this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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Steam Deck

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Recent patch notes sounded like they might be hinting at upcoming ROG Ally support, but it's now confirmed.

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[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 114 points 4 weeks ago

Great news! The more devices running SteamOS the better

[–] Smoolak@lemmy.world 79 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

This will make that device so much more usable.

[–] steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 weeks ago

As long as you don’t use the sd card slot

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 64 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

This is so exciting, very happy for Ally owners. Choice is a strength of PC ecosystem, and I'm confident SteamOS experience is going to win over many users. It's a great upgrade.

Edit-

"And it's not like Valve is suggesting it'll offer SteamOS for rival handhelds anytime soon, either"

Oh :( I thought this was further along than it is.. got excited.

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 62 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

It would make the Ally usable. Windows holds it back a ton because it’s a trash OS.

There’s still some hardware issues to contend with. Like the fact that it fries SD cards due to poor card slot placement… and the control stick bug…

Let’s just say my wife has one and we recently got her a Steam Deck instead. I had to replace one of the sticks on the Ally and still had problems. She also can’t use the SD card slot at all. It’s flawed hardware with potential (after a couple revisions).

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 13 points 4 weeks ago

It's had a revision which appears to have fixed that, and brought other improvements.

However it also came with a price bump, and Asus has been under fire recently for awful handling of warranties all across their business

[–] averyminya@beehaw.org 7 points 4 weeks ago

Potential that will never go anywhere. It's ASUS, they're on the 8th iteration of phone and still having problems, the Ally X is having problems too.

ASUS is just a problem company.

[–] ipha@lemm.ee 44 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Hell yes! More Linux more better!

[–] RadimentriX@troet.cafe 11 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

@ipha @Fubarberry u wonder when or if at all well get a desktop version thats as easy to install as installing steam os on the steam deck is

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 weeks ago

They keep saying it's coming, bazzite is pretty solid for now, but I'd really like to get an official valve iso.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 5 points 4 weeks ago

Insert ="More, More!"= meme here.

[–] xavier666@lemm.ee 44 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

If Asus wants some positive PR after a rough 2024, they should offer the Ally with SteamOS preinstalled.

[–] Retrograde@lemmy.world 20 points 4 weeks ago

It would be a win for Asus and Valve alike

[–] sirico@feddit.uk 38 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Distros like bazzite have really picked up but they'll always be niche projects in the eyes of game dev and publishers. Steam os at least can help them realise that Linux isn't an instant dismiss because they haven't used it before.

I have friends in AAA game dev and they all have the same kinda dated idea of Linux being this sweaty crazy programmer distro even though we all play games online together.

If valve can carry on increasing the market share it'll definitely help get rid of some stereotypes for Devs which in turn brings more market share.

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 28 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Selling games is their main revenue anyway. The console is an extra.

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 24 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The lower storage Deck models have been sold at a loss, with the plan of recovering that through game sales. So rival hardware running SteamOS could make valve more money than the deck does.

It's possible that the deck's are no longer sold at a loss, both due to components getting cheaper over time and higher sale numbers leading to lower cost per unit. But either way the money comes mostly from game sales, not hardware sales.

[–] xavier666@lemm.ee 9 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I have bought more games than ever when I got the Steam Deck. Playing games on the PC can be tiring when you are 30+

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[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 23 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Make SteamOS available for desktops tol

[–] capital@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Check out Bazzite until then.

[–] Defectus@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

It's coming. In the meantime you can use HoloISO

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[–] jjlinux@lemmy.ml 20 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I confirm that I will never buy anything Asus even again.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Not even their brand new "handheld" Assussy??

(It will fully support Hannah Montana Linux)

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[–] skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 19 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

How's Linux support for the Ally? I know Valve has been doing a lot to make Linux work well on the Deck, so I kind of wonder how much extra work they need to put in to get a similar experience.

As any Linux user with Nvidia hardware probably knows, driver support makes all the difference. Just getting the GUI on screen isn't enough.

[–] canis_majoris@lemmy.ca 13 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Bazzite is fine. It's serviceable enough to get the job done. The hardware is supported through a bunch of different emulation tools and bespoke applications like HandHeld Daemon for hooking into power draw and managing extra buttons.

