Can it be used without logging in online to Steam?
Yes. They recently made it extra easy to do too.
Microsoft must be quite nervous right now.
SteamOS Linux 3.8 released as stable
51–60 of 76 posts
Re: SteamOS Linux 3.8 released as stable
#52Very cool. As a Linux Mint user, I'm starting to get interested in SteamOS. So maybe someone with experience can answer my question: How good is SteamOS as a general distro for a desktop machine? What are the Pros and Cons?
I found it very annoying and restricting. Most significantly being restricted to flatpak. For example I failed at installing whonix and couldn't get rust and vscode to work together. If I didn't plan to get rid of by steam deck, I'd install a different distro in it. I definitely wouldn't install it on a desktop, support for the deck's keyboardless form factor is the only reason I might choose SteamOS over a normal di…
For development work you could try using toolbx or distrobox.
You can also use Nix or Homebrew to install additional software.
Re: SteamOS Linux 3.8 released as stable
#53Re: SteamOS Linux 3.8 released as stable
#54Re: SteamOS Linux 3.8 released as stable
#55Can it be used without logging in online to Steam?
You can run your OS of choice.
Here's NixOS on the steam deck: https://github.com/Jovian-Experiments/Jovian-NixOS
Re: SteamOS Linux 3.8 released as stable
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
When it's not based on a rolling disto.
Everything's ultimately based on a rolling distro; Debian is frozen from Sid and Fedora (and ultimately RHEL) are frozen from Rawhide.
Agreed. Valve is the maintainer, it's no longer 'rolling' (or Arch) by virtue of creating SteamOS and delivering
momentary snapshots. Arch is upstream and largely irrelevant to us, the consumers of SteamOS.
Ask anyone outside of Valve or strange hobbies what packages actually 'make' SteamOS; they couldn't tell you. It's simply not their concern.
In fewer words: if you need/want to know the lifecycle, you'd know. The "by the way, they're a year old" message that started this thread is in bad faith. The Fedora release that equates to any EL derivative is comparatively ancient. It's fine.
Re: SteamOS Linux 3.8 released as stable
#57Re: SteamOS Linux 3.8 released as stable
#58Very cool. As a Linux Mint user, I'm starting to get interested in SteamOS. So maybe someone with experience can answer my question: How good is SteamOS as a general distro for a desktop machine? What are the Pros and Cons?
it makes no sense, just use bazzite or something
Re: SteamOS Linux 3.8 released as stable
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody knows if it will be hard to install another OS on the Frame.
The hard part is making one work on it since none already exist like the hundreds that exist for normal computers like Deck. They might not let their 6dof headset tracking code be shared and getting that working would be very hard.
Given Valve's past history in this regard I'm inclined to believe it'll be possible to install whatever you like on the thing, and that there'll be a reasonably well documented way of integrating with the sensors/display. Valve have got decades of form on being as open as possible with their hardware and I've seen nothing recently to make me think that's changed.