- cross-posted to:
- linux@programming.dev
Even gamers nexus’ Steve today said that they’re about to start doing Linux games performance testing soon. It’s happening, y’all, the year of the Linux desktop is upon us. ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ
Edit: just wanted to clarify that Steve from GN didn’t precisely say they’re starting to test soon, he said they will start WHEN the steam OS releases and is adopted. Sorry about that.
- circuitfarmer ( @circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ) 141•14 days ago
To anyone reading this thinking “once SteamOS comes out, I’ll switch”, you should know:
Gaming on Linux is already here. Pick a distro and game. You can take advantage of Proton right now. You don’t need to wait for one specific distro.
I’ve personally been gaming on Linux exclusively for about 3 years. Windows games, not Linux games.
Edit: based on other commenters’ suggestions, I’ll give you some.
I have gamed for those three years on PopOS. It is a distro based on Debian, ultimately, which means it’s also related to Ubuntu and Mint. Realistically, you can pick any of those 4 and you should have a nice experience.
Arch is popular with the übergeeks, and I do use it on my laptop, BTW, but you shouldn’t use it as a first distro.
The concept of “distro” doesn’t really exist for Windows, because you pretty much get one monolithic product. But basically, it is a specific mix of software that works together and relies on the Linux kernel. Imagine it as a “version” of Windows with specific goals, some of which are overlapping (e.g. Mint and Ubuntu tend to cater to the same audience).
If you get far enough into it, the freedom that Linux allows means that you can turn any distro into any other distro.
- Communist ( @communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz ) English83•14 days ago
“Pick a distro” is why they’re waiting for steamos, presumably.
- neon_nova ( @neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English25•14 days ago
I think that is perfectly valid and I’ll happily recommend steamos to newcomers. I’m only a little worried about it being locked to flatpaks by default though. Hopefully that will change, but for most users it will be a good start.
- Communist ( @communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz ) English20•14 days ago
locked to flatpaks by default makes sense long-term, I think.
Might be a little difficult in the beginning though.
- S_H_K ( @S_H_K@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 4•14 days ago
Locked to flatpaks? aren’t they worried about the disk space?
- bamboo ( @bamboo@lemm.ee ) 5•13 days ago
The marginal extra disk spaces used by flatpak really isn’t a concern for most users, much less valve. If you do everything in flatpak and your apps only use current runtime versions, the additional space used by flatpak is in the megabytes, since libraries like libc are going to be on your host no matter what.
- entropicdrift ( @entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org ) 3•13 days ago
One flatpak uses a lot of extra disk space, but for each additional flatpak you add to a system the disk space difference is much smaller because they share dependencies. When it’s system-wide for all user-installed packages, the difference is quite small.
- S_H_K ( @S_H_K@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 2•13 days ago
I was under the impression the didn’t shared dependencies thus eating space.
- entropicdrift ( @entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org ) 4•13 days ago
They don’t share dependencies with the base system, but they do share dependencies with each other, so long as those dependencies are at the same version, which most of them are because flatpaks generally stay quite up to date.
- circuitfarmer ( @circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ) 2•14 days ago
I wouldn’t say SteamOS for new folks, tbh. Flatpaks are very different from the typical Linux flow.
- Communist ( @communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz ) English6•13 days ago
The typical linux flow is not important to learn for most and flatpak is easier for the vast majority of people to understand and deal with
furthermore flatpak is rapidly becoming the typical linux flow
- circuitfarmer ( @circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ) 7•14 days ago
This is fair. I should have given my own suggestions.
Mint is probably the choice at the moment for new folks. Also, this will be controversial, but feel free with Ubuntu. It will get you started, and that’s great.
Edit: I added some (open-ended) suggestions to my original comment.
- Communist ( @communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz ) English1•13 days ago
I actually think mint is a terrible choice for beginners because it’s not kde, which is by far the best for windows people, and it isn’t immutable, which is a gamechanger for not having to maintain your system
- circuitfarmer ( @circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ) 3•13 days ago
I see the point about KDE, though I don’t think the learning curve on Cinnamon is hefty. I also think that KDE being so configurable can seem overwhelming to new folks.
- Communist ( @communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz ) English2•13 days ago
As someone who gives kde to new folks all the time, most of them never configure anything and this isn’t a real problem any of them face. I mostly give this to the elderly and tech illiterate.
