1y ago

Steam Deck killers be like

Steam Deck @sopuli.xyz

mr_MADAFAKA @lemmy.ml

1y ago

248 60

82 comments

The idea of a console where the manufacturer doesn’t have total control over the OS is ludicrous, no way a Windows box is ever going to “kill” the deck
- Yeah, Sony lost me when they broke my Linux install and degraded the DVD playback functions, within six months of me buying my PS2. Similarly, the last "good" smartphone I had, was the Palm Treo (650p\680p\Centro); since then, I've never had a single phone that granted direct hardware access & allowed unloading/sideloading the OS by default.
  Manufacturers want deep control these days; way beyond mere root permissions.
- Difference between a console and a PC is that the OS is open source

And Arch is right fucking there
- And Holo ISO if you don't want to fully configure.
- The internet connection is my limiting factor. 15GB or on lunch/break. 😭
  Portal is crisp and clean.
  I heard Fallout 4 is good.
  OOTP could run on an XP machine from 2003.
  
  Fallout 4 is awesome.
  I’m bored with it at the moment. Been playing Red Dead 2. Oh my god what a game. Makes me regret not playing the first one.

Also funny how they keep adding shit no one needs that just makes battery life worse
Yes let me drop $700 on a handheld so I can play it plugged in on the couch
- Remember Game Gear? Pepperidge farm remembers
  
  The battery drainer? That thing was epi...
  Sorry, ran out of batteries.
  
  I knew people with NiMh batteries for their RC cars\planes\boats, but the first time I ever saw NiMh AAs, was in a GameGear.
- Adding what exactly?
  
  I think the rog ally had Microsoft word (maybe even just office) come with it.
  
  According to the totally impartial LTT review of the Ally it’s worse than the Deck in every way but if it’s plugged in and you’re using a kb+m then it’s only a slightly underpowered laptop and you should totally buy it over the Deck
  So I guess the “power modes” that can’t run on battery
- Some people want that. I've never played my switch as a handheld. Not once.
  
  Me neither. Maybe because I don't own a switch, donno.
  
  I've played mine on the TV like a half dozen times maybe. I mostly play it while I watch TV.... why yes I do have rather severe ADHD.
- What, are you saying this 7", 1600p, 120Hz display is a stupid choice for a handheld? How dare you!

Fucking hell the "Steam Deck killers" is a stupid trend.
They really do hit you with all the specs that are supposed to put the deck to shame, but the reveal their ludicrous price, completely ignoring the major advance the things has.
That's a simple trick, but cheap and dirty, so it's pretty garbo anyway. No respect for handhelds themselves or anyone reviewing them or taking any sponsorship that do anything like that.

Imho, the Steam Deck will be the only one with a really long product lifetime. Simply because Valve's main business is selling games, not consoles. The Deck makes people buy more/different games. Worked on me. I haven't played much in the last decade because I was too tired to play at my PC after work. Now I can play everywhere. Couch, bed, car, .. Basically every other manufacturer makes money exactly once by selling such a console. As soon as their marketing is done with it, they'll release a new revision and you won't see a single software update for the old model ever again.
- Yup, there are a number of features for Valve to do this right:
  supporting linux frees them of the eternal windows shackles that pc-gaming has become, diversifies steam as a multi-platform service (not just pc gaming juggernaut) without encroaching on anyone else's terrain, and gets their user's enormous libraries out into the world, potentially enabling new kinds of games in the future.
- Well, but the same is true for brands selling desktops or laptops with windows, where they only make money once on the hardware (and maybe some additional money by installing subscription crapware like mc afee etc.).
  
  That's true. And that's the reason why you'll get one or two firmware/driver updates and that's it. These companies have work to do on the other hand. A laptos or desktop is a widespread product. Valve had to go a long way to make the Deck happen.

Wouldn't it be rather simple to install Linux on them though?
- You could, but what makes Steam Deck special is that it's SteamOS is built specifically for that hardware, enabling functions you wouldn't normally see in gaming PC hardware.
- The difference is that if the device comes with Steam OS, then it's ready to go out of the box and you're assured the hardware has good Linux support.
  If it's originally a Windows device then you may have to jump through additional hoops to get everything working. Also you'll have to deal with allowing other OS's in the BIOS if it's locked.
  Also you've paid Microsoft for a license you won't use.
  The flip side is that there's work to make a native Steam OS build for 3rd party portable devices:
  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/06/the-linux-coders-turning-the-rog-ally-and-other-handhelds-into-steam-deck-clones/
  and
  https://chimeraos.org/
- I suppose. But then why not steam deck?
  
