Why SteamOS Switched from Debian to Arch Linux

Post by ekianjo » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:05 AM UTC

dundarious wrote: post #6

PikachuEXE wrote: post #2

Previous related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28119317

This RPS article adds nothing to that original PC Gamer piece. From the RPS article: > PC Gamer got the scoop on this. Valve designer Lawrence Yang told them: "So, Arch Linux, one of the main reasons - there's a couple - but the main reason is the rolling updates of Arch allows us to have more rapid development for SteamOS 3.0. We were making a bunch of updates and changes to specifically make sure that things work w…

Post by nerdwaller » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:09 AM UTC

SilverRed wrote: post #20

I think that Fedora SilverBlue would have been the perfect OS for these kinds of consumer products. Arch is great and probably very rarely breaks but if it does, there is very few ways to recover the situation other than instructing users to reinstall the OS. With something like fedora silverblue, if an update fails, The system can reboot in to the previous OS image without issue. It also ensures that there is a know…

Post by nerdwaller » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:14 AM UTC

Jasper_ wrote: post #18

guerrilla wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been running arch for nearly 10 years and the only couple of breaking changes I had were either from ignorance or not reading special update instructions. Also Arch is far more up to date than those you mention (sometimes by many months.) You're not confusing it with another distro?

Do Steam Deck users have to read those special update instructions as well? That sounds like a pain. Why can't it just be automatic

Post by phendrenad2 » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:16 AM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #11

One unfortunate thing with rolling releases is that you shouldn’t fall too far behind. I had to move abroad for a bit and left my desktop behind. That’s fine. I’ve done this sort of thing before and I just boot it up, apt update, apt upgrade, and I’m good. With Pac-Man I hit a thing where it wouldn’t upgrade. It couldn’t get me up to date from a year ago. Had to give it up then because this sort of thing happens to m…

Post by ISO-morphism » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 4:21 AM UTC

nerdwaller wrote: post #23

SilverRed wrote: post #20

I think that Fedora SilverBlue would have been the perfect OS for these kinds of consumer products. Arch is great and probably very rarely breaks but if it does, there is very few ways to recover the situation other than instructing users to reinstall the OS. With something like fedora silverblue, if an update fails, The system can reboot in to the previous OS image without issue. It also ensures that there is a know…

> Arch is great and probably very rarely breaks but if it does, there is very few ways to recover the situation other than instructing users to reinstall the OS. Is there any citation to support this? I’ve run arch for 11 years, never once on that same computer did I have to reinstall the OS. On the rest that have been running it for 2y and 5y they’ve never had that issue, nor instruction.