Valve has formally announced the Steam Deck, a portable handheld console with SteamOS

i think they should make it more clear, that they do not sell a WINDOWS PC and you may not be able to play some games and you wont be able to install windows software like you do on windows

Quoting: g000hI'm waiting for Microsoft to offer Valve a free Windows licence for each Steam Deck, or even better - Pay Valve to put Windows onto the device.

since it is an open device you may can install windows by yourself
but i think steamos is very optimized for it, so maybe even better performance with proton, than with windows on it

Quoting: slaapliedjeI think the real question is how many new games will we get as Linux native when developers want to make games for this new 'console' and can finally convince publishers there is enough interest?

depends on how many devices they sell
but i dont think a lot of AAA titles will change anything since they wont work on it anyways. i am kinda sceptical about doom and control. do they really run smooth on it?

tomb raider? metro? i hope we get some independent reviews soon

Quoting: Purple Library GuyBy the way--Steam Deck, huh? Not a terrible name. Sure better than "Steam Pal".

I wonder if they'll release different coloured models? I'm hoping for "The Colour Of Television, Tuned To A Dead Channel."

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: KohlyKohl

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: KohlyKohlI'm also concerned about the switch to Arch. I would have preferred a more stable distribution such as Ubuntu.

It's not like you're going to be installing a stack of AUR stuff. Someone's carefully set up bare-bones Arch is probably very stable.

Arch is inherently less stable by design. Adding in the AUR just makes it more unstable. Arch has its place I just don't think a consumer device is one of them.

Just because it's based on Arch doesn't mean it needs to have Arch issues. The updates are still tested and controlled by Valve. It is SteamOS, not Arch.

Absolutely agree. I run Arch on my desktop and some various home servers. My desktop is the messiest with AUR stuff wedged and lots of random bits I tinker with, and even that hasn't had any issues in a long time. The issues I have had were ones I caused. My servers are kept lean and focused, and I have never had an issue with them. Even when I slack off and realise I haven't updated packages in months, it all just works as it's as minimal as possible.

On the contrary, I recently switched to Ubuntu to give it a go again, expecting it to be something that would just work and have a decent default experience. Sure, it installed easily and had a flashy GUI, and I didn't have to manually do everything as I do when installing Arch, however I have had more issues with Ubuntu in a few weeks than I had on Arch in the last two years. Stuff that just worked in Arch due to up to date packages and a huge central repo has involved forum scouring for fixes, random private repos added, and a host of other issues. Give me Arch anyday.

My experience: the exact opposite of yours. Nothing works easily on Arch, the AUR has heaps of outdated keys and I had to troubleshoot basic things like gamepads not working which work out of the box on Debian/Ubuntu distros.

You know what you know, I suppose, and there are significant differences between the big core distros that experience in one of them doesn't necessarily translate to a good experience in the others.

For a device like this though? Who cares if it's Arch? I'm not going to be looking up the arch wiki if something doesn't work on this thing. I'll be using Valve support, or sending the unit back.

It matters because Valve is pushing the idea that you can install any apps you like and in my experience this is much easier for new users on Ubuntu and not on Arch.

Not really... you have Flatpaks, snaps, and the 'software store' thing, that pretty much is just a frontend to PackageKit and makes most software installations on Linux these days Distribution agnostic. The only real difference these days are 'what is packaged and set up to be installed easy via UI?'

Arch would have a lot more customization options that would allow Valve to 'do whatever they want' with the OS, whereas Ubuntu is... well less so :P

I'm not as convinced as you are. Also, what happens when they break their system, which is much easier to do under Arch? I really hope Valve has an easy way to reinstall SteamOS on these.

Quoting: KohlyKohlI'm not as convinced as you are. Also, what happens when they break their system, which is much easier to do under Arch? I really hope Valve has an easy way to reinstall SteamOS on these.

download an image. copy it on an SD CARD. put it in the deck. press some buttons and it installs everything

shouldnt be that hard

This is a big momentum for Linux gaming

Quoting: mylkasince it is an open device you may can install windows by yourself
but i think steamos is very optimized for it, so maybe even better performance with proton, than with windows on it

If it's a custom graphics chip, it may not be so easy to get good graphics drivers for Windows. Not to mention that AMD's drivers are a bit... lackluster, compared to the open source ones.

Quoting: KohlyKohl

Quoting: damarrinUsing this for old games is really not the point, I think.

Anyway, I'll be reserving my spot in the pre-pre-order queue come tomorrow, I think this will do me just fine.

Why not? I plan a lot of older games on my Switch.

One may play whatever one wants, but since it's bound to be excellent for new games as well, focusing on this as a retro machine is doing it (and oneself) a big disservice.

