I would use it for a Steam Machine. I'm currently using my Steam Deck as a console for my TV. It works great, but when I get some cash together I'm going to build a badass gaming console. If Steam OS is released then I'll give it a go. If not, then I will try one of the other console like distros, Chimera or something.

Last edited by Highball on 26 Dec 2023 at 7:13 pm UTC

On my computer that can play games certainly not, as that will need a more general distro. But if I ever make a gaming machine for under the TV? Certainly yes.

It would be quite unlikely, I just don't have a real need for such a gaming specific distro since games are more of a secondary usage on my machines rather than primary.

Add to the fact they appear to have fixed up remote play quite a bit recently and instead of building a living room PC to game on, I can use a lower powered PC and simply stream to it from the beefier desktop. It's an order of magnitude cheaper.

No, Arch meets my needs.

Absolutely not.

I don't like the Valve Time update schedule; I don't trust Valve's testing and support capabilities for generic hardware; and I don't like the restrictions caused by the read only filesystem and A/B update mechanism.

For a gaming appliance or HTPC on generic hardware I would (and do) run a generic well-supported distro.

I'm curious to see how well it will work when the time comes, but for desktop use I'll be sticking with Mint, which has proven itself to be the best fit for my use-case.

I've discovered that Arch is the only distro I can stand for longer than a month. SteamOS is Arch without most of the things I like about Arch.

Besides, most of my gaming is done outside of Steam, so the Steam-centric part of the distro is kind of lost on me. I get that this is rare for most players around here, though.

no, unless guix progresses significantly for me to use it, the only install i want to do is installing debian on the router. Which is also unprobable since i have no money for a more capable one.

Absolutely not.

I don't like the Valve Time update schedule; I don't trust Valve's testing and support capabilities for generic hardware; and I don't like the restrictions caused by the read only filesystem and A/B update mechanism.

I didn't know about the read-only file system. Now it's a hard pass from me. I already hate how locked down macOS has become because of Apple's obsessive walled garden bullshit. A read-only file system is a no go for me.

Absolutely not.

I don't like the Valve Time update schedule; I don't trust Valve's testing and support capabilities for generic hardware; and I don't like the restrictions caused by the read only filesystem and A/B update mechanism.

For a gaming appliance or HTPC on generic hardware I would (and do) run a generic well-supported distro.

They did it in a really odd way too. I kind of wish they had just taken the regular immutable distro route, it would have been easier to maintain and better for users if that's the kind of setup they wanted.

Absolutely not.

I don't like the Valve Time update schedule; I don't trust Valve's testing and support capabilities for generic hardware; and I don't like the restrictions caused by the read only filesystem and A/B update mechanism.

I didn't know about the read-only file system. Now it's a hard pass from me. I already hate how locked down macOS has become because of Apple's obsessive walled garden bullshit. A read-only file system is a no go for me.

Wait until you find out about Fedora Kinoite/Silverblue or OpenSUSE MicroOS

They did it in a really odd way too. I kind of wish they had just taken the regular immutable distro route, it would have been easier to maintain and better for users if that's the kind of setup they wanted.

It's a fairly standard approach for an appliance or coming from the embedded space. You have two completely independent images so if one gets broken (by any method) you can always boot into the other. Your motherboard's UEFI likely works the same way. It's robust, and is fine for an appliance that's going to be used by the general public that don't want to know about computers. I do know about computers and there are likely all sorts of things that I'd want on my computer that aren't going to be in Valve's image - not least because they need to fit two copies of the OS and some games into 64 GB, which isn't a restriction that I'll be under.

Absolutely not.

I don't like the Valve Time update schedule; I don't trust Valve's testing and support capabilities for generic hardware; and I don't like the restrictions caused by the read only filesystem and A/B update mechanism.

I didn't know about the read-only file system. Now it's a hard pass from me. I already hate how locked down macOS has become because of Apple's obsessive walled garden bullshit. A read-only file system is a no go for me.

Wait until you find out about Fedora Kinoite/Silverblue or OpenSUSE MicroOS

!Wut?

They did it in a really odd way too. I kind of wish they had just taken the regular immutable distro route, it would have been easier to maintain and better for users if that's the kind of setup they wanted.

It's a fairly standard approach for an appliance or coming from the embedded space. You have two completely independent images so if one gets broken (by any method) you can always boot into the other. Your motherboard's UEFI likely works the same way. It's robust, and is fine for an appliance that's going to be used by the general public that don't want to know about computers. I do know about computers and there are likely all sorts of things that I'd want on my computer that aren't going to be in Valve's image - not least because they need to fit two copies of the OS and some games into 64 GB, which isn't a restriction that I'll be under.

Indeed, I am aware of how it works .

I still feel that for the deck in particular, it may have been better to go with a regular immutable distribution style as overall it would offer the same benefits (if it breaks, it's just boot to the last image to fix; upgrade/downgrade the OS easily without fear, etc. It's basically unbreakable.), while also offering more user control (they could edit the image easily, with persistent changes to new images, that won't reset, if they chose. For example by using rpm-ostree.).

Best of both worlds: Easy for normie user and customizable for techy.

Yeah, those Valve guys, they're just not very smart.