TheBeagle
JunkiesNetwork Donor
- 9,564
- 33,668
Is the plan to be able to put Steam OS on my desktop and be able to remove every shred of MS from my computer?
- 1
Steam deck portable handheld gaming PC from Valve
- Thread starter spronk
- Start date
Hekotat
FoH nuclear response team
- 13,315
- 13,801
They do not recommend doing this, but they did say it's easy to load another OS in tandem with SteamOS. I don't know if this in a traditional sense of dual booting or something else. They really need to do a showcase on the OS at this point, it should have been done before the prices were revealed for the steam machine but I assume it's being held back for a big reveal with the Steam Frame and potentially a new HL VR title.
They shot themselves in the foot by not making it the literal first thing they announced/showed off.
- 2
TheBeagle
JunkiesNetwork Donor
- 9,564
- 33,668
Damn, I'd pay good money to be able to tell MS to fuck all the way off.
- 2
Hekotat
FoH nuclear response team
- 13,315
- 13,801
I agree, the other angle I would consider is it could potentially be such a modifiable OS that nerds will make it good enough to switch off of Windows. That sounds exactly like something Valve would think about doing. Put the tools in the hands of the community to build what needs to be built, save a ton of money on R&D costs and leverage that position.
At this point it's all speculation, they're definitely still holding something back. There is no other reason to not show it off, the magnitude of the impact of the product will determine if Valve still has it or has gone the way of every other bloated company on the planet.
- 1
Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
- 39,768
- 18,456
With proton, if you don't play competitive games (which is for fags), there's no reason to not switch to Linux and dump MS. It offers 0.
Araxen
Golden Baronet of the Realm
- 11,282
- 8,752
All you need to do is install CachyOS or Bazzite. There really isn't a need for SteamOS on the desktop. I was also one of the people waiting for SteamOS desktop, but I installed CachyOS and haven't looked back. I still have my Windows partition but rarely use it. I only used it this last weekend to give Forza Horizon a try via PC Game pass. There isn't a solution yet for playing game pass games on Linux though Heroic Launcher is working on that. Before that I haven't used Windows in a couple of months.
You'll be surprised at how well some games run on Linux vs Windows.
You'll be surprised at how well some games run on Linux vs Windows.
Last edited:
- 1
Vorph
Silver Baronet of the Realm
- 12,142
- 5,895
I like it when it works, but there's just too many 'quirks' with it. Like my PS5 -- the TV turns on the receiver which is supposed to turn on the currently selected input... except that it doesn't matter what input is currently selected, the PS5 just turns on anyway. And it's a crap shoot as to whether the actual selected input turns on too or if I have to do that manually. Sometimes when I have a device on but not being actively used on the TV, like if I want to download something on a console while watching something in Plex on my Shield TV, the inactive one will constantly tell the receiver to switch over to it.
I've got an LG OLED, Pioneer receiver (had an Onkyo before that and it didn't work any better, which isn't surprising I guess since it's the same company), Shield TV, and all the usual consoles. If it doesn't work well with the most popular brands, I decided it wasn't worth the headache to bother messing with it. I disabled it on all my devices and only left it so that the TV and receiver will turn each other on and off. Even then I still can't control the receiver volume with the TV remote.
- 1
Zindan
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 8,179
- 7,034
Now have Linus build 2 million of them for that price, or try to rebuild.next month.
Jovec
?
- 948
- 562
One really has to want the Valve/Steam features for the Steam Machine to make sense. Valves biggest fail is the 7600m GPU, which is 3.5 years old today, was sub-par when it launched, and will be even worse over the 3-5 year lifespan of the machine most buyers would expect. It needed a 9060 equivalent with its better upscaler, better RT cores, and 12-16GB VRAM.
If someone has an extra NVMe drive, somethink like the Framework Desktop base model will have a better CPU, better I/O, 5Gbps eth, 32 GB unified memory, and the better GPU, for around $300 more (sans-NVMe) and still a fairly compact FF. Install Linux/SteamOS and run Steam big picture mode. While +$300 is a large amount, in a couple years I think the extra horsepower will be well worth it.
I do think the concept is interesting. Minisforum-style mini-PCs will generally have better USB support (40/80 Gbps Type C), better networking, more NVME and/or Occulink for eGPU, and better CPUs, but the much weaker gaming due to the IGP (non-AI models anyway). For non-nerds/home-labs, the Steam Machine concept strips all that away and probably is a better choice for general purpsose computing around the house with decent (enough) gaming.
