GPD, the company behind many portable devices like the upcoming GPD WIN Max 2, made a claim about "cooperating" with Valve to get SteamOS working on their hardware. This is the same GPD that blocked us on Twitter, after we confronted them about pinching videos that didn't belong to them.
On the IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign for the GPD WIN Max 2, which will be powered by a either a AMD Ryzen 7 6800U or an Intel 12th gen Core i7-1260P, they were asked in the discussions section if they had plans to integrate it with SteamOS. The two replies they gave officially are as follows:
Appreciate for your support! As earlier of March this year, Valve contacted us about cooperation proposal. But for this cooperation, Valve needs to match the appropriate Steam OS system for our 6800U handheld.We need to provide the device to Valve official, and Valve also has to improve the Steam OS system for the 6800U handheld, this process may take half year.
And also:
Thank you for your support! Yes, Valve has contacted us to consult if we are interested in the built-in Steam OS system, they can promote our products on the Steam official website, we will agree to this cooperation, we think this cooperation will be the best.
Can't link to them directly, as IndieGoGo doesn't have direct-comment links but here's a shot I took.
Direct Link
I reached out to Valve, and today they replied and sent over a statement that said:
We're excited to eventually make SteamOS available for all devices, including handheld PCs manufactured by other companies. The team is still working on finalizing SteamOS, and we don't have anything else to announce today.
This isn't exactly breaking news by itself, since we already knew for a long time that Valve planned to release SteamOS fully to the public and so of course other hardware vendors would be able to use it too. However, GPD are clearly planned to do something with SteamOS on their devices much like OneXPlayer are also planning to do.
Quoting: Leprotto"if you cannot win them, embrace them"If you cannot Linux them, Steam them!
Yeah, Valve would be awfully naive if they thought no other manufacturers were going to offer SteamOS on their devices or that hackers wouldn't get it to work smoothly.
Now that they seem to believe there is enough people talking about it, some of us have to actually buy this version when it's available. lol
And the dominoes begin falling...
GNU WORLD ORDER
---
Oh, I wanted to add that I was debating one of these if Purism doesn't put out a 2-in-1 tablet in the near future. But, that was before I pre-ordered a Deck. "¯\_(ツ)_/¯"
---
Addendum:
I see that GPD has some "WinControl" program for mapping the shoulder trigger keys. They need to be introduced to QMK and adopt a GUI like Oryx
Last edited by EWG on 15 July 2022 at 4:28 am UTC
QuoteValve contacted us about cooperation proposal
Valve publicly stated they’ll release SteamOS for anyone to use and for free, the morons.
QuoteValve needs to match the appropriate Steam OS system for our 6800U handheld
Our device is so much better than the Steam Deck, it has a higher number! And SteamOS is no good for it. Since Valve are such morons, they’ll fix it up for us for free.
Quotewe will agree to this cooperation, we think this cooperation will be the best.
Hey, Microsoft, hello? So, what are you now going to do for us to keep pushing Windows for you?
Last edited by damarrin on 15 July 2022 at 9:51 am UTC
Quoting: TheRiddickAlso sad how they HARD push windows on these devices, like are you paying $100 on top for the windows license? how that work? I don't think MS give out free copies to companies!
This is a mutually beneficial agreement, I’m sure. MS is almost certainly giving them incentives for promoting Windows at every step, like almost free MS products for their own business. They have been very good at convincing companies they absolutely need MS software to keep running their business, so the vision of losing those benefits and suddenly having to pay full price for all the software is enough to keep everyone in line.
Now that there’s some sort of competition in the form of SteamOS, MS may become a lot more aggressive in their attempts to maintain the status quo. Like, reducing the price of Windows licenses for the devices which can then be passed onto consumers. Or, more likely, which can then not be passed onto consumers.
See more from me