Recently a bunch of people from other sites went to Valve's offices for some hands-on time with the Steam Deck and it seems the overall impression was pretty positive.
Like a lot of others, we're in the waiting line for whenever our unit ships early next year so we're currently going by whatever info Valve give out and by what other lucky people think after testing. Obviously Valve are going with the top few PC gaming sites / video content creators to make as big a splash as possible, they're certainly doing massively better on pushing it this time compared with the Steam Machines. With that in mind, we do have a few videos to show from others.
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From what's been shown, I'm pretty glad our unit has been reserved at the top-end for the anti-glare etched glass which very clearly makes quite a noticeable difference.
Plenty of comparisons between the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch for obvious reasons, with the Deck being a good bit bigger. From the comments it seems it doesn't actually feel as heavy as expected and is pretty comfortable, so at least on the design Valve has done well. Multiple people noted how much nicer the thumbsticks are compared with the Nintendo Switch too, which is a good sign because those are pretty bad.
Nice to see the KDE Plasma desktop mode working well too , with Linus Tech Tips showing how smoothly it popped up when plugging it into a monitor. That is, I think, going to be very fun to see more users and developers interact with a proper Linux desktop and since it seems to "just work" that's another mark in its favour.
Good to see so much positivity around it! Although, each person only got a somewhat limited amount of time, the real test will be regular gamers spending days with it. It's also worth noting that these are still early units in testing so considering none of the software is final yet - it's all a good sign on how much people enjoyed using them.
There's a few more you can find around and it seems when PC Gamer spoke to Valve, they confirmed that there will be some new API that developers will be able to hook into that will tell games if they're being run on the Steam Deck. That sounds really good, as at least then developers can ensure their game will look good on the smaller screen, and gives developers a chance to set some automatic graphics settings for the best experience.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
he just asks about windows.... he does not seem like he will use linux very long on the deck
slaapliedje Aug 8, 2021
Quoting: Alm888Sure there is, it is in Windows\System32\drivers\etc. 😜Quoting: F.UltraThere is no "/etc/os-release" on Windows. Not even "/etc".Quoting: Alm888New API? I wonder, what will it be?
In my impression developers just need to target WIN32 API releasing for Windows and Valve will do the "magic". Well, that and Vulkan is preferable. At least Valve has said as much…
Well to be honest in order to fulfil "that will tell games if they're being run on the Steam Deck" that API could be just /etc/os-release :-)
But I guess, a new function in Steam API returning 0 or 1 on whether it is a Steam Deck will suffice.
But it isn't hard for something like steam input to say "Deck controller found"
Quoting: slaapliedjeNo, it is not. ;)Quoting: Alm888There is no "/etc/os-release" on Windows. Not even "/etc".Sure there is, it is in Windows\System32\drivers\etc. 😜
The "etc" thing there is only for "hosts" file (that's right, a plain text file without an extension in its name on Windows. One of a kind!). And that is only because Billy (I believe it was still Him at the helm back then) felt lazy that day and just decided to rip off BSD network stack, complete with configuration files and directory structure (yeah, that level of laziness).
Apart from that the directory serves no purpose and holds no identification data. So, no, there is no "os-release" there.
Quoting: mylkai dont like the dude form Adam Savage’s Tested
he just asks about windows.... he does not seem like he will use linux very long on the deck
Luckily Linus from LLT is the more Linux positive one. LLT has more subscribers than Tested.
He's actually excited about having Linux in the Deck and didn't even explicitly say no when asked about having Linux show in LLT. As long as he doesn't have to host it though as he's by no means Linux expert.
I think people might be tempted to ask about installing Windows as Valve has stated that Deck is not locked device and you can install whatever you want on it. Thus people get curious about those things.
slaapliedje Aug 9, 2021
Quoting: Alm888Hence the tongue face...Quoting: slaapliedjeNo, it is not. ;)Quoting: Alm888There is no "/etc/os-release" on Windows. Not even "/etc".Sure there is, it is in Windows\System32\drivers\etc. 😜
The "etc" thing there is only for "hosts" file (that's right, a plain text file without an extension in its name on Windows. One of a kind!). And that is only because Billy (I believe it was still Him at the helm back then) felt lazy that day and just decided to rip off BSD network stack, complete with configuration files and directory structure (yeah, that level of laziness).
Apart from that the directory serves no purpose and holds no identification data. So, no, there is no "os-release" there.
It's literally as you said, just a few files there. but that's the extent of it's etc because everything else is buried in that garbage registry...
slaapliedje Aug 9, 2021
Quoting: AnzaI'm pretty sure Linus is only cool with Linux due to Anthony. If you watch any of the stuff that LTT has done involving Linux, it's always Anthony who is driving it. Linus seems to be more interested in the hardware than any of the software. But of course that's perfectly fine, as that's just what he does.Quoting: mylkai dont like the dude form Adam Savage’s Tested
he just asks about windows.... he does not seem like he will use linux very long on the deck
Luckily Linus from LLT is the more Linux positive one. LLT has more subscribers than Tested.
He's actually excited about having Linux in the Deck and didn't even explicitly say no when asked about having Linux show in LLT. As long as he doesn't have to host it though as he's by no means Linux expert.
I think people might be tempted to ask about installing Windows as Valve has stated that Deck is not locked device and you can install whatever you want on it. Thus people get curious about those things.
I think for Linus to really like Linux, more of the benchmarking software needs to be ported (instead of running them through Proton / Wine, we should get native ports).
Quoting: slaapliedjeI'm pretty sure Linus is only cool with Linux due to Anthony. If you watch any of the stuff that LTT has done involving Linux, it's always Anthony who is driving it. Linus seems to be more interested in the hardware than any of the software. But of course that's perfectly fine, as that's just what he does.
I think for Linus to really like Linux, more of the benchmarking software needs to be ported (instead of running them through Proton / Wine, we should get native ports).
Linus actually had all the the necessary benchmarking tools in Linux for one video. It was about computer that Torvalds built and the benchmark was compiling the kernel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kua9cY8q_EI. Anthony was directing that video and has a short cameo, so he might have helped little bit.
In overall, no wonder Anthony actually was suggested as host for the potential Linux show. I have no idea how big Linux community there's in the LLT audience, but they seem to be somewhat vocal.
PS: I stumbled actually on Linux video that Anthony wasn't involved in, he's not mentioned in the credits at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzUr6HqXmg (bit of outlier though)
slaapliedje Aug 9, 2021
Quoting: AnzaHa, did Linus pronounce Linus wrong in that second linked video?Quoting: slaapliedjeI'm pretty sure Linus is only cool with Linux due to Anthony. If you watch any of the stuff that LTT has done involving Linux, it's always Anthony who is driving it. Linus seems to be more interested in the hardware than any of the software. But of course that's perfectly fine, as that's just what he does.
I think for Linus to really like Linux, more of the benchmarking software needs to be ported (instead of running them through Proton / Wine, we should get native ports).
Linus actually had all the the necessary benchmarking tools in Linux for one video. It was about computer that Torvalds built and the benchmark was compiling the kernel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kua9cY8q_EI. Anthony was directing that video and has a short cameo, so he might have helped little bit.
In overall, no wonder Anthony actually was suggested as host for the potential Linux show. I have no idea how big Linux community there's in the LLT audience, but they seem to be somewhat vocal.
PS: I stumbled actually on Linux video that Anthony wasn't involved in, he's not mentioned in the credits at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzUr6HqXmg (bit of outlier though)
Also... second link was from Feb 2020, first was from Jul 2020... Full pandemic beard grown!
Last edited by slaapliedje on 9 August 2021 at 11:48 pm UTC
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