If someone has an extra NVMe drive, somethink like the Framework Desktop base model will have a better CPU, better I/O, 5Gbps eth, 32 GB unified memory, and the better GPU, for around $300 more (sans-NVMe) and still a fairly compact FF. Install Linux/SteamOS and run Steam big picture mode. While +$300 is a large amount, in a couple years I think the extra horsepower will be well worth it.
I do think the concept is interesting. Minisforum-style mini-PCs will generally have better USB support (40/80 Gbps Type C), better networking, more NVME and/or Occulink for eGPU, and better CPUs, but the much weaker gaming due to the IGP (non-AI models anyway). For non-nerds/home-labs, the Steam Machine concept strips all that away and probably is a better choice for general purpsose computing around the house with decent (enough) gaming.
Sludig
Potato del Grande
- 11,868
- 12,879
Fuck me controller reservation hit at work, very busy and by the time I got home, dealing with coons killing birds etc, I plum forgot. Day 4 of 3 day reserve.... contacted support on a long shot. (Didnt help under purchases only software, so had to submit under hardware ticket) Otherwise I guess I'll wait some more months, I didnt have a strong plan on what I'd use it for, mainly supporting steam and to just have it on hand.
ronne
Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
- 8,779
- 9,255
Lot of people hyping up SteamOS here to be something it's not.
You can use 100% of what SteamOS does right now just by installing Arch Linux and using the same Wayland compositor they use for the Big Picture mode or whatever it's called these days.
Under the hood it's like 95% just Arch Linux with a few custom packages installed and the root file system being immutable. The desktop mode for SteamOS just installs Plasma with a few stylistic changes to make it look Steam-ey.
The real selling point of SteamOS has always been Proton, which is freely and fully accessible on basically any Linux distro now. And it's definitely great - you can basically any game you want on Linux these days outside a few online-only outliers due to their anti-cheat garbage (league of legends, Apex, that kind of stuff). If you really wanted to bail on Microsoft it's entirely possible to do now (unless you wanna play League of Legends for some reason). I haven't run Windows since like....2021? I've yet to encounter a game on Steam that doesn't function 'out of the box'.
You can use 100% of what SteamOS does right now just by installing Arch Linux and using the same Wayland compositor they use for the Big Picture mode or whatever it's called these days.
Under the hood it's like 95% just Arch Linux with a few custom packages installed and the root file system being immutable. The desktop mode for SteamOS just installs Plasma with a few stylistic changes to make it look Steam-ey.
The real selling point of SteamOS has always been Proton, which is freely and fully accessible on basically any Linux distro now. And it's definitely great - you can basically any game you want on Linux these days outside a few online-only outliers due to their anti-cheat garbage (league of legends, Apex, that kind of stuff). If you really wanted to bail on Microsoft it's entirely possible to do now (unless you wanna play League of Legends for some reason). I haven't run Windows since like....2021? I've yet to encounter a game on Steam that doesn't function 'out of the box'.
- 1
Sludig
Potato del Grande
- 11,868
- 12,879
I think for at least casual PC people like me, is that its fairly painless dummy proof. Half of what you said is greek to me.
Fucker
Log Wizard
- 16,631
- 41,232
SteamOS will be far more hands-off and less prone to exploding for the average user. They want console levels of reliability, which you can't get by boiling your own Linux set up unless you know what to do. People want to play their pixels, not CLI's.
ronne
Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
- 8,779
- 9,255
You're not reading what I'm saying.
That exists right now. It's called Bazzite. You never see a single terminal from install > playing a Steam game.
SteamOS is not some revolution in Linux gaming. It's what is already available with a Valve skin on it.
- 1
Sludig
Potato del Grande
- 11,868
- 12,879
Most casual users wouldn't have even heard of something like that, think more the friendly available and pushed for people that just walk into the store to buy something. Someones boomer dad or zoomer kids that don't learn anything about anything.
Lenas
Trump's Staff
- 7,928
- 2,596
Doesn't really matter what exists out there for DIY. What matters is, what can normal people buy off the shelves at a Best Buy? The entire appeal of consoles is being able to just go buy the box and start playing. If you could do that with your entire Steam library at $800 it would have been completely disruptive.
- 2
Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
- 39,768
- 18,456
Unless something has drastically changed in the last 10 years,.installing and configuring arch is probably beyond a majority of PC users. It's my fav distro because of that stuff, but steamos 'just works'