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AYANEO, maker of some pretty popular gaming handhelds, announced that their own Linux operating system for their devices will be released this year. While we've seen others looking to the public release of SteamOS 3 that powers the Steam Deck (like GPD and OneXPlayer), AYANEO seem to want to "do a Valve" and have that extra level of control directly.

On Twitter their announcement was quite simple noting:

AYASpace will be upgrade and improved and also AYASpace 2 is under development which will be released in 2023 !
What's more,  new feature "Community" will be added to AYASpace APP.

Even more exciting, AYANEO OS goes live in 2023 as well 🥳
Expect official news announced soon ~

When they previously talked about the Linux-based AYANEO OS, they said "AYANEO team loves games and game consoles as well. In the process of creating the best Windows handheld in the world, they found that the existing operating system in the new form of PC handheld still has many poor experiences, and even some problems that we can't be solved. In order to allow everyone to enjoy the game and the handheld hardware better, AYANEO has launched the AYANEO OS, which is based on the Linux system and developed exclusively." and they mentioned clearly they would be using Proton too.

They recently finished their IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign for the AYANEO 2 and the GEEK model, both of which come with an AMD Ryzen 6800U. They had 2,680 people give over their monies to help fund them, with their IndieGoGo now switching to in-demand which is basically like another way to pre-order the devices. So while successful for AYANEO at $3,157,147 currently in total, it's an absolutely tiny fraction of what the Steam Deck has sold which was over a 1 million units back in October last year (that was even before launching in some Asian regions).

If I hear any more, I'll let you know.

2023 is clearly the year of Linux gaming handhelds huh?

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Pengling Jan 19, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Penglingsince the cost of living was so high back then
. . . unlike now, of course . . .
Well, that's my point - we've looped back around to the same old thing. I just wonder if the same old thing will work in gaming this time around!
WyattTurpin Jan 19, 2023
It was only a matter of time. This is the best decision they could have made. Make the device easier to use, easier to sell and easier to optimize. By the looks of things, Linux will win in the gaming market. Next Stop: The Workstation!
(I am working on that one)
fireplace Jan 22, 2023
I can see why they’d want to do that. I wouldn’t touch Valve’s non-free OS either. But I bet their’s won’t be free as well…
Purple Library Guy Jan 22, 2023
Quoting: fireplaceI can see why they’d want to do that. I wouldn’t touch Valve’s non-free OS either. But I bet their’s won’t be free as well…
I'll bite. So, "non-free OS" in what sense?
fireplace Jan 22, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: fireplaceI can see why they’d want to do that. I wouldn’t touch Valve’s non-free OS either. But I bet their’s won’t be free as well…
I'll bite. So, "non-free OS" in what sense?
Huh? What else could it mean in a GNU/Linux website? I commend you for being so dedicated to free software that you forgot all about proprietary software. But just to refresh, non-free software is software that’s not freedom respecting as in proprietary software as in software that does not grant you your four essential freedoms.
Purple Library Guy Jan 22, 2023
Quoting: fireplace
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: fireplaceI can see why they’d want to do that. I wouldn’t touch Valve’s non-free OS either. But I bet their’s won’t be free as well…
I'll bite. So, "non-free OS" in what sense?
Huh? What else could it mean in a GNU/Linux website? I commend you for being so dedicated to free software that you forgot all about proprietary software. But just to refresh, non-free software is software that’s not freedom respecting as in proprietary software as in software that does not grant you your four essential freedoms.
Yes. I'm saying, in what sense is SteamOS that?
The Steam platform itself, for buying and managing games from Valve, is non-free. But your comment is the first time I've ever seen anyone claim that the OS is non-free, so I was wondering if you had some particular basis for saying it. As far as I understand, SteamOS is a perfectly normal Linux distro, based on snapshots of Arch and using KDE as the desktop environment. I haven't heard anyone say that the source code is unavailable or that they've tried to re-license anything.

The platform and the OS are different. Technically, you could buy a Steam Deck, rip out Steam but leave SteamOS in, and play everything except Steam games on it.

