This will be huge, but I also understand why it isn't a thing (yet). It's kinda like Apple and iPhones and Macbooks. Apple makes them, Apple knows what hardwae is there, how many of them are out...
This will be huge, but I also understand why it isn't a thing (yet).
It's kinda like Apple and iPhones and Macbooks. Apple makes them, Apple knows what hardwae is there, how many of them are out in active use and Apple makes OS in such a way most of the iPhones and Macbooks work (to some extent, they won't be soending money on compatibility with 10 years old hardware, obviously).
And SteamOS is kinda like that. Stea Deck has one specific hardware configuration (even OLED is the same under the hood, minus newer making process) and Valve can optimize SteamOS perfectly for this one PC. Lenovo Legion Go S is (probably) whole another different thing to Steam Deck. Valve now has to optimize for that one too. If Claw and Ally went for SteamOS as well, Valve would need to optimize for them too.
And now - your PC. It's very likely it's not even a bit similar to hardware that Stea Deck uses. You may have newer CPU. Or older. You may be using Nvidia graphics. Or Intel. Andnow Vakve would have to make sure it will run flawlessly on your setup too. And on mine, which is 10 years old CPU and GTX 1650 with my home folder being on NAS.
I truly believe this is why there is no SteamOS out there for us to use and daly drive on other machine than Steam Deck.
If you wanted, you could install it on yur PC via some hacking around with Steam Deck recovery image (LTT did such video afew days ago), but I don't think it is worth it.
One thing Valve does have over everyone else: a yearly hardware survey of everyone who uses Steam. You have to approve it each year, but they make it very easy to do so. I wouldn't be surprised if...
One thing Valve does have over everyone else: a yearly hardware survey of everyone who uses Steam. You have to approve it each year, but they make it very easy to do so. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a better picture of all of the hardware used for non-console gaming than any other organization.
That is very true, I forgot about that! So they actually have kinda nice info on what people use. Who knows, maybe 2025 will be the year of Linux (gaming) desktop! (Nope, it won't, such year won't...
That is very true, I forgot about that!
So they actually have kinda nice info on what people use. Who knows, maybe 2025 will be the year of Linux (gaming) desktop! (Nope, it won't, such year won't ever come, but maybe we will actually see SteamOS for standard desktop PCs)
https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.4645028803.5936/flat,750x,075,f-pad,750x1000,f8f8f8.jpg It's an uphill climb because the SD sells itself as a portable. So one of the killer features is the...
maybe 2025 will be the year of Linux (gaming) desktop!
It's an uphill climb because the SD sells itself as a portable. So one of the killer features is the suspend/resume workflow (something nearly impossible to do on Windows). Not quite as desirable a feature on a desktop. I'm Not quite sure what kinds of killer feature could work in that space.
Nothing. There is no actual reason to go Linux for Windows people. I say this as 15+ years Linux only user. Different people can have different reasons - someone don't want to pay for Windows,...
Nothing. There is no actual reason to go Linux for Windows people. I say this as 15+ years Linux only user.
Different people can have different reasons - someone don't want to pay for Windows, someone don't want to pay AND be spied on in the same time, someone may not like some Windows feature... But there isn't any single/only one reason to leave Windows en masse.
Steam Deck is wonderful thing, it accomplished its mission (at least in my opinion) - portable, affordable, powerful enough, good battery life and al his while being open (no limitations on software side) and also repairable. In this age Steam Deck is something that kinda seems unbelievable (another such example is Framework laptop).
But Steam Deck, nor Steam OS will make Linux adoption really big. I'm not he one of those people who say "This is the year of Linux desktop" as I know this day will never come. But it is slowly creeping up. Many people here on Tildes use Linux, which is heartwarming for me. Not that I think Linux is superior OS, but it gives you options, you are able to choose. Which is not the case with other systems.
While Valve developers participate in developing all the software stack, even heavily developing parts of the GPU drivers, they are part of a much bigger community without which they wouldn't have...
I truly believe this is why there is no SteamOS out there for us to use and daly drive on other machine than Steam Deck.
