As a Deck user, there's quite a few "Unverified" games that work mostly flawlessly and, even then, most of those just listed as 'Playable' only mean that there's things that make it not perfect on...
As a Deck user, there's quite a few "Unverified" games that work mostly flawlessly and, even then, most of those just listed as 'Playable' only mean that there's things that make it not perfect on Deck. So, my Steam library is mostly only limited by Anti cheat and some older games which are complex enough to have problems that ProtonDB users haven't figured out.
I agree re: trying it yourself. The only thing I've found with ProtonDB sometimes is that there are ways to get things to work better than what you might immediately see there. I went to install...
I agree re: trying it yourself. The only thing I've found with ProtonDB sometimes is that there are ways to get things to work better than what you might immediately see there.
I went to install The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the other day because people on ProtonDB were saying it runs well pretty much out of the box but that the videos were either laggy or didn't work at all. After a couple minor adjustments it worked well, but yeah, the videos weren't working. After doing a bit of digging I found this report by a user called Hobby Boy that indicated installing Quartz, Amstream, and lavfilters via Protontricks allows the videos to work, which it did.
It's just a little unfortunate that report got bumped down by newer stuff that doesn't have all the info you need to get things working properly. And also that it seems like the game worked almost entirely properly out of the box at some point but regressed slightly over time.
The steam deck has been great for both Linux gaming as well as PC gaming in general. It has worked as an affordable handheld gaming PC that's reasonably powerful when at the time of its release,...
The steam deck has been great for both Linux gaming as well as PC gaming in general.
It has worked as an affordable handheld gaming PC that's reasonably powerful when at the time of its release, comparable devices often cost twice or three times more. It's a really surprising little device and I'm looking forward to seeing more companies besides GPD and Ayaneo taking up handheld PC gaming like we have with Asus.
And for Linux it's been great too, both because it's a relatively popular device (still not huge but enough users to be noticeable), and devs are beginning to target it for compatability, which in turn helps with Linux compatability in general.
But it's also been great because it's shown folks that gaming on Linux is very doable. The Steam Deck as well as Valve's Proton and work from the community on Wine, Lutris, GE-Proton, etc... Has gotten us to a point now where single player games on Linux almost feels like a solved problem, and now it's mostly a matter of getting anti cheat systems working on Linux.
It's honestly great to see compatability with these numbers, because that's not only for the steam deck, that's 10,000 games that work on Linux now. From indie titles like slay the spire and dead cells, all the way up to triple A stuff like the dead space remake, and Horizon Forbidden West.
I switched over to Linux full-time when Valve first released Proton (back when ProtonDB was just a Google Form!) and have been gaming on it ever since. Making that change made me become a bit of a...
I switched over to Linux full-time when Valve first released Proton (back when ProtonDB was just a Google Form!) and have been gaming on it ever since. Making that change made me become a bit of a joke among my friends for being The Linux User, with some of them probably not even really knowing enough about computers to know what Linux is.
Fast forward to now, and five of us have Steam Decks. I'm still the only one who cares about Linux in the slightest, but the other four are now gaming on Linux because they want the handheld goodness that the Steam Deck has to offer. My husband knows nothing about Linux nor does he really care about it, but he now spends the bulk of his gaming time on it because the Deck usurped the Switch for him.
It really is an incredible breakthrough device doing wonders for the Linux ecosystem.
I really want to swap over to Linux full time, but I'm an avid Valorant player and it's not possible to play it on Linux. I suppose I could just dual boot but that's a little annoying. Maybe one day.
I really want to swap over to Linux full time, but I'm an avid Valorant player and it's not possible to play it on Linux. I suppose I could just dual boot but that's a little annoying. Maybe one day.
Personally if I were new to linux and wanted to game I'd stick to distros with lots of pre-existing support to find when searching. Ubuntu, Mint, or if you want to be a little more hands on/not...
Personally if I were new to linux and wanted to game I'd stick to distros with lots of pre-existing support to find when searching. Ubuntu, Mint, or if you want to be a little more hands on/not afraid to RTFM, Arch.
To piggyback, as a general rule, if you are a Windows user looking to transition to Linux, Mint is a good choice. If a MacOS user, you'll probably have a better time with mainline Ubuntu (who tf...
To piggyback, as a general rule, if you are a Windows user looking to transition to Linux, Mint is a good choice. If a MacOS user, you'll probably have a better time with mainline Ubuntu (who tf knows what DE they're using now? Whichever it is, it's too MacOS/OSX-y for my tastes).
Mint is a fine choice. It's one of the most polished consumer-oriented distros, and one I use every day. Something to bear in mind about Linux: you can control pretty much everything if you want....
Mint is a fine choice. It's one of the most polished consumer-oriented distros, and one I use every day.
Something to bear in mind about Linux: you can control pretty much everything if you want. You can simply add a taskbar to Ubuntu if you like its other features and only miss that one UI element. It's usually not difficult, though it may take a bit of tinkering.
For the most part, the makers of distros have no interest in locking you into a particular UX. In that sense, Linux is the polar opposite of Apple, who take the walled garden approach (not without reason).
To start, a GUI. Arch is basically a command line until you add a desktop environment. If you want to DIY an operating system, Arch is the one for you. You can do amazing stuff with Arch, but it...
To start, a GUI. Arch is basically a command line until you add a desktop environment.
If you want to DIY an operating system, Arch is the one for you. You can do amazing stuff with Arch, but it takes work.
I’m running Pop!_OS on System76 hardware (Oryx Pro) and love it. I’m a complete Linux newbie (despite running it for years) and this distro has been great for me.
I’m running Pop!_OS on System76 hardware (Oryx Pro) and love it. I’m a complete Linux newbie (despite running it for years) and this distro has been great for me.
Like the other user said, I'd recommend the more popular distributions, you won't really have much issue with them. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, Fedora, etc. I personally use Pop!_OS (just...
Like the other user said, I'd recommend the more popular distributions, you won't really have much issue with them. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, Fedora, etc. I personally use Pop!_OS (just switched back in Feb!) and I haven't had any major issues. After enabling Proton in Steam settings, most of my library runs really well.
Ubuntu is going to net you the most amount of documentation for troubleshooting and the like. Arch recently got an fast-installer and isn't the worst choice either, given the Steam Deck runs off...
Ubuntu is going to net you the most amount of documentation for troubleshooting and the like.
Arch recently got an fast-installer and isn't the worst choice either, given the Steam Deck runs off of an Arch-like distro and transitioning between the two would be easier (if you have/will use a Steam Deck). But I'd recommend, if you're entirely new to linux, to start with Ubuntu as you can always wipe your drive and try out other distro's later. It's a great introduction.
Mentioned it here on Tildes before, but in addition to their invaluable contributions to the Linux ecosystem, Valve made non-Xbox controller support and button remapping on PC actually good. I...
