arandomguy
Veteran
Making this a separate post due to completely different subjective matter, but Valve is running a 10% discount for the Steam Deck currently as part of their 1 year anniversary and Spring sale.
Steam Deck - SteamOS, Zen2 4C/8T, RDNA2 1.0-1.6 TF, 16 GB LPDDR5 88 GB/s, starting at $399 [2021-12]
- Thread starter BRiT
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cheapchips
Veteran
On this point, Valve are paying hundreds of engineers to support Proton etc. The end result is free, but the current state of Windows gaming on Linux is in part because of Valve's heavy and ongoing investment.
Decoupling PC gaming from Windows has been Valve's ambition for a decade and they're finally getting real traction, like it or not. I quite like it.
actually I don't mind it, but no matter how hard they try, it's not there yet. Thanks god they added HDR support to DXVK as of recently, but Linux doesn't have HDR support, and so many other things.
Steam is one of the best software/platform I've seen to date, it's an impressive feat, the design, the interface, the easy of use.... Plus, you can find anything in there, it's amazing how many underdog games and unknown games are there.
Still some things can improve, like easier creation of Collections, or better filtering options like when you want to search for Top-Down games that are Racing games (if you can do that, I dunno how).
Tbh I prefer GoG because of my idealistic point of view, and even PC gamepass, but there's nothing like Steam. However, the Steam Deck under Steam OS isn't appealing to me. I would just want to play alone, or with my family, without having to fight the OS, of look for fixes so that some games will work.
Hmmm, I miiiiiiiiiight have to go look and see if I want to buy one now. I have no real need to do so, but I do kinda want one...
arandomguy
Veteran
The earliest I can see another bigger discount or announcement of a new iteration is at least 1 year, so this would be a good jump in point if interested. The more mature surrounding ecosystem also makes the 64GB variant make even more sense than the higher ones as well.
I'm like you, I'm not sure of the exact usage on a practical level. Playing around at home, which oddly seems to be the most common usage, I'd just use game streaming if not at the desktop (also preference wise I really can't use controllers compared to kb/m). Don't really have a scenario currently that involves playing outside of the home for some length of time (probably not worth bringing out just to <20 mins) that fits the form factor (kind of large to use in public commute) and doesn't have access to the internet (which goes back to streaming).
But there is list of verified games (~3000 at the moment), and if you find enough games you would like to play within that list, then there's no need to fight the OS. And I would add most of the "playable" games there. I didn't have many verified/playable games in my library/wishlist, but still my biggest issue is not SteamOS or lack of available games, but lack of time to play them. And a bit loss of interest, as it's hard for me to find a game I really enjoy playing.
PC gamers differ, a lot. Many of those don't care about HDR, ray tracing, 4K, 144+ HZ monitors, etc. They play different types of games, new ones, old ones, good graphics, pixel graphics, etc. So PC gaming device is not universal machine, and it shouldn't be. Steam Deck (Valve) aims at specific group(s) of PC gamers, and so far it looks like this was good (business) decision. Now game developers and competitors (GOG, Epic...) might re-consider supporting Deck & SteamOS (linux) as a platform. Even though workaround solutions (Heroic, Lutris, Bottles...) work well, I buy new games exclusively on Steam for that reason, and also prefer verified/playable among those (I used to prefer GOG, even though they've been ignoring Linux users for years).
Got a shipping notification today; I went ahead and bought the 256Gb model because I didn't want to immediately rip it apart for a better SSD, and also picked up the dock thing so I can plug it into my bigass TV and audio system in the media room.
About the 3000 verified games -- one of the very first games I'll try playing is Space Engineers, which is listed as NOT Steam-deck supported. Turns out, someone online figured out it's 100% capable of running with a single command line argument change, however nobody from Keen Software has taken the time to "verify it." As such, even the 3000 number is a lowball estimate, given how many other games appear to be in the same boat as Space Engineers.
About the 3000 verified games -- one of the very first games I'll try playing is Space Engineers, which is listed as NOT Steam-deck supported. Turns out, someone online figured out it's 100% capable of running with a single command line argument change, however nobody from Keen Software has taken the time to "verify it." As such, even the 3000 number is a lowball estimate, given how many other games appear to be in the same boat as Space Engineers.
Is the Steam Deck advertised as a "PC gaming device"?
cheapchips
Veteran
arandomguy
Veteran
The Steam Deck has been both explicitly and implicitly referred to as being a PC in official materials ever since it was announced. It's actually directly referred to as being a PC and language in their marketing refers to being able to use it like any other PC. If you look at their materials you'll see the terms/phrases that refer to the PC, such as "just like any other PC," "it is a PC," and etc.
The other factor is ever since launch they've also explicitly and implicitly mentioned Windows support. So in this sense feel it's fair trade off if Windows was being used as part of marketing to likely alleviate fears of possible compatibility/user expectations and build good will resulting turn that there is much stronger onus to follow through with that. A Microsoft/Surface device analogy as such is not remotely comparable.
Also while SteamOS is a Linux distro you'll find that official materials do not really reference Linux but only SteamOS. Windows is actually referenced but not Linux, including specifying Windows as alternative OS support. I know the Linux side wants this to win from that perspective, but I'd wander if in the long run SteamOS winning out would be no different than Android winning out wish respect to actual public/broader consumer interest in Linux.
SteamOS is just as much "Linux" as ChromeOS and Android. SteamOS and ChromeOS uses much more of the wider free software eco-system (like Wayland, Pipewire etc) and a less forked Linux compared to Android, but they are just as much "Linux".
I don't agree. Valve is NOT responsible for writing Windows drivers. Valve IS responsible for making sure MS can support the Steam Deck if they want to, and Valve has done exactly that. More than MS has done for Surface devices (which I think are
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arandomguy
Veteran
That's fine from a technical stand point but I'm talking about actual mainstream consumer reception. The mainstream consumer opinion does not view them as Linux nor as Android/ChromeOS adoption really affected broader consumer acceptance and usage of the Linux ecosystem as a whole. Especially not as the Linux "side" want's it to be viewed as.
arandomguy
Veteran
Again this is completely different from Microsoft/Surface devices.
Valve has explicitly stated said support for Windows including the missing dual boot feature discussed.
I'm sorry but I'm guessing you don't view things this way but the reality is the broader public is much more skeptical of Linux/non-Windows and this was the case at launch. As I've stated Valve made statements of such support to alleviate those concerns and to promote good will. As such you can't have it both ways in this case. Microsoft was and is not outright stating or implying that they would support Linux on Surface devices to alleviate buyer concerns or promote good will, the situations are not remotely similar.
Had Valve never mentioned Windows and directly stated they would support it as such when asked than that would be a different scenario, but that is not the case.
The mainstream (and a lot of people here) don't actually understand what Linux is. I would also argue that the SteamDeck is not a mainstream consumer device (like the Switch).
Also, the Linux ecosystem is a technical eco-system, it is not comparable to Windows. You can't run Android games on SteamDeck for example.
You can run Windows on your Steam Deck, Valve will even help you. But Valve can't change Windows, only MS can do that. If MS want to support Steam Deck, they can do that. If you want to run FreeBSD ( ) or MacOS on the SteamDeck you can do that as well, but Valve won't write drivers for you.
Also, AFAIK Valve never stated they would write drivers for Windows.
cheapchips
Veteran
They released a new Windows APU driver today
Wait, you mean to tell me that a device maker actually released device drivers to support their device??? I thought that wasn't their job.
Yeah, come on Valve, where are my FreeBSD drivers?