier b/c my (entire) family got connected to the same carrier-network. Better coverage, higher bandwidth and last but not least, family-network offers and included minutes/texts.

My previous carrier (NetCom AS) was better at customer relations and support, but they've gone downhill after they were bought up by another major scandinavian service provider (Telia AB, Sweden).

NetCom touted for a long time about their 4G-network coverage, and for some time (while they had few customers connected to their 3G- / 4G-nets) they delivered quite good HSDPA-connectivity. But after a lot of people migrated from various carriers over to NetCom the last few years, their remote end-networks (small towns) suffered as the base-stations at selected areas couldn't handle the traffic-surge very well (few, if any, of the base-stations had optical WAN-uplinks).

This had a negative effect on my SSH-connections from my smart-phone / tablet, and used to cause a lot of spontaneous traffic-drops and disconnects.

To my surprise (as Telenor is the biggest ISP in Norway, with a grand total of approx. 140 million mobile customers worldwide through various daughter-companies in Russia, parts of Europe and India), I got a minimum of 12-14Mbps via HSDPA (3G), whereas NetCom could only offer (at max) 2-3Mbps.

To my delight, I haven't experienced a single SSH-related disconnect on any of my 3G-devices :)

Telenor FTW!