Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows
#2I'm excited about the Steam Deck but hesitant about this Linux decision. Despite Gabe Newell's objections, Windows works quite well as a gaming UI. The Xbox runs Windows and all of Steam's games work on Windows, so calling it a "steaming pile" or whatever really isn't accurate. It's more like sour grapes.
Steam managed to create the Windows gaming environment out of whole cloth. Microsoft's attempt to control gaming for PCs failed horribly, leaving Steam the victor. But, by the same token, Steam has no console presence, which with subscription models like Xbox Game Pass, can be very profitable.
What kind of console can they do? Not a home one. It's almost over for those anyway. So, a portable. What OS can it run? Not Windows. Steam isn't going to write an Xbox-like UI for Windows that would look good on the Deck, something Microsoft addressed back in the days of Xbox One.
The Xbox UI (and its integration with the PC) have only gotten better since then. So much so that many games are now "play anywhere," meaning you can buy it on one device, play on another, and pickup and play later on a third via streaming. This is remarkable and fantastic!
Will Linux on the Steam Deck enable this kind of "play anywhere" model? Hmmm.... Maybe. It will be a hard road. The article mentions that the "top shooters" don't run on Linux. That's pretty bad. Those are the games that have heavy user bases and you need them onboard.
Re: Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows
#3I'm excited about the Steam Deck but hesitant about this Linux decision. Despite Gabe Newell's objections, Windows works quite well as a gaming UI. The Xbox runs Windows and all of Steam's games work on Windows, so calling it a "steaming pile" or whatever really isn't accurate. It's more like sour grapes. Steam managed to create the Windows gaming environment out of whole cloth. Microsoft's attempt to control gaming…
They did say you can run Windows on it if you want to. And Steam Big Picture will work as an Xbox-like UI if you want one.
Re: Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows
#4I'm excited about the Steam Deck but hesitant about this Linux decision. Despite Gabe Newell's objections, Windows works quite well as a gaming UI. The Xbox runs Windows and all of Steam's games work on Windows, so calling it a "steaming pile" or whatever really isn't accurate. It's more like sour grapes. Steam managed to create the Windows gaming environment out of whole cloth. Microsoft's attempt to control gaming…
They did say you can run Windows on it if you want to. And Steam Big Picture will work as an Xbox-like UI if you want one.
I know. But that's not a smoothly-integrated user experience and navigating the rest of Windows on that machine without a mouse and keyboard is going to be a pain.
Steam didn't build a console UI that works from the boot state, like MS did for the Xbox version of Windows. If it were up to me, I think I would have picked that approach rather than adding an emulation layer (Proton/WINE) in-between.
Re: Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows
#5I'd be happy if Valve's other big legacy for gaming ended up being that they started a snowball that made Linux a viable alternative for gaming. For me the requirement for that would be fairly broad compatibility and a performance that's at least close enough to Windows to not give me the feeling that I'm bottlenecking the hardware I paid all that money for. Other than that I mostly use my desktop as a media server and Linux can already do that more than well enough.
All in all, I'm excited for it in a way I wasn't for the SteamOS box announcement and I really hope they can sustain the momentum for the long run!
Re: Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows
#6I'm excited about the Steam Deck but hesitant about this Linux decision. Despite Gabe Newell's objections, Windows works quite well as a gaming UI. The Xbox runs Windows and all of Steam's games work on Windows, so calling it a "steaming pile" or whatever really isn't accurate. It's more like sour grapes. Steam managed to create the Windows gaming environment out of whole cloth. Microsoft's attempt to control gaming…
> Steam managed to create the Windows gaming environment out of whole cloth.
As someone who has been using Steam since the early days, this feels incredibly anachronistic. Steam pioneered digital distribution but Windows as a gaming OS was already well established at that point.
Re: Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
They did say you can run Windows on it if you want to. And Steam Big Picture will work as an Xbox-like UI if you want one.
I know. But that's not a smoothly-integrated user experience and navigating the rest of Windows on that machine without a mouse and keyboard is going to be a pain. Steam didn't build a console UI that works from the boot state, like MS did for the Xbox version of Windows. If it were up to me, I think I would have picked that approach rather than adding an emulation layer (Proton/WINE) in-between.
You can set BPM to launch at boot just by going into Steam -> Settings -> Interface tab -> Enable “Run Steam when my computer starts” and “Start Steam in Big Picture Mode”
Re: Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows
#8I'm excited about the Steam Deck but hesitant about this Linux decision. Despite Gabe Newell's objections, Windows works quite well as a gaming UI. The Xbox runs Windows and all of Steam's games work on Windows, so calling it a "steaming pile" or whatever really isn't accurate. It's more like sour grapes. Steam managed to create the Windows gaming environment out of whole cloth. Microsoft's attempt to control gaming…
> Steam managed to create the Windows gaming environment out of whole cloth. As someone who has been using Steam since the early days, this feels incredibly anachronistic. Steam pioneered digital distribution but Windows as a gaming OS was already well established at that point.
Yes, that's what I meant. Surely home computers have been gaming machines since before Windows and that was also a heavy use case for Windows early on.
What I mean was that Steam simplified the selling, installation, updating, forums, mods, everything else -- the store that Microsoft really wanted to have with Games for Windows that never took off.
Re: Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
They did say you can run Windows on it if you want to. And Steam Big Picture will work as an Xbox-like UI if you want one.
I know. But that's not a smoothly-integrated user experience and navigating the rest of Windows on that machine without a mouse and keyboard is going to be a pain. Steam didn't build a console UI that works from the boot state, like MS did for the Xbox version of Windows. If it were up to me, I think I would have picked that approach rather than adding an emulation layer (Proton/WINE) in-between.
I don't necessarily know how you could write a smoothly-integrated shell for Windows the same way you can for your own Linux distro and not be constantly occupied with catching up and fixing your stuff from the potential changes from Microsoft just to make all the settings and toggles work properly to change things in the underlying Windows OS and then still potentially get issues from the Windows Update process that's out of your control. Going with Linux, in my opinion, solves having to rely on a platform that is potentially a competitor and therefore could turn hostile if they choose to. Microsoft has the advantage that it controls the whole software stack for the Xbox. It's also a giant uphill battle, but one that potentially benefits everyone due to the open source software behind it.
I'm personally also really happy that this gives incentive for AMD to improve their hardware support on Linux.
Re: Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know. But that's not a smoothly-integrated user experience and navigating the rest of Windows on that machine without a mouse and keyboard is going to be a pain. Steam didn't build a console UI that works from the boot state, like MS did for the Xbox version of Windows. If it were up to me, I think I would have picked that approach rather than adding an emulation layer (Proton/WINE) in-between.
You can set BPM to launch at boot just by going into Steam -> Settings -> Interface tab -> Enable “Run Steam when my computer starts” and “Start Steam in Big Picture Mode”
Right. I'm talking about the rest of the computer. How will you manage files on a Steam Deck? How will you access Windows Update? Is your "desktop" going to be covered in icons?
Using Windows on Steam Deck (not using Steam on Steam Deck, using the Windows OS) is going to be difficult because the device lacks a mouse and keyboard on which Windows is dependent. Fixing this for Xbox required making an entirely new UI (for the OS, updates, sign-ins, everything) which Steam has not done for the Deck.