Like it or not, this is the easiest way to get Linux further into the mainstream. I’ve had Linux on my laptop for about a year or so and have been loving it, but I’ve still been wary about switching my gaming PC. I think the biggest issue with most people hesitant to switch is ease of use. From the outside Linux looks cryptic and kinda scary for most people. I mean you have to do research just to find out which distro to use and even then might not even find one you like on the first try. With Windows… You just install Windows and you can already do everything you need to do.
One could argue it’s been mainstream for a while. We just don’t call it Linux. We call it android, game consoles, TVs etc… for consumers they look at hardware and software as one in the same.
If I were to guess, if steam os takes off, we will have another word other than Linux for these machines.
Honestly Linux market share doesn’t matter much.
With that being said Linux can be used however you see fit as long as you aren’t violating licensing
Unless your game bans you from playing because you’re on Linux, then market share matters a ton
I want to move to Linux but the value proposition for game pass is too damn good, I haven’t bought games the last 3 years because the last 5 games that I bought all got into game pass. It’s like they have this one executive that has the same taste as me.
I’ll stick with windows for gaming (sadly) until my financial situation improves ಥ‿ಥ
My daughter uses game pass on Linux. I think she streams it though.
Gaming has nothing to do with Linux. I wish that we could just move on from that. It isn’t the fault of Linux or anyone in the community that some companies choose to ban from you to running there software. Market share is unlikely to cause major changes.
If it was 50% market share, nobody would ignore Linux
I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.
But even if it did, do you seriously think legacy companies would want to support it? Linux encourages knowledge, tinkering and vendor independence which is not what these companies want. They want a locked down platform that keeps the companies safe.
Valve wants a platform that they don’t need to pay fees on
Honestly that’s a valid reason. However, a lot of companies don’t like Linux for one reason or another.
@possiblylinux127 @iopq
in reality, gaming on Linux became since a long time way better than on winlol, and Mesa & CodeWeavers are actively working to make it better every day, the problem comes from developers, mainly kernel-level anticheat, according to members on the fediverse or one of the communities I follow on fb, it all comes down to a simple checkbox if you want the game to allow running on Linux or nay, so the blame falls down to stupid devs not the OS
The biggest hurdle by far is that you need to compile the software you want to use from source more often that is acceptable for the average user. There is also a serious lack of proper hardware driver support.
Linux is way too fragmented and trying to get up and running with basic apps requires way too much technical skill.
I really do hope that SteamOS will finally solve these problems by having the backing of a foundation (company) that has years of UX experience (with multiple failures and successes under their belt) that targets a wide range of audiences. This should give hardware manufacturers confidence that developing drivers for that OS will not be a waste of time.
Wtf, I use Linux and have never compiled anything.
That doesn’t mean that others don’t have to. I installed Debian on a partition and couldn’t get the WiFi USB stick to work. The manufacturers drivers couldn’t be installed because they were ancient, and installing a generic one for the chip didn’t work. Had to give up. In windows it’s plug and play.
I had the same experience with an old printer: Linux recognized it directly whereas Windows didn’t. I wouldn’t say that Linux has a strong disadvantage at these things.
Dude, your wifi dongle manufacturer obviously inbox’d their driver with MSFT and didn’t mainline their driver into the Linux kernel. When drivers are inboxed, MSFT will maintain them for as long as they are able to. Linux kernel maintainers will do the same when drivers are mainlined into the Linux Kernel. Your dongle manufacturer is the one to blame. Things aren’t plug and play because it’s “Windows”. That’s like a Mac enthusiast saying, “My Mac, It just works”. It better “just work”, there is only handful of devices that are even compatible with Mac. There are plenty of Windows compatible devices that don’t have inbox drivers for Win11 and Win10 and guess what, they don’t “Plug and Play”.
The solution was to just buy a Linux compatible device for the newer kernel you were running. Or, downgrade to a kernel that has support for your device. If it’s Windows that doesn’t have the inbox driver, you’d have to downgrade the entire OS. Most people don’t do that, they just buy a newer device that’s compatible with the newer Windows version they are using. Why would things be any different for Linux. Or Mac for that matter. And really, you couldn’t just buy a 15 dollar USB Wifi dongle that was compatible with the OS you were using???
If a Windows user buys a Mac, they will just assume they have to buy Mac devices and Mac software. If a Windows user installs Linux, suddenly everything had better work out of the box or the entire Linux eco system is a failure for everyone in the world.
compile the software you want to use from source more often that is acceptable for the average user.
Wut? I’ve been using Linux in some form or another for years and that is greatly exaggerated even for back then
Linux is way too fragmented and trying to get up and running with basic apps requires way too much technical skill.
Um. WHAT. most distros are just some flavor of one of the handful of major ones, like Debian (Even Ubuntu is based on Debian). If it’s a Linux application, it’ll probably work on your distro. There’s some other cases, like FreeBSD which isn’t a Linux kernel, so things differ there, but it’s unlikely you’ll be running it at home unless you’re venturing out of “average user” domain, like Arch for Linux.
Things have never been easier
The majority of users won’t even touch the command line if they’re on a noob friendly distro. Been that way for a long time. Only Gentoo users are compiling from source, and even then, not that frequently
The biggest hurdle by far is that you need to compile the software you want to use from source more often that is acceptable for the average user.