While Valve developers participate in developing all the software stack, even heavily developing parts of the GPU drivers, they are part of a much bigger community without which they wouldn't have been able to achieve this. These include Hardware manufacturers, like Intel and AMD, contractors, like Igalia, and even some individual contributors (this is how dxvk, and d9vk started). To get a sense of how Igalia works, you can watch this talk: https://osseu2023.sched.com/event/1Qv8y/how-steamos-is-contributing-to-the-linux-ecosystem-alberto-garcia-igalia
My point is, the open-source world is quite different from the Apple, Performance gains can come from many sources in the community, there's no single entity controlling how performance works. This is why it has taken valve more than 10 years to reach this state of support in Linux, because they do not control (nor can) the whole stack, but instead they contribute to it.
In cases where support is still lacking, such as nvidia, it's because the company has been resistant for decades to integrate with the community and instead chose to do things their own controlled way. Thankfully they have dumped useful code and now the community is writing the upper side of the graphics driver stack to work seamlessly with steamos and other linux distributions.
I don't think it's Valve who has to do everything. But they are the ones who would beblamed if something didn't work in "theor" Steam OS. To be clear - I wouldn't blame them, I run Linux as my...
I don't think it's Valve who has to do everything. But they are the ones who would beblamed if something didn't work in "theor" Steam OS. To be clear - I wouldn't blame them, I run Linux as my only OS for 15+ years and I understand how it works (or rather doesn't, sometimes :-) ). But if they roll out "Steam OS for everyone" they would need to be sure it will work at least in most cases and not just by chance or miracle.
I'd love to see Steam OS as another Linux distro. It would be great for PCs that are used in living rooms to play games on TVs or in VR. Just boot it up, there you are in controller friendly interface, you selext game and play. Very nice!
But at the same time, this can be achieved today if you are technically knowledgeable enough. And by enough I mean many PC people would be able to make it so even without Steam OS. And many of those people would be able to make it on top of Linux system (which isn't that hard to get going nowadays - still may not be seamless though).
If I’m reading that right then it seems like it’s coming soon. Fingers crossed.
Ahead of Legion Go S shipping, we will be shipping a beta of SteamOS which should improve the experience on other handhelds, and users can download and test this themselves.
If I’m reading that right then it seems like it’s coming soon. Fingers crossed.
That’s the previous version of SteamOS, which was run by Steam Machines which didn’t go over very well primarily because of WINE/Proton not being nearly as capable at that point in time. The...
That’s the previous version of SteamOS, which was run by Steam Machines which didn’t go over very well primarily because of WINE/Proton not being nearly as capable at that point in time.
The version that the Deck (and now other handhelds) run is based on Arch Linux and is totally separate.
It’s more than that. The desktop mode of SteamOS is a mostly straightforward version of Arch Linux that you could try out now without any hacks if you’re willing to brave The Arch Linux...
The version that the Deck (and now other handhelds) run is based on Arch Linux
It’s more than that. The desktop mode of SteamOS is a mostly straightforward version of Arch Linux that you could try out now without any hacks if you’re willing to brave The Arch Linux Installation Guide.
Obviously SteamOS benefits new Linux users by being managed by Valve, and coming prepackaged and ready to go on the SteamDeck. But for the most part it’s just Arch with KDE and Dolphin plus a few basic programs like Firefox and Steam pre-installed. I’ve set it up myself out of curiosity, and the hardest part is just getting Arch set up and ready to boot. From there it’s extremely easy to set up Arch exactly like it is in SteamOS.
One detail to note: while SteamOS is based on Arch Linux, it's also set up to be an immutable distro which is a pretty significant departure from its parent distribution's workflow. I'm not sure...
One detail to note: while SteamOS is based on Arch Linux, it's also set up to be an immutable distro which is a pretty significant departure from its parent distribution's workflow. I'm not sure if you even can do it from a base Arch install without effectively making your own distro (though someone did exactly that) but it's definitely outside of the scope of the installation guide. Aside from the immutable aspect, the rest is a straightforward KDE+Steam client setup that can be replicated from a base Arch install easily as you mentioned.
OS architecture is outside of my realm of expertise, but to me immutability seems like a no-brainer for Linux devices intended for end-users. Makes it very easy to get back to a working state...
OS architecture is outside of my realm of expertise, but to me immutability seems like a no-brainer for Linux devices intended for end-users. Makes it very easy to get back to a working state without a command line delve in case an update goes bad, and if the user knows just enough to get themselves in trouble it’s a lot harder for them to accidentally screw things up with the package manager, deleting random files, etc.
SteamOS has limitations that might make it not so good for a general purpose OS on a PC. The big one being that it is an immutable distro. There are projects out there to put the SteamOS...
