Happy three years to the Steam Deck - the Linux gaming machine that changed everything
Happy three years to the Steam Deck - the Linux gaming machine that changed everything
It's been three years today since Valve released the Steam Deck. Not only has Valve shown how incredible Linux actually can be as a gaming platform, but they really kicked the industry into gear on PC gaming handhelds.
It definitely changed things for me. With end of life for win 10 coming and not liking win 11, I bought a SteamDeck to see how good Linux gaming has become. It worked so well that I decided to make the switch and put Linux on my new gaming PC.
When my current laptop kicks the bucket, I’m seriously considering a frame.work with the GPU board as my main gaming machine - with Linux
I've been considering the frame work stuff for so long, it's such a cool product/concept, I'm glad it's getting more traction
And, they just released a mini pc that's super cool!
Oh, neat, I remember borrowing money from friends to buy one shortly after release, and spending many months repaying it. My main thought process, besides it being a cool PC, was "the higher the statistics, the better the outlook for Linux adoption". :D
Can barely believe it's been three years already.
This why I bought 3 of them. The 2 I gave to my family members is probably collecting dust but oh well.
hi, its me your family member
I also bought a few steam decks to “support” Linux. All the work steam did for Linux gaming was such an incredible great thing for the world!
Bought the 512gb for me, then bought the 64gb for my wife. She got my 512gb ssd when I upgraded to 1tb.
We are both happy with it, and soon after we upgraded our computers to Linux.
The only computer without Linux is an older intel MacBook with macOS and windows for when I really need it. (Running specific tools for modding, hacking, firmware updates, etc). I rarely use it but it comes in handy every few months.
Doing the Lord's work. 🫡
Steam deck changed gaming forever.
I dreamed of a handheld computer so long that just had the fucking screen and gamepad connected like the game boy. I thought shit why isn't it done we have the technology! But it was because of the Linux system and valves own incredible work on making games work on Proton and it's a truly monumental paradigm shift that I support in every way
I like that now games try to fitt within the capabilities of handhelds, which I see as a win-win situation. Games focused on gameplay rather than aesthetics and better optimization for games.
And my gaming PC is collecting dust since then. Dragon Age, BG 3, Avowed this thing still goes strong.
Can't wait for the next version, already saving money for it.
I bought mine a few months ago despite never being a Steam user before and I love it. Sometimes I use it in handheld mode but it is too bulky for me, so most of the time I just have it hooked up to the TV and use a PS5 controller.
Only issue I have with it so far is that I couldn't find the packages for Arabic keyboard support in SteamOS. I have been using Linux for over 15 years and had no issue with Arabic input on other distros (Red Hat and Debian based), I just couldn't figure out where to look for them if they do exist. I never used Arch, so maybe that's why? If anyone has a clue please let me know.
Generally in arch you can set Arabic keyboard layout with the command
setxkbmap ara,us. If you're wanting to change the keyboard layout in game mode though that will probably require something else.That did it, thanks a lot!
Seriously considering a switch to Bazzite on my actual gaming PC.
Me having a RTX3070 is holding me back, though. Maybe AMD will have a decent, not-too-stupidly-expensive card in the 9070XT. Really don't want to spend more than $500-600 on a GPU. And I really don't want to replace it until I can get something with at least twice the performance.
Dude, I have an i5 8600k with a RTX 3070, using Arch. There is nothing to fear, yes I had issues some time ago when I had the GTX 1080 but not any more. I'm even using Hyprland. Give it a try on another with another disk.
Funnily enough I had precisely one issue out of a GTX-1080 running Linux Mint, and it had little to do with Linux.
I went from attaching two 1080p monitors by HDMI to one that attached by DisplayPort. The computer ran fine...until I rebooted it. The machine failed to POST. Turns out I could boot the machine with an HDMI monitor attached, attach the DP monitor, and it would run fine, but it would fail to POST with that monitor plugged in.
Turns out it was an issue with the card's firmware that would cause the card to fail to initialize with a monitor running a recent version of DP attached, the BIOS would fail to find a video adapter and thus fail to POST. It wasn't a driver issue, it was a firmware issue. And of course Nvidia provides no means of updating graphics card firmware in Linux, so the easiest solution was to rip the card out of the machine, carry it to a Windows computer, download and run the updater, and re-transplant the card.
I still game on that system; it's my home theater PC now.
I literally started downloading the Bazzite installer on my PC just before heading out to work - will be installing it on a spare NVME and seeing how it goes tonight hopefully!