I’ve been using Linux as my main OS since 2007 and not had to do that once.
Linux is way too fragmented and trying to get up and running with basic apps requires way too much technical skill.
> open app store
> search
> install any flatpak you like
If anything Windows is the complicated one in this regard.
@TheGrandNagus @Shirasho I remember doing that in high school in 2018 but I forgot all about it because I never again after class did that
The 90’s called and want their specious cliché back.
I’ve already been down voted and commented on. No need to start being a snarky asshole. If there is one thing that hasn’t changed since the 90s it is how obnoxious and pretentious Linux users are.
Quit your crying. You got back the same energy you gave out. You’ve had 30 years to change your trope.
I’ll install it on my gaming desktop day 1…
Any big distro will do now, maybe no HDR.
Works with Wayland btw, though still experimental
I got it to work on Bazzite after hours of research into understanding how to convince Steam to actually pass the HDR data between the game and my monitor. Then one day Bazzite just decided it didn’t want to recognize that my monitor was an HDR monitor. I haven’t felt like looking into it lately because the research I did spend hours doing led me to finding piecemeal information about how the underlying systems of Proton and gamescope work through the breadcrumbs of information I can find in Linux forums.
I desperately want to enjoy using Linux but the lack of comprehensive documentation that appears relevant to a user’s situation makes it incredibly frustrating
Yea I use Mint. So I’m kinda already there.
If you haven’t already, take a look at Bazzite for your desktop. I’ve actually replaced SteamOS with it.
Ill take a look today!
What’s the benefit of the os vs say steam os?
@mesamunefire @themadcodger in tunisia at least, the number one way to play games is:-through piracy (I hate piracy but if you are born in tunisia then it is very very hard to pay for anything virtual like games) -via launchers like Battle.net for HS -via custom .exe like for Project Celeste… in short Steam is not the only way to get games, Steam OS and by consequence the Steamdeck is not even officialy on sale in tunisia anywhere and going to desktop mode requires intellect which is not common
Interesting. Yeah I can see that being an issue.
I’ve heard it can be hard to get a steam deck or steam deck adjacent machines outside official stores.
The built-in Proton WINE does pretty darn well for me already. Baldur’s Gate 3 plays fine on my Pop!_OS system.
Same. Doesn’t play Deadlock very well which I find really funny since it’s a Valve game. But it’s a play test so I’ll give it a pass for now.
Same bg3 works great! I’m running on steam deck and pop os at different intervals. It’s fun.
I’m definitely a recent convert. I hate Windows 11 and all the various features it shoves down my throat these days. I bought a steam deck and ended up dabbling in the desktop mode enough to realize the learning process will be mostly fun for me. I’m mostly gaming these days anyway. I don’t use the computers I have at home for much more than that.
I’m so fucking ready to ditch Windows. I’m listening.
Do it! Set some time aside and try out Linux
I hope this helps give Linux some love. Been using Bazzite and it seems to do the job pretty well.
Very excited for the super new inductees that just want to build a Steam home console.
Buuuuut I really have not had issues with anything except Anti-Cheat (which Steam Deck has issues with anyway) using Pop!_OS on my PC.
It did take some learning, but most of that was done through just using the OS.
The only time I had issues doing something I wanted to was when I initially tried to install Mod Organizer 2 for Fallout: New Vegas. That took some reading up. Ended up being an easy fix and then all I had to do was learn how to install Windows components to my F:NV prefix in Protontricks to get almost any mod running.
So for anyone who wants to plug in and play their games, Linux is basically there. And for anyone more technical, it’s not a crazy amount more work to do the stuff you’re already doing.
I got the first gen rog ally while it was on a sale because I was curious if I’d like it more than my steam Deck.
Yeah the ally is collecting dust…
I wanted to then give it to my (not technically inclined, plays all games on a switch) partner when steam family library went live so she could play the vast library I have (and I was gonna setup emulators too) but I just couldn’t give it to her in good conscience. I’ve been working in IT for over 20 years and the UX for windows on a small device like the rog ally is such an utter pain in the ass that it basically ruined the experience. I used it as a living room PC for awhile by hooking it up to my TV with a KB/M but that’s just defeated the purpose of it’s form factor. It’s just a desktop PC now.
If using a Windows handheld as a traditional PC is the only comfortable way to use it for someone like me, there’s no way I’m giving that experience to someone that is used to console experiences.
Having steam OS on the rog ally (yes I’m well aware of Bazzite already existing and I’ve played around with it on the Ally, it’s just not quite there yet) would be a godsend to make the rog ally a useable device not just for myself, but definitely for the average person that grew up on consoles.
And yeah anything that can be done to get away from windows is better in my opinion. Even if Microsoft turned around tomorrow and made a “great UX for handhelds” it would still be windows. No thanks. I’ll keep a PC for the few things that just work better (or at all) on one just in case, but I don’t currently play any of the games that have the anti cheat issue on Linux anyway.
It’s great for hardware manufacturers, the consumers, and it’s great for Valve too. I for one welcome this expansion (finally) of the steam OS platform.