Mentioned it here on Tildes before, but in addition to their invaluable contributions to the Linux ecosystem, Valve made non-Xbox controller support and button remapping on PC actually good. I hated having several random programs running on top of Steam and my game just for that, and it was way buggier. Between that, Proton, and the Steam Deck, the PC ecosystem is so much more accessible.
SteamInput is quite possibly the greatest accessibility tools for gaming of all time. It can rectify even some of the worst old-game jank controls. I am still eagerly awaiting a SteamController 2...
SteamInput is quite possibly the greatest accessibility tools for gaming of all time. It can rectify even some of the worst old-game jank controls.
I am still eagerly awaiting a SteamController 2 for when I dock my Deck or for other computers.
I would buy a Steam Controller 2 that had the input options from the Steam Deck in a heartbeat! I can't live without back buttons, trackpads, and gyro anymore... The versatility in Steam Input for...
I would buy a Steam Controller 2 that had the input options from the Steam Deck in a heartbeat! I can't live without back buttons, trackpads, and gyro anymore... The versatility in Steam Input for them makes them a must have. The only other controller with all of the Steam Deck's features is the Dualsense Edge. It's great! Just wish the battery life wasn't the worst I've ever seen. At least it comes with a really good length braided USB-C cable. If Steam Controller 2 was basically a Dualsense Edge with actual battery life and 4 back buttons, they'd have a winner on their hands.
A solved problem for Valve, perhaps. I ultimately see it as a band-aid solution, as I did for Wine in general for getting access to Windows games. If your game doesn't fit on Steam, we're back to...
single player games on Linux almost feels like a solved problem, and now it's mostly a matter of getting anti cheat systems working on Linux.
A solved problem for Valve, perhaps. I ultimately see it as a band-aid solution, as I did for Wine in general for getting access to Windows games. If your game doesn't fit on Steam, we're back to square one
This is fantastic and actually the number one reason I'm considering switching to Linux on the whole. I love my steam Deck and the fact that any of my games that I actually want to play just kind...
This is fantastic and actually the number one reason I'm considering switching to Linux on the whole. I love my steam Deck and the fact that any of my games that I actually want to play just kind of out of the box is awesome
The Steam Deck renewed my interest in games after it being in a slump. Love how powerful it is for the price. I appreciate Valve allowing you desktop Linux access and not locking it down like a...
The Steam Deck renewed my interest in games after it being in a slump. Love how powerful it is for the price. I appreciate Valve allowing you desktop Linux access and not locking it down like a regular console, being open to plugins and providing repair parts. Hopefully they continue with this in future Decks.
I wish it was lighter like the Nintendo Switch though. Fatigue starts setting in fairly quick and I can't seem to find a comfortable position for gaming on it for more than 30 minutes. My pinky fingers fall off the grips and fall asleep.
I am the opposite. The Deck is way more natural to hold over the Switch. The deck is laying comfortably in my hands and I can play for hours. With the switch, my hands have to hold it in an...
I am the opposite. The Deck is way more natural to hold over the Switch. The deck is laying comfortably in my hands and I can play for hours. With the switch, my hands have to hold it in an uncomfortable and crampy position and I can't play for very long.
I have big hands that I work with all day, so I might have good stamina and the comfort of the Deck adds to having no issues at all.
Going through this post, I seem to be the only one that has flashed his deck with Win 11 right out of the box.
I wasn't a fan of the Linux OS pretty much limiting it to a steam gaming only device.
I have no issues with games and use it the same way as my main PC. You can also use the xbox game pass and other gaming platforms besides steam. I can definitely recommend doing it. I followed an online instruction and never had to fiddle with it since.
The OS hasn't stopped me from adding plenty of non-Steam games. On the other hand, the #1 thing that prevents something from being playable on deck with SteamOS is anti-cheat functionality, some...
I wasn't a fan of the Linux OS pretty much limiting it to a steam gaming only device.
The OS hasn't stopped me from adding plenty of non-Steam games. On the other hand, the #1 thing that prevents something from being playable on deck with SteamOS is anti-cheat functionality, some of which is on Steam titles, some of which is not.
As a result of this experience though I would not say it's the OS' fault as much as it is external developer-introduced factors.
It's still a gaming only device, isn't it? I prefer the usability of a full windows install with browsers, voice calls, music, streaming, programming and all the other stuff.
It's still a gaming only device, isn't it?
I prefer the usability of a full windows install with browsers, voice calls, music, streaming, programming and all the other stuff.
Not exclusively, SteamOS has a desktop mode and you can install pretty much whatever you want on it. You can do all of that. I've got firefox and chrome, discord, and spotify all installed on...
It's still a gaming only device, isn't it?
Not exclusively, SteamOS has a desktop mode and you can install pretty much whatever you want on it.
I prefer the usability of a full windows install with browsers, voice calls, music, streaming, programming and all the other stuff.
You can do all of that. I've got firefox and chrome, discord, and spotify all installed on mine. Some of these can even work pretty decently in game mode despite that not being what game mode is for. I had OBS installed but decided I didn't need it, and I'm not a programmer but I'm sure IDEs or programming focused text editors should be available, I saw Atom in the package manager.
SteamOS is a full Linux operating system that comes with a package manager and I know it can install flatpaks and use appimages. It comes with an immutable filesystem but I'm also aware that a knowledgeable power user can undo that as well and then you can really get deep into the weeds with customizing and installing anything to the fullest extent that any linux distro could.
I stand corrected then. I didn't explore it much because all I saw was the Steam operation system and felt kind of trapped in steam, so I figured I would try installing windows pretty much out of...
I stand corrected then. I didn't explore it much because all I saw was the Steam operation system and felt kind of trapped in steam, so I figured I would try installing windows pretty much out of the box. Since I didn't have any issues with it, I never looked back and assumed being stuck on the steam page is all it has to offer.
I lay back on the couch, ring and index fingers on back paddles, and curl my pinkies under the Deck as an additional support. Doing this I can comfortably game for about 3 hours...and it provides...
I lay back on the couch, ring and index fingers on back paddles, and curl my pinkies under the Deck as an additional support. Doing this I can comfortably game for about 3 hours...and it provides a nice limit on preventing me from foolishly staying up all night.
One of the nice things with Linux and the job Valve did with their SteamOS build is making the Steam Deck very efficient battery wise. Most Non-AAA games have food or decent battery life, and some...
One of the nice things with Linux and the job Valve did with their SteamOS build is making the Steam Deck very efficient battery wise. Most Non-AAA games have food or decent battery life, and some AAA can be adjusted for good battery life. I personally still have just done emulation on my Deck, but I feel like I easily get 5 to 6 hours on a charge.
Excited to get a SD, but with the Ally it's become more difficult to decide which is better for me. I'm guessing SD for the overall polished experience, but man that Ally HW looks pretty stronk.
