Steam Deck - SteamOS, Zen2 4C/8T, RDNA2 1.0-1.6 TF, 16 GB LPDDR5 88 GB/s, starting at $399 [2021-12]

My deck arrived! Got it fired up, it downloaded all the updates in a very smooth way, and now I've got half a dozen games installed. I still haven't actually played any of them yet, lol...

I'll connect the dock tonight and test it out on the Sammy 85" QN90B HDR set and the matchy-matchy Q930B 9.1.4 Atmos soundbar. I found the fast beta channel appears to have preliminary 10-bit HDR over HDMI support and it also appears 5.1 audio over HDMI has worked in the stable channel for several months.
 
If they ever figure out all of the issues with anti-cheat, I'd actually be tempted to switched to SteamOS for gaming on my pc, if that's a possibility. Or just linux with the right packages installed, if that's possible. I haven't really investigated if Valve has made some of the supporting infrastructure for the Steam Deck generally available to linux users.
 
It looks like, for the most part, it's SteamOS 3 with the necessary swapped opensource bits to get it working on generalized platforms. But of course, that then means it isn't pure SteamOS I suppose.

Close enough ;)
 
Close enough to be called SteamOS 3, for all intents and purposes.

Call it that and release it then.

The relationship is more like random Chinese AOSP distro and Android. Just because they share parts and are compatible does not mean that the user experience is the same.
 
Really can't agree with such a contrived ecample. You'll have to do a lot more convincing before I'll accept SteamOS is somehow analogous to a pirated code base knock off clone Chinese device.

And why do you feel like they're obligated to release anything at all?
 
And why do you feel like they're obligated to release anything at all?

Valve is legally obliged to release the source code for certain components of SteamOS (like Linux). I hope that Valve will run SteamOS in the same open way that most Linux distros are run, I truly feel that doing so would be beneficial to both Valve and the world in general.
 
Really can't agree with such a contrived ecample. You'll have to do a lot more convincing before I'll accept SteamOS is somehow analogous to a pirated code base knock off clone Chinese device.

AOSP based OS are not pirated, AOSP is free software and anyone can build an OS using that as a base.

And I did not mean that SteamOS is some kind of "knock off", I meant that your SteamOS-like OS are similar to those AOSP based OS that are very popular in China.
 
The "original" OS of Steam Deck is Valve's SteamOS.

If I buy a Surface Laptop I don't expect MS to write Linux drivers even though that is what I want to use. But Linux developers write drivers for Surface devices anyway, and MS can do the same for the Steam Deck if they want to sell Windows licenses to Steam Deck users.
your wishes became true. Microsoft are experimenting with a true handheld gaming mode for Windows. I don't want to play on Linux tbh, for several reasons I already stated and my experience with my own games.

 
your wishes became true. Microsoft are experimenting with a true handheld gaming mode for Windows. I don't want to play on Linux tbh, for several reasons I already stated and my experience with my own games.

As a Hackathon entry, its a few people within Microsoft trying stuff out and essentually arguing for more resource. If they succeed on that front it'll be pretty cool I think.
 
I really hope this becomes a reality soon, would be a dream come true.


The video references some prototype handheld work created by Dorothy Feng, a senior UX designer at Microsoft. It includes a launcher that can open games from Steam, PC Game Pass, EA Play, Epic Games Store, and more. This handheld gaming prototype also includes a keyboard optimized for the Steam Deck that can be navigated using a controller, and even a floating taskbar that we’ve seen Microsoft tease before.

The team working on this hackathon project also started working with a developer that created a way to use Steam Deck controls across Windows. There’s even a gaming shell customized for Windows and created by Hayden McAfee, a senior software engineer at Microsoft who works on gaming experiences for Windows.

Microsoft was quick to support Xbox Cloud Gaming on the Steam Deck, but we’ve heard little about its Windows ambitions for handheld gaming outside of this leaked presentation.

A number of Switch-like handheld gaming devices from GPD and OneXPlayer or even the Ayaneo 2 have been relying on Windows without an optimized UI from Microsoft. That means companies have to build their own interfaces and launchers to make Windows more controller and handheld friendly.

Would be great if it happened, but don't get your hopes up. Per the guy who started the hackathon...

I started this hackathon project and it didn’t go much of anywhere, but this article uses wording to make it seem like it’s something under development. Problem is - We just didn’t have the right engineers to do a lot of what we wanted to do in the short hackathon project timeframe. Maybe this odd article can help me pitch this to Microsoft again. Phil Spencer was very nice and tried to drive me to some people that could help, but everyone was tied-up at the time.

The goals would be to smooth over hardware issues (real controller drivers, better support for that odd portrait screen, etc), a gaming shell and tools to get you in and out of all games quickly (regardless of the store), and other refinements to areas of Windows that still don’t perform very well on a screen this size.

My original post in September ‘22 asking for feedback:
Not sure if it matters, but the reasons I NEED/WANT to use Windows are for mod and trainer support, as well as support for a bunch of other stores (Xbox GamePass, GoG, etc). I just did not want to fight and struggle getting these things running correctly in SteamOS.

 
would it be possible to forward port the windows 8 (or 8.1?) ability to be controlled natively with a controller to windows 11?
 

1684477681551.png

It's really interesting at its price point of $100. However I think they missed out on making it a larger screen. They certianly could have fit a bigger one in the space that is left on the black borders and I think they are missing out on making it an oled and variable refresh. I would have been more interested in say a 7.5 or 8 inch 1280x800 oled with variable refresh. Would even drop $150 on it.
 
Back
Top