SteamOS has limitations that might make it not so good for a general purpose OS on a PC. The big one being that it is an immutable distro.
There are projects out there to put the SteamOS experience into a more desktop-ready distro.
Honestly, until there is an official pc release I'm not going to get too excited. It is nice to see that Steam OS is taking off though. Someone needs to knock microsoft off their throne.
Honestly, until there is an official pc release I'm not going to get too excited. It is nice to see that Steam OS is taking off though. Someone needs to knock microsoft off their throne.
As much as I dislike Microsoft, I'm more happy to see SteamOS adoption quite simply because there's a few devices like this in the market and they all give a worse experience for having Windows on...
As much as I dislike Microsoft, I'm more happy to see SteamOS adoption quite simply because there's a few devices like this in the market and they all give a worse experience for having Windows on it.
My dream is that there will be a proliferation of steam machines with SteamOS and that will get relavent companies to stop depending so heavily on Microsoft products for things like anti-cheat and DRM. It feels really dumb that you can't play Fortnite on Linux when there's a native Android port.
Isn't that mainly because of anti cheat? Where companies think their generally unimportant ranked mode trumps user ownership? There have been games that ran on Linux and were yoinked because some...
Isn't that mainly because of anti cheat? Where companies think their generally unimportant ranked mode trumps user ownership?
There have been games that ran on Linux and were yoinked because some companies insisted you needed their kernel level anti cheat so they "too bad we can just rugpull you huh"d everyone running it on Linux.
The proliferation of SteamOS as a competitor is such a powerful step in the right direction that it doesn't matter if it's Steam that wins or just any alternative.
Steam lets devs implement DRM, so I don't necessarily think SteamOS in the long term will be a real solution towards changing that mindet.
The proliferation of SteamOS as a competitor is such a powerful step in the right direction that it doesn't matter if it's Steam that wins or just any alternative.
Steam lets devs implement DRM, so I don't necessarily think SteamOS in the long term will be a real solution towards changing that mindet.
It's about bringing competition to the market. Windows is a near monopoly in the OS market when it comes to gaming. Anything anything to disrupt that is a net good for the consumer. Proton is...
It's about bringing competition to the market. Windows is a near monopoly in the OS market when it comes to gaming. Anything anything to disrupt that is a net good for the consumer. Proton is magical. If Steam manages to wedge itself in there, it means there's a place for others too.
Great to see. The next logical jump for SteamOS would be to budget-to-midrange APU-powered gaming laptops, which in terms of hardware would be very similar to these handhelds, and I hope to see it...
Great to see. The next logical jump for SteamOS would be to budget-to-midrange APU-powered gaming laptops, which in terms of hardware would be very similar to these handhelds, and I hope to see it soon because I think that’ll be the real catalyst for making SteamOS support non-optional for game developers. If you can get a decent entry level SteamOS gaming laptop for MSRPs notably lower than possible with Windows counterparts, people will take notice.
Here I was getting ready to install Bazzite on my desktop, but perhaps I should wait a minute..! I would prefer to have the same distro across both my gaming devices and my (Ubuntu) desktop has...
Here I was getting ready to install Bazzite on my desktop, but perhaps I should wait a minute..! I would prefer to have the same distro across both my gaming devices and my (Ubuntu) desktop has performance issues the deck doesn't so it's about time to start fiddling again. Here's to hoping those betas aren't just for other handhelds.
I've been running bazzite on my deck for a while; there's little difference day to day from SteamOS but the power is there. I say just put bazzite on both and be done with it.
I've been running bazzite on my deck for a while; there's little difference day to day from SteamOS but the power is there. I say just put bazzite on both and be done with it.
There sort of is. You can use the recovery image for the Steam deck and run it on any computer. It doesn’t support a ton of hardware configs (most notably missing nvidia CPU support) and it...
There sort of is. You can use the recovery image for the Steam deck and run it on any computer. It doesn’t support a ton of hardware configs (most notably missing nvidia CPU support) and it doesn’t have a “real” installer but it does work. LTT just did a video on it.
Now they just need to officially support installing it on my gaming PC.
This will be huge, but I also understand why it isn't a thing (yet).
It's kinda like Apple and iPhones and Macbooks. Apple makes them, Apple knows what hardwae is there, how many of them are out in active use and Apple makes OS in such a way most of the iPhones and Macbooks work (to some extent, they won't be soending money on compatibility with 10 years old hardware, obviously).