Excited to get a SD, but with the Ally it's become more difficult to decide which is better for me.
I'm guessing SD for the overall polished experience, but man that Ally HW looks pretty stronk.
Honestly speaking, a new PC handheld would have to hit a pretty substantially high tipping point in hardware power advantage over Steam Deck to make me want to give up the touchpads and SteamOS'...
Honestly speaking, a new PC handheld would have to hit a pretty substantially high tipping point in hardware power advantage over Steam Deck to make me want to give up the touchpads and SteamOS' functionality. (unless Windows handhelds find a way to compete more realistically with that)
Handheld PCs still being PCs, not having a better form of mouse input at bare minimum than analog sticks approaches dealbreaker for me.
The thing is even with the Steam Deck you can just dual boot if you really want that functionality. Personally, I haven't missed having Windows on it at all so I've been happy to just leave it...
The thing is even with the Steam Deck you can just dual boot if you really want that functionality. Personally, I haven't missed having Windows on it at all so I've been happy to just leave it purely on Linux. A lot more games work than people might think, and the out of box experience is super smooth. It's a little bit more tedious setting up stuff from third party stores than I'd like, but for anybody who has mostly Steam games it's pretty easy to recommend in my opinion.
I'm not sure what you mean about "if you really want that functionality." - when I said "unless Windows handhelds find a way to compete more realistically with that" I'm saying that the Windows ux...
I'm not sure what you mean about "if you really want that functionality." - when I said "unless Windows handhelds find a way to compete more realistically with that" I'm saying that the Windows ux is a poor experience on these handheld gaming pcs and would need to improve, not that Windows usage is a functionality I'm seeking. In other words, I would not consider a handheld PC other than Steam Deck unless it had solved the Windows ux issue (or runs Steam OS) and came with touchpads.
Sorry if I'm clarifying something that doesn't need to be clarified, it's just that I can't figure out how the opener of your reply connects to my comment or what functionality you're referring to. The only functionality imo that Windows has over SteamOS is being able to satisfy the intrusive anti-cheat systems that won't run via on linux via proton.
Also, you say you haven't missed having Windows on it, I'm guessing you received a Steam Deck between your original top-level comment 2 days ago and now? I'm literally incapable of reading usernames correctly I guess.
By "you" I didn't mean you specifically, just anybody in general. I guess the correct thing to say would've been something more along the lines of "if one wanted that functionality". Apologies for...
By "you" I didn't mean you specifically, just anybody in general. I guess the correct thing to say would've been something more along the lines of "if one wanted that functionality". Apologies for the confusion there.
I was just trying to add on to what you were saying, not trying to argue or anything. Just because you were talking about how a new handheld PC would have to be substantially more powerful to give up the touchpads/steamOS. I've seen a lot of people (not you, but people like my BIL) taking the Asus ROG Ally coming with Windows on it as a positive, and I just meant to add on and say that the deck has the ability to dual boot Windows anyway for anybody that has some hangups with Linux or something.
Anyway long story short I could have been a lot clearer so that's my bad.
I navigate easily enough on my GPD Win 2 and 4. Granted I'm not doing much more than games and internet but I can switch between easily enough.
'm saying that the Windows ux is a poor experience on these handheld gaming pcs and would need to improve, not that Windows usage is a functionality I'm seeking.
I navigate easily enough on my GPD Win 2 and 4. Granted I'm not doing much more than games and internet but I can switch between easily enough.
Just excited with how fast things are changing and I don't really recommend the Ally, though I wouldn't mind some extra HP in docked mode so I can play on a higher res display at a locked 60fps at...
Just excited with how fast things are changing and I don't really recommend the Ally, though I wouldn't mind some extra HP in docked mode so I can play on a higher res display at a locked 60fps at least. Can't wait for a Zen4 SD (or maybe a custom Zen5?) as their next release - better performance/watt along with the stability of the Steam/Proton system. And much better buttons/inputs.
Love the Ally's computing HW but everything else falls short - most notably the device's inputs.
The Ally does look pretty cool, but my impressions from the stuff I've heard so far is that it's ultimately a way less refined experience. Having it comes with Windows is pretty nice for the...
The Ally does look pretty cool, but my impressions from the stuff I've heard so far is that it's ultimately a way less refined experience. Having it comes with Windows is pretty nice for the theoretically increased game compatibility, but otherwise Steam OS is undoubtedly going to be much smoother to deal with out of the box. I watch Jeff Gerstmann and he was saying he has had a lot of problems with the SD card coming out of the slot on the Ally and that the out of box experience was pretty janky.
It really comes down to what matters to you though. Some games will absolutely just not work on the deck (unless you install Windows). A lot of games will run perfectly out of the box. A lot of other games will work but will require a little bit of tinkering. Overall, there's not really been anything in my experience that I really wanted to run but couldn't, but using third party stores (ie GOG, Epic, etc) is more annoying than I'd like it to be.
All in all, Steam Deck is a pretty easy recommend from me if you think you'd enjoy that kind of thing. They're also 20% off in the Steam sale right now (for the 512GB), so that's kinda wild.
It's at least two steps down in refinement compared to the SD taking the controllers/inputs into account. I'm not completely sold on the Ally, but I can imagine how better the next SD release will...
It's at least two steps down in refinement compared to the SD taking the controllers/inputs into account. I'm not completely sold on the Ally, but I can imagine how better the next SD release will be with how fast mobile platforms are becoming now.
It's nice to see some other companies trying to one-up Steam - it'll just result in better and more competitive products in the future.
So yeah, the SD is still the better overall product. I'm looking forward to how much competition will be in this space, it'll only be good for us consumers.
Absolutely agree on all counts. The handheld PC thing almost seems to me like what Valve was trying to achieve back in the day with Steam Machines, but in a much more refined way. They've put a...
Absolutely agree on all counts. The handheld PC thing almost seems to me like what Valve was trying to achieve back in the day with Steam Machines, but in a much more refined way. They've put a lot of work into expanding the gaming market into Linux (SteamOS, Proton, etc) and were able to leverage that and make something really awesome. I didn't think the Steam Deck looked all that great early on but went ahead and put the five dollars down anyway, just in case. Then I got to (happily) eat crow when I turned out to be super wrong. It's an awesome little device that works really smoothly out of the box but also allows you to get as tinker happy with it as you want, which I love.
I don't see there being a Steam Deck 2 for a few years, but I'll happily pick one up when that time rolls around unless something else even better has come out by then. Right now though it's pretty hard to beat. Sure, you can throw in a better screen and more power like in the ROG Ally, but then you just end up with even more limited battery life than the Deck has. It's a hard scenario to solve and I'm not really sure what the right answer is in that regard.
Honestly, I couldn't give up the functionality of the touchpads. From being able to play Mouse and Keyboard driven games without issue (easily put 50 hours into Transport Fever 2 this way, as well...
