That's it, I'm done, finished. It's "mission complete" now is it not? 2022 is officially the Year of Linux Gaming. Yup, that's something I am now proclaiming and I'm also putting a flag down into February 25 (the Steam Deck release date) as Linux Gaming Day every year.
While the long-running joke of "Year of the Linux Desktop" might take forever to actually be a thing, Linux Gaming is now a lot more mainstream. Thanks largely to Valve of course bringing over Steam to Linux, and eventually producing the Steam Deck — putting the power of Linux and open source literally into peoples' hands.
Of course that's not to say it's all Valve. There's a massively long list of open source contributors who have helped to make this happen. From drivers to desktop environment upgrades there's so many different people, companies and organisations to thank. We wouldn't see the Steam Deck without open source and without the Vulkan API. I've said for years that we needed "hardware, hardware, hardware" with more vendors to properly jump in. It's not enough to have good marketing, or a good desktop, people needed a reason to use it to actually sway them over and clearly the Steam Deck is doing wonders.
If you follow the Steam Deck Reddit, you'll see a lot of people trying out (and actually enjoying) the KDE Plasma desktop mode on the Steam Deck too. Plenty of the fixes coming into KDE Plasma are as a result of people trying it out too, and finding issues, which then benefits all users. You only have to look at the regular This Week in KDE blog posts from developer Nate Graham to see how much effort goes into it.
The community building up around it is quite fantastic too, we've already seen a Plugin Loader come along which will be fun to see progress. We've seen multiple emulation tools appear like EmuDeck and RetroDECK, masses of developers moving to improve their games to add in gamepad support and better text sizing and the list goes on.
There's been times recently it felt like I woke up in a different world, when sites like PC Gamer told people to stick with SteamOS and not Windows and even LinusTT thought SteamOS did better overall. Never did I ever expect things like that to happen. Heck, even Jeff Grubb from Venture Beat said this in a recent Twitter post:
Steam Deck makes me want to puke from thinking about how stifled everything is by walled gardens. The community has already made Steam Deck so much better, and it all works together because it's open source. A better world isn't just possible; it exists.
Steam Deck, Linux and open source are finally starting to get through the cracks — it's incredible. After writing about it for so long, this really does feel like the "what a time to be alive" clip that came from The Simpsons and is now a fun meme for this sort of thing.
Heck, you even have Microsoft of all companies jumping in to repeatedly talk about their games on this Linux handheld, and even doing a guide to get Xbox Cloud Gaming to work. It might not be Game Pass on Steam (yet?), but who had any of that on their bingo card? I sure didn't.
More companies are even now looking to go with Linux like OneXPlayer because it's showing its worth, something sadly GPD don't see.
Even Epic Games are doing a little like making sure Easy Anti-Cheat can work easily on Linux, and getting Unreal Engine into a better state for Linux with Unreal Engine 5.
Obviously, this is heavily focused on the Steam Deck, but you need to remember that apart from the Steam Client, practically all of SteamOS is open source software and all improvements go on to benefit Linux Gaming everywhere. I think we're finally starting to hit that turning point for Linux Gaming as a whole thanks to this. Absolutely tons of people are now learning more about it, enjoying it and sticking with it — exactly what we want to see.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to go sit on my sofa and load up a AAA game on a Linux handheld.
While you're here go follow me on YouTube and Twitch.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: amvmonkeyValve didn't upstream the controller drivers to the kernel? I'm disappointed to hear that.They've upstreamed the Steam Deck drivers but 5.18 isn't out yet.
Quoting: SkyGuyWhyBut from another perspective aside from Valve's, say you're watching market share and hoping for Linux to overtake windows?
here is my prediction (i said it before already, and gonna repeat)
windows marketshare on desktop will not move an inch, but steam deck will sell a lot.
it will be just like android, didnt affected windows marketshare, despite the fact that there are more androids than windows nowadays.
nowadays we have iOS as the more closed ecosystem, and android as the more open-one (you can side load apps, install from other stores, anyone can develop, and the base system is open source)
the same will happen for the console market, we will have machines running SteamOS in the open consoles, and companies like sony, nintendo and microsoft doing their own closed walled garden, maybe microsoft, sony or even nintendo wil try to compete in the open market, who knows? it wont be the first time sony and nintendo relase an linux system (ps classic, nes and snes mini) hell even sega made one (game gear micro), if microsoft decide to enter this market with windows, and nintendo face another generation like n64, gamecube and wiiU where they strugled to sell consoles, first party games (due to lack of install base) and lack thirdy party support, maybe they will try their luck with steamOS or "nintendoOS".