And SteamOS is kinda like that. Stea Deck has one specific hardware configuration (even OLED is the same under the hood, minus newer making process) and Valve can optimize SteamOS perfectly for this one PC. Lenovo Legion Go S is (probably) whole another different thing to Steam Deck. Valve now has to optimize for that one too. If Claw and Ally went for SteamOS as well, Valve would need to optimize for them too.
And now - your PC. It's very likely it's not even a bit similar to hardware that Stea Deck uses. You may have newer CPU. Or older. You may be using Nvidia graphics. Or Intel. Andnow Vakve would have to make sure it will run flawlessly on your setup too. And on mine, which is 10 years old CPU and GTX 1650 with my home folder being on NAS.
I truly believe this is why there is no SteamOS out there for us to use and daly drive on other machine than Steam Deck.
If you wanted, you could install it on yur PC via some hacking around with Steam Deck recovery image (LTT did such video afew days ago), but I don't think it is worth it.
Too bad, but also understandable.
One thing Valve does have over everyone else: a yearly hardware survey of everyone who uses Steam. You have to approve it each year, but they make it very easy to do so. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a better picture of all of the hardware used for non-console gaming than any other organization.
That is very true, I forgot about that!
So they actually have kinda nice info on what people use. Who knows, maybe 2025 will be the year of Linux (gaming) desktop! (Nope, it won't, such year won't ever come, but maybe we will actually see SteamOS for standard desktop PCs)
https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.4645028803.5936/flat,750x,075,f-pad,750x1000,f8f8f8.jpg
It's an uphill climb because the SD sells itself as a portable. So one of the killer features is the suspend/resume workflow (something nearly impossible to do on Windows). Not quite as desirable a feature on a desktop. I'm Not quite sure what kinds of killer feature could work in that space.
Nothing. There is no actual reason to go Linux for Windows people. I say this as 15+ years Linux only user.
Different people can have different reasons - someone don't want to pay for Windows, someone don't want to pay AND be spied on in the same time, someone may not like some Windows feature... But there isn't any single/only one reason to leave Windows en masse.
Steam Deck is wonderful thing, it accomplished its mission (at least in my opinion) - portable, affordable, powerful enough, good battery life and al his while being open (no limitations on software side) and also repairable. In this age Steam Deck is something that kinda seems unbelievable (another such example is Framework laptop).
But Steam Deck, nor Steam OS will make Linux adoption really big. I'm not he one of those people who say "This is the year of Linux desktop" as I know this day will never come. But it is slowly creeping up. Many people here on Tildes use Linux, which is heartwarming for me. Not that I think Linux is superior OS, but it gives you options, you are able to choose. Which is not the case with other systems.
While Valve developers participate in developing all the software stack, even heavily developing parts of the GPU drivers, they are part of a much bigger community without which they wouldn't have been able to achieve this. These include Hardware manufacturers, like Intel and AMD, contractors, like Igalia, and even some individual contributors (this is how dxvk, and d9vk started). To get a sense of how Igalia works, you can watch this talk: https://osseu2023.sched.com/event/1Qv8y/how-steamos-is-contributing-to-the-linux-ecosystem-alberto-garcia-igalia
My point is, the open-source world is quite different from the Apple, Performance gains can come from many sources in the community, there's no single entity controlling how performance works. This is why it has taken valve more than 10 years to reach this state of support in Linux, because they do not control (nor can) the whole stack, but instead they contribute to it.
In cases where support is still lacking, such as nvidia, it's because the company has been resistant for decades to integrate with the community and instead chose to do things their own controlled way. Thankfully they have dumped useful code and now the community is writing the upper side of the graphics driver stack to work seamlessly with steamos and other linux distributions.
I don't think it's Valve who has to do everything. But they are the ones who would beblamed if something didn't work in "theor" Steam OS. To be clear - I wouldn't blame them, I run Linux as my only OS for 15+ years and I understand how it works (or rather doesn't, sometimes :-) ). But if they roll out "Steam OS for everyone" they would need to be sure it will work at least in most cases and not just by chance or miracle.
I'd love to see Steam OS as another Linux distro. It would be great for PCs that are used in living rooms to play games on TVs or in VR. Just boot it up, there you are in controller friendly interface, you selext game and play. Very nice!
But at the same time, this can be achieved today if you are technically knowledgeable enough. And by enough I mean many PC people would be able to make it so even without Steam OS. And many of those people would be able to make it on top of Linux system (which isn't that hard to get going nowadays - still may not be seamless though).
