Alternate account: @woelkchen@piefed.world
Steam web and the readme in the repo says Ubuntu is a requirement
Yeah, when their own documents don’t even mention Steam Deck or SteamOS, you can just conclude that these are yet another pieces of text that have not been brought up to date by editors, especially when the website still lists Unity as supported desktop. Keeping support documents up to date is just one of the things Valve sucks at.
The readme in that repo says the same
No, it doesn’t. It lists Ubuntu under the requirements section but under https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux?tab=readme-ov-file#reporting-issues it does not say that issues for all distributions are being rejected. It especially does not mention Unity desktop support which is a clear indicator of the page’s age.
That’s like saying that the year of Linux came when Android release.
It’s usually “Year of the Linux Desktop” and Android is a mobile platform, not a desktop OS.
it’s a bastardized monster clone of the original.
Android developments did benefit areas like power saving, so why the hate. Android is no GNU/Linux because of the lack of glibc.
MacOS is “Unix” in paid certification dollars only.
macOS, the Darwin layer specifically, is totally a BSD. Even with the Mach bits in the kernel because Mach itself is derived from BSD.
Homebrew could provide their own casks of FOSS applications, compiled on their infrastructure and signed by their key. It’s kinda what F-Droid does on phones.
That text box is obviously a leftover from the before times. Some pages on Steam’s website don’t get updated for ages. It’s not great but not news either. Only the reality at https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues counts in this case.
The steam client is only officially supported on Ubuntu and only using KDE, Gnome or Unity.
No. They offer a .deb package but repackaging and redistribution is allowed.
Valve’s support team won’t check issues on any other Linux setup.
That’s false. I guess you never actually reported a bug on their Github page. Here is a random bug report from Steam on Fedora installed from RPMFusion with a Valve developer asking for details instead of closing the issue for being unsupported: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/12422
Imagine if they made SteamOS free.
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227
https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/download
id love to rid my pc of the bloat of Windows
You can install and use Linux since ages. SteamOS is just regular Linux but without NVidia drivers.
I’ve seen a lot of folks waiting for this to make the switch, it’s silly but having a familiar name attached to it gives them a sense of comfort, and SteamOS is solid for what it is.
And should they be not native English speakers, they’ll wonder why the desktop is only in English, why they can’t even check the spelling of their native language. Or why playback of WebM videos glitches.
I really like my Steam Deck and actually use it as desktop PC from time to time but you can tell desktop mode is an afterthought. Traditional Linux distributions are actually a better choice for regular users. Valve luckily open sources and upstreams everything of SteamOS other than the actual Steam client, so it’s not like SteamOS has some special sauce nobody else gets.
I have to rely on scalpers or stores who sell it for triple it’s value. I want the controller
The 8bitdo Ultimate 2 series of controllers are fine pieces of hardware. Yes, they don’t have the trackpads but they have TMR sticks (probably the very same model as Steam Controller 2) and they are even compatible game consoles.
The biggest problem is that there are four very similarly named controllers (“Bluetooth” is the highest end and compatible with all BT devices even phones) but that’s it. No need to throw money at scalpers if good alternatives exist.
PS: If it behaves like Steam Deck’s controller, it’ll be useless without Steam running and merely acting as mouse.
Year of the BSD when?
When Mac OS X launched?
When iPhone launched?
When PlayStation 4 launched?
A friend of mine buys every Pokemon game and described this (tounge on cheek) as a compulsive mental illness of theirs.
They don’t use Steam forums either: https://forums.playdeadlock.com/
That looks like Bazzite Desktop with a different name. Even the contributors overlap.
FAQ says: “Bazzite, Bluefin, and Aurora all came in at different times, the result of organic growth. Don’t overthink it” … Very helpful.
Most people first installing Linux will dual boot to try it out first before fully committing
Good look having a newbie set up a dual boot system in times of BitLocker. Chances are they end up with single boot Linux because they cannot downsize the encrypted Windows partitions.
imo ubuntu is a good recommendation.
The reality is that SteamOS shaped the majority of developments for home users.
They expect to just get the stuff that’s on Flathub even if they don’t even know what Flathub is. Facts are:
Fact is also: Because software in Universe is not supported, whether or not a community member backports bugfixes is a coin toss. Mint, pop_OS, Zorin, etc. are just as affected by this and as such software used may contain severe security issues.
Rules of thumb I use:
Currently that means Fedora KDE. I did not yet try Kinoite or Bazzite myself but I do like the download assistant on the Bazzite website that guides users through picking the correct ISO.
Linux gamers often say stuff like “it’s literally one toggle in [insert game engine here]” but that’s never the case. Doesn’t mean new devs don’t fall for it.
If developers (those that come from Windows) fall for anything, it’s the myth that Proton is already perfect and native ports have no value.
With Steam Deck the hurdle for game developers to dog food native ports of their games is lower than ever. SteamOS comes with Podman and Distrobox, so installing the Steam Linux Runtime SDK on Steam Deck’s desktop mode should be doable after reading a howto.
It’s very difficult to justify the additional effort of implementing a platform that serves exclusively the playerbase with a ~3% market share
And yet there are many games that have a native Mac port and no native Linux port, such as the recently released Ball Pit: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2062430/BALL_x_PIT/
How is it to justify that a platform with an even smaller install base gets the native port? Two ports, actually, because ARM and Intel are both natively supported. Why aren’t Mac users expected to use Whisky to play Windows games but Linux users are expected to rely on Proton’s battery munching API translation? Apple is even worse in breaking compatibility, so game developer cannot even expect their Mac games to still run in five years.
The problem isn’t “the playerbase with a ~3% market share” because 3% is still millions upon millions users in absolute numbers given the massive PC install base. According to https://www.theverge.com/pc-gaming/618709/steam-deck-3-year-anniversary-handheld-gaming-shipments-idc there were 6 million Steam Decks sold last February and Linux is still rising in Steam’s Hardware Survey. According to a bit of googling, Steam hat 1.5% Linux users that month, a third of that using SteamOS.
I’m too lazy right now to extrapolate even a rough ballpark of the overall Linux user base on Steam but even if we assume that a big number of Steam Deck buyers doesn’t use their device, I don’t think a user base north of 10 million is too far fetched.
So the problem isn’t the 3% number, it’s the developer’s / publisher’s attitude to expect that Proton just works without any QA and that Mac users are somehow valuable while the Linux peasants are not.
Inventing and implementing non-standard protocol messages to initiate the display is 100% on purpose. It would be easier to just source an off the shelf board and merely design casing around it.