So. In what sense is the OS non-free?


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 22 January 2023 at 7:09 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Jan 22, 2023
Quoting: fireplaceI can see why they’d want to do that. I wouldn’t touch Valve’s non-free OS either. But I bet their’s won’t be free as well…
One funny thing is, the Ayaneo thing will probably have a Free OS (because it's way easier), which will be different from Valve's Free OS, and which might include bits of secret sauce (unlike Valve's Free OS as far as I can tell), but which probably will ship with Valve's non-free platform because they'd be fools not to make it easy to play most of the games on a game machine. So most likely they will skip Valve's free offering but use Valve's non-free thing.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 22 January 2023 at 7:37 pm UTC
fireplace Jan 22, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: fireplace
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: fireplaceI can see why they’d want to do that. I wouldn’t touch Valve’s non-free OS either. But I bet their’s won’t be free as well…
I'll bite. So, "non-free OS" in what sense?
Huh? What else could it mean in a GNU/Linux website? I commend you for being so dedicated to free software that you forgot all about proprietary software. But just to refresh, non-free software is software that’s not freedom respecting as in proprietary software as in software that does not grant you your four essential freedoms.
Yes. I'm saying, in what sense is SteamOS that?
The Steam platform itself, for buying and managing games from Valve, is non-free. But your comment is the first time I've ever seen anyone claim that the OS is non-free, so I was wondering if you had some particular basis for saying it. As far as I understand, SteamOS is a perfectly normal Linux distro, based on snapshots of Arch and using KDE as the desktop environment. I haven't heard anyone say that the source code is unavailable or that they've tried to re-license anything.

The platform and the OS are different. Technically, you could buy a Steam Deck, rip out Steam but leave SteamOS in, and play everything except Steam games on it.

So. In what sense is the OS non-free?
Aside from the obvious fact that the main interface, the Steam client, is non-free that always runs in the background, Valve keeps most of the distro closed source unlike the previous Steam OS versions. But I’m not too considered about that because there is already lots of work in making bunch of the great features of the Steam deck into other distros like gamescope and immutability in Fedora. You won’t be limited to Valve’s non-free offering for your Steam deck.
Purple Library Guy Jan 23, 2023
Quoting: fireplaceAside from the obvious fact that the main interface, the Steam client, is non-free that always runs in the background, Valve keeps most of the distro closed source unlike the previous Steam OS versions.
Yeah, you're asserting that. But it doesn't jibe with anything else I've ever heard about the current SteamOS. So I'm asking you to provide a bit of chapter and verse about, in what sense, in what way, is Valve "keeping most of the distro closed source"? What is it you claim they are doing?

Do you claim that they have made changes to Arch files they downloaded, but kept the nature of the changes secret? Do you claim they have re-licensed GPL Linux code they are using to some closed license? Do you claim they have bribed the FSF not to sue them for any of this? What exactly are you saying?
fireplace Jan 23, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library GuyYeah, you're asserting that. But it doesn't jibe with anything else I've ever heard about the current SteamOS. So I'm asking you to provide a bit of chapter and verse about, in what sense, in what way, is Valve "keeping most of the distro closed source"? What is it you claim they are doing?
I seriously don’t know what that means. The opposite of providing source code, I guess? It’s not that hard. There is either source code or not. It doesn’t have to “jibe” with anything.

Valve uses their own packages and repo for Steam OS. And besides the very few packages that they rarely update in public, everything else is not to be found, but there are definitely plenty of other GPL programs. Maybe you know where they are :)

Quoting: Purple Library GuyDo you claim that they have made changes to Arch files they downloaded, but kept the nature of the changes secret? Do you claim they have re-licensed GPL Linux code they are using to some closed license? Do you claim they have bribed the FSF not to sue them for any of this? What exactly are you saying?
That’s literally… none sense. Only the copyright owner can do that, so they’re just violating it. They can only keep this up till one of them threatens vlave. See Trump’s Mastodon clone.
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