I'm 42, have been using MD-Dos and Windows since I was 12. I switched to Linux Mint a month ago and have zero reason to boot up my windows drive. If I can make the switch and use it as my daily driver, then why should the majority wait for Steam OS? Linux Mint does a great job of making windows users feel at home I think. Switch right now!
@@Slinky511nx7 I gave a Linux Mint mini PC to an 80-year-old lady, and she has no problem using it. Linux has been ready for general public use for a long time.
@thingsiplay It used to, then they bloated it with AI, Un-nessary Programs, and a whole bunch of ancient systems that are inefficient.. it can make for a sub-par gaming experience even if it has the best compatibility.
I think Linux "just works" in more scenarios than Windows does. It's just that Windows is more familiar to folks so they overlook when it is an obnoxious inconvenience (or worse).
Linux' biggest issue today is that you have to actively take a choice to install it, so if Steam is able to fix this by partnering up with more manufacturers, it's a big win.
💯people buy a computer and use whatever OS comes installed with it. There's plenty of people who will simply buy a new computer once they've put enough junk on their current machine to slow it to a crawl. You couldn't make the installation process simple enough for someone like that before it becomes dangerous, i.e., it completely wipes the system with one interaction.
And thats the way it should be.....linux is a strong community....if you are gonna use something made in linux code...then adapt ..this aint microsoft as some would like steam deck to be.
That is so true. I have a couple of experiences of introducing non-tech people to Linux systems as their first proper computing experience. And it's a broad spectrum, some of those are older people who last used MS-DOS or Windows 95 at best, and one of them is a younger family member who previously only had a Windows laptop for a short while when he was like 10 and later we built him a PC with Linux on it to save the cost of buying Windows. He was given the option later to buy Windows, but all his games ran the way they should so he saw no need to. He's been on Linux for 3 years now. In both cases these users learned (or re-learned) using computers with Linux from the beginning and for them that's the default, Windows is the weird one. This proves that Linux is not "hard" in most cases, it's just not what people are used to, especially with so many desktop enviroments that provide very different experiences. But give people a Linux OS preinstalled and they will not question it and will eventually learn.
7:45 - I don’t quite agree with the observation that people care that Valve is behind the operating system. Rather, they care that they can buy a device and use it. The penguin migration will happen because people will be able to buy computers with Linux pre-installed; not because Valve is behind SteamOS.
100% agree. I do think SteamOS on Steam Machines and Steam Handhelds will be the can opener to OEMs finally giving up on the Windows discount volume licensing and offering machines with Linux preinstalled though. Then those OEMs wont spend their engineering efforts on Windows drivers and Windows software, they will spend it on Linux drivers and Linux software. And, as you were saying, those pre-installed Linux machines will be the train that brings people to Linux.
Yea, Dell tried selling computers with Linux pre installed way before and distro was ready for general normie use. It was a disaster. Desktop Linux' reputation has yet to recover despite the enormous progress. We need System 76 type systems sold in mainstream storefronts but with complete transparency about what people are getting.
This is absolutely it. We in the tech space will argue until the cows come home about which OS to use and their advantages and disadvantages. But I think this level of familiarity can lead to us forgetting that the vast majority of people just want to buy a machine, turn it on and play. Linux will increase in popularity in the consumer market as more devices come with it pre-installed. The people who actually sit down and install their OS and decide what they want (be it Windows or some flavour of Linux) are a very small minority.
I don't think it's 100% that. I think it has a lot more to do with "it just works". Joey doesn't want to be having to decide between Gnome or KDE and they don't want to have to troubleshoot random issues. If it just works they will use it though and I think that's the biggest thing Valve is contributing with SteamOS.
You should really check out James Lee "How I broke up with Adobe" This is one of the 1st times I have seen a non-Tech TH-camr basically say F Windows. He brings up some good points about how big tech is now using a money first, and not a human first design.
It's all become scamware they don't even bother to make good features any more. They have just taken over these products and given them the Evony treatment. Fake products.
Money first, human last. I just watched that video in the early hours of the morning when I should've been asleep. Awesome seeing a creator not just proving you don't need Adobe, but also promoting Linux.