sony already gave us the "otherOS" option on PS3, and a linux kit on PS2.
i dont see sega returning to the console market, but they surprised me with gamegear micro, and some of their arcades run linux.
we have being seing tons of micro consoles runing android, windows and now even StemOS, so maybe in the future, we can have a big hit such as PS2/nintendo ds with over 150 milions units sold, runing linux, and that still dont change much of windows marketshare.
its a bit sad, but at least microsoft wont put all their money into trying to prevent that linux momentum, they will see it as an competition for the xbox division only, and only use the money from this division to try to compete, instead of the money of the entire windows/office/azure mamon-machine.
so i can see they still suporting linux with gamepass/xcloud
Last edited by elmapul on 16 April 2022 at 5:01 am UTC
Quoting: ElectricPrismCongratulations and many thanks to everyone who has been a part of this community over the years to get to this point. Also, thanks to Vovo, Gaben, Wine, DXVK people, and countless others.
We did it! Be Excellent to Eachother, and Party on Dudes!
Bonus Meme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J19kvVIn_Fo
now that the linux year finally came, lets fight for the year of the freeBSD!
-shut up hipster
^say everyone else in the crowd
Quoting: sarmadQuoting: denyasisValve is definitely in the Extend phase of EEE for Linux and wine, and I can see at some point they may consider making the jump to Extinguish (pairing steam off of Linux into it's own thing), but I don't see that as likely or feasible.
1). They lack the resources. Valve is 100% dependant on the free labor of the open source communities. While they've done great work, most of the heavy lifting was done long ago by others.
2). Linux being open source, it simply can't be tossed out, the way Microsoft or Apple can get rid of stuff since it's all in house.
You forgot the most important point, which is that Valve's business model depends on selling games through Steam, not selling the hardware. So, it's in their best interest that the games that work on Steam Deck also works on regular Linux as that simply means more market for them. This is why Valve is trying to support as much platforms as possible just as we recently saw with ChromeOS.
valve invested in pc games, when everyone else was giving up on it,thinking consoles are where the money is.
now they are doing the same with linux-desktop
QuoteThere's been times recently it felt like I woke up in a different world, when sites like PC Gamer told people to stick with SteamOS and not Windows a
to me, that was the biggest surprise:
https://www.windowscentral.com/why-you-shouldnt-install-windows-steam-deck
Quoting: slaapliedjeI've come to the conclusion the reasons that it isn't 'Year of Linux on Desktop' is mostly because of Microsoft and their methods of locking down people to needing Windows. Much like back in the day, what the corporate space uses, is what people end up mostly being stuck using at home. If we can get more penetration into the corporate workspace, then maybe one day we'll have the 'year of linux on the desktop'.
Really looking forward to getting my Deck, maybe they'll let me throw my money at them next week....
As someone who is a Linux nerd for over 20 years by now and can decide weather to use Linux or Windows at work, I can tell you it's not that easy. The fact that Linux can be restricted a lot means corporate admins will do that. Also, corporate workstations are using up to 10 years old distributions. It's a nightmare. No one I work with chooses Linux at home because of our experience at work, rather contrary. People take those restricted environments as "That's linux. Reliable but missing features and comfort. It's fpr Servers and CAD." as granted.
Ultimately that's another reason why flatpak etc. are so important. When distributions with flatpak make it to these spaces, it will extend usability a LOT. Yet there will still be other hefty restrictions making everyone mad.
I get your sentiment but I'd hope for 2023!
QuoteThere's been times recently it felt like I woke up in a different world, when sites like PC Gamer told people to stick with SteamOS and not Windows and even LinusTT thought SteamOS did better overall.
The biggest shock for me has been seeing the comments sections go from 3 to 4 people mentioning Linux and being booed out of the room by Windows users, to the exact opposite happening. This almost overnight change in perception of Linux, from being that weird choice to being the obvious one for Steam Deck and even recommended for games like Elden Ring by casual Windows gamers, has been absolutely mindblowing for me.
Quoting: elmapulQuoting: denyasis2). Linux being open source, it simply can't be tossed out, the way Microsoft or Apple can get rid of stuff since it's all in house.
i disagree, android has proven that its possible.
but i dont think valve has the resource to pull an android aproach, nor that they will even try.
I was actually going to mention Android in my first post, but didn't want to get too long winded.
We are actually in agreement to a good degree, I think. A similar strategy to Android is "possible", just not for Valve. Sarmand and CatKiller did an excellent job explaining the economic side above. And even with Android, Linux is still here and improving.
Either way, I hope Linux keeps getting the live it deserves from everyone!
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