Honestly, I couldn't give up the functionality of the touchpads. From being able to play Mouse and Keyboard driven games without issue (easily put 50 hours into Transport Fever 2 this way, as well as other games, like C&C Remastered) to having the functionality of radial menus and so much other stuff I haven't even explored, the Deck has a huge advantage.
Also consider that the Deck is likely to be supported for longer, as Valve has a vested interest in ironing it out and continuing to update it, whereas Asus is just a hardware manufacturer and will likely want to sell you a new product in a few years time.
No shade at the Ally, it seems like a cool product and I've wanted a portable PC for about a decade now, but the Deck just offers so much.
To me the big difference between the Deck and all the other Windows handhelds is the trackpads on the Steam Deck. They are pretty great as additional input options, especially for games that...
To me the big difference between the Deck and all the other Windows handhelds is the trackpads on the Steam Deck. They are pretty great as additional input options, especially for games that traditionally rely on mouse controls.
I just received a notification that my Deck is getting ready to be shipped. I'm looking forward to diving head first back into my collection in a way I haven't done before! But before I do, is...
I just received a notification that my Deck is getting ready to be shipped. I'm looking forward to diving head first back into my collection in a way I haven't done before! But before I do, is there anything in particular I should know about operating/configuring it when I first use it? I haven't touched anything remotely modern in terms of gaming in several years, and I don't do consoles period, so I'm unsure exactly what I'm getting myself into beyond all the good things people have said about the Deck.
Great question! In general the Deck is pretty straightforward. SteamOS feels natural to use on the device, so it's a simple matter of booting it up, installing a game, and jumping in to play....
Exemplary
Great question!
In general the Deck is pretty straightforward. SteamOS feels natural to use on the device, so it's a simple matter of booting it up, installing a game, and jumping in to play. There are not a lot of barriers, which is great! If you've been out of gaming for a while, this is absolutely what I'd recommend.
Your Deck will have a Great on Deck section of your library which has a list of "Verified" games that you own, designated by a green check mark. These are games that Valve has rated as running perfectly on the Deck and should Just Work™ without any tinkering or effort needed. If you stick to those, your experience should be pretty frictionless. You can also browse the store the same way, to easily see which games are Deck-friendly to buy.
Now, with that said, you can also go pretty deep with the device. It's simultaneously very casual-friendly but also very power-user-friendly. So, what follows is a bit more power-user stuff. None of this is essential information at all. You can absolutely enjoy hundreds of hours on the Deck without even touching anything I mention below, but a lot of it is good to know or at least have in your back pocket.
Also, if you have ANY questions, please ask! I'm happy to help out as best as I can, as I'm sure are many others. Us Deckers tend to have a bit of a cult-like affinity for the device (my friends have already told me to stop mentioning that it's on sale 😂).
The Deck comes with its own orientation game: Aperture Desk Job. Play it! It's fun. It takes about half an hour to complete. It's full of all the same humor and imagination as the games that Valve makes used to make.
Power adapter and cord
I tend to play plugged in most of the time, and the built in power adapter covered both outlets I would normally use and had a shorter cord than I would have liked. I replaced the power adapter with an Anker Nano 2 and a longer USB-C cable (make sure it's capable of power delivery). The Nano 2 is small enough that it doesn't cover the outlet next to it, so I can use that for something else (usually my phone/headphones).
Bluetooth headphones
Once paired, bluetooth headphones don't automatically connect to Steam Deck when turned on (no idea why). Each time you use them, you have to go into the Bluetooth menu under Settings and manually activate them.
Joystick caps
This is entirely personal preference, but the default thumbsticks were too smooth for me. My thumbs would slip off of them. I bought some silicone joystick caps to go over the tops of them and now find them much more pleasant to use. One caveat is that the Deck's joysticks are touch-sensitive and can be used to activate things like gyro controls, and putting caps on them means you lose out on that. I don't use the touch-sensitive feature myself so it's no big loss for me, and if I ever did need to, the caps are easy enough to remove temporarily. I'd wait until you get it to see if you need these though. For contrast, my husband doesn't use them at all and is fine with the default sticks. It's very much a personal preference thing.
Occasionally you'll run into a situation where default controller input isn't sufficient. A game might want you to type in your character name with a keyboard, or maybe there's a launcher that's asking you to configure your graphics settings before you fully open the game.
Steam has these options built right into the Deck. The ones I use most are the keyboard STEAM + X, and forcing a mouse STEAM + RIGHT TRACKPAD to move and STEAM + R2 to click. You can also click on the trackpad (but I find it awkward), and you can also usually click on the screen itself (since it's touch-sensitive).
If a game hangs or crashes, STEAM + B force exits the game. You can also press the STEAM button to pull up a menu of options and exit the game that way.
Steam Input
This is the secret sauce of the Steam Deck, and one of the reasons why I think it's superior to any competitor. Steam Input is an entire framework that lets you create and share customizable control sets for any game. Most games on the Steam Deck just work with default controls, but for the ones that don't, you can either create your own or download a community-made profile.
For example, one of the first things I did with my Deck was I used Steam Input to bind the A button in Vampire Survivors to one of the back left paddle buttons. That meant that I could play the game one-handed, using the left joystick to move and the left back paddle to select my choices. I would wake up on the weekend, boot up the game, and play it with one hand while sipping coffee with my other. It was amazing.
Steam Input will even work on non-Steam games, so if you ever add any extra games or emulate anything, you can use it to get the controls exactly how you want. The framework is incredibly deep and includes things like chorded inputs and automatic rapidfire-button presses (AKA "turbo" mode). It's very valuable for accessibility as well, should you have any needs in that area.
As I mentioned above, Valve has its own built-in game rating system for how well a game will theoretically run on the Deck. Here's the rundown of the four ratings a game can have:
Verified (should run perfectly)
Playable (runs, but with some caveats)
Unknown (Valve hasn't yet rated the game)
Unsupported (shouldn't run)
Sticking to Verified and Playable games is the easiest. The difference between the two is that a Playable game might have text that's a bit too small to read comfortably on the Deck, or it might require keyboard input at some point (so you'd have to use the keyboard hotkey).
Now, with tens of thousands of games on Steam, and with games changing and being updated all the time, it's also possible that sometimes these ratings are off. Sometimes a Verified game has issues, and sometimes an Unsupported game actually works perfectly.
Also, it's possible you have a lot of games in your library that you'd like to play, but they have an Unknown rating. All of these situations are where ProtonDB comes in. It's a community database of reports for how individual games run on Linux in general, and on the Steam Deck in particular. Here's the page for Grand Theft Auto 5, for example, where you can see reports specifically for the Steam Deck. ProtonDB will let you know whether or not a game runs and, in cases where it doesn't, will sometimes give you manual steps to get it running.
