Valve’s plan to bring SteamOS to more devices is a promising sign if you want to stop gaming on Windows
Valve’s plan to bring SteamOS to more devices is a promising sign if you want to stop gaming on Windows
The recent news that SteamOS may soon be shipped with third-party devices could be particularly important for Linux gaming on desktops.
Linux on more devices and associated with gaming is great. If it gets to the point where they work together with AlienWare to make gaming rigs powered by SteamOS, or even produce something together with Lenovo, HP, or Dell, and make it available in retailers, maybe then we'll finally see it enter more people's homes.
Android is Linux, but it's so heavily modified that it's a case of Theseus's ship.
I already game on Linux because of Steam. It's easy and works.
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.
Garuda Dragonized I really like. It's set up for gaming out of the box, with a utility to help you add anything else you may need for gaming. It comes with a "gamer" aesthetic that I'm really not a fan of but it's easy to modify. It's Arch based, which may sound scary from what you've heard, but it's really not bad. It comes with everything you need (which is where the trouble with Arch is), and Arch is one of the best supported distros, with the Arch wiki and AUR.
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
Does SteamOS support non game programs, such as text, audio, modeling, and whatever other esiting software people use?
Yup, but to add on to what the other guy said you will have to find alternatives to some programs like adobe products, microsoft products, and some others.
Or run them in a Windows VM or potentially through WINE.
yes, it's just arch linux under the hood, and there's even a desktop mode which im pretty sure is kde
I want that so much.
Help dissuade (or confirm) a fear here. Could this be the first step to a sort of Androidization of steamos?
Probably not. Unlike Android, it doesn't take away the Linux desktop features. It's just Arch with a bunch of stuff pre-installed.
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
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"?
That MB I just put in a box might be viable again? Wouldn't upgrade to Win11 but worked great in every other way.
Just install Linux? SteamOS is just a Linux distribution based on Arch. My current distro is Garuda, which is also Arch based and has a gaming focused version with everything you need for gaming pre-installed.
How is CS2 working on it? I know I could just try to get it running myself on a spare pc, but I find that as I get older I dislike fiddling with things like this more and more. And while I'm fine with just playing games made to work properly on Linux, CS2 and it's predecessors is something me and my real life friends have been playing for nearly two decades. It's a way to keep in touch as everyone has kids and can't come to the pub during the weekend.