- vort3 ( @vort3@lemmy.ml ) 28•14 days ago
It’s actually surprising how easy it is to use.
My wife was playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on her windows laptop (GOG version, DRM free) and I just wanted to see if I can run it on my Linux laptop.
Just copied the game folder from her laptop to my external SSD, plugged it into my laptop, ran through proton. Everything works without any issues. Simple as that.
I was pleasantly surprised. We could even join via LAN and had some co-op fun. After trying it out I think I’m buying the game.
- circuitfarmer ( @circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ) 6•14 days ago
Exactly this. Many people have a lot of apprehension until they actually try it.
- Fonzie! ( @lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network ) 1•13 days ago
ran through proton
See, this is after where most gaming folks hop off.
In all fairness, if you just run Lutris (pre-installed on Bazzite), log into GOG from there and install and run the game through their wizard, it also “just works”.
That might be easier for most.- Communist ( @communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz ) English1•13 days ago
What you just said is so much more difficult than running games through proton isn’t it??
- Fonzie! ( @lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network ) 1•13 days ago
For me, yes. But this is all using hands-holding Windows-like UIs, please realise that the recent-ish influx of Linux gamers understand this much, much better than terminals.
Although, I’m not sure how to install Proton as a CLI package on Mint, for instance.
apt
doesn’t list it, but Steam and Lutris do install it internally…- Communist ( @communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz ) English1•12 days ago
You just go to steam settings > compat > enable for all games and then it just works for all games on steam
- Fonzie! ( @lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network ) 1•11 days ago
I’m not sure if you’re reading my messages but I’m saying I’m not sure how to do Proton outside of Lutris and Steam. And that CLI outside of a launcher sounds more convenient, but gave Lutris instructions for someone running a game not from Steam.
- Communist ( @communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz ) English1•11 days ago
okay, that is different, sorry.
for that
step 1. install wine-tkg
step 2. right click a .exe > properties, set wine-tkg as the default
left click on .exe’s to open
done
- vort3 ( @vort3@lemmy.ml ) 1•13 days ago
Probably true, it depends. There are Steam folks and then there are GOG folks.
I prefer GOG tbh because it’s DRM free, but for some games I still need Steam, unfortunately.
- kittenzrulz123 ( @kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 15•14 days ago
Tbh the vast majority of people who say “ill switch to (insert Linux distro here) when (insert accomplishment here)” will most likley never switch
- circuitfarmer ( @circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ) 6•14 days ago
Fair enough. I tend to agree, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, because, you know, FOSS and freedom.
- megopie ( @megopie@beehaw.org ) 8•14 days ago
For all the not super technically inclined people out there, I would recommend Linux mint with cinnamon, you’ll feel right at home and won’t face any real issues so long as you don’t want to play LoL, a few other big multiplayer games have anti cheat systems that don’t like Linux.
- kapitol ( @kapitol@lemmy.ca ) 3•13 days ago
Some game developers (AGS) won’t turn on EAC for their games (Lost Ark).
I’m hoping that steamos will make Linux much more popular so that devs take notice. Whilst wine/proton are amazing anticheat still exists. If enough people move to steamos they will have to make sure they’re not excluded
- Dudewitbow ( @Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip ) 56•14 days ago
the biggest wall imo is still getting companies with anticheat games on board.
- toastal ( @toastal@lemmy.ml ) 16•14 days ago
Or getting players & friends to stop playing those types of games when there are so many compatible games to choose from.
- cmnybo ( @cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ) English13•14 days ago
That will be more likely as more people start using SteamOS.
If SteamOS can get enough users, then not supporting it will start to hurt the game developers profits. - P03 Locke ( @p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English11•14 days ago
It will be the opposite. Even Microsoft hates kernel-level anti-cheat.
- lorty ( @lorty@lemmy.ml ) 7•13 days ago
Let’s be honest here, they only care because when someone inevitably fucks up, people will think the fault is with windows.
- smeg ( @smeg@feddit.uk ) English1•10 days ago
It kind of is Windows’ fault for letting them fuck about in kernel space though, right?
- MonkeMischief ( @MonkeMischief@lemmy.today ) 1•13 days ago
“Cant have those TenCent CCP botnets sniffing the same customers WE’RE sniffing! Get outta here!”