You can also contribute your own reports to ProtonDB! If you decide to try out a game with an unknown rating and find that it works, submit a report and let others know!
Desktop Mode
Speaking of other games or emulation, should you decide that the default SteamOS experience in Game Mode is too limiting, you can easily flip over into Desktop Mode, in which case you're now interfacing with the system as a full-fat Linux distribution. Most people won't ever need to do this, but the option is there if you want it. This is where you can do things like set up emulation, install Diablo 4 or add games from stores like Epic or GOG.
You can still use the keyboard and mouse in Desktop mode, but it's a little clunky, so I got myself a small foldable bluetooth keyboard to use if I'm ever doing anything intensive there.
If you do venture into tinker-land with Desktop Mode and want to try out potentially unsupported games, ProtonUp-Qt is a great tool to have. Proton is Valve's compatibility layer (like WINE) that lets the Steam Deck run Windows games. ProtonUp-Qt is a way of installing third-party versions of Proton, which sometimes allow different games to run. The main third-party Proton release of note is ProtonGE (or "Glorious Eggroll"). This is a version that has some extra fixes or things that Valve can't necessarily add to their version. If I can't get a game to work under the regular Proton, I usually try this one.
In general, if you go into a game's properties, you can change the version of Proton that it runs with. For most games you'll never need to do this, but if you can't get something working, you can use ProtonUp-Qt in Desktop Mode to install the latest ProtonGE, then go back to Game Mode and tell the game to launch using ProtonGE instead and try that out. It sounds a little complicated, but after one or two times it becomes second nature.
Also, Valve includes previous versions of Proton with Steam itself. Occasionally you might see a note on ProtonDB to roll back to a specific version of Proton in order to get a game to run. Go into the properties, select that one from the list, and you should be good to go.
Thank you for such an amazing and in-depth answer! Apologies if my initial query came off as "I know nothing" as while I haven't touched any modern gaming equipment in a while, I do okay keeping...
Thank you for such an amazing and in-depth answer! Apologies if my initial query came off as "I know nothing" as while I haven't touched any modern gaming equipment in a while, I do okay keeping my ear to the ground in terms of general tech news. I am familiar with Proton by reputation, but the rest of what you shared was relatively new or unknown to me, so I'll be saving this for future reference. One other question for you: does the Deck have direct support for the Steam Controller? I have one, and the idea of using for the Deck might seem a touch silly to some, but I don't always want to hold the device directly. I did get a docking station as well, so if you can offer any insight into any extra functionality that can provide outside of the obvious, I'd love to hear it!
Well-put you good internet person. I've been actually running Arch for a few years, which was my selling point for the Deck. I don't play it as much as I probably would if the battery would not...
Well-put you good internet person.
I've been actually running Arch for a few years, which was my selling point for the Deck. I don't play it as much as I probably would if the battery would not been so easily drained...
But this write-up is absolutely as glorious as Eggroll!
As a Deck user, there's quite a few "Unverified" games that work mostly flawlessly and, even then, most of those just listed as 'Playable' only mean that there's things that make it not perfect on Deck. So, my Steam library is mostly only limited by Anti cheat and some older games which are complex enough to have problems that ProtonDB users haven't figured out.
Yeah, I always use ProtonDB as a second opinion, and even then it's worth trying yourself.
I agree re: trying it yourself. The only thing I've found with ProtonDB sometimes is that there are ways to get things to work better than what you might immediately see there.
I went to install The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the other day because people on ProtonDB were saying it runs well pretty much out of the box but that the videos were either laggy or didn't work at all. After a couple minor adjustments it worked well, but yeah, the videos weren't working. After doing a bit of digging I found this report by a user called Hobby Boy that indicated installing Quartz, Amstream, and lavfilters via Protontricks allows the videos to work, which it did.
It's just a little unfortunate that report got bumped down by newer stuff that doesn't have all the info you need to get things working properly. And also that it seems like the game worked almost entirely properly out of the box at some point but regressed slightly over time.
The steam deck has been great for both Linux gaming as well as PC gaming in general.
It has worked as an affordable handheld gaming PC that's reasonably powerful when at the time of its release, comparable devices often cost twice or three times more. It's a really surprising little device and I'm looking forward to seeing more companies besides GPD and Ayaneo taking up handheld PC gaming like we have with Asus.
And for Linux it's been great too, both because it's a relatively popular device (still not huge but enough users to be noticeable), and devs are beginning to target it for compatability, which in turn helps with Linux compatability in general.
But it's also been great because it's shown folks that gaming on Linux is very doable. The Steam Deck as well as Valve's Proton and work from the community on Wine, Lutris, GE-Proton, etc... Has gotten us to a point now where single player games on Linux almost feels like a solved problem, and now it's mostly a matter of getting anti cheat systems working on Linux.
It's honestly great to see compatability with these numbers, because that's not only for the steam deck, that's 10,000 games that work on Linux now. From indie titles like slay the spire and dead cells, all the way up to triple A stuff like the dead space remake, and Horizon Forbidden West.
I switched over to Linux full-time when Valve first released Proton (back when ProtonDB was just a Google Form!) and have been gaming on it ever since. Making that change made me become a bit of a joke among my friends for being The Linux User, with some of them probably not even really knowing enough about computers to know what Linux is.
Fast forward to now, and five of us have Steam Decks. I'm still the only one who cares about Linux in the slightest, but the other four are now gaming on Linux because they want the handheld goodness that the Steam Deck has to offer. My husband knows nothing about Linux nor does he really care about it, but he now spends the bulk of his gaming time on it because the Deck usurped the Switch for him.
It really is an incredible breakthrough device doing wonders for the Linux ecosystem.
I really want to swap over to Linux full time, but I'm an avid Valorant player and it's not possible to play it on Linux. I suppose I could just dual boot but that's a little annoying. Maybe one day.
I'm thinking about switching to Linux to use for gaming and as a daily driver. Do you have any recommendations for Linux distributions?
Personally if I were new to linux and wanted to game I'd stick to distros with lots of pre-existing support to find when searching. Ubuntu, Mint, or if you want to be a little more hands on/not afraid to RTFM, Arch.
To piggyback, as a general rule, if you are a Windows user looking to transition to Linux, Mint is a good choice. If a MacOS user, you'll probably have a better time with mainline Ubuntu (who tf knows what DE they're using now? Whichever it is, it's too MacOS/OSX-y for my tastes).
Thanks for the advise, based on this Mint sounds like the choice for me, I feel the taskbar is essential for my productivity.
Mint is a fine choice. It's one of the most polished consumer-oriented distros, and one I use every day.
Something to bear in mind about Linux: you can control pretty much everything if you want. You can simply add a taskbar to Ubuntu if you like its other features and only miss that one UI element. It's usually not difficult, though it may take a bit of tinkering.
