A steam deck is a custom gaming device with a custom gaming OS, custom, pre-defined hardware, limited upgradability, and launches into a gaming interface for a specific company’s game store and launcher.
Set it to boot to the Linux desktop and boom, laptop with gaming formatted shell for once, with a decent steam-big-picture thing you can choose to use if you want
Or reformat the entire OS and never use that steam mode again
It’s a console in the same way a Windows laptop with the Xbox app pre installed is
How is it substantially different from an everyday “I just want to play a goddamned game without jumping through hoops” perspective.
Is the person who doesn’t want to go through the trouble of activating dev mode and download an emulator or other custom software more likely to install a different operating system on their Deck?
A steam deck is a custom gaming device with a custom gaming OS, custom, pre-defined hardware, limited upgradability, and launches into a gaming interface for a specific company’s game store and launcher.
How is it not a console?
Set it to boot to the Linux desktop and boom, laptop with gaming formatted shell for once, with a decent steam-big-picture thing you can choose to use if you want
Or reformat the entire OS and never use that steam mode again
It’s a console in the same way a Windows laptop with the Xbox app pre installed is
You can launch custom apps on the Xbox. It’s officially supported through Dev Mode. You can even install emulators and third-party app stores.
Is the Xbox not a console now?
That’s not even close to the same thing and even you obviously know it
How is it substantially different from an everyday “I just want to play a goddamned game without jumping through hoops” perspective.
Is the person who doesn’t want to go through the trouble of activating dev mode and download an emulator or other custom software more likely to install a different operating system on their Deck?
You answered your own question.
It is a lot like a console, but there’s a huge catalog.