Quoting: g000hI'm waiting for Microsoft to offer Valve a free Windows licence for each Steam Deck, or even better - Pay Valve to put Windows onto the device. I'm just jesting, but if this thing skyrockets, I wouldn't put it past Microsoft.

Hmm... or Google, for that matter.

This is something that can definitely happen, if it hasn't already.

It all depends on Valve and whether they decide to be the leader or the follower. For now it looks like they're the former, insistent on creating something new. MS has been riding on the backs of followers (don't swim against the current, what's the point of making something new, don't spend all that money and time on R&D etc) for 30 years now, it's about time someone stepped up.

I've seen saying this would happen for 4 years. If you watch what people are doing not saying, you can see this kind of thing in advance.

Quoting: mylkai think they should make it more clear, that they do not sell a WINDOWS PC and you may not be able to play some games and you wont be able to install windows software like you do on windows

Nobody expects a thing like a Nintendo Switch to be a Windows PC. I don't think they need to sweat that a whole lot.

Quoting: gradyvuckovicProton running on a handheld device like this has a lot of advantages that Proton doesn't have running on the average Linux desktop.

Every Linux desktop varies wildly and that makes trying to make Windows games run reliably on such wildly varying Linux environments is certainly a challenge. There are so many variables. What Linux kernel is the user running? What GPU? What driver? What driver version? What level of vulkan support is available? The exact fix for some machines may be a few command line options, other PCs might run the game out of the box without any help, other PCs might not be able to run the game at all.

But with the Steam Deck, here you have a rare opportunity: The only 'variable' is the game.

If Valve can get a game to run, via any means, on the Steam Deck, they can put out an update to Proton/SteamOS/etc, that ensures that game runs on every Steam Deck. Even if behind the scenes there are per game tweaks and other stuff happening, all that matters from the end users perspective is that they can hit play and the game runs. No fiddling involved.

This presents an enormous opportunity to increase the Linux player base on Steam, and puts a lot more pressure on game devs to ensure their games at least run well via Proton, if not natively on Linux.

Yeah, I haven't even really started to consider the implications of this device succeeding solidly. If it does, well, I guess it's the Steam Machine's potential all over again. Suddenly Linux becomes a real market games wise. If you add in these upcoming Chromebooks running Steam . . . well. This could be a very big turnaround for Linux gaming. Medium term, could even have some ripple effects on Linux desktop adoption, although that's a lot iffier.

I wish I had any idea what those specs mean in Intel/Nvidia terms. I could see myself buying this to replace my aging laptop even though I don’t much care for a handheld gaming device per se. As long as the virtual keyboard is reasonably roomy and it runs concurrent productivity apps smoothly.

Either way, their expectations regarding Proton sound very promising :)

Quoting: GuestGood detailed video on it here, it's pretty big!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLtiRGTZvGM&t=48s

I generally try to avoid looking at Youtube comments . . . but they can be useful for sort of taking the pulse.
I notice the comments there are mostly framing it in terms of a war with the Switch . . . and although of course there's plenty of argument, they are on average pretty positive to the Steam Deck. Quite a lot of Valve saying hold my beer, and whatnot.
One notion that came up a few times is that in theory, this thing could emulate Nintendo games and play them faster than the Nintendo Switch itself does . . .

Can anyone tell me if we will have this Steam Deck interface adapted for the PC, and can we use it without even having this handheld console? Steam's Big Picture is quite outdated, I hope we can use this interface both in SteamOS 3.0 and in the Windows version

When dealing with new AMD hardware like this, arch is a good choice because you'll need some pretty bleeding edge MESA and Kernel support. (bugs getting fixed daily, hardware is far from matured in the software/driver department)


Last edited by TheRiddick on 16 July 2021 at 7:05 am UTC

"It's not the size of the Deck, it's how you use it."

Sorry, but I had to.

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: damarrinUsing this for old games is really not the point, I think.

Why can't it be the point?

You're free to choose your point of course, but the point of the device is to run current games, otherwise it would be quite overpowered.


Last edited by Eike on 16 July 2021 at 8:04 am UTC

Quoting: Purple Library GuyNobody expects a thing like a Nintendo Switch to be a Windows PC. I don't think they need to sweat that a whole lot.

Situation is different here. Valve is saying (or at least people are hearing): "This will run your whole stream library!" People will point fingers on every game that doesn't run like on Windows.

QuoteIn their FAQ, they make it clear that they are working directly with BattlEye and EAC to get support for Proton.

It's not just that. They also kinda give a timeframe. To quote the FAQ directly:

QuoteWe’re working with BattlEye and EAC to get support for Proton ahead of launch.

So we can hope for something good on that front before December (hopefully)! Which is really exciting!!!