The reason why the mass likes having a big corporation backing a product is very simple. when there is money involved, you actually get support and updates until the business interest is nolonger there. yes, there are times when corporations stops supporting bc there is no longer financial benefit for them, but as long as there is, they will support these software. heck, the only reason Linux gaming is where it is now is precisely because Valve saw value in making a platform for their game distribution business that doesn't rely on Windows and I think it would have taken a LOT longer if it were up to just volunteers and community support (if ever). 5:29 I think Linus is referring to the fact that there are limited supported mainstream hardware and you need to do your research before blindly installing, or in some cases require some manual workarounds for your hardware. and some distros does require you to do some manual work to get some of the more minor stores like GoG or whatever working and that is not a "your ordinary person" type of experience.
there is also a "windows as the default" is a value add; when a driver for a new piece of hardware is being designed there is a 99% chance the driver is going to be written for Windows first then either ported, or in the worst case needing to be re-written for Linux (sometimes Linux Kernel driver integration people will just spout "make it expect like AMD Graphics driver calls" even for things that are not a graphics driver...). when it comes to configuring the systems there is a better chance of being struck by lightning then making a windows system config that doesn't work (I don't mean have incompatible CPU motherboard combo), and troubleshooting said configurations is more reproducible on windows.
@@gardian06_85 Unless it has anything to do with Ethernet and USB devices that aren't classes 0x00 or 0xFF - in those cases typically Linux is the ones who gets to have the drivers first. Also server hardware in general, but that's not as relevant for home use.
And the linux desktop as a whole is a similar situation, it's mostly because red hat basically spend all their money to make linux as great as possible
There's a pattern with Linux gaming boosters that they exaggerate every problem with Windows gaming and minimize every problem with Linux gaming. There are many problems with Linux gaming, and lots of the time it doesn't "just work." That's why it isn't at all surprising that people pin their hopes on a corporate sponsor such as Valve. Corporations have an understanding of UX and an appreciation of the importance of polish and lack of rough edges that volunteer FOSS projects just don't.
I had this discussion with a co-worker today. I use Linux and he uses Windows. He is very technical, more than me. He was into folding, overclocking, former WoW gamer, Crypto miner before Bitcoin was a thing and much more. He knows Windows and he play games that don't work on Linux like League of Legends. I'm a linux user first, gamer second. If Steam and Proton disappeared tomorrow I would still use Linux. I use community builds because I like to support projects/devs and not huge corporate entities. Linux is not for everybody and that's okey. But it's not garbage because Fortnite doesn't run.
I mean Gardiner obviously knows this since he qualified with the 'once you get it setup it works great'. Sure. Once you get past the problems with anything they generally run smooth afterwards. 🤣 I have flirted with Linux many times, but the faff is strong with this OS. . . Though it has gotten much better over the last couple of decades. My current hold off is 4K monitors and scaling and the weird things it does when gaming. Set to 150%, nice, your game defaults to screen rez of things like 5760x3240 ; or only shows a corner of the screen; or shrinks the mouse to 4picxels wide; or mouse misbehaving by being off centre when you go to inventory or map (might be hardware accel but I am not sure scaling isn't impacting the movement by overexaggerating). Depending on the games these can be mildly annoying to burn it all down frustrating. LOL. I think the over 40,000 games type thing is a bad marketing choice also. Sure, there are a lot that run, but how many (just like windows) are old old games that no one will take a second look at these days unless they are into retro gaming or something. 🤣 So for me - I am repurposing an old desktop that isn't gaming rated to be a general use Linux box to try linux for other things but gaming. Will probably retry linux on my game rig in another 6 months or closer to win10 phasing out.
I think that it is very difficult for people in the linux community to see the problem with Linux. For instance as soon as Rufus is involved you have lost a lot of people
@@spartaninvirginia Nearly every normie just has windows preinstalled and doesn't have to deal with installing it because they will just pay the noob tax and buy prebuilt systems rather than building their own.
