I already game on Linux because of Steam. It’s easy and works.
This 100%! Anything I can’t get running through wine I just get steam to run as a non steam game.
The Steam Deck and it’s desktop mode are why I decided to try jumping head first into a single boot of Bazzite on my main computer, it’s basically like using a Steam deck, just across four monitors, it even has HDR support built in. A year in and I haven’t looked back.
This is the exact kind of user interaction I’m looking for. I’ve wanted to switch to Linux but need something stable I can use for my Steam library, and web browsing.
I’ve been single boot on Fedora for a little over a year. The biggest issue for gaming that I’ve seen are because of anti-cheats that don’t support Linux.
I had issues with setting up Fefora on NVIDIA for gaming (skill issue, probably), but switching to Nobara has fixed all of them and I’ve been single boot for almost a year since then.
Something stable to do that I’ve found in fedora, pop_os, and even arch.
I use fedora everyday now since version 31 or 32 and it’s honestly great. I have my few issues but it’s not like I didn’t have issues on windows.
I think Linux is ready for the desktop and has been. Every year it just gets better
Help dissuade (or confirm) a fear here. Could this be the first step to a sort of Androidization of steamos?
SteamOS will most likely be deployed on other handheld PCs, not desktop PCs. The handheld PCs that came out in response to the deck’s release (or before) usually run Windows.
Android is not bad because Android itself is bad (well… it kinda is but let’s just assume it isn’t), but because the phone manufacturers lock down their phones’ hardware. They do this to force you into their ecosystem. With SteamOS, you already have an ecosystem, which is Steam. There is (at least for now) a clear distinction between Hardware manufacturer and software provider.
For now at least Androidization is nothing you should worry about. Maybe in 10, 20 years. edit: and even then it’s never going to be as bad as with the smartphones
Good to know! Thank you for explaining it.
Not desktop PCs
I would very much so run it on my laptop, tbh, if it used GNOME. Lol
You don’t need SteamOS to game on Linux. I’ve heard good things about Bazzite, and there other Linux distros that focus on gaming.
I’ve been considering switching my deck to bazzite, tbh, because I prefer gnome so much, and I like being to use desktop mode when I’m out. I got a tiny Bluetooth mouse keyboard combo that looks like a remote or flat controller. I’m the only one who drives in my family, so I spend a lot of time just sitting in the car, waiting at doctors and stuff. It’s nice being able to take just one device and work on school work or something.
I agree that we shouldn’t worry (at least for the moment), but I think the main reason is the lack of locks, both when it comes to hardware (no locked bootloader) and software (getting root access is trivial, so you can uninstall whatever components you might not like and with updates not being mandatory you can keep it under your control).
With SteamOS, you already have an ecosystem, which is Steam. There is (at least for now) a clear distinction between Hardware manufacturer and software provider.
Currently, the only officially sanctioned version of SteamOS is the one that is shipped with Steam Deck (even though that might change soon), which is hardware sold by Valve (ie, the same company making the software). Meanwhile, most people using Android don’t use Pixel / Nexus devices and thus their hardware is not being sold by Google.
So I’d say this depends entirely on how do the new manufacturers wanna go about it when it comes to offering their own custom versions of SteamOS. At the moment this is ok because Valve has been acting as a “benevolent dictator” and they have essentially had a monopoly on SteamOS 3 devices until now. Once that monopoly breaks (and if Valve actually allows third parties to ship their own customizations) we’ll have to see what kind of control will their partners want to assert over it.
The thing we should be more concerned about are the parts that Steam haven’t opened up, for example Steam input. However they’ve done everything as openly as possible for the move to Linux and I applaud that. If steam goes away or stops being so open, we still have proton and wine and other projects that mean we’re not locked in to a Steam-specific OS, so we avoid the android problem there too.
What do you mean by “Androidization”?
I want that so much.
That MB I just put in a box might be viable again? Wouldn’t upgrade to Win11 but worked great in every other way.
I don’t! 🙂
Also, did everyone just forget that Valve already tried this before? The people who buy prebuilt PCs do not want Linux and the people who want Linux do not want prebuilt PCs.
And some stupid piece of idiot in Microsoft made a tablet computer in 1995. Shows that idiot since tablets and touchscreens never took off.
I actually don’t think that’s an apt comparison for this. Valve isn’t inventing the wheel here, there are dozens if not hundreds of companies that sell prebuilt PCs. I’m a massive fan of Valve and Gaben by the way, I just don’t think this is a solid business decision on any front.
It’s not a pre built PC, it’s a gaming console that can also be a PC, if needed. That’s how the steam deck is marketed, that’s how the previous steamos PC was marketed, and clearly Lenovo thinks the marketing will work. A unified simple introduction to PC gaming as cheap as any console but with near infinite backwards compatibility is a pretty good sell to the normies who have nothing but marginal upgrades to look forward to in the console space.
I’m on Linux and a prebuit PC would be a nice change. But at the same price or lower than Windaube, since I don’t want a licence for them.
I will prefer to build myself rather than paying an extra k…
yeah, I was looking into a laptop today and all came with Windoz preinstalled… that I’m gonna pay for :/
The difference is that Proton wasn’t a thing the first time.
