I am happy about the raise of popularity of the new handheld PC consoles, but still Windows on handheld device is a deal breaker for me.
I know Steam Deck is not perfect, but the proton compatibility layer, the OS and the console-like experience is something I would pay extra money for, if other manufacturers adopted it.
I’m not sure about this one, but my understanding is that steam deck is the only one that can suspend a game mid play and have the ability to resume.
If it were not for that, there would be times where I just don’t start a game because I only have 15 minutes.
Now, I can do a quick ten minute game while waiting for a zoom meeting.
Yeah it’s the only one that can reliably go to sleep in the middle of a game and wake with the game still running properly.
I’m not sure about this one, but my understanding is that steam deck is the only one that can suspend a game mid play and have the ability to resume.
If it were not for that, there would be times where I just don’t start a game because I only have 15 minutes.
Now, I can do a quick ten minute game while waiting for a zoom meeting.
Same. I love how versatile it is and suspending the games actually was a huge contributor to make a dent into my huge backlog.
Another fun thing is that for playing older games that use Proton:
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It might not run on Linux natively
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It might not run on the current version of Windows
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It might run on your specific hardware natively in Windows
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But somehow, it still manages to run well in Wine/Proton (sometimes better than on Windows)
Yeah, I 100% agree, I have been an exclusive Linux gamer for a few years now. It helps that I do not really play online. Just the other day, it kind of blew my mind when I thought about how far gaming on Linux has come. I think most gamers could switch over to Linux and be just fine.
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On the contrary, you should be paying less, since you don’t have to pay for a Windows 11 license. And while Steam can charge whatever they want for their Steam OS license, it shouldn’t be as much since they haven’t had to develop a full fledged OS.
Windows, ad delivered by OEM like Lenovo and Asus, comes with additional third party bloat/spyware that eat resources but gives extra money to the OEM. These money are used by OEM to either cut the price of the windows license key or cut the overall price to the customers if Microsoft has already a special agreement with the OEM to provide free keys.
A device having Windows is a deal breaker? seems like an odd requirement to have set in stone couldn’t you plug in a USB stick with linux loaded on and install your linux distribution of choice onto these gadgets
You don’t exude an air of having experience, to say the least. Windows is a deal breaker for plenty of power users who have used it for 20+ years.
You just made a random assumption that Linux could literally work on anything. Yeah, it mostly can, but support is a good thing. I don’t want to be recompiling the kernel and troubleshooting driver issues.
It’s not just that Steam OS is Linux, is also that Steam OS has put lots of thought into working well on a handheld.
Desktop mode on the Steam Deck is usable, and being able to use Desktop Mode is great, but Game Mode is what makes the SD great.
Now you can do something similar with Windows (q.v. Big Picture mode), but from what I’ve heard about the Asus Ally, it’s a bit clunkier. Asus and Lenovo just don’t have the access to the OS to do a true Game Mode equivalent.
Considering that XBox is apparently “Windows without Windows” under the hood, I’m sure it could be done, it’s just not as easy.
I think the implication is more of the fact that having a supported OS gaming handheld distribution is preferable to Windows. It’s so much smoother with controls being pre-configured for me and being able to suspend on the fly. I’m sure there’s loads of other things that I don’t even think about … I would imagine the optimizations.
SteamOS is the main reason why I like the SteamDeck. I would be quite happy if there’s another Linux distro or if there’s great Windows support. I think when if that happens, then the consumer adoption of these would skyrocket.
Windows is ok on my desktop PC (even though I’m thinking of going Linux the next time I upgrade it), but it’s not very pleasant on handheld devices.
The Steam OS was created the way you can use it similar to PS or Xbox console. It’s focused on simply accessing and playing your games, with great UI, full controller support and no unnecessary bloat. You still have a desktop mode to use the device as a regular PC, so the option is there.
I dont want to deal with all the windows stuff on my handheld console, I just want to play games.
Love the fact that it’s completely missing the point of the Steam Deck which is to make games running on something else than Windows.
The point of the steam deck is mobile PC gaming. Linux is a bonus.
My understanding is that because it’s Linux they can customize it and trim all the fat to make the OS run as efficiently as possible, making it perfect for a portable device where you want as much processing power going to the game. You just can’t get that with Windows.
That’s true. I think pretty well showcased by the ROG Ally. Better hardware than the steamdeck, no doubt, but due to software it ends up not being that much more powerful effectively.
Linux already runs way faster than Windows, they don’t need to trim things down and as you can see by desktop mode it’s your standard OS
if you do a fresh install of a full desktop Linux then you can be looking at 5-10gb of storage and using 300-400 mb ram. Windows uses 30gb of storage and 4gb of ram. It’s just not as good for a gaming or battery operated device
Freeing gamers from Microsoft is definitely one of Valve’s goals. They contributed so much to wine, proton and Linux in general.
But tbh I, and probably many others, don’t care that much about the Linux. I would’ve been fine if it was Windows with the same price and performance. What I care about, that I can play mobile.
If I just wnated Linux I would install Linus on my PC, no real need to buy an extra device just for that.
Well that’s the thing, I’m very aware that most people don’t know or don’t care. But Microsoft has been using this to their advantage for years. It would be better for the consumer to have somewhat of a choice even if they’re not too aware of it.
No, Linux is definitely a big part of the point of the device.
I think it’s at least partly valve’s fault, they promised to make steamOS open for other manufacturers, but they just haven’t.
Correct me if I’m wrong
SteamOS is almost entirely open source software, except for the handheld’s specific proprietary drivers and Steam itself. Vendors are free to use it via its open source license if they choose.
The hardest parts (i.e. proton) are fully available to anyone who’d like to use it under an approximation of the MIT license, even for commercial use.
the steam deck drivers are being upstream to mesa and the linux kernel, no?, meybe they are using a pre-build before the code get merged, but every steam deck fix is being merged(mesa, radv, even the kernel got a lot of fixes for it)
Here’s a list of the non-free software packages used in an older version of the OS.
Briefly: graphics, wireless drivers, firmware etc. The hardware is non-free although designed for to be user servicable, which is a great first step.
You’re right that open graphics support exists, but they’re using proprietary binary drivers.
You can install wine or steam and run games on pretty much any distro. SteamOS is just tailored for the Steam Deck and is open source and under GPLv2, so anyone can fork it or contribute (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steamos_kernel).
I think the confusion is Proton, people think it’s a some Valve secret that saves Linux but anyone can make their own implementation of Wine (Even Apple made a big announcement for their implementation of Wine)
What a useless headline. Anything could be the most impressive.
love it now a big company start to understand the importance of trackpad on handheld