  If you like the hardware of one of the others more. I think the Legion Go looks pretty sweet. Wonder if it could make a good daily driver even.

Totally agree.
Not only they can’t sell the device at a loss, but also they have to use Windows for driver compatibility.
What’s holding back the Steam Deck, and the whole gaming on the go, it’s x86. For the rest, it’s x86 plus Windows plus drivers.
The one to win will be who makes a tightly coupled device that’s also efficient. Apple is good at that, but has nowhere near the catalogue than Steam and lacks a Steamworks SDK.
- Intel meteor lake looks very appealing for next Gen consoles
  
  I’ve heard that story a lot of times. Also, next gen consoles are going AMD unless Intel bows really down, which I haven’t seen in my lifetime.

Where are the true killers with arm based chips? And how is the linux version of rosetta 2 doing? Can we run x86 games on arm Linux?
- And how is the linux version of rosetta 2 doing?
  What? You mean how is the linux version of mac version of qemu? Alive and kicking! Same for box86 and box64. Binary tralsators existed before Apple started making x86 computers.
  
  Sorry, i was very late with this whole arm hype 😅 never knew that rasp pi was arm prior Apple silicone 🫣 But Indeed, it is very nice seeing that fast progress there and I hope linux arm goes mainstream and thus get even more supported by app developers and investors.
- Don't Apple's chips have specific hardware support to make Rosetta 2 as effective as it is? I've been really hoping other manufacturers find a way to do something similar.
  
  I don’t know about hardware support, but I found this article on box86.org which seems to be the best alternative to rosetta on Linux. The performance drop on box64 vs native is still much greater than the performance drop in rosetta:
  https://box86.org/2022/03/box86-box64-vs-qemu-vs-fex-vs-rosetta2/
  Edit: many infos about Rosetta under the hood: https://github.com/FFRI/ProjectChampollion
  I found nothing, that implies that there would be specific hardware features in m1 for making the translation faster. Only that it does translation mainly ahead-of-time (AOT) and saves "that version" of the app somewhere as cache). I only scrolled through it and did not read it all, so maybe I missed it.
  
  Yes they do, and you can bet that'll go away as soon as Apple thinks x86 isn't important (to them).

I thought that valve even allowed other companies to use the steam deck software on their own hardware.
- I'm pretty sure its just a linux distro anyone can use, maybe even open source.
  Manufacturers will choose the sweet microsoft money tho they get per device with windows preinstalled.
- I think GPD offers SteamOS copies for their devices.

That's because normal Linux won't be as optimised but unlike Valve they don't want to put actual work into optimising it.
- Less "not optimized", & more "not supported"; IE, accelerations that don't turn on, because companies like Intel, Broadcom, Samsung, & NVidia, have a long history of only giving preferred partner devteams, prerelease hardware access, much less any peeks at unobfuscated firmware.

Not so bad if you can just install another OS to 'em like they were just little mobile computers.

if I don't own any steam games, are any of these other options better than the steam deck? or is steam deck still the way to go for non steam games?
- They have better performance, so if you play plugged in or play a game that's not great in Proton you might benefit.
  For unplugged, nobody has yet beat the 5W performance of the Steam Deck
- I mean it doesn't have a disc drive and the base OS is Linux, so if the game you want to play doesn't work on Linux it won't work on the Linux version of Steam Deck, if that is what you're asking. If you know how to make isos and move them over if the game requires, you can install windows on the steam deck and basically run anything that the steam deck can handle hardware wise whether its on steam or not. Ive seen people who installed windows on it or also kept the original Linux Steam OS play many non-steam games. Some of these other devices were built with Windows though from the ground up though if you don't want to reinstall anything or deal with drivers, I personally plan on getting a Steam Deck here in a few months next Christmas then replacing Linux with Windows so i know for sure my software will work as sacrilegious as it is.
  
  it doesn't have a disc drive
  False. Only the least expensive model has eMMC for the built-in storage. The other models have replaceable (upgradable) NVMe SSDs.

82 comments