–M$, prolly lol
- WbrJr ( @WbrJr@lemmy.ml ) 1•14 days ago
I wonder why they dont like people fucking around with the kernel
- P03 Locke ( @p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English4•13 days ago
I’m sure it starts with C and ends with “Strike”.
- WbrJr ( @WbrJr@lemmy.ml ) 2•12 days ago
Oohh, counter strike.
- P03 Locke ( @p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English1•12 days ago
Uhhhh, sure, I guess.
- ADTJ ( @ADTJ@feddit.uk ) 9•14 days ago
It does often feel like as soon as a significant hurdle is overcome, the industry just makes another one.
Hopefully SteamOS/Steam on Linux gets enough traction to force publishers to reconsider.
- Nalivai ( @Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de ) 6•14 days ago
And with every step it’s getting better. 10 years ago almost no games were natively supported and you needed to fuck around a lot to start anything with wine and most didn’t work anyway. Nowadays everything just works, and the only category of games that doesn’t is that slop with kernel level anticheat.
The improvement was monumental.
- lorty ( @lorty@lemmy.ml ) 3•14 days ago
It’s true that a big slice of gamers play games with anti-cheat solutions that don’t work on linux. That said most of those aren’t even on steam, which is the biggest pc game marketplace, so I’m not sure it’s that big of a dealbreaker for that many people.
- Dudewitbow ( @Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip ) 2•14 days ago
you don’t have to onsider off platform titles on its own. just take proton DBs list and sort by playercount and youll have your handful of misses on some of the top currently played titles. that already filters the non steam games already, and it still has its small handful of titles not on board yet.
They’ll come around when the userbase increases. We live in a capitalist world, and these fuckers will always follow the money. They have zero principles, they just want the money.
- Fonzie! ( @lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network ) 0•13 days ago
The reason why I can’t try Marvel Rivals with friends.
Fuck kernel-level software from commercial companies, though!
- Technus ( @Technus@lemmy.zip ) 43•14 days ago
A Linux distro with a great OOTB experience for gamers would go a long way.
- Steam pre-installed
- trustworthy Flatpak packages for popular gamer apps like Discord (not uploaded by some nameless rando)
- TeamSpeak for curmudgeons like me and my friends
- desktop environment tailored to Windows users
- auto-install and configure graphics drivers for AMD and Nvidia
- configurable automatic updates and system backup
- choice between Chromium, Firefox, etc. for default browser during setup
- included in Steam Deck compatibility testing
- prole ( @prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 6•14 days ago
Bazzite
- BmeBenji ( @BmeBenji@lemm.ee ) 3•14 days ago
Don’t forget real, well-tested HDR and VR support on all GPUs out of the box.
- xavier666 ( @xavier666@lemm.ee ) English2•13 days ago
We are slightly behind on the HDR issue. I hope to see it resolved by end of 2025.
- somedev ( @somedev@aussie.zone ) 2•14 days ago
I’ve been using Nobara and its been awesome. I wanted a fairly standard desktop with a gaming focus and it fit the bill. It even managed to automatically get the power saving sorted for my laptop which has a nvidia GPU. Great distro.
- megopie ( @megopie@beehaw.org ) 2•14 days ago
As I understand it, there have been issues with distributing Nvidia drivers in a Linux distro. Some do do it, but it’s kind of a legal grey area due to potential conflicts with the license of the Linux kernel.
I don’t really understand it fully, but it’s been an issue for a while. Apparently it’s less of an issue now because Nvidia partially open sourced its drivers. AMD’s GPU drivers apparently don’t have these issues.
Wonder what the situation with intel’s new GPUs and its drivers is.
- Nalivai ( @Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de ) 6•14 days ago
Nvidia is working on opensousing and openlicensing their drivers, it’s going to be good, but nobody knows when
- Fonzie! ( @lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network ) 2•13 days ago
You’re just shy from describing Bazzite
It’s got:
- Steam pre-installed
- trustworthy (?) Flatpak packages for just about everything, even encourages it
- desktop environment tailored to Windows users (KDE, really)
- auto-install and configure graphics drivers for AMD (Mesa) and Nvidia
configurableautomatic updates and system backup (although I think you still have to click the notification for flatpak updates)- choice between anything for default anything during setup
- included in Steam Deck compatibility testing (actually in not sure but they do offer Steam Deck builds)
- thatsnothowyoudoit ( @thatsnothowyoudoit@lemmy.ca ) 1•14 days ago
I was so impressed with Garuda that I adopted it for my primary workstation OS even though I’m using the “gaming edition”.