For the most part, the makers of distros have no interest in locking you into a particular UX. In that sense, Linux is the polar opposite of Apple, who take the walled garden approach (not without reason).
What kind of functionality do I have in Ubuntu/Mint that I won't have in Arch?
To start, a GUI. Arch is basically a command line until you add a desktop environment.
If you want to DIY an operating system, Arch is the one for you. You can do amazing stuff with Arch, but it takes work.
I’m running Pop!_OS on System76 hardware (Oryx Pro) and love it. I’m a complete Linux newbie (despite running it for years) and this distro has been great for me.
Like the other user said, I'd recommend the more popular distributions, you won't really have much issue with them. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, Fedora, etc. I personally use Pop!_OS (just switched back in Feb!) and I haven't had any major issues. After enabling Proton in Steam settings, most of my library runs really well.
Ubuntu is going to net you the most amount of documentation for troubleshooting and the like.
Arch recently got an fast-installer and isn't the worst choice either, given the Steam Deck runs off of an Arch-like distro and transitioning between the two would be easier (if you have/will use a Steam Deck). But I'd recommend, if you're entirely new to linux, to start with Ubuntu as you can always wipe your drive and try out other distro's later. It's a great introduction.
Just make sure to always keep a seperate
/homepartition, take backups. If one does this most other aspects of distrohopping is painless these days.Mentioned it here on Tildes before, but in addition to their invaluable contributions to the Linux ecosystem, Valve made non-Xbox controller support and button remapping on PC actually good. I hated having several random programs running on top of Steam and my game just for that, and it was way buggier. Between that, Proton, and the Steam Deck, the PC ecosystem is so much more accessible.
SteamInput is quite possibly the greatest accessibility tools for gaming of all time. It can rectify even some of the worst old-game jank controls.
I am still eagerly awaiting a SteamController 2 for when I dock my Deck or for other computers.
I would buy a Steam Controller 2 that had the input options from the Steam Deck in a heartbeat! I can't live without back buttons, trackpads, and gyro anymore... The versatility in Steam Input for them makes them a must have. The only other controller with all of the Steam Deck's features is the Dualsense Edge. It's great! Just wish the battery life wasn't the worst I've ever seen. At least it comes with a really good length braided USB-C cable. If Steam Controller 2 was basically a Dualsense Edge with actual battery life and 4 back buttons, they'd have a winner on their hands.
Are you thinking of Horizon Zero Dawn, or is emulation way more advanced than I think it is?
I am thinking zero dawn, that was my bad.
They are definitely thinking of Zero Dawn. PS4 emulation is in its infancy.
A solved problem for Valve, perhaps. I ultimately see it as a band-aid solution, as I did for Wine in general for getting access to Windows games. If your game doesn't fit on Steam, we're back to square one
This is fantastic and actually the number one reason I'm considering switching to Linux on the whole. I love my steam Deck and the fact that any of my games that I actually want to play just kind of out of the box is awesome
I never thought about that directly, but I would be curious if the popularity of the deck increased the number of primary Linux users
The Steam Deck renewed my interest in games after it being in a slump. Love how powerful it is for the price. I appreciate Valve allowing you desktop Linux access and not locking it down like a regular console, being open to plugins and providing repair parts. Hopefully they continue with this in future Decks.
I wish it was lighter like the Nintendo Switch though. Fatigue starts setting in fairly quick and I can't seem to find a comfortable position for gaming on it for more than 30 minutes. My pinky fingers fall off the grips and fall asleep.
I am the opposite. The Deck is way more natural to hold over the Switch. The deck is laying comfortably in my hands and I can play for hours. With the switch, my hands have to hold it in an uncomfortable and crampy position and I can't play for very long.
I have big hands that I work with all day, so I might have good stamina and the comfort of the Deck adds to having no issues at all.
Going through this post, I seem to be the only one that has flashed his deck with Win 11 right out of the box.
I wasn't a fan of the Linux OS pretty much limiting it to a steam gaming only device.
I have no issues with games and use it the same way as my main PC. You can also use the xbox game pass and other gaming platforms besides steam. I can definitely recommend doing it. I followed an online instruction and never had to fiddle with it since.
The OS hasn't stopped me from adding plenty of non-Steam games. On the other hand, the #1 thing that prevents something from being playable on deck with SteamOS is anti-cheat functionality, some of which is on Steam titles, some of which is not.
As a result of this experience though I would not say it's the OS' fault as much as it is external developer-introduced factors.
It's still a gaming only device, isn't it?
I prefer the usability of a full windows install with browsers, voice calls, music, streaming, programming and all the other stuff.
Not exclusively, SteamOS has a desktop mode and you can install pretty much whatever you want on it.
You can do all of that. I've got firefox and chrome, discord, and spotify all installed on mine. Some of these can even work pretty decently in game mode despite that not being what game mode is for. I had OBS installed but decided I didn't need it, and I'm not a programmer but I'm sure IDEs or programming focused text editors should be available, I saw Atom in the package manager.
SteamOS is a full Linux operating system that comes with a package manager and I know it can install flatpaks and use appimages. It comes with an immutable filesystem but I'm also aware that a knowledgeable power user can undo that as well and then you can really get deep into the weeds with customizing and installing anything to the fullest extent that any linux distro could.
I stand corrected then. I didn't explore it much because all I saw was the Steam operation system and felt kind of trapped in steam, so I figured I would try installing windows pretty much out of the box. Since I didn't have any issues with it, I never looked back and assumed being stuck on the steam page is all it has to offer.
I lay back on the couch, ring and index fingers on back paddles, and curl my pinkies under the Deck as an additional support. Doing this I can comfortably game for about 3 hours...and it provides a nice limit on preventing me from foolishly staying up all night.
I would honestly kill for a PSP-sized deck that could actually fit in my pocket! I'd happily take less power.
Have you tried getting bigger pockets?
It still looks like I've got a brick in there cause of the weight
Hahaha fair. Iv actually mot seen one in the real world yet so I can't really imagine the size.
One of the nice things with Linux and the job Valve did with their SteamOS build is making the Steam Deck very efficient battery wise. Most Non-AAA games have food or decent battery life, and some AAA can be adjusted for good battery life. I personally still have just done emulation on my Deck, but I feel like I easily get 5 to 6 hours on a charge.
Excited to get a SD, but with the Ally it's become more difficult to decide which is better for me.
I'm guessing SD for the overall polished experience, but man that Ally HW looks pretty stronk.
Honestly speaking, a new PC handheld would have to hit a pretty substantially high tipping point in hardware power advantage over Steam Deck to make me want to give up the touchpads and SteamOS' functionality. (unless Windows handhelds find a way to compete more realistically with that)
Handheld PCs still being PCs, not having a better form of mouse input at bare minimum than analog sticks approaches dealbreaker for me.