Bazzite is based on the Holographic base that SteamOS uses, but opts for a Fedora-based immutable back-end over Arch. Running SteamOS itself is going to be better once Valve implements native support for all of these things that are covered by HandHeld Daemon, at least in theory.

Due to the non-optimal nature of both Windows and Linux at this stage, they tend to perform about equally.

I get that the Fediverse is disproportionately made up of Linux users, but the reality right now is just that no operating system is fine-tuned for the hardware its running on besides SteamOS and the Deck itself. It's not better yet, but it's getting better at a massive clip - which is above and beyond whatever Microsoft is doing (looks like nothing) to improve their software for the form factor.

[–] skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Microsoft actually recently announced modifying their game bar to be more mobile friendly. MS clearly wants handheld manufacturers to use the Xbox bar which isn't going to happen, but they're trying. The problem with Windows for handhelds is that the launchers are the unique selling points for most of these manufacturers, so any official Microsoft toolkit would be hidden completely if the manufacturers could have their way.

All of those extra daemons to make Linux usable is exactly what I was wondering about. SteamOS for the Ally means nothing if they don't build all of that stuff into their distro, preferably by fixing the drivers rather than user mode proxies patching over lacking driver support.

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[–] null@slrpnk.net 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Looks like the Ally uses AMD, so I expect it probably works just fine.

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[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 19 points 4 weeks ago

This is the right move

[–] BmeBenji@lemm.ee 16 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

How funny/great would it be if the PSP2 and Switch 2 ran branches of SteamOS?

[–] lorty@lemmy.ml 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] kerrigan778@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago

N-Gage 2 confirmed

[–] EddoWagt@feddit.nl 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] BmeBenji@lemm.ee 4 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] bitwolf@lemmy.one 16 points 4 weeks ago

The exciting thing I am taking from this, specifically because of the ROG Ally are two things:

  • Valve intends to support nvidia drivers in SteamOS (the ROG Dock)
  • Valve intends to ensure eGPUs are a good experience on SteamOS

If these do make it to fruition that would be a huge benefit overall for Linux gaming.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 14 points 4 weeks ago

I'm actually a bit surprised this takes so long for Valve. Because I think Valve wants to be in a position what they envisioned with Steam Machines, where many systems are created by different manufacturers. Only with a reference model that everybody can fallback to as the base model, the Deck. Guess creating an operating system that can be installed on arbitrary handhelds is not easy (go figure).

BTW this is not a unique concept either, because we had similar strategies before with home computer systems and console like systems in the 80s and 90s: MSX (actually from Microsoft) and 3DO are "popular" examples.

[–] santo@lemmy.world 11 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I really hope Valve takes up this market with strong software. I believe Microsoft is lagging behind just using regular Windows for that.

[–] embed_me@programming.dev 8 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah the more gaming landscape gets matured outside of Windows the better

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 10 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

I saw an ad for this thing on TV the other day. IDK why, but seeing things like this on TV always makes me giddy ever since I first saw Secret of Mana advertised on TV. Seeing new tech (and video games before a certain time) having commercials on television is like seeing a unicorn.

[–] Beaver@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 weeks ago

Finally the buyers can make use of that hardware!

[–] idiotdoomspiral@beehaw.org 5 points 4 weeks ago

Big W as usual from Valve. We need more privately owned companies again.

[–] LexGear@mastodon.gamedev.place 4 points 3 weeks ago

@Fubarberry good guy valve. Rather than getting butt hurt about competition they embrace it.

[–] Daxtron2@startrek.website 3 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I've been looking at the ally for a while, the eGPU support is interesting too. SteamOS support would be the final addition to make me pull the trigger on it. Anyone own it and can give their 2¢?

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 weeks ago

Don't own it, but I would recommend against the regular Ally due to some known hardware issues and Asus warranty trying to scam people into expensive "not covered by warranty" repairs.

The new Ally X has some tempting hardware upgrades though, if no major defects have shown up in a couple months it might be worth checking out.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Their proprietary external GPU connector (xg Mobile graphics) was recently reverse engineered so you may soon* be able to connect desktop graphics cards.

Still in the early revisions, though all the info is on GitHub by osy86

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