- kittenzrulz123 ( @kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 35•14 days ago
When SteamOS releases on all devices people will say “I’ll switch when every peice of Windows software is compatible” or some other unreasonable and impossible accomplishment. Even if every peice of Windows software was compatible people would say “ill switch to Linux when it looks and functions identically to Windows”.
- souperk ( @souperk@reddthat.com ) 9•14 days ago
It helps to think about this as a spectrum, as more features become available more people will make the switch to Linux. Not everyone will be able to swich to Linux at the same time, and some people will never switch.
Gaming was major bottleneck, even I, a person using Linux full time for the past 20 years, I used to maintain a Windows disk to play games. Only in the past couple of years I was able to sunset my windows setup, hopefully to never touch windows ever again. I had to drop a couple of games but it got to the point where rebooting to a OS wasn’t worth it, as most of my games worked flawlessly without any tweaking.
There are many major pros to the Linux desktop environment, but we still need major software applications to become portable. The workflow of an average office worker is still not Linux compatible. Of course there are office alternatives, but they are not as easy to use. Though, IMO the oss world is hurting by trying to copy ms when their products are so horrible… Hopefully, the EU will drop some major cash at the issue with all these talks about digital sovereignty.
- Petter1 ( @Petter1@lemm.ee ) 7•14 days ago
These guys should not wait for Linux but support reactOS, lol
- kittenzrulz123 ( @kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 4•14 days ago
Absolutely this, Linux is not a Windows replacement but ReactOS is (granted its not ready yet)
- Eyck_of_denesle ( @Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip ) 6•14 days ago
Yep. I recently started using bluesky and it’s filled with linux hate posts farming likes. People just complaining about random things that don’t even make sense.
I believe fomo is a real thing. Even if one doesnt play fortnite or valorant or kernel level shit, they still are afraid of missing out. So unless and until Microsoft goes bankrupt, I doubt Linux will replace it.
- MonkeMischief ( @MonkeMischief@lemmy.today ) 2•13 days ago
Man that’s sad, because I was considering it just because it had a stronger “Network Effect” than Mastodon.
That FOMO is pretty real though. These multiplayer service games are a flash in the pan sometimes, where once their heyday is over, they become “Hey remember that old game?” and there might be some reverse-engineered private servers running from like, Lithuania, with 4 people online after that lol.
I feel this pretty hard with Helldivers 2. I had a BLAST with the first game! Loved it! And apparently this one is good too!
But Sony is determined to be Sony, and it’s got kernel-level requirements, so nope, I’m missing out. It does suck, because before all the drama I really looked forward to it. It genuinely looks fun. I see my friends playing it. Oh well.
Watching Arcane made me almost wanna fire up League of Legends again, but once they announced their anti-cheat, I quit forever. (Probably for the best, let’s be honest lol.)
So yeah with an OS, I think people feel like some killer app will come out and if they’re not running a system it was tailor-made for, they’ll miss out on it entirely.
- Eyck_of_denesle ( @Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip ) 2•13 days ago
Yep. I thought it was filled with left but it’s mostly liberals. They get very easily offended when any of their capitalist hobbies or tools are endangered in a conversation.
About the arcane part agree. For me its esports. Watching it makes me want to play but I know none of the things I enjoy watching will be in ranked lol(teamwork). Linux not supporting kernel level anti shit is a feature for me lol. I would jump right back to my valo addiction otherwise.
- Eyck_of_denesle ( @Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip ) 29•14 days ago
I saw a post on bluesky saying Steamdeck can’t be widely adopted because of linux. I asked why is that the case? He says "Linux doesn’t run as many games as windows ". I said “only a few and the anti cheat ones”. He kept arguing. I asked him about nintendo and he goes “It has the games to back it up” and I blocked him lol.
Millions of games are not enough because its FOMO.
- مهما طال الليل ( @PanArab@lemm.ee ) 3•14 days ago
I have both. As a pure console I still prefer the Switch, and there is a huge overlap in the games. But the Deck is much more than just a gaming handheld, it is now my only PC as well.
- Eyck_of_denesle ( @Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip ) 6•13 days ago
I understand why there are so many Nintendo gamers. I’m just pointing out the hypocrisy of people. Whenever it comes to linux, they demand everything be perfect. They never show the same attitude towards others. Captialism shills.