Bazzite does have a Nvidia-specific build, I’ll report back in a day or two how I go with my 3090.
I'm using a 3080 and I do seem to have the occasional problem that my ATI using friends don't, nothing that has prevented me from playing.
Example: Recently, gamescope hasn't been working. So I've been using xwayland instead. Basically I don't get HDR or VRR, but it'll be fixed (it may already be fixed because I'm on a rolling release distro (Arch, btw)).
I haven't, yet, run into a 'This game doesn't work because you have an NVIDIA card'. On the other hand, I can run local AI trivially easy because my card supports CUDA.
I have a 3070 ti, I am using Cachy Linux. How do you feel held back? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm curious about your experience. My experience has been great and I'm confused what the fuss was about. Maybe it's easier now that Nvidia drivers are open (or at least fauxpen)? Idk.
Edit: misread as you saying you're on Linux right now and wanted to use Bazzite, but I think you're on Windows. The switch from Windows to Linux has been substantially easier than I thought. Happy to answer any questions about it if you're curious.
My concern is basically the usual "Nvidia hates Linux".
Also:
https://docs.bazzite.gg/Gaming/Hardware_compatibility_for_gaming/
Nvidia GPUs are currently in beta with major caveats
Nvidia GPUs work well on normal Linux distributions. Ubuntu, for example.
It's a great machine especially for playing chill indie games that you might not run on a desktop as well.
That is exactly my experience!
I have been a competitive player for stuff like WoW and LoL for years, and very conservative in the types of games I play (always 1/2 max). Since I bought the deck I went deep into Hollow Knight rabbit hole and loved it, playing balatro and many other smaller indie games, chilling on the sofa and without the addicting factor of online PvP.
Perfect for those sorts of games. Previously the switch was my machine for those sorts of games, but waiting for a switch port ruled out or delayed a lot of games. So glad we have handheld PCs now.
I bought so many indie games over the years that I felt like was not enough for my desktop. I know that sounds stupid but I'd want to play high end games on my desktop or maybe mouse and keyboard games rather than any controller.
After getting a steam deck I plowed through that list and they were amazing. I got the dock and have a controller too.
I loved my Switch but I gave that to my nephews ... The Steam Deck requires a bit more configuration which makes it perfect for me.
I use it nearly every day, often for gaming, but it's also just a great little (tiny) PC. I love the no bullshit OS, and it even runs Blender 3D nicely. It's a great machine.
That’s the great thing about Linux, it’s as bullshit as you want it to be 😂
Still my favorite piece of technology i have bought in the last decade, easily. This thing changed my life. I fucking love the steam deck.
I really want to buy it again but im kinda bummed out by the QC. I bought a new LCD model when the OLED came out. Not even a day, i noticed the trackpad has different intensity between left and right. and the shoulder button is the worse, the right one has weird double click and has longer travel. Returned it right away. The problem is, its not released in my country so i had to buy off 3rd party seller and i was lucky i can return it. Wouldnt want my new deck already opened and repaired on the first day.
A couple of months later i bought another one and guess what. Same problem. After reading around it is actually common problem for the shoulder button.
Did it though? I mean some people switched, it sold well, but is there like a huge shift in Linux gaming? I feel like things have been proceeding pretty smoothly since DXVK was released.
The original DXVK is mostly thanks to one guys obsession with nier automata, but after his initial work on it, it was valve who hired him and has funded it's development.
So a lot of DXVK working as well as it does was in preparation for the Steam Deck.
I've been a Linux PC gamer for 10+ years now, and the months between the steam deck being announced and released saw a huge improvement in game compatibility.
I mean, it's complicated yeah, but i would still maintain that DXVK was more of a watershed moment than Steam Deck.
Valve developed SteamOS way back during the first Steam Machine push, 2012-ish.
They moved quick adding DXVK into Proton and releasing it in 2018.
But I think that the core of the recent Linux Gaming story gets lost when people celebrate Valve or the Steam Deck since, like you said, it was a dedicated gamer who first developed DXVK which enabled all of this.
Linux gaming has accelerated in the last few years for sure, but I'm not sold on the premise that the impact belongs to the SD. That being said, I haven't checked the release feature sets against the SD launch so I don't have any hard numbers to back that up.
SD has done a lot to push Linux Gaming into the mainstream, but i don't think the development efforts are a reflection of that, rather that SD was launched in the middle of an accelerated development curve caused by DXVK.