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Steam to Chrome OS

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Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not since it requires an 11th gen i5 or better chrome book https://www.androidcentral.com/steam-for-chrome-os-supported...

This is whats frustrating to me. We're talking a small slice of most chromebooks out there. I actually have used old chromebooks with crouton to install steam and play games. You have to pick "lightweight" games like Baldurs Gate, but it still opens up a lot of possibility. So I had hoped maybe something could be brought to old hardware, but I guess not.

The lower specs you allow, the more likely you’re to hit poor user experiences that piss users off.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#64
post #5

I'd just stick to gaming on regular Linux. But I suppose it can be useful for arguing that Linux gaming market is expanding, so developers who like to excuse lack of Linux releases with market size will have less excuses now.

You and the dozens of people like you, but the Chromebook consumer market is huge.

Right now Steam is only targeting higher end Chromebooks that make up a small fraction of its market share, but I’m sure they’ll improve that over time.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#65
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this stage, native Linux releases are becoming less and less likely because of Value's efforts to improve gaming on Linux, as paradoxical as that seems. Proton is getting better and better with each release, and in many cases, is providing better performance than running native code on Windows. Why bother with official Linux support when you can just check that your game runs via Proton and push the burden of supp…

I’ve seen game devs advertise that their game works natively on Linux and is seen as a positive. My guess is if steam deck takes off there will be more games trying to build natively on Linux.

I'm a Linux gamer, and when I see an indie game with native Linux build I avoid it. In my experience they always have problems, and I can't work out how to get Steam to give me the windows version with proton instead of the Linux version.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#66
post #25

My ideal dev machine would be chromeOS running on apple silicon.

My ideal machine would be something that has Chrome OS Fireware and security features, a OS and a Apple Silicon.

The great thing about Chromebook is the firmware. Ron Minnich be praised.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#67
post #57
post #25

My ideal dev machine would be chromeOS running on apple silicon.

Why not just Linux running on Apple Silicon? Isn't the entire selling point of Chrome OS that it can run well on cheap underpowered hardware?

Not really. Here are the advantages of ChromeOS as I see them:

Fast, unobtrusive, and regular software updates

Better touchpad and touchscreen support than any other Linux

Perfect integration between local files and files on Google Drive

A bare-bones userspace that is not bristling with security vulnerabilities

Software including the kernel is peak-optimized with profile-guided feedback, specifically and separately for each model of Chromebook, unlike most Linux distros that ship barely-optimized builds without PGO and targeting k8-generic.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#68

Wait - does this mean that if Steam ships on Chromebook, and Steam can be made to run arbitrary software via proton, that Chromebooks have become regular laptops?

It is worth noting that ChromeOS runs Linux software in a neat way to isolate it from the host OS.

It runs it in Debian-based KVM VMs, and it uses virtio-wayland[1] to pass the applications through to the host compositor, making them feel as if they are not running in a VM.

This architecture means that ChromeOS can preserve its readonly system partition, delta updates, and fast boot times while being able to run any Linux app. Very similar to Qubes, actually.

[1] https://alyssa.is/using-virtio-wl/

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#69
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.protondb.com Quite a lot actually. Obviously you won't be playing AAA games on a Chromebook, but I think most would run lots of older games well enough

For AAA games on chromebook, I believe Stadia was supposed to be the solution. Emphasis on was . Ask me again in 6 months.

stadia's biggest problem is stadia's business model. It's not solveable unless they change it. Paying for the streaming service and full price for the game too is a no-win situation and won't reach widespread adoption when microsoft is offering streaming for a large collection of games in their monthly xbox live subscription.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#70
post #62
post #44

Wake me up when Steam supports ARM builds.

It's the other way around, you have services like Box86 and Box64 to translate x86 and x86_64 binaries to run on ARM architecture.

Valve has already added arm64 libs for macos steamworks, implying a native arm client should be imminent at least for macos.

It'd be nice to have a linux arm client and steamworks support for native rpi and arm chromebooks.

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