The thing is even with the Steam Deck you can just dual boot if you really want that functionality. Personally, I haven't missed having Windows on it at all so I've been happy to just leave it purely on Linux. A lot more games work than people might think, and the out of box experience is super smooth. It's a little bit more tedious setting up stuff from third party stores than I'd like, but for anybody who has mostly Steam games it's pretty easy to recommend in my opinion.
I'm not sure what you mean about "if you really want that functionality." - when I said "unless Windows handhelds find a way to compete more realistically with that" I'm saying that the Windows ux is a poor experience on these handheld gaming pcs and would need to improve, not that Windows usage is a functionality I'm seeking. In other words, I would not consider a handheld PC other than Steam Deck unless it had solved the Windows ux issue (or runs Steam OS) and came with touchpads.
Sorry if I'm clarifying something that doesn't need to be clarified, it's just that I can't figure out how the opener of your reply connects to my comment or what functionality you're referring to. The only functionality imo that Windows has over SteamOS is being able to satisfy the intrusive anti-cheat systems that won't run via on linux via proton.
Also, you say you haven't missed having Windows on it, I'm guessing you received a Steam Deck between your original top-level comment 2 days ago and now?I'm literally incapable of reading usernames correctly I guess.By "you" I didn't mean you specifically, just anybody in general. I guess the correct thing to say would've been something more along the lines of "if one wanted that functionality". Apologies for the confusion there.
I was just trying to add on to what you were saying, not trying to argue or anything. Just because you were talking about how a new handheld PC would have to be substantially more powerful to give up the touchpads/steamOS. I've seen a lot of people (not you, but people like my BIL) taking the Asus ROG Ally coming with Windows on it as a positive, and I just meant to add on and say that the deck has the ability to dual boot Windows anyway for anybody that has some hangups with Linux or something.
Anyway long story short I could have been a lot clearer so that's my bad.
I navigate easily enough on my GPD Win 2 and 4. Granted I'm not doing much more than games and internet but I can switch between easily enough.
Just excited with how fast things are changing and I don't really recommend the Ally, though I wouldn't mind some extra HP in docked mode so I can play on a higher res display at a locked 60fps at least. Can't wait for a Zen4 SD (or maybe a custom Zen5?) as their next release - better performance/watt along with the stability of the Steam/Proton system. And much better buttons/inputs.
Love the Ally's computing HW but everything else falls short - most notably the device's inputs.
The Ally does look pretty cool, but my impressions from the stuff I've heard so far is that it's ultimately a way less refined experience. Having it comes with Windows is pretty nice for the theoretically increased game compatibility, but otherwise Steam OS is undoubtedly going to be much smoother to deal with out of the box. I watch Jeff Gerstmann and he was saying he has had a lot of problems with the SD card coming out of the slot on the Ally and that the out of box experience was pretty janky.
It really comes down to what matters to you though. Some games will absolutely just not work on the deck (unless you install Windows). A lot of games will run perfectly out of the box. A lot of other games will work but will require a little bit of tinkering. Overall, there's not really been anything in my experience that I really wanted to run but couldn't, but using third party stores (ie GOG, Epic, etc) is more annoying than I'd like it to be.
All in all, Steam Deck is a pretty easy recommend from me if you think you'd enjoy that kind of thing. They're also 20% off in the Steam sale right now (for the 512GB), so that's kinda wild.
It's at least two steps down in refinement compared to the SD taking the controllers/inputs into account. I'm not completely sold on the Ally, but I can imagine how better the next SD release will be with how fast mobile platforms are becoming now.
It's nice to see some other companies trying to one-up Steam - it'll just result in better and more competitive products in the future.
So yeah, the SD is still the better overall product. I'm looking forward to how much competition will be in this space, it'll only be good for us consumers.
Absolutely agree on all counts. The handheld PC thing almost seems to me like what Valve was trying to achieve back in the day with Steam Machines, but in a much more refined way. They've put a lot of work into expanding the gaming market into Linux (SteamOS, Proton, etc) and were able to leverage that and make something really awesome. I didn't think the Steam Deck looked all that great early on but went ahead and put the five dollars down anyway, just in case. Then I got to (happily) eat crow when I turned out to be super wrong. It's an awesome little device that works really smoothly out of the box but also allows you to get as tinker happy with it as you want, which I love.
I don't see there being a Steam Deck 2 for a few years, but I'll happily pick one up when that time rolls around unless something else even better has come out by then. Right now though it's pretty hard to beat. Sure, you can throw in a better screen and more power like in the ROG Ally, but then you just end up with even more limited battery life than the Deck has. It's a hard scenario to solve and I'm not really sure what the right answer is in that regard.
Honestly, I couldn't give up the functionality of the touchpads. From being able to play Mouse and Keyboard driven games without issue (easily put 50 hours into Transport Fever 2 this way, as well as other games, like C&C Remastered) to having the functionality of radial menus and so much other stuff I haven't even explored, the Deck has a huge advantage.
Also consider that the Deck is likely to be supported for longer, as Valve has a vested interest in ironing it out and continuing to update it, whereas Asus is just a hardware manufacturer and will likely want to sell you a new product in a few years time.
No shade at the Ally, it seems like a cool product and I've wanted a portable PC for about a decade now, but the Deck just offers so much.
To me the big difference between the Deck and all the other Windows handhelds is the trackpads on the Steam Deck. They are pretty great as additional input options, especially for games that traditionally rely on mouse controls.
I just received a notification that my Deck is getting ready to be shipped. I'm looking forward to diving head first back into my collection in a way I haven't done before! But before I do, is there anything in particular I should know about operating/configuring it when I first use it? I haven't touched anything remotely modern in terms of gaming in several years, and I don't do consoles period, so I'm unsure exactly what I'm getting myself into beyond all the good things people have said about the Deck.
Great question!
In general the Deck is pretty straightforward. SteamOS feels natural to use on the device, so it's a simple matter of booting it up, installing a game, and jumping in to play. There are not a lot of barriers, which is great! If you've been out of gaming for a while, this is absolutely what I'd recommend.
Your Deck will have a
Great on Decksection of your library which has a list of "Verified" games that you own, designated by a green check mark. These are games that Valve has rated as running perfectly on the Deck and should Just Work™ without any tinkering or effort needed. If you stick to those, your experience should be pretty frictionless. You can also browse the store the same way, to easily see which games are Deck-friendly to buy.Now, with that said, you can also go pretty deep with the device. It's simultaneously very casual-friendly but also very power-user-friendly. So, what follows is a bit more power-user stuff. None of this is essential information at all. You can absolutely enjoy hundreds of hours on the Deck without even touching anything I mention below, but a lot of it is good to know or at least have in your back pocket.
