People will do anything to avoid installing "linux"...
I'm amazed there are people out there putting windows on a Steam Deck. It's like buying a Monet and then bringing it home and doodling on it in finger paint
If doing certain things under proton was less of a pain in the ass, I’d agree with you. But proton still isn’t simple for some usecases.
EDIT: the people downvoting me very likely have only surface level experience with Proton. Sorry, it isn’t perfect. It’s based on WINE, which also isn’t perfect. It’s making a lot of progress and is damn close but it isn’t perfect.
The usecase being discussed is Steam Deck though. And it works perfectly on there.
That's why they called it "SteamOS", not "Steam Linux"
Fact of the matter is the most successful Linux devices are the ones that you don’t need to know Linux to use. Chromebooks and steam decks are popular because they don’t need tinkered with. You can if you want, but the average person can just use it.
The Steam Deck is the first Linux machine that hasn't killed itself on me or given me hiccups during basic installations of things.
The only thing the Steam Deck hasn't "just worked" for me for is Rocksmith.
Again, the Steam Deck is the only Linux machine that I've had that just works and does not make me want to tear my hair out.
When Linux accomplishes that it will be more popular. Until then, it feels like trying to play whackamole with fixes and solutions to things that should just work in the first place.
Yeah, the fact that it just works and comes with the hardware is good.
However I think the article is suggesting a world where gamers go and install SteamOS as a regular distro. I think that's going to be a lot harder and more error prone than just installing Mint and putting Steam on it.
I'd argue it hasn't imploded on you because it's immutable. You'd have a similar rock solid experience on any of the immutable Fedora releases (Silverblue, Kinoite etc) or some of the other immutable distros
Yeah as much as I love Linux, it's much more tuned for tinkerers, developers, and techies because everything is rtfm and troubleshooting yourself. After the initial setup process though, you would have gained enough knowledge to fix a lot of things if it ever is broken.
I just spent 2 hours trying and failing to get a Hello, World! in Eclipse, I'm not brave enough for Linux
Your first mistake was using Eclipse...
Which programming language do you want to use?
Depending on what you want to do the one does not imply the other. (And some times coding actually is easier on Linux, I had a way better experience compiling my c++ projects there then my friend had on windows)
Check out Bazzite. Works pretty well on Desktop in my opinion.
At this moment in time, Bazzite is just straight up a better experience than SteamOS. Fedora backend with rpm-ostree is way better than what Valve has going on. And for Steam Deck, GNOME just makes more sense for touch interfaces.
Yeah, I was puzzled why Valve chose KDE to be the default desktop for a touchscreen device. Ultimately though I figured they just wanted a Linux desktop that would be more familiar to Windows users.
I would bet the main reason is that KDE is way more willing to accept features and contributions outside of the typical use case than Gnome is.
I hope it does because the biggest problem for handhelds like the Ally is the atrocious experience as soon as you leave steam big picture. Armor Crate is buggy as hell and trying to click anything in windows with the joysticks is not fun. Not to mention the usual Windows shenanigans of “update every damn day” and “spam me with bs about one drive and angry birds”.
Yeah, I feel like the Steam Deck is the only handheld PC that could be a decent experience without trackpad, since it provides a console like experience. It's pretty unacceptable in my opinion to have windows handhelds forcing a windows desktop experience without a trackpad.
I imagine some of the smarter people at Microsoft are seeing the Steam Deck unfold and are realizing it's a potential threat. Desktop is dying, and gaming is one of the few segments still doing alright in the space. Microsoft wants to make sure games continue to be made for Windows even as mobile and consoles take over the lion's share of profits. They haven't been buying up studios just to prop up Xbox 😉. The Deck runs Windows games, and if compatibility ever reaches a point that the average gamer doesn't need to know they aren't running Windows, Microsoft is in big trouble. With the progress made just in the last five years alone, it's an eventual possibility.
Licensing is a cost in an already razor-thin market. If gamers won't care that a device isn't running Windows - they won't install Windows on it, and the OEM will just pocket the difference. Valve also has an advantage traditionally enjoyed by console manufacturers. They can sell it at no profit or even a loss, because Steam Store sales will make the money back.
So long as Valve keeps steady progress and improving compatibility, they will carve out their niche. If they can somehow get studios with major multiplayer games to provide official support, the chicken and egg problem will solve itself.
I don't think microsoft worrys that much about PCs they make their money in B2B where they profit from Lock-ins due to their vast ecosystem not because companys use windows for gaming.
Very true. It’s similar to NVIDIA in that way. Their money comes from data centers, licensing, and B2B - not gaming GPUs. I’m speaking in the terms of Windows on traditional consumer desktops and their position in that space. I don’t mean to sound like one of the usual “MS is dead any day now” people, cause frankly they are wrong.
The temerity to repeat 'soon' for well over a year is one of Valve's worst traits. One wonders if reflexively lying to customers is intentionally baked into their culture.
This right here is why they do like one interview a year, lmao.
What he actually said was "We're hoping [it will be] soon", but for whatever reason people's reading comprehension skills go out the window whenever there is a Valve interview.
Honestly, what would you get out of SteamOS on PC anyway? Just install Linux, set up the drivers you need, launch Steam at startup, and default it to Big Picture Mode.
Boom, SteamOS.
Steam OS is a lot more powerful than big picture
In what way? Sure... If you compare just big picture mode to an entire OS, but that's hardly what was meant.
My desktop with endeavour OS and SteamDeck can do all the same things... In fact doing some things on the deck is more tricky because it's limited to installing flatpaks.
Right, and I never said it was only Big Picture. What can it do that Linux + Big Picture can't?
I think Valve has good intentions and wants a lot of things done soon, but they just don't have enough people on their Steam Deck team to get things done at the speed they want.
Yeah, and that's probably why development for 3.5 has also been this slow. They were busy with the OLED model
Not going to happen until NVIDIA proprietary drivers work well in Wayland
Not going to happen until NVIDIA proprietary drivers work well in Wayland
Maybe Valve could just release it and replace the download button with this to get the incompatibility message across:
I don't think SteamOS is a good desktop OS. It's designed for a gaming console, e.g. a handheld or gaming pc connected to a tv.
The desktop mode is great but the immutable filesystem isn't good for installing of system level apps that are necessary for day to day usage. E.g. kernel modules for OBS virtualcam, VirtualBox and similar.
Any Linux distro with Steam is a generally better experience for desktop usage. SteamOS is big picture mode by default, a desktop OS should open the desktop by default.
That's why I think people will be disappointed if Valve releases SteamOS for any pc.
Immutable OS's are increasingly popular. While some types of software are harder to install, the system being harder to break is very appealing. I know if I setup my wife/kids/parents with a Linux OS I would go with an immutable OS to reduce how much they could accidentally break.
Big thing is SteamOS needs a way to install traditional packages permanently. Other immutable OS's usually offer an option to reboot to install packages not otherwise available/viable through flatpak or distrobox/nix.
Steam Deck
A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to the Steam Deck in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.