If I’m reading that right then it seems like it’s coming soon. Fingers crossed.
Don't they already?
That’s the previous version of SteamOS, which was run by Steam Machines which didn’t go over very well primarily because of WINE/Proton not being nearly as capable at that point in time.
The version that the Deck (and now other handhelds) run is based on Arch Linux and is totally separate.
It’s more than that. The desktop mode of SteamOS is a mostly straightforward version of Arch Linux that you could try out now without any hacks if you’re willing to brave The Arch Linux Installation Guide.
Obviously SteamOS benefits new Linux users by being managed by Valve, and coming prepackaged and ready to go on the SteamDeck. But for the most part it’s just Arch with KDE and Dolphin plus a few basic programs like Firefox and Steam pre-installed. I’ve set it up myself out of curiosity, and the hardest part is just getting Arch set up and ready to boot. From there it’s extremely easy to set up Arch exactly like it is in SteamOS.
One detail to note: while SteamOS is based on Arch Linux, it's also set up to be an immutable distro which is a pretty significant departure from its parent distribution's workflow. I'm not sure if you even can do it from a base Arch install without effectively making your own distro (though someone did exactly that) but it's definitely outside of the scope of the installation guide. Aside from the immutable aspect, the rest is a straightforward KDE+Steam client setup that can be replicated from a base Arch install easily as you mentioned.
OS architecture is outside of my realm of expertise, but to me immutability seems like a no-brainer for Linux devices intended for end-users. Makes it very easy to get back to a working state without a command line delve in case an update goes bad, and if the user knows just enough to get themselves in trouble it’s a lot harder for them to accidentally screw things up with the package manager, deleting random files, etc.
This is an older, unmaintained version of Steam OS. Not the version for Steam Deck.
SteamOS has limitations that might make it not so good for a general purpose OS on a PC. The big one being that it is an immutable distro.
There are projects out there to put the SteamOS experience into a more desktop-ready distro.
Honestly, until there is an official pc release I'm not going to get too excited. It is nice to see that Steam OS is taking off though. Someone needs to knock microsoft off their throne.
As much as I dislike Microsoft, I'm more happy to see SteamOS adoption quite simply because there's a few devices like this in the market and they all give a worse experience for having Windows on it.
My dream is that there will be a proliferation of steam machines with SteamOS and that will get relavent companies to stop depending so heavily on Microsoft products for things like anti-cheat and DRM. It feels really dumb that you can't play Fortnite on Linux when there's a native Android port.
Isn't that mainly because of anti cheat? Where companies think their generally unimportant ranked mode trumps user ownership?
There have been games that ran on Linux and were yoinked because some companies insisted you needed their kernel level anti cheat so they "too bad we can just rugpull you huh"d everyone running it on Linux.
The proliferation of SteamOS as a competitor is such a powerful step in the right direction that it doesn't matter if it's Steam that wins or just any alternative.
Steam lets devs implement DRM, so I don't necessarily think SteamOS in the long term will be a real solution towards changing that mindet.
It's about bringing competition to the market. Windows is a near monopoly in the OS market when it comes to gaming. Anything anything to disrupt that is a net good for the consumer. Proton is magical. If Steam manages to wedge itself in there, it means there's a place for others too.
Great to see. The next logical jump for SteamOS would be to budget-to-midrange APU-powered gaming laptops, which in terms of hardware would be very similar to these handhelds, and I hope to see it soon because I think that’ll be the real catalyst for making SteamOS support non-optional for game developers. If you can get a decent entry level SteamOS gaming laptop for MSRPs notably lower than possible with Windows counterparts, people will take notice.
Here I was getting ready to install Bazzite on my desktop, but perhaps I should wait a minute..! I would prefer to have the same distro across both my gaming devices and my (Ubuntu) desktop has performance issues the deck doesn't so it's about time to start fiddling again. Here's to hoping those betas aren't just for other handhelds.
I've been running bazzite on my deck for a while; there's little difference day to day from SteamOS but the power is there. I say just put bazzite on both and be done with it.
I doubt a complete iso for general purpose Steam OS is coming down the pipe anytime soon.
There sort of is. You can use the recovery image for the Steam deck and run it on any computer. It doesn’t support a ton of hardware configs (most notably missing nvidia CPU support) and it doesn’t have a “real” installer but it does work. LTT just did a video on it.