I mean, Valve could just make a clone of Fedora Media Writer. It asks you what you want, images the flash drive itself and after you're done installing the OS it gives you the option to restore the flash drive. Honestly, on par or even easier than Windows Media Creation Tool
@@spartaninvirginia prebuilts dude. Most of those people won’t care if it has Windows or Linux, but most are Windows Prebuilts. Also Microsoft also makes that process smooth by making a downloadable that do all the work for you on a USB with an additional option for a Windows ISO, while, as far as I know, Linux needs an ISO and then the use of Rufus.
12:30 This is the issue, you KNOW all the dist´s to be used for gaming, most users dont and dont even know where to start. And the big mass of users dont care if it open source, they dont give a flying F about it. They want it for free and easy to use and work with ALL of their games. THAT´s not what Proton can do in any Dist, damn Proton sucks then it comes to Helldivers. Helldivers 2 runs SMOTH and good on my AMD CPU and AMD GPU, but in Proton, damn its problems even tho it works.. And that´s not acceptable for the general users for SURE!
Around 8:30 ish you mention about companies having comfort in corporation backed stuff, I think maybe you don't understand the context why that would be the case but there is rationale beyond technical. Risk is one part, if you have a reputation for quality in a space that builds trust but even more than quality and this is true about the Crowdstrike situation is also about not breaking things so they can do their business. So safety and trust are a big deal. Another part of this is regulatory compliance. Ubuntu, Oracle Linux and RHEL provide compliant images for government regulation. This is more than just signing images but audits, dev time to work on configuration of security profiles...etc those sorts of things cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and they only get a return in those spaces that require compliance. A bank won't use Arch and I don't think Arch cares one bit so this is a use case that the likes or RHEL, OL and Ubuntu...etc can only be attached to and that's fine. The question "can we use Arch?" in those situations even in a Docker is a straight no every time for that reason. The trickle down to users is about wariness and issues that people have with difficulty in entering the market. I think the only reason why those sorts of people are afraid of Linux is more of a historic hangover about issues that aren't around anymore. And it happens even with technical people, I know a very overpriced software engineering manager who refuses to use Network Manager because of bugs 10 years ago that he had. There is a hill there with regards to perception versus reality.
Compliance not just in terms of government regulation, but some certifications (e.g., ISO 27001) either directly or effectively require you to have support contracts for software.
I will reply to my own comment by adding this regarding the "historic hangover" issues: I work in IT since early 90s, and we all know AMD's server CPUs are far more advanced and offer more performance than anything Intel's Xeon-like offers since the last 5+ years. Well, I still stumbled with managers that are supposedly 'tech aware' and are still ordering Intel servers for their datacenters when HP, Dell, Lenovo, IBM, etc all have offers with EPYC servers at a fraction of what an Intel-based server costs, but will outlived and outperformed it. This behavior, in 2020+, has the same kind of historic hangover from the decades prior to 2020 regarding AMD vs Intel, and it costs businesses millions of dollars wasted on the wrong technologies. And all this to say that Arch is the wrong technology to use for Steam OS.
23:10 Not really referring to controllers specifically (or SteamOS), but you basically just described what it's like using Linux for me. This has never really been a Windows experience for my needs - things generally did JUST work. So I can't really agree with your point about "Windows users are just use to fighting with their system," when, on LINUX, I've spent the past couple of days just trying to get everything to work the way I want it to, unlike on Windows. I use a Windows machine to backup my files and never had an issue, while my Linux servers break all the time from just updating and rebooting. Linux is a pain.
Wait a sec, Linus never recommended to install non steam launchers, quite the opposite. He told they found a way to , not even THE way, and he recommended to stick to stick of whats in the steam repository (and you, correctly, told Heroic is there...)...
When you're as big as Linus, the example given is dethatched from the wording nuance and instead attributed an endorsement factor just by being shown on scree, for Joey Mainstream especially. To get to the idea stated in your OP you need 3 things: Above average Eng comprehension skillz (found a way =/= The way) Prior, at Least average Linux and SteamOS experience. Y is that git-hub option not recommended ? Have the ❗spidy sense for it. Attention span. It was at the end of the video. Linus Himself made a video about video length, structure, drop-off. Actually not just A video. Personal note. I failed at the 2nd item. Never cared about SteamOS and didn't have the ⁉sense . But at least i'm nird and i would obsessively research "Is this good? " before even testing a new OS, not to mention committing. Edit: typo.
