UPDATE: Despite saying they were using SteamOS on the homepage, they've since clarified that it's actually "an optimized version based on HoloISO". HoloISO seems to be a community compiled version of SteamOS. It's very similar but it's not officially SteamOS.

Now the handheld market gets really good.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] cevn@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is huge. I wonder if they saw poor sales for their previous windows devices and were like.. well what if we put linux on it? I am tempted to preorder..

[–] brawleryukon@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

Judging from their history of rapid releases, I'd say this is more a matter of just throwing it out there to see if it sticks because "why not?"

Worst case, it fails, they're out a little bit of capital, but can just as easily swap it over to Windows and keep selling it that way. Best case, they've opened the market up that little bit more for themselves.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Ayaneo (and GPD) have been doing pretty well for the past few years. Well before Valve dipped their toe into the PC handheld market.

It is mostly that Valve have demonstrated the viability of linux for gaming (in large part to preserve their de facto monopoly on PC gaming as MS find ways to convince people to put up with GFWL...). Which means Ayaneo (and GPD) potentially have a way to not have to factor in windows licenses with all of their SKUs.

[–] Molecular0079@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Games for Windows Live hasn't been a thing in years. You talking about Xbox Game Pass?

I think of Valve's Linux efforts as more opening up the PC market than anything else. A ton of their efforts end up being upstreamed, which gives other vendors a chance to develop their own OSes based on Linux and have it actually be viable. More Linux and less Windows is a plus in my book.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Say it with me everyone: Companies aren't your friends.

I think Valve's work on proton and the like have gone a long way toward making linux viable for "normal" users. But they are very much doing this because they don't want to give up their giant slice of the pie to MS.

[–] Molecular0079@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah they aren't your friends, but they can be the enemy of your enemy, and that's exactly what's happening now. Plus you have to look at the end results of their actions. Yes Valve's Linux efforts may be self-serving, but it also benefits the community as a whole. You can't say the same about Microsoft. That's a big difference IMHO.

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.de 0 points 10 months ago

That's true. Valve isn't a "good" companie. But honestly, just because a corporation made it, and open sourced it, it isn't bad. Also you still have to honor them for doing what they did. It doesn't matter why they did it, but more what they did.

[–] cevn@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

That makes more sense actually. Well, either way it is good news for Linux, hopefully.