Good to see someone using Linux for their platform on these handhelds. The big reason I don’t want to try the Ally or whatever the others are doing is I can’t imagine Windows is making the experience better.
I don’t really have evidence to support that, but more Linux investment is better overall.
In college, we learned about how old certain systems were inside Windows XP. And already, that was getting pretty thick! So when I hear things like Win10 has x feature all that way from Win95, I mentally scream.
To be fair to Microsoft (I can’t believe I actually typed that) it’s not something they can just fix without splitting Windows into a consumer and business SKU that is significantly different from current Windows. Currently the only real difference is the amount of control the end user has over the platform, but the features are pretty much the same. To make a fully “modern” version you would basically have to build Windows from the ground up to eliminate all the cruft. There is no money for Microsoft in that. Better to focus on business and let the consumer complain.
The thing is at this point with all the effort Microsoft has been putting into making Windows more linux like they could literally make future versions of windows a new Linux distribution and heavily invest in improving wine/proton to run legacy windows applications. That eliminates all those decades of ancient Windows code and keeps compatibility.
Really I think it’s that SteamOS is built around the device. If you ever use desktop mode on the steamdeck it’s just as painful as windows (my opinion from dual booting the steam deck).
Its why I think retro gaming handhelds work well too. They’re built to have easy stop/start power states and better designed around non keyboard interfaces.
I bought a steam deck this Christmas. In desktop mode selecting a file with long click freezes the file Explorer if you don’t click anything in the menu that pops up. And the track pad randomly stops working in desktop mode.
It’s not a big deal. The track pad issue can probably be solved by some config, maybe steam doesn’t always launch when I open desktop mode. And the file selection will probably be fixed in a update. At least when the windows becomes unresponsive I can still close it with the X and it open up a new window in the same spot. Also I don’t move around files a lot. The gaming experience is basically flawless. I would probably spend more time fixing these issues than they cost me.
I found the issue with the desktop track pad suddenly not working. I played on my main PC with a steam controller and apparently didn’t add a non steam game to my library, so editing my controller setting also applied that edit to my deck.
The Ally has been great in my experience. Windows plus Asus’s overlay make everything pretty smooth to navigate.
Then if I feel like having the SteamDeck experience I can just launch Steam in big picture mode.
Then if I want the Xbox experience I can launch that app.
…and can play Switch games, and PS3/4 games…
There’s really zero downside too it. People spout hate because it’s trendy to dunk on Windows, but I just don’t see any issues.
Inb4 “but Windows is spying on you and full of bloat”… No it’s not because I took 10 min to get rid of all that shit just like I would on any gaming PC.
Not saying windows is inherently bad, but I personally would rather have a device running SteamOS on first boot up because more people using SteamOS incentivizes Valve to keep working on Proton. If anyone out there feels like windows is better for them, that’s fine since that’s their choice.
Good to see someone using Linux for their platform on these handhelds. The big reason I don’t want to try the Ally or whatever the others are doing is I can’t imagine Windows is making the experience better.
I don’t really have evidence to support that, but more Linux investment is better overall.
Removed by mod
Its decades of abstraction hell.
In college, we learned about how old certain systems were inside Windows XP. And already, that was getting pretty thick! So when I hear things like Win10 has x feature all that way from Win95, I mentally scream.
There is a windows 3.1 database menu in windows 11.
To be fair to Microsoft (I can’t believe I actually typed that) it’s not something they can just fix without splitting Windows into a consumer and business SKU that is significantly different from current Windows. Currently the only real difference is the amount of control the end user has over the platform, but the features are pretty much the same. To make a fully “modern” version you would basically have to build Windows from the ground up to eliminate all the cruft. There is no money for Microsoft in that. Better to focus on business and let the consumer complain.
The thing is at this point with all the effort Microsoft has been putting into making Windows more linux like they could literally make future versions of windows a new Linux distribution and heavily invest in improving wine/proton to run legacy windows applications. That eliminates all those decades of ancient Windows code and keeps compatibility.
As a long time hand held user, Windows is dog shit (I mean, in general, too)
I stopped buying handhelds because of how many problems they had, until I got a steam deck. Now I’m back to being super interested in the market.
GPD Win’s were cool for what they were, but so many trivial issues related to windows.
Really I think it’s that SteamOS is built around the device. If you ever use desktop mode on the steamdeck it’s just as painful as windows (my opinion from dual booting the steam deck).
Its why I think retro gaming handhelds work well too. They’re built to have easy stop/start power states and better designed around non keyboard interfaces.
I bought a steam deck this Christmas. In desktop mode selecting a file with long click freezes the file Explorer if you don’t click anything in the menu that pops up. And the track pad randomly stops working in desktop mode.
You might want to try a factory reset or make a warranty claim, as none of the SteamDecks I’ve used do that.
It’s not a big deal. The track pad issue can probably be solved by some config, maybe steam doesn’t always launch when I open desktop mode. And the file selection will probably be fixed in a update. At least when the windows becomes unresponsive I can still close it with the X and it open up a new window in the same spot. Also I don’t move around files a lot. The gaming experience is basically flawless. I would probably spend more time fixing these issues than they cost me.
I found the issue with the desktop track pad suddenly not working. I played on my main PC with a steam controller and apparently didn’t add a non steam game to my library, so editing my controller setting also applied that edit to my deck.
The Ally has been great in my experience. Windows plus Asus’s overlay make everything pretty smooth to navigate.
Then if I feel like having the SteamDeck experience I can just launch Steam in big picture mode.
Then if I want the Xbox experience I can launch that app.
…and can play Switch games, and PS3/4 games…
There’s really zero downside too it. People spout hate because it’s trendy to dunk on Windows, but I just don’t see any issues.
Inb4 “but Windows is spying on you and full of bloat”… No it’s not because I took 10 min to get rid of all that shit just like I would on any gaming PC.
Not saying windows is inherently bad, but I personally would rather have a device running SteamOS on first boot up because more people using SteamOS incentivizes Valve to keep working on Proton. If anyone out there feels like windows is better for them, that’s fine since that’s their choice.