SteamOS will be coming to other handhelds before you can install it on your PC 'because right now, it's very, very tuned for Steam Deck'
SteamOS will be coming to other handhelds before you can install it on your PC 'because right now, it's very, very tuned for Steam Deck'
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.
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.
Oh, I wasn't aware of that at all, my bad. Bazzite looks much more polished, as well.
Check out Bazzite. Works pretty well on Desktop in my opinion.
At this moment in time, Bazzite is just straight up a better experience than SteamOS. Fedora backend with rpm-ostree is way better than what Valve has going on. And for Steam Deck, GNOME just makes more sense for touch interfaces.
Yeah, I was puzzled why Valve chose KDE to be the default desktop for a touchscreen device. Ultimately though I figured they just wanted a Linux desktop that would be more familiar to Windows users.
Bazzite is just straight up a better experience than SteamOS. Fedora backend with rpm-ostree is way better than what Valve has going on. And for Steam Deck, GNOME just makes more sense for touch interfaces.
Bazzite defaults to Plasma for Desktop Mode just as SteamOS. According to https://universal-blue.org/images/bazzite/installation/ Gnome is only the 4th installer choice.
Welp, there go my weekend plans.
I've been loving it on desktop, personally
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”.
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.
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.
You can tuna steam deck but you can't tuna fish
What about the glue?
Not going to happen until NVIDIA proprietary drivers work well in Wayland
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:
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.
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.
Look into Fedora Silverblue, immutable filesystem OSes have come a long way. Things like Toolbx allow you to install packages in sub-systems similar to WSL and flatpaks make all the grapical applications avaliable. Plus package installation doesn't pollute your base install with packages making the OS increasingly unstable.
I've used Fedora Silverblue for a while and it's still on a laptop that keeps itself up to date without any user intervention. The specific way SteamOS is immutable is the problem, namely wiping apps installed through pacman on updates. Most apps work in containers (flatpak, distrobox) but gaming-related software like the xbox controller driver xone and v4l2loopback for OBS virtual camera support do not work well with how SteamOS currently works.
My point is not that SteamOS couldn't be a great desktop OS, but that Valve focuses on solving a relatively narrow use case. This makes it not an ideal general purpose desktop OS, altough that is subject to change.
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.
This right here is why they do like one interview a year, lmao.
What he actually said was "We're hoping [it will be] soon", but for whatever reason people's reading comprehension skills go out the window whenever there is a Valve interview.
The reading of his intention is plain; regardless my curiosity stems from a similar interview that was issued before the Deck launched and not this particular conversation.
Back then advising "not anytime soon" would have set a fair expectation but Valve chose to serve pablum and continues to do so regardless of the number of interviews/communications that have been released in the past year alone.
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.
Yeah, and that's probably why development for 3.5 has also been this slow. They were busy with the OLED model
Your guess has the right feel for me too. A lot of people were hungry for OLED and this is the trade off.
I'm just ready for Linux to grow. Maybe it is naive to think that one distro will carry us much further but with the proper solution I can easily imagine a lot of people dual booting their PCs soon.
So what comes first: SteamOS for desktop or Half Life 3?
@Fubarberry a bit of newbie on these distributions, it seems that nvidia graphic cards are a nogo for chimeraos and holoiso. Has anyone some good experience with bazzite ?
I've heard lots of good things about Bazzite, but I don't have any hands on experience with it. I think it would be a good option.
@Fubarberry stuck on https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite/issues/391 for now... shame they don't have a list of supported devices.
ok
Windows doesnt blankent statement run every game faster than linux as native sometimes isnt the fastest method.
Take for example, dx11 and older games. They lack a asynchronous shader cache which heavily helps minimum framerates and 1% lows. Because of older api games going through the dxvk translation process, games them would have a working cache and bypass some inherent problems with a game. MMOs like Final Fantasy 14 and guild wars 2 gain benefits, even single player games like FF7R translating from DX11 > Vulkan performed better than the DX12 native.
Elden Ring was one of the first games to show this problem and was documented. When Elden Ring launched, it effectively had shader cache broken, causing microstutters. Users on Linux, especially the steam deck, did not receive that problem because Vulkan already fixed the probelm without the devs needing to fix it.
We can still downvote you, being the only user here accessing the thread via mastodon, just means you're the only one not seeing how big of an L you're taking.
The rest of us can see it just fine.
People will do anything to avoid installing "linux"...
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
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.
@bionicjoey @savvywolf
I love GNU, but windows 11 works very well and the software
just works, and fast. stable etc..
I tested it for 4 months.
I put steam back on yesterday because it was made for it. so it runs better.
I can also use KDE 😅💕
so it works for me.
If it had no desktop
I would have no
choice but would
be ok having to
use windows.
PS: I know there are those hurting
for a windows key. You can buy OEM keys online for 30 bucks and its legal.
https://www.kinguin.net/category/19429/windows-10-professional-oem-key
If doing certain things under proton was less of a pain in the ass, I’d agree with you. But proton still isn’t simple for some usecases.
EDIT: the people downvoting me very likely have only surface level experience with Proton. Sorry, it isn’t perfect. It’s based on WINE, which also isn’t perfect. It’s making a lot of progress and is damn close but it isn’t perfect.
That's why they called it "SteamOS", not "Steam Linux"
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
I just spent 2 hours trying and failing to get a Hello, World! in Eclipse, I'm not brave enough for Linux
Your first mistake was using Eclipse...
Which programming language do you want to use?
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)