- مهما طال الليل ( @PanArab@lemm.ee ) 5•13 days ago
Nintendo has fans and is an established brand. But I think what most people dislike is the uncertainty. With the Switch you can know for certain all games you buy will work, but with the Steam Deck it’s not guaranteed though it will scan your library and give you a rating. Though in my case I had many “unsupported” games actually work flawlessly.
- ZeroHora ( @ZeroHora@lemmy.ml ) English4•13 days ago
I think is more of like the fear of the unknown than the uncertainty, for example is uncertain if a new switch game will run well(looking at you pokémon)
- somenonewho ( @somenonewho@feddit.org ) 27•14 days ago
I’ve been using Linux exclusively for ~14 years now. Heavily gaming on Linux only for the last ~8 years.
It was possible (though sometimes headache inducing) to play most games back then (Wine and soon Proton to thank) the biggest change IMHO came with SteamPlay since it turned the headache into one click on most games (thanks to the amazing work of wine/proton developers and the tinkering of the community).
When the SteamDeck released people seemed surprised at the breadth of games that were running on day one. To me it was not really a surprise since I had been Linux gaming with SteamPlay all the time and was almost expecting games to “just work” (though I still would and still am checking ProtonDB before purchase).
What the SteamDeck changed in my view was
- Showing “everyone” that Linux Gaming is a thing that’s happening and been happening for a while. So maybe check it out?
- That a Handheld that doesn’t have to work around Windows but uses a purpose built OS just makes a lot more sense
I feel that the SteamDeck with SteamOS has really put Linux, especially Linux gaming on the map. Even though I want to be like “Linux Gaming has been a thing forever, I was doing it before it was cool” ;) I have to recognize that fact. In the past years I’ve seen so many people setting up Linux especially by the way of SteamOS (using HoloISO, Chimera …) just to play/mess with it which is also why I think an Official SteamOS release will make a huge difference.
Tl;dr: Gaming on Linux was a thing before. But the SteamDeck/SteamOS 3 made a huge impact nonetheless.
- odelik ( @odelik@lemmy.today ) 3•14 days ago
I haven’t run across a game that hasn’t run on The Deck yet. I know it’s capable of running quite a lot, but I got it to play indie games. It’s been great and does what I want it to do phenomenally. Additionallh if I ever wanted to do something more demanding on it, I could.
- korazail ( @korazail@lemmy.myserv.one ) English22•13 days ago
I jumped into Linux, via Mint, about a year ago when I refreshed my hardware. The transition was pretty easy, and I haven’t looked back. Steam runs fine and I haven’t had a modern game that didn’t work under default proton settings except for things I’ve run outside Steam and mods. Most of my personal PC’s workload is gaming and handful of web-based apps that are effectively OS-agnostic; Everything else has an easy equivalent in the apt repos.
I would say that my decision to embrace Linux as my OS was primarily influenced by my Steam Deck. Gaming on it has been simple and the desktop UI was easy to adapt to. I replaced my laptop with the Steam Deck, bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a USB-C dock with HDMI out (all things I already had for the laptop). I now just hook into whatever TV is handy as a monitor when I need a computer on the go.
I was a tech enthusiast when I was younger, and am thus familiar with fucking around on the command line, but now I’m an old man who just wants his stuff to work and it just has… The barrier of entry for the Linux Desktop is effectively gone. We just need PR now.
Also, I think I’d replace Mint on my primary PC with SteamOS, given a simple way to do so. About a year ago, the desktop/beta SteamOS was not fully baked.
- Norah (pup/it/she) ( @princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English3•13 days ago
You should give Bazzite a go on your desktop, it’s very similar to SteamOS and the desktop experience has been great for me. I didn’t have a Steam Deck and transitioned to it, and the smoothness convinced me to get a Lenovo Legion Go and install Bazzite straight OOTB.
- utopiah ( @utopiah@lemmy.ml ) 18•13 days ago
The only bastion left is anticheat. Everything else are just (bad) old habits fueled by marketing.
- dan ( @dan@upvote.au ) 7•12 days ago
Anti-cheat systems already have to make changes, since Microsoft have plans to significantly restrict kernel mode access after the major Crowdstrike issues earlier in the year. Kernel mode code is very invasive, difficult to get correct, and can result in major security holes or stability issues if not written correctly.