The LTT video has me really hopeful, I'm not against learning stuff in Linux, it's just that I want a no hassle living room PC, which SteamOS seems PERFECT for. I just don't have the time to get it working consistently and I dont want to do my job at home
It only took me a few hours here and there every few days over 6 months learning Linux from scratch to get the experience you are talking about. Was it really annoying at times...oh yeah. Did it anger me at times...oh yeah. Does it bother me now nearly a year later...nope. It is worth it, even reading 10 pages per day in a Linux book (command line, shell scripting). You would be surprised at the issues that seemed impossible to me, and after maybe 10 minutes searching the net I found the answer. Going down this route saves you so much money, not only in what is spent on software, but also ignoring the forced hardware upgrades that Microsoft loves forcing on their users in order to run their latest and greatest OS (Windows 11 runs just as bad for me as XP did, no thanks Microsoft). Bottom line, I have a gaming PC running Linux, my 4tb Steam library games run fine, in my living room hooked up to a high end Samsung 65 inch TV, desktop looks slick, liquid cooled, and the computer runs like a Mac.
This is my thing, I am perfectly comfortable using Linux, it's fine, but I don't need a project every time I want to do any random thing. People can hate on Windows/Mac all they want, but fact is, yes, they just kind of work and do what I expect them to. I do IT at work, I DON'T want to do IT at home/on my free time or have friends/family confused because this or that module is broken. And for anyone who complains about Windows/Apple/Google collecting/selling your data / advertising to you. Yeah, sure. But You're looking at a TH-cam comment. And if you're in the US, you're either running an Android or Apple phone. Spare me the fake outrage.
Just an FYI very shortly after their video went up there’s a pinned comment correcting several things in his video including the “reboot to fix” immutable OS changes. But I fully agree Heroic or Junk Store (what I use based on your recommendation)
I installed bazzite on my rog ally 3 days ago. I don‘t agree with your statement about the ease of installation. The installer appears to be simple, but the partition manager was useless for me. The simple task of wiping the SSD was too much - I had to go to the commandline to delete all partitions. And then it took me three attempts to have the files copy over - it just froze. Now that was likely due to the usb connection being janky, but I‘d expect an error message and retry button. also the installer could be more touch screen friendly But that‘s just feedback on that particular statement in the video. Once installed the software is awesome and I really enjoy my higher def screen, while the experience is so streamlined
The way he talks as if Bazzite is actually extremely viable bugged me a little. It is not. We shouldn't talk as if it replaces an official steamOS launch even in the slightest
Linus did say not to use scripts and to stick to the discovery store. He was making a point of the rabbit holes that exist. I have fallen into them. The fact that you have to use this "heroic" app is exactly the point that Linux doesn't just work. The installers for these apps should just install on Linux.
I think Linus has Linux people on his team also, but Gardiner didn't elaborate other than it's not the best way. But if Linus was just googling and came across the script like a regular non-tech would do, then yeah, how would people know not to use it. Beyond the usual never run scripts you aren't sure about the origin of. Especially if it was the prompted answer on a linux forum. . .
@@sociallyferal4237 Truth be told, the one big (pun not intended) Linux Guru LTT had that would REALLY help ease people into Linux once again has left LMG long ago.
You're wrong about Bazzite. It's pretty difficult to install as a dual-boot option. It works great if you just nuke 1 drive on the PC and leave it at that. But I'm running Linux as a daily and wanted to setup Bazzite alongside in a new partition, but sharing my already existing Steam library. It's just impossible to do, you get lots of different errors, the bootloader does not work, most of the time I got fatal errors during the install which aborted everything. I even tried rsync'ing my way around by copying a clean installation that I did on my laptop, but it also failed multiple times. Spent an entire day trying every kind of approach that I knew about. So yeah, it's very difficult to install it on a separate partition with shared home and EFI partitions.
