I’ve really been enjoying my SteamDeck. Seeing Proton in action may be what finally pushes me away from Windows which I’ve been wanting to do for years. Yesterday I found myself downloading the Pop!_OS ISO.
Good luck! I made the switch and have gamed exclusively on Linux for about a year now. It’s gotten leaps and bounds better than it used to be in a pretty short time. The same is true on the Deck: if something doesn’t launch the first time, change to Proton Experimental in game properties and likely you’re good.
Your experience may be different depending on your GPU, though. AMD drivers are baked into the Linux kernel now, so It Just Works™. But nvidia can be a pain, mostly because you’re still tied to their proprietary driver and they famously don’t pump a lot of resources into Linux support.
Hope you enjoy! Pop_OS is one of my favorite distros (along with Mint Cinnamon and Steam OS).
I made the full leap 4 years ago (except the work laptop, my employer is still in Microsoft mode) and I’ve never regretted it for a single solitary moment.
I got Manjaro working pretty well, what surprised me is how much space the Proton compatibility files take for various games. I will probably reinstall when I can dedicate more space to it. Also I was stubborn and tried to get the Steam game install folders working on Windows and Linux on a dual-boot machine. I succeeded, but it was a lot of trouble and not worth it.
I’ve really been enjoying my SteamDeck. Seeing Proton in action may be what finally pushes me away from Windows which I’ve been wanting to do for years. Yesterday I found myself downloading the Pop!_OS ISO.
Good luck! I made the switch and have gamed exclusively on Linux for about a year now. It’s gotten leaps and bounds better than it used to be in a pretty short time. The same is true on the Deck: if something doesn’t launch the first time, change to Proton Experimental in game properties and likely you’re good.
Your experience may be different depending on your GPU, though. AMD drivers are baked into the Linux kernel now, so It Just Works™. But nvidia can be a pain, mostly because you’re still tied to their proprietary driver and they famously don’t pump a lot of resources into Linux support.
Hope you enjoy! Pop_OS is one of my favorite distros (along with Mint Cinnamon and Steam OS).
I made the full leap 4 years ago (except the work laptop, my employer is still in Microsoft mode) and I’ve never regretted it for a single solitary moment.
I got Manjaro working pretty well, what surprised me is how much space the Proton compatibility files take for various games. I will probably reinstall when I can dedicate more space to it. Also I was stubborn and tried to get the Steam game install folders working on Windows and Linux on a dual-boot machine. I succeeded, but it was a lot of trouble and not worth it.