Also, if you have ANY questions, please ask! I'm happy to help out as best as I can, as I'm sure are many others. Us Deckers tend to have a bit of a cult-like affinity for the device (my friends have already told me to stop mentioning that it's on sale 😂).
Aperture Desk Job
The Deck comes with its own orientation game: Aperture Desk Job. Play it! It's fun. It takes about half an hour to complete. It's full of all the same humor and imagination as the games that Valve
makesused to make.Power adapter and cord
I tend to play plugged in most of the time, and the built in power adapter covered both outlets I would normally use and had a shorter cord than I would have liked. I replaced the power adapter with an Anker Nano 2 and a longer USB-C cable (make sure it's capable of power delivery). The Nano 2 is small enough that it doesn't cover the outlet next to it, so I can use that for something else (usually my phone/headphones).
Bluetooth headphones
Once paired, bluetooth headphones don't automatically connect to Steam Deck when turned on (no idea why). Each time you use them, you have to go into the Bluetooth menu under Settings and manually activate them.
Joystick caps
This is entirely personal preference, but the default thumbsticks were too smooth for me. My thumbs would slip off of them. I bought some silicone joystick caps to go over the tops of them and now find them much more pleasant to use. One caveat is that the Deck's joysticks are touch-sensitive and can be used to activate things like gyro controls, and putting caps on them means you lose out on that. I don't use the touch-sensitive feature myself so it's no big loss for me, and if I ever did need to, the caps are easy enough to remove temporarily. I'd wait until you get it to see if you need these though. For contrast, my husband doesn't use them at all and is fine with the default sticks. It's very much a personal preference thing.
Steam Deck button shortcuts
Occasionally you'll run into a situation where default controller input isn't sufficient. A game might want you to type in your character name with a keyboard, or maybe there's a launcher that's asking you to configure your graphics settings before you fully open the game.
Steam has these options built right into the Deck. The ones I use most are the keyboard
STEAM + X, and forcing a mouseSTEAM + RIGHT TRACKPADto move andSTEAM + R2to click. You can also click on the trackpad (but I find it awkward), and you can also usually click on the screen itself (since it's touch-sensitive).If a game hangs or crashes,
STEAM + Bforce exits the game. You can also press theSTEAMbutton to pull up a menu of options and exit the game that way.Steam Input
This is the secret sauce of the Steam Deck, and one of the reasons why I think it's superior to any competitor. Steam Input is an entire framework that lets you create and share customizable control sets for any game. Most games on the Steam Deck just work with default controls, but for the ones that don't, you can either create your own or download a community-made profile.
For example, one of the first things I did with my Deck was I used Steam Input to bind the
Abutton in Vampire Survivors to one of the back left paddle buttons. That meant that I could play the game one-handed, using the left joystick to move and the left back paddle to select my choices. I would wake up on the weekend, boot up the game, and play it with one hand while sipping coffee with my other. It was amazing.Steam Input will even work on non-Steam games, so if you ever add any extra games or emulate anything, you can use it to get the controls exactly how you want. The framework is incredibly deep and includes things like chorded inputs and automatic rapidfire-button presses (AKA "turbo" mode). It's very valuable for accessibility as well, should you have any needs in that area.
ProtonDB
As I mentioned above, Valve has its own built-in game rating system for how well a game will theoretically run on the Deck. Here's the rundown of the four ratings a game can have:
Sticking to Verified and Playable games is the easiest. The difference between the two is that a Playable game might have text that's a bit too small to read comfortably on the Deck, or it might require keyboard input at some point (so you'd have to use the keyboard hotkey).
Now, with tens of thousands of games on Steam, and with games changing and being updated all the time, it's also possible that sometimes these ratings are off. Sometimes a Verified game has issues, and sometimes an Unsupported game actually works perfectly.
Also, it's possible you have a lot of games in your library that you'd like to play, but they have an Unknown rating. All of these situations are where ProtonDB comes in. It's a community database of reports for how individual games run on Linux in general, and on the Steam Deck in particular. Here's the page for Grand Theft Auto 5, for example, where you can see reports specifically for the Steam Deck. ProtonDB will let you know whether or not a game runs and, in cases where it doesn't, will sometimes give you manual steps to get it running.
You can also contribute your own reports to ProtonDB! If you decide to try out a game with an unknown rating and find that it works, submit a report and let others know!
Desktop Mode
Speaking of other games or emulation, should you decide that the default SteamOS experience in Game Mode is too limiting, you can easily flip over into Desktop Mode, in which case you're now interfacing with the system as a full-fat Linux distribution. Most people won't ever need to do this, but the option is there if you want it. This is where you can do things like set up emulation, install Diablo 4 or add games from stores like Epic or GOG.
You can still use the keyboard and mouse in Desktop mode, but it's a little clunky, so I got myself a small foldable bluetooth keyboard to use if I'm ever doing anything intensive there.
ProtonUp-Qt
If you do venture into tinker-land with Desktop Mode and want to try out potentially unsupported games, ProtonUp-Qt is a great tool to have. Proton is Valve's compatibility layer (like WINE) that lets the Steam Deck run Windows games. ProtonUp-Qt is a way of installing third-party versions of Proton, which sometimes allow different games to run. The main third-party Proton release of note is ProtonGE (or "Glorious Eggroll"). This is a version that has some extra fixes or things that Valve can't necessarily add to their version. If I can't get a game to work under the regular Proton, I usually try this one.
In general, if you go into a game's properties, you can change the version of Proton that it runs with. For most games you'll never need to do this, but if you can't get something working, you can use ProtonUp-Qt in Desktop Mode to install the latest ProtonGE, then go back to Game Mode and tell the game to launch using ProtonGE instead and try that out. It sounds a little complicated, but after one or two times it becomes second nature.
Also, Valve includes previous versions of Proton with Steam itself. Occasionally you might see a note on ProtonDB to roll back to a specific version of Proton in order to get a game to run. Go into the properties, select that one from the list, and you should be good to go.
Thank you for such an amazing and in-depth answer! Apologies if my initial query came off as "I know nothing" as while I haven't touched any modern gaming equipment in a while, I do okay keeping my ear to the ground in terms of general tech news. I am familiar with Proton by reputation, but the rest of what you shared was relatively new or unknown to me, so I'll be saving this for future reference. One other question for you: does the Deck have direct support for the Steam Controller? I have one, and the idea of using for the Deck might seem a touch silly to some, but I don't always want to hold the device directly. I did get a docking station as well, so if you can offer any insight into any extra functionality that can provide outside of the obvious, I'd love to hear it!
Thanks again for such a thorough answer!
I’m happy to help!
And yes, the controller works with the Deck and dock.
Wonderful! Great to know that. Thanks!
Well-put you good internet person.
I've been actually running Arch for a few years, which was my selling point for the Deck. I don't play it as much as I probably would if the battery would not been so easily drained...
But this write-up is absolutely as glorious as Eggroll!