A bug in userland code may crash that one app. A bug in kernel mode code can (and often does) cause bluescreens, that people blame Microsoft for. I’m sure they’re tired of being blamed for buggy code written by other companies.
Running the anti cheat code in userland will (in theory) make it easier to run on other OSes too.
- utopiah ( @utopiah@lemmy.ml ) 1•11 days ago
Yes indeed, I’ve followed that from afar (as I generally mostly play offline, definitely not competitively) so I hope this will be the final missing piece.
- dan ( @dan@upvote.au ) 1•11 days ago
I also only play games offline, and these days it’s usually on my Xbox rather than on PC, but I’ve been following this since I’m a software engineer and it’s interesting from a development perspective. Kernel-mode anti-cheat has a lot of similarities with malware/rootkits.
- λλλ ( @lambda@programming.dev ) 1•12 days ago
Well put.
- Amju Wolf ( @amju_wolf@pawb.social ) English7•12 days ago
…and VR. VR is already finicky on its own, gaming on Linux can be finicky in different ways, and the issues multiply if you have two things like that.
- utopiah ( @utopiah@lemmy.ml ) 3•12 days ago
I work in VR, I play in VR, including Windows games, all on Linux. No specific problem for me on that front.
- Tovervlag ( @Tovervlag@feddit.nl ) 3•12 days ago
How do you work ‘in’ vr?
- utopiah ( @utopiah@lemmy.ml ) 3•11 days ago
Apologies I wasn’t clear. I actually I work “on” VR, namely I’m a software developer who write VR/AR code.
Still though… I also do work “in” VR as I have numerous demo where I’m coding in the headset. Most recently you can check this 1min video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGvc4kNXiUY that I did for https://futuretextlab.info/ and it’s all open source, cf https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/text-code-xr-engine/src/branch/fot-sloan-companion . To clarify a bit I drag&drop file on my (Linux) filesystem and they are reflected in AR in that example. I can open them, manipulate them, if it’s code (here JavaScript and AFrame) it can live reload part of the scene, etc.
I’m also working “in” VR for the NLNet sponsored project xrsh aka XRshell https://nlnet.nl/project/xrsh/ where thanks to WASM we basically put a (small) Linux system with its terminal on a Web page and thus can code and work in the headset.
- granolabar ( @granolabar@kbin.melroy.org ) 1•12 days ago
Can you provide some context… VR has many devices? Can you make meta shit work?
- utopiah ( @utopiah@lemmy.ml ) 2•11 days ago
I’m basically just using Steam with SteamVR on the Index, no tinkering in there.
I also tried other things, e.g. Monado, streaming to headset, etc but in practice I prefer to “just” play when I’m playing and for that the Index works great.
- Kongar ( @Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English16•14 days ago
I don’t understand this tbh. It’s here already. SteamOS will likely be just like the deck - immutable arch running the existing steam package.
You can totally do this today and it works great. Don’t want to mess with arch and that confusing command line? Use something easier like mint and install the flatpak - then you don’t even have to futz with nvidia drivers. Or use bazzite?
What does steamOS offer that we don’t already have? (Serious question)
- Mactan ( @mactan@lemmy.ml ) 12•14 days ago
these people need permission from a massive corporation calling it something other than Linux so they can dodge the cognitive dissonance of hating Linux
- TimeSquirrel ( @TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org ) 5•14 days ago
Or rather, there’s someone who isn’t going away anytime soon and someone who you can go to if their shit screws up, someone with an actual address and support number, and it’s not just a Github issue tracker page that hasn’t been seen by the owner in months.
Some people want that peace of mind. Some people aren’t built to scour the internet for hours to maybe find solutions to their problems.
- Mactan ( @mactan@lemmy.ml ) 7•14 days ago
…do people really do that with Microsoft, or do they just throw the errant device in a closet and get a new one at best buy?
- apotheotic (she/her) ( @apotheotic@beehaw.org ) English2•14 days ago
They do, yes. /srs
You’re thinking of Mac users. /j
- muelltonne ( @muelltonne@feddit.org ) Deutsch5•14 days ago
A few things:
- It gives manufacturers a blueprint for their devices. You will see a lot of handhelds running SteamOS from different manufacturers. You will also see a lot of small “gaming boxes” with SteamOS to plug in your TV. That’s great!
