this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Probably, though does that actually matter?
The SteamDeck is showing people that Linux can in fact game. And while we're always saying "ThE yEaR oF lInUx!" This is actually a huge step in the right direction.
Agreed. I have a deck and I'm now definitely gonna switch my main pc from Win10 to Linux. Steam deck desktop mode helped show me I could be comfortable using it, and the deck in general showed the gaming support is there nowadays.
I now see no reason to not put Linux on my desktop. Just deciding on which distros to check out. Probably mint. Maybe garuda...
I use Garuda and love it, but I also don’t think it’s the best for a first Linux distro, unless you’re good with needing to consistently use the command line for things, and you are interested in learning more about Linux and want a distro that requires you to occasionally get your hands dirty.
From what I’ve seen, Linux Mint is a great first distro. If you want something that’s more purposed to gaming, then Nobara is great. It’s made by GloriousEggroll, who makes Proton-GE. It’s not going to be as new-user friendly as Mint, but more so than Garuda.
Thanks for the tips.
I'm a dev by day, and no stranger to bash/zsh and powershell. That said I don't want to constantly be tinkering in the terminal just to use my OS.
Cheers for the pointer to Nobara, I'll look into that as an option too!
I'm thinking about doing this as well. My Steam Deck runs fine like 99% of the time, so I don't see why a gaming desktop with Linux wouldn't work.
Plus, I've always been looking for a reason to use Linux daily. I've messed around with SUSE and Ubuntu here and there and use it for some homelab stuff, but Linux has never been my daily driver. Which means I've never really learned it the same way I've learned how to use and navigate Windows, or even Mac (I forced myself to learn OSX/MacOS several years ago when I bought a Macbook as my daily driver for productivity). This could be it.
I'd also suggest Linux Mint if you are just starting out. In fact, it's still a great distro for advanced users as well. I use it as a fallback distro sometimes.
You could also check out Fedora or rather a gaming optimized fork of Fedora named - Nobara Linux.
It's showing people Linux is acceptable as a handheld os. Which the world already knew with Android. Linux as a desktop is another story. Steam deck has desktop mode but I highly doubt the percentage of those who use it as a desktop is high. I wonder how many bought the dock.
I think you're wrong. It's showing that Linux has the capability to actually run these games. Some/most people won't be able to equate the Linux on their handheld with Linux on a desktop, but those who do are welcome to the fold.
The Deck is basically a laptop in a handheld form factor, so no, it's not just showing that Linux can game as a handheld.
I don't think there is any doubt on if the games that are steam deck compatible are runnable by steam deck. That's the bare minimum for device support. I don't think a lot of people are using their decks as a desktop and this just see it as a handheld. Rarely I've heard of more people putting windows on their steam deck than people switching their desktop to Linux because of steam deck.
Well, we can agree to disagree.
I have 2 friends who decided to switch their daily driver PCs to Linux after getting a steamdeck, that's 2 out of 5. Not a single one of those 5 has put windows on their deck. shrugs
Your own friend group is the definition of selection bias, though - at the least, they know you and probably have similar interests/hobbies to some degree, and I daresay you've probably said something about Linux to them before.
And there's a whole, active subreddit for people who put windows on steam deck - apparently the initial problems people had with it have been getting ironed out more and more.
I don't know which is more common but I'd need to see actual data, either way.
I have a few friends who put windows on the deck as an experiment. They mainly wanted to play their game pass games on Steam deck which honestly seems to be a cool combination. My deck is still Linux though. I have one friend who has been using Linux for the last 15 years on and off, waiting for it to become a usable desktop OS for them. I'm kind of in the same boat, waiting for Linux to be far less finicky than it is. I'm also waiting for the Linux community to become far better than it is. Anytime you seem to point out a problem with Linux you get a lot of backlash. It's been slowly getting better over the last 10-15 years but not very quickly. A lot of old guards who see any problem report as an attack on their very moral being. Arguing "Well I'd rather use Linux than be a slave to Microsoft!" or such. It's like my god, people are just trying to use the thing to get to the thing they really want to do. The thing that gets in the way less is the thing that wins.
Overall, I see more people keeping Linux on their Steam Deck than switching it to Windows but also see far fewer people switching to Linux on their desktops than people switching their steam decks to Windows. Both are incredibly rare cases. All of this is to say that while I really like Linux, I support Linux when I make my games, I don't see the majority of people using Linux as a desktop replacement until they fix some key issues with the community and general OS.