This is a great update which I have been using since it was launched on the Preview channel, for the KDE Plasma update.
I use my Deck as a Linux tablet as much or more than a gaming machine and for this the newer Plasma version makes a big difference.
The recent keyboard and audio fixes (though the latter isn't fully solved) make it almost perfect.

But one regression in this update is the disabling of hardware acceleration for e.g. H.264.
WWhen streaming from Deck over Steam Link or Moonlight, it now runs hot and uses more battery from the x264 video encoding and sends a blurry image.

Some of the not particularly smart people on the Steam Fora are posting about working around this here.

Spoiler, click me

Am joking and referring to myself.

Or on the GitHub issue too I suppose.

Update: As per the so far unannounced SteamOS 3.4.2 update, hardware acceleration has been enabled again!
This makes the update perfect for me, I will be sticking to Stable for a bit as the current Beta Client issues are annoying.

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My game of the year 2022 is Okami, as I played it for the first time this year.
With a fixed inputs community layout and some simple setting changes it plays perfectly, the trackpads and the Deck's screen suit the game incredibly well.

Though I suppose I could count the new Steam Input configurator as my 2022 released "game" of the year, for how it lets me control games and other programs in whichever way I please.
A somewhat extreme example of this is Vintage Story, which after making a complex layout for it on Steam Deck plays better there than with M+KB.

If we're calling Linux Distro's games too, Garuda Linux is my pick.
Expected to hate it will the over the top G4M3R default aesthetic and OS tweaks I was uncertain about, but after giving it a chance on my main desktop earlier this year, it became my preferred distro.
Though I've also read the rules and don't plan to start a distro fight here, nor will I give my favourite an absurd amount of praise for things other distros do as well too.

But I don't have an actual game released in 2022 which I would call my favourite, I mostly play older games or am active on Steam Discussions, Discord and YouTube on my Deck.

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Proton on my Deck hasn't updated to 7.0-5 yet, it downloaded 7.0-4 after opting out of the old RC beta.
I've checked the updates a few times, but it might take another day or clearing the download cache.
Not that it matters to me as I can switch to Next, but it would be needed for a game like AK to become Steam Deck Playable, which I know these devs are eager for.
edit: updated a day later
another edit: Apparently the AK devs had to "click a button" to confirm the Playable rating.
Which makes sense but also makes blaming devs for breaking compatibility (if it's on them) somewhat justified.

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Interestingly enough when I got my Deck the Dutch iDEAL system worked but this broke down the line.
Not 100% certain on this but it might have worked on 3.2 and stopped working in 3.3.
I have not tested whether this update fixed it nor will I soon but it's nice that this patch is supposed to fix it.
Interestingly, at least for my bank, the Desktop popup shortly didn't work too, but this was before I received my Deck and was fixable by copying the popup URL to an external webbrowser and closing Steam's popup after completing the payment.

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Particularly annoying is the onscreen keyboard randomly sending a return keypress on the first R2 press with trigger clicks enabled.
Waiting for a short bit before typing does not seem to make a difference, in the latest client updates it is better but not fixed.
With the inability of using modifier keys with it and closing and opening it for such input, herein rolling the dice again, using it is more annoying than it should be.
Especially after having gotten good enough with it to not need a physical keyboard even for writing walls of text,
his frequently happens.

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Quoting: jrepinA big regression that comes with this preview version is that in the updates Mesa hardware video playback decoding has been disabled for many codecs, because of stupid software patents.

This is especially annoying when streaming from Deck with Steam Link.
As I do not have a Dock and like to use the Deck as my primary controller, I use Steam Link a lot, in both directions.
In the Preview version, my Deck runs noticeably hotter when streaming from it, while also running down the battery quite fast.
I have been experimenting with installing some other Mesa version as a hacky fix, but have not gotten this to work yet.

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