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.
Like it or not, this is the easiest way to get Linux further into the mainstream. I've had Linux on my laptop for about a year or so and have been loving it, but I've still been wary about switching my gaming PC. I think the biggest issue with most people hesitant to switch is ease of use. From the outside Linux looks cryptic and kinda scary for most people. I mean you have to do research just to find out which distro to use and even then might not even find one you like on the first try. With Windows... You just install Windows and you can already do everything you need to do.
One could argue it's been mainstream for a while. We just don't call it Linux. We call it android, game consoles, TVs etc... for consumers they look at hardware and software as one in the same.
If I were to guess, if steam os takes off, we will have another word other than Linux for these machines.
The biggest hurdle by far is that you need to compile the software you want to use from source more often that is acceptable for the average user. There is also a serious lack of proper hardware driver support.
Linux is way too fragmented and trying to get up and running with basic apps requires way too much technical skill.
I really do hope that SteamOS will finally solve these problems by having the backing of a foundation (company) that has years of UX experience (with multiple failures and successes under their belt) that targets a wide range of audiences. This should give hardware manufacturers confidence that developing drivers for that OS will not be a waste of time.
compile the software you want to use from source more often that is acceptable for the average user.
Wut? I've been using Linux in some form or another for years and that is greatly exaggerated even for back then
Linux is way too fragmented and trying to get up and running with basic apps requires way too much technical skill.
Um. WHAT. most distros are just some flavor of one of the handful of major ones, like Debian (Even Ubuntu is based on Debian). If it's a Linux application, it'll probably work on your distro. There's some other cases, like FreeBSD which isn't a Linux kernel, so things differ there, but it's unlikely you'll be running it at home unless you're venturing out of "average user" domain, like Arch for Linux.
Things have never been easier
The majority of users won't even touch the command line if they're on a noob friendly distro. Been that way for a long time. Only Gentoo users are compiling from source, and even then, not that frequently
The biggest hurdle by far is that you need to compile the software you want to use from source more often that is acceptable for the average user.
I've been using Linux as my main OS since 2007 and not had to do that once.
Linux is way too fragmented and trying to get up and running with basic apps requires way too much technical skill.
> open app store
> search
> install any flatpak you like
If anything Windows is the complicated one in this regard.
I'll install it on my gaming desktop day 1...
I'm so fucking ready to ditch Windows. I'm listening.
Do it! Set some time aside and try out Linux
The built-in Proton WINE does pretty darn well for me already. Baldur's Gate 3 plays fine on my Pop!_OS system.
Same. Doesn't play Deadlock very well which I find really funny since it's a Valve game. But it's a play test so I'll give it a pass for now.
Same bg3 works great! I'm running on steam deck and pop os at different intervals. It's fun.
I'm definitely a recent convert. I hate Windows 11 and all the various features it shoves down my throat these days. I bought a steam deck and ended up dabbling in the desktop mode enough to realize the learning process will be mostly fun for me. I'm mostly gaming these days anyway. I don't use the computers I have at home for much more than that.
I hope this helps give Linux some love. Been using Bazzite and it seems to do the job pretty well.
Very excited for the super new inductees that just want to build a Steam home console.
Buuuuut I really have not had issues with anything except Anti-Cheat (which Steam Deck has issues with anyway) using Pop!_OS on my PC.
It did take some learning, but most of that was done through just using the OS.
The only time I had issues doing something I wanted to was when I initially tried to install Mod Organizer 2 for Fallout: New Vegas. That took some reading up. Ended up being an easy fix and then all I had to do was learn how to install Windows components to my F:NV prefix in Protontricks to get almost any mod running.
So for anyone who wants to plug in and play their games, Linux is basically there. And for anyone more technical, it's not a crazy amount more work to do the stuff you're already doing.
I got the first gen rog ally while it was on a sale because I was curious if I'd like it more than my steam Deck.
Yeah the ally is collecting dust...
I wanted to then give it to my (not technically inclined, plays all games on a switch) partner when steam family library went live so she could play the vast library I have (and I was gonna setup emulators too) but I just couldn't give it to her in good conscience. I've been working in IT for over 20 years and the UX for windows on a small device like the rog ally is such an utter pain in the ass that it basically ruined the experience. I used it as a living room PC for awhile by hooking it up to my TV with a KB/M but that's just defeated the purpose of it's form factor. It's just a desktop PC now.
If using a Windows handheld as a traditional PC is the only comfortable way to use it for someone like me, there's no way I'm giving that experience to someone that is used to console experiences.
Having steam OS on the rog ally (yes I'm well aware of Bazzite already existing and I've played around with it on the Ally, it's just not quite there yet) would be a godsend to make the rog ally a useable device not just for myself, but definitely for the average person that grew up on consoles.
And yeah anything that can be done to get away from windows is better in my opinion. Even if Microsoft turned around tomorrow and made a "great UX for handhelds" it would still be windows. No thanks. I'll keep a PC for the few things that just work better (or at all) on one just in case, but I don't currently play any of the games that have the anti cheat issue on Linux anyway.
It's great for hardware manufacturers, the consumers, and it's great for Valve too. I for one welcome this expansion (finally) of the steam OS platform.