Linux as the true Trojan!

Steam deck was the main draw of moving away from windows after the security updates for 10 end in october

This is actually how it happened for me.

Opinion: Games that have "linux support" but explicitly check for Steam Deck hardware should have a disclaimer on the store page or even have their Steam Deck verified status revoked.
- You know some games that do that?
  
  There's a post every so often on !linux_gaming@lemmy.world

Gnu manifesto + linux

It's true! Since getting a steamdeck I have tried 1) SteamOS (obviously), 2) Mint Cinnamon, and 3) Elementary. I run my plex server on a Beelink running Elementary, Mint I've left because I'm coming from MacOS and don't necessarily want a Windows experience, but it was solid!
Building a computer now and planning on running Bazzite exclusively on it :)
- id recommend AMD GPU not just because its drivers are open source but they usually have a bit more VRAM which actually matters.
  
  Got a 9070 🤗

web dev 🤝 steam deck

Doesn't it run on Arch? Crazy to think there's a bunch of Arch users that don't say they use arch btw
- It is but it's a Valve managed version of Arch. It will get recent packages but not as cutting edge as upstream Arch.
- It isn't true Arch though, so the Arch forums would never accept them. They would have to go install from scratch to be able to get "I use arch btw" badge.
  I use endeavouros btw.
  
  True Arch: you write the image to the usb stick yourself, boot it on bare hardware, and don't use archinstall. This is the minimum requirement BTW. If you use archinstall you can only use "btw" in lowercase. /s
- I use Stearch btw
  
  I eat starch btw

I've loved using Linux on my steamdeck to game, but sadly I cant really switch because of lossless scaling. LSFG is too good to stop using, and there's no Linux equivalent. not even afmf2 works on linux
- Use whatever you want
  Don't let the Linux fans try to tell you that Linux is this amazing thing that can fix all your problems.
  
  It is amazing, but it doesn't mean it's amazing at everything. You don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
  
  Linux is, in general far better than windows in my experience. its just that certain must-have applications are only available on windows
- Gamescope is technically lossless scaling without the framegen. Technically it should be possible to add to gamescope.
  
  yes, but lossless scaling is closed source and the developer has decided not to try adding Linux support. supposedly its because of it's reliance on windows capture apis

Oh my god! I thought I bought a gaming handheld but i bought.... communism!
- Excusme sir, the word is now wokeness/wokeism.
  
  Fuck, if it's easy to mod games and run script extenders, I'll be in-Stalin it this week.
  I replied one too deep. Fuck.
- I don't understand the comparisons people make between OSS and comunism. Comunism is a flavor of old-world authoritarianism, based upon the idea that mankind is incapable of choosing the right thing, so the right choice is instead mandated by law. OSS's emhasis on freedom, choice, and the lack of any kind of governing authrorty or social dogma, as well as the inherent trust in the majority public to choose the right (to donate or contribute) has a lot more in common with liberalism than comunism.
  
  Seems I alerted the hoard, lol
  
  I don’t understand the comparisons people make between OSS and comunism.
  It shows.
  
  Your understanding of communist ideas are on a par on your spelling of it.
  
  Just a heads up, you were lied to about what communism means.
  
  heads up, neither USSR nor China were ever communist
  
  It's a joke because Bill Gates once called it that. Nobody actually thinks that other than some tech bros that are high from huffing their own farts.
  
  Comunism is a flavor of old-world authoritarianism, based upon the idea that mankind is incapable of choosing the right thing, so the right choice is instead mandated by law.
  You know capitalist nations also have laws, right...?
  
  Communism is a classless stateless moneyless society based on the principle of "from each according to ability, to each according to need"
  
  There is a vast difference between communism the theory and communism the real world application as it occured in 20th century.

Windows user here.
Idgaf as long as it works and isn't shit. If it has lots of cool clever stuff, all the better.
- Windows is shit tho. Has been for a long time now.
  
  I'm a power user, I don't even want to upgrade or have to reinstall because of how much shit I've gone through to get it to this point. Easily a decade old install and very active use. I would lose so much random stuff if I ever had to upgrade or switch. Windows is shit and Microsoft are total bastards for that, there's no denying it. But for me, it is not so simple as one being better or worse. Maybe if I were in a stage to switch I'd consider it, but still windows is not without its own offerings/positives.
- Most vendor software works the best on Windows.
  Windows also generally has the best compatibility. I always keep at least one Windows 11 VM to install various things in.
  
  Have you run some demanding games in that VM? And what virtualisation have you been using?
  I've been thinking about trying that out with QEMU/KVM.

Linux is the crab of the digital world, eventually everything turns into it.
- That would be unix then :)
  
  Why would it be?
- Are you crabs yet?

It's working, I know people who don't even own a steam deck who are considering swapping to SteamOS once it's available for desktops.
I've told them they don't need to wait and can get a similar or better experience with distros that are already available, but steam's name is gold for a lot of people and it seems like the only option they're really interested in.
- Knowing that with Steams' support of Linux through proton means a vast amount of games just work out of the box was enough for me to switch to EndeavourOS.
  I've been on it for a week, and I'm so sold.
  