- Game Developers will have one distribution to test their games on. One of the bigger problems linux had before SteamOS was the big clusterfuck of different distros. Great for users, but a big headache if you’re developing for it. Now you can say “it runs on SteamOS”, test on SteamOS and you don’t have to deal with bug reports from people running RedStarOS
- It’s Valve. It’s a company. They are the biggest store selling games and they are building their moat to protect themselves against Microsoft, Apple, Epic & Co. That not exactly great for users, but also explains why Valve is doing this linux push. To prevent Microsoft from abusing their Windows monopoly to crush them
- InFerNo ( @InFerNo@lemmy.ml ) 1•13 days ago
I don’t agree with number 2. Ubuntu had always been the ““default”” when Linux was the target. They must be scrambling at Canonical right now.
- john89 ( @john89@lemmy.ca ) 16•13 days ago
I’ve been saying for years: we need a dedicated gaming operating system.
- IrritableOcelot ( @IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org ) 6•13 days ago
Do you mean a dedicated gaming flavor of Linux? Because otherwise, isn’t that just a console?
- witx ( @witx@lemmy.sdf.org ) 6•12 days ago
No we don’t. Who needs that? That’s what consoles are for. Every time I want to play on my computer I would need to dual boot and change to the OS? That’s nonsense
Game Devs and device driver Devs need to get their shit together and fix things.
- secret300 ( @secret300@lemmy.sdf.org ) 2•12 days ago
Personally I’d love a dedicated console experience that’s Linux.
- witx ( @witx@lemmy.sdf.org ) 1•12 days ago
Console? Absolutely, but not PC. You’d remove all the versatility of owning a pc
- Cyv_ ( @Cyv_@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 15•14 days ago
Plz gaben I want steamOS official so bad ;-;
- smeg ( @smeg@feddit.uk ) English2•14 days ago
Don’t hold your breath, the plan is (or was) to initially just release it for other handhelds rather than an iso you can install anywhere
- Noved ( @Noved@lemmy.ca ) 12•13 days ago
New to the Linux community here; why is a valve owned Linux OS better than any other massive company OS. Like if Microsoft released their own Linux OS, would it be good suddenly?
At the end of the day, we don’t want our OS’s big company owned right?
- john89 ( @john89@lemmy.ca ) 13•13 days ago
SteamOS is better than, for example, macOS and Windows because of licenses.
Since you’re new (welcome!), I should let you in on a little secret: pretty much the entire free software movement is built around licensing. I know, it’s boring and seems insignificant. But the outcomes are profound.
Because SteamOS is built to function within the free software ecosystem, it means users are never beholden to the decisions of one centralized entity (usually the company that owns the software patents.)
If Valve ever decides to, say, include candy crush ads in SteamOS’ start menu (they’d have to make their own start menu, since right now SteamOS uses one that’s already made by the free software community), then users can choose to remove that part of the menu or replace the menu altogether without having to start from scratch.
For wealthy people who can always pay the “proprietary tax,” this might seem like a non-issue. Practically speaking, these people only want their software to work without hassle. They don’t care about the true cost of that software, such as only one entity being able to modify/distribute the software. It’s not until, say, photoshop starts charging a subscription (which they can always increase the price of) that people start to see the value in free software and the importance of licensing.
Because valve is a private company. They don’t have to answer to shareholders. That means, they don’t go through enshitifaction, they care about their product and their customers. Are they perfect? Absolutely not, are they good? Better than every single company out there that tries to be like them. Period.
- john89 ( @john89@lemmy.ca ) 6•13 days ago
I’m glad people bring this up.
Private companies are not intrinsically better than public ones, but at least they have the capacity to be.
Valve is one of the very few examples of a company that sees the value in working with customers, not against them. This would be impossible if Valve were publicly-traded.
Exactly. They’re (as far as I know) the only company that emailed me to tell me that I can take to court directly without an arbitration. Not that I’ll ever be able to afford it, but seeing how confident and pro-consumer (I fucking hate the word consumer lol) they are is amazing.
- IrritableOcelot ( @IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org ) 2•13 days ago
To be fair, that was in their own financial best interest. Since arbitrations are charged a fee per customer someone figured out that you can do an effective “class action” against valve by having many people submit the same arbitration claim against valve and costing them so much through the arbitration fees that it it was almost impossible for them to cone out on top regardless of the outcome of the arbitration (iirc).
They changed to allowing lawsuits because they can request those to be merged, and therefore its cost-effective for them to fight them.
