this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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Steam Deck

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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:

Link to our Matrix Space

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[–] savvywolf@pawb.social 59 points 10 months ago (5 children)

People will do anything to avoid installing "linux"...

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 58 points 10 months ago (19 children)

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

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago

The anti piracy bullshit that goes along with a lot of the online games. Or in rare cases, wanting to use windows for work related stuff.

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[–] netchami@sh.itjust.works 18 points 10 months ago

That's why they called it "SteamOS", not "Steam Linux"

[–] vanderbilt@beehaw.org 12 points 10 months ago

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.

[–] averyminya@beehaw.org 6 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] savvywolf@pawb.social 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] gnuplusmatt@reddthat.com 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I just spent 2 hours trying and failing to get a Hello, World! in Eclipse, I'm not brave enough for Linux

[–] Amir@lemmy.ml 17 points 10 months ago

Your first mistake was using Eclipse...

Which programming language do you want to use?

[–] neeeeDanke@feddit.de 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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)

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's easy to compile things in Windows! First, set up WSL ...

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It’s easy to compile things in Windows! First, set up WSL …

Yep, echo "Hello World!" works just as well in WSL as under native Linux.

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[–] frozen@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 28 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

~~I mean, if you really want it, HoloISO is almost the exact same thing, just without any support from Valve.~~

Edit: Looks like Bazzite is a much better option nowadays.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 7 points 10 months ago

Or anyone else...

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

HoloISO is almost the exact same thing, just without any support from Valve.

All public interest in HoloISO pretty much died when the author came out as a fanboy of Putin's war. The aforementioned Bazzite seems to be the best supported option these days.

[–] frozen@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 2 points 10 months ago

Oh, I wasn't aware of that at all, my bad. Bazzite looks much more polished, as well.

[–] Residency9664@feddit.de 27 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Check out Bazzite. Works pretty well on Desktop in my opinion.

[–] Eeyore_Syndrome@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can confirm, been using it since....launch almost. Was on Ublu Kinoite Main38 when F38 went into beta.

[–] khannie@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Was on Ublu Kinoite Main38 when F38 went into beta.

I'm not even sure if you're taking the piss or that's a real thing

[–] Eeyore_Syndrome@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

To clarify: I was using Fedora Kinoite 37 already:

When I stumbled upon Jorge's YouTube videos and his excitement for the Univeral Blue project made me just have to join/try it out.

So when the beta for Fedora 38 went live, instead of rebasing Kinoite to 38, I rebased to Universal Blue 38:

rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/kinoite-main:38

(The kinoite-main image since I have an AMD GPU)

Now I'm on Bazzite 39 Desktop:

rpm-ostree rebase ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite:latest

The Full Image List:

NVIDIA Images:

Honestly it's a better out of box experience than even a chromebook. Except it's Fedora. With lots of extra goodness and tweaks.

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[–] null@slrpnk.net 2 points 10 months ago

Welp, there go my weekend plans.

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[–] vanderbilt@beehaw.org 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

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”.

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] vanderbilt@beehaw.org 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] neeeeDanke@feddit.de 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] vanderbilt@beehaw.org 5 points 10 months ago

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.

[–] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You can tuna steam deck but you can't tuna fish

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[–] azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Not going to happen until NVIDIA proprietary drivers work well in Wayland

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

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:

[–] EpicGamer@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You might want to check out update 545

[–] azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes, I tested it. Some issues were fixed, but it’s far from being complete

[–] Holzkohlen@feddit.de 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is also my assessment. I'm still going to give it an honest go, since no night light was honestly my main gripe and that works now.

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[–] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 5 points 10 months ago

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.

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[–] Hominine@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (8 children)

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.

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[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Tau@sopuli.xyz 4 points 10 months ago

Yeah, and that's probably why development for 3.5 has also been this slow. They were busy with the OLED model

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[–] Holzkohlen@feddit.de 3 points 10 months ago

So what comes first: SteamOS for desktop or Half Life 3?

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