  Same. (Are you me?)
  
  Yeah, I had mostly stayed away from arch based distros after having a really bad time with Manjaro. But hearing the Steam Deck's version of SteamOS was switching to an Arch base got me to try Endeavour on my desktop, and I've been using it ever since.
- While this would be great, it's also a little unfortunate, since the general desktop experience on Steam Deck is IIRC currently a bit below other comparable distros, and I'd hate for people to get an incomplete picture of what the Linux desktop experience can be like. Hopefully the time that's led up to the wider release of SteamOS has been spent on getting that desktop experience up to snuff.
  
  Desktop experience is just KDE, only part that I'm worried will trip people up is it being immutable. Usually that's fine, but occasionally you run into an issue where something doesn't work because of flatpak sandboxing, and it can be confusing how to overcome it.

Firstly: I feel seen.
Secondly: it's working, SteamOS is so nice. I haven't been this interested in Linux since the XP to 7 transfer. And I think imma' actually do it this time.
- It's almost like an OS that wants to be useful is a better experience than an OS that wants to push you ads and steal everything you produce to feed into llm slop-generation.
  
  This is a lie! Nobody should read his comment, instead they should check out Raid Shadow Legends the epic, turn-based RPG that's taken the mobile gaming world by storm!
  
  Meh, there's pretty easy (and legit) ways around the bullshit that makes managing it take less time than I had to spend making my Mint install work properly.
- I'm in the same boat. I am really not interested in Windows 11 at all, especially after using it at work. My primary hesitation has been video game playability in the past but the steam deck has really expanded how many games are playable on Linux and I also play a lot more games on consoles than I did a few years ago
  
  I was you. I installed Mint and the only issue I had was with a hard drive that was being shared by both systems (dual booting) that had all my games on it. It was a symlink issue.
  Bite the bullet. The startup time alone is worth it.
- A good UI/UX is what Linux needs most to get people to switch. Valve has the money to pour into actually making something people want to use. Now I just hope the desktop release gets the same polish.
  
  KDE is good already
  Or are you talking about "gaming mode"?
  
  Linux has plenty of good UIs… KDE, Budgie, XFCE, Cinnamon, GNOME, etc. Literally no shortage of desktop environments.
  
  It needs a decent UX, but most importantly it needs binary compatibility. No pleb will compile from source.

Steam deck gave me the courage to dump Windows 10 for Endeavour OS. Very happy so far.
- Fellow EOS user, glad to hear you're enjoying yourself. Just make sure to check the news on the Arch website before updating, sometimes an extra step gets thrown in and you don't wanna bork your system. I'd say use Informant, but it's been giving me shit
  
  Where are those? There isn't much on the main page.
  When I used Manjaro, there were threads for each major update. Known issues, known issues from past updates (if you didn't get those yet), poll to see the update quality and a discussion thread.
  E.g. the most recent one: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/stable-update-2025-04-12-kernels-plasma-systemd-mesa-grub-wine/176877

There isn't some magic to this. Someone puts out a game thats as popular as say bg3 but doesn't run on steam deck and all these memes will go away overnight. Just hope that doesn't happen.
- Well, I feel like the Steam Deck has partially positioned itself as just a convenience device. I imagine quite some folks have it in addition to their (Windows) gaming PC and just use it on the couch or when travelling.
  In particular, the genre most likely to cause problems are competitive games (because anti-cheat freaks out when it notices slight differences compared to real Windows). And it wouldn't be my first thought to buy a Steam Deck to play those, simply because the screen is small and the primary controls aren't mouse+keyboard (even though you can of course dock the Steam Deck)
  
  I got both. Of it doesn't run wel on the deck, I just stream it from the PC.

Gaben you sneaky devil

there are many games i play that dont work on Linux systems
- Which ones, genuinely curious?
  
  online multiplayer games with anti cheat
  
  CS2 FaceIT, Tarkov, CoD, Le Mans Ultimate
  
  I'll start with Fortnite. Hate on it if you want but my kids and wife play it and I enjoy playing with them even if I don't much care for it myself.
  
  Pretty much every online competitive game cuz they all use invasive anti cheats and scapegoat linux as the cheater platform.
  CS2 is the only outlier that I know of (VAC is server side mostly & CS2 is native anyways so). Probably some other games that are linux friendly too, but 99% are not.

For new users that were otherwise scared of changing their daily driver, it does provide a nice little path for them.
Flip it into Desktop mode some times to get a feel for how different the DE is, play around with some command line stuff. Easy to factory reset, so mess it up if you want.
Then install something like CachyOS Handheld edition after a while to get a less restricted Linux experience, while maintaining game mode et all.
Hell, for the price, it's a great device to use as a dev machine if you do Cachy or similar. I use mine as my daily use "laptop" since my other laptop died, and was less powerful any way.
- Woah, Cachy sounds sick! How does the gaming mode perform in your experience? Is it effectively the same as the deck's vanilla game mode? 🤔 very tempted to give it a shot myself!
  