- Amju Wolf ( @amju_wolf@pawb.social ) English3•12 days ago
Since arbitrations are charged a fee per customer someone figured out that you can do an effective “class action” against valve by having many people submit the same arbitration claim against valve and costing them so much through the arbitration fees that it it was almost impossible for them to cone out on top regardless of the outcome of the arbitration (iirc).
It’s not even that they’d have to pay for it; usually the filing party has to pay. Valve tried to be the good guys and while they did push for arbitration they said that they’d pay your arbitration fee for you, basically allowing you to file a legal complaint against them at their expense.
And then some fucking legal company figured out it’s a neat loophole on how to bleed them through arbitration where the point isn’t really the result but the costly process. Guess that’ll teach Valve to try to be better than others. :|
- Strawberry ( @Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 9•13 days ago
Microsoft is deeply entrenched and has undergone decades of enshittification. SteamOS is at only the beginning of this cycle. And since SteamOS is linux-based, it’s likely to have ramifications for the whole GNU/Linux ecosystem. Furthermore, if there are two vastly different OSes that developers and graphics card manufacturers need to seriously target, they’re more likely to write more platform-agnostic software that everyone can benefit from.
- Zetta ( @Zetta@mander.xyz ) 7•7 days ago
Valve dosnt really “own” SteamOS. They maintain and update SteamOS, but SteamOS is free and open source
Plus just about everbody who knows anything about valve would tell you they are probably the most consumer friendly billion dollar company ever, and have been for decades. So yes even if they owned it like microsoft owns windows it would still be better
- Tankton ( @Tankton@lemm.ee ) English5•13 days ago
The source is always free so you could fork it if you disagree with them. Also it means broader support for Linux gaming
- renegadespork ( @renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net ) English4•13 days ago
It’s way easier to move from one Linux distro to another if Valve starts enshittifying SteamOS (which would really suck) than it is to move from Windows to Linux. Either way this is a good stepping stone that’s well supported.
- doggle ( @doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 2•13 days ago
Like if Microsoft released their own Linux OS, would it be good suddenly?
It’s worth noting that steamOS, like any Linux distro has its issues and a bit of a learning curve. Especially if you want to go off the beaten track, it’s pretty much just using a stock arch distro.
As for if MS switched to Linux, no it wouldn’t be good because the issues with Win11 overwhelmingly aren’t a matter of incompetence or anything inherent to the code, but of conscious anti-consumer business decisions. There’s nothing about Linux that would actively stop MS from cramming telemetry, bloat, etc. In their distro.
- beaiouns ( @beaiouns@lemmy.sdf.org ) 1•13 days ago
If it’s like the steam deck version, it’ll be based on Arch with a bunch of steam-specific patches/configs to make games run more easily (with the added bonus of making non-steam games run pretty well too). Steam exists to sell games, and if they want to make it easier for me to play games, that’s fine by me.
Not sure what a Microsoft distro would look like, but if they make a distro that’ll run Xbox games with gamepass, I’d give it a shot.
Another nice bonus for either/both of those situations is that it wouldn’t be too hard to incorporate those changes into other distros. That way people who want more of an “install and go” experience would have their official distros, people who like to tinker could work on importing the official code into their unofficial setup, and people who use arch btw can install it from the AUR.
- InFerNo ( @InFerNo@lemmy.ml ) 1•13 days ago
Like IBM and Red Hat!
- IrritableOcelot ( @IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org ) 1•13 days ago
And you saw how that turned out for them…😂
- danhab99 ( @danhab99@programming.dev ) 10•14 days ago
PC gamers moving to console? What’s next the existing consoles adopting keyboard+mouse?..
There is no downside to this
- HeyLow 🏳️⚧️ ( @HeyLow@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 10•14 days ago
Consoles have accepted keyboard+mouse for years now! Microsoft started with the Xbox one and Sony started with the PS3; Though there were select games for generations prior that supported k+m through their own implentations
- bad_news ( @bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net ) 9•13 days ago
To paraphrase the gay chant from the 90’s: 4% is not enough RECRUIT RECRUIT RECRUIT!
- Zink ( @Zink@programming.dev ) 9•13 days ago
This is so great to see, and the timing is perfect.
My son already calls the PC Steam, as in “we played game A on Xbox and game B on Steam,” so maybe by the time he has a PC in his room Steam really will run the whole platform.
Hell yeah, brother.