  Admittedly, I don't use game mode as often as most. I do gamedev on this, so it's almost always in Desktop mode, even when I'm actually playing games.
  Having said that, the handful of times I have used it on Cachy felt no different at all to SteamOS. The UI is identical. They did a great job recreating the Valve-specific parts of SteamOS that aren't just part of KDE or Arch.
  The only downside, and it's just a minor inconvenience for me, is that Cachy doesn't have the option to boot into Desktop mode by default (yet). It always boots up into game mode first.
  EDIT: I was wrong, the game mode on CachyOS is actually one in the same as SteamOS game mode. That is something built into a special release of the Steam client for Steam Decks, and Cachy just uses that instead of reinventing the wheel. It should be a direct 1:1 experience when it comes to game mode.
- I use mine as my daily use “laptop” since my other laptop died, and was less powerful any way.
  I just wish it had better IO. Either 2 USB C ports, or even better USB 4 and I'd own one by now.
  
  Just get a small USBC dock, I got one with an HDMI, USBC and USB connection so I can connect it to a monitor, its power cord and a wireless keyboard/mouse dongle... It's super compact so it doesn't bother me at all.
  
  Dear god, yes. One more USB C would solve a lot of problems.
- SteamOS desktop mode is just KDE, so you could just make a Live USB of Kubuntu or whatever to try it out on your actual desktop or laptop PC.
  
  Exactly, that's my point. New Linux people don't have to think about installing a new OS or even using a live USB, just flip to Desktop mode to demo it.
- What advantages does Cachy have?
  
  They give you a lot more control over the system in terms of the filesystem, its structure and format, use of pacman without being wiped on update, etc. It's more of a true Arch Linux experience, plus it isn't controlled by Valve.
  Cachy also has their own Proton versions that seem to run a couple of games marginally better so far. Still, you have all the options when it comes to how you want to install and run games or anything else.
  ETA: I think BazziteOS also has a handheld version that is tailored for the Deck's hardware that gives a similar experience
- So are you lugging around a keyboard, screen and usb hub with it or what?
  I switched to a MacBook Air + Steam Deck combo for work/gaming and it's fairing much better than my old gaming laptop ever did on both fronts
  
  Sorta. I work from home, so while here it's docked on a desk.
  When I travel, I'm usually in National Forests, so I don't really get on the computer much. If I do need to, though, I have one of those Logitech keyboard+trackpad that I use. Otherwise it's just a game/media machine when I'm traveling if I even pull it out.

Buddy of mine mentioned how talking about computers with me always eventually leads to Linux yesterday.

Yup. Fussing around in Desktop mode (aka handheld Arch) got me into it. It was weirdly easy to get Phantasy Star Online Ephinea working with luteix, and that game was easily one of my favorite Deck experiences running on 3W of power lol.

I used my deck as my main computer when I was traveling earlier this year (I don't have a laptop). I brought a small keyboard, no mouse, was able to do everything I needed. It's convinced me I can easily make the switch I'm just waiting to move now and get a laptop when I'm out of tarrif-land

Steam in general, TBH.

When they bring a desktop version of steamOS to market... it's gonna be a dark day for MS share holders.

I got a Steam Deck recently and hadn't dabbled in Linux since the Raspberry Pi 3 like 7 years ago. It's so much easier with a gui instead of command prompts! And now I see what all the fuss over Proton was about - it's amazing how many Windows games just work!

Does the steam deck come with socks?

You've got a friend in horse!

It's not Linux it's steam os...
- Which is downstream from Arch. Checkmate atheists
- You are kidding, right? Right?
  
  Yes I was hence the "..." , least a few people got to have the satisfaction of being right on the internet above having a laugh

That's kinda like saying Android is helping the mass adoption of Linux.
- Yes and no. Steam Deck runs a proper Linux distro, with all the typical userland and such. Apart from using OSTree for its rootfs, it's all a typical Linux distro.
  
  The question is, how many regular users actually use desktop mode? The community around here certainly makes it seem like it's more popular than it probably is.
- No. The main diference is that you write a software for Android, it doesn't work in gnu/Linux (without extra layers), but if you write a software for steamOS, literally you are writing a software for gnu/Linux. SteamOS is an arch Linux modified to be immutable with a custom (and free) kernel with extra support that they merge after in mainline, with the steam app oppened by default. SteamOS use all the software stack for gnu Linux. Android develop their own stack and work different.
- Yeah no not at all. SteamOS is full-fledged a Linux distro. That actually uses all the tools and software a normal Linux distro would use. It runs all the applications and binaries you would expect Linux to run.
  Android is so completely different
  
  Yes but I don't know if there's anyone out there who would install SteamOS on their desktop, vs just using it on steam deck. I know people in this sub certainly would, but I don't think normies would go out of their way to do so without official buy-in from Valve, and they got out of the steam machine business
- I gotta disagree. Android isn't really linux. The Steam Deck absolutely ships with Linux.
  
  It ships with Linux, but the majority of users aren't going to be using anything other than steam in big picture mode.
  
  It really is Linux, but not necessarily GNU+Linux