This! I wanted to keep SteamOS + Windows on my SD OLED while installing Bazzite and I ended up just wiping the whole disk and leaving Bazzite there. It was a nightmare of raining errors, and that's on top of the awful Fedora installer that I've never liked. Mind you, I'm a senior sysadmin with lots of Linux experience who has used desktop linux as my *main AND ONLY OS for more than 10 years, and as dual boot for even longer, and virtualized desktop Linux for even longer.
I think we should be pushing more towards fixing it instead of saying "it will get fixed with time". we should be making lists and push towards fixing those issues one by one until we exhaust them. I think the biggest issue with the linux ecosystem is that while it's awesome when it works, a lot of software never gets around to making something fully polished, but I've seen that things are improving a lot now.
I have seen some youtube videos talking about coders and those who have knowledge and experience getting to that retirement point and there being less new blood coming into the Linux Dev space. So there are probably many projects and features that might just drop off.
As someone who Really wants to get off of Windows I've tried everything, from Cachy OS to Fedora to Mint to Debian, but Linux is simply not there yet. The fact that so many games and software simply doesn't work on Linux feels like forcing myself to use an OS that is clearly inferior just because Gnome looked good to me.
The amount of games that don’t work is so few compared to those that do. I literally only can’t get a few anticheat games to work. Everything else does. 17k verified games on protondb, and 23k playable. It’s easy for me to just decide that if the devs are actively blocking linux, it’s not worth my time.
There's two minor but noticeable issues I encountered playing with Cinnamon Mint distro: 1) HDR. HDR on Linux is still not ready for primetime. I suspect we'll get there by the end of the year maybe but like, this has been in works for too long and HDR is nearly a decade old at this point. 2) Clock related problems when dual booting. Basically, windows will forget what time it is when you swap from linux to windows. There's other minor issues that players can't control like anticheat support and general game compatibility, but Linux has come a long way from even just a few years ago. It's just got that last mile kind of stuff to work out before it's truly competitive with windows. Still, I'm surprised how much 'just works' now with little thought required from the user. With Valve giving Arch some muscle, and more people volunteering, we'll get there eventually, probably a lot sooner than people realize.
The clock issues are all on Windows. Back in the 1970 years vendors decided to Go with Unix time on all operating systems. Only Windows doesn't do that, similar to the Drive Letter nonesense they invented and the Backslash separators in paths. Without any good reason they Made dos incompatible to everything Else, so Stop to blame Others for their stupid decissions please
@@matthiasbendewald1803 The Time issue is because Windows expects the BIOS to store time in Local Time. Everything else uses UTC. The drive letter and path separators weren't invented by Microsoft, they were invented by Gary Kildall for his OS, CP/M, and released by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). They bought MS-DOS from an outside company. It was originally called 86-DOS and made by Tim Patterson of Seattle Computer Products. It was originally a clone of CP/M, at the time was one of, if not, the biggest and most important Operating Systems of it's day. These "problems" are a legacy of that lineage. So I'd get your facts straight before you take that condescending tone with people. Look at: 1. The System Time Page on the Arch Wiki. 2. the CP/M page on Wikipedia, more specifically the Legacy section.
The clock issue is because Windows wants your Bios time be what ever timezone you set in the OS but Linux wants Bios time to be in UTC so you can either tell windows to respect UTC or tell Linux to respect local timezone to fix the issue. As far as HDR goes I use KDE and HDR works better in Linux then it does in Windows. In windows I would only use HDR to play a game or movie that supported it because anything in SDR looked washed out and the colors were off, like reds being orange instead, but with Linux I activated HDR and haven't disabled it since because it looks great regardless of whether the content is HDR or SDR.
@@dansanger5340 okay; back in the 70ties the UNIX path system was "dominating", as it is today. What are the advantages of trying to force all volumes into "drive letters" instead of creating one flexible tree of all files? Now you can't just replace the /home folder with an own partition - you'd end up with still having C:\Users plus D:. Which I didn't want. Yes, sure, the advantage is that you'll always know which drive/partition your files are on by just looking at the path. What else? You probably know it better, so it feels more "natural" to you. The opposite is true for me.
Gardiner, I do not think I can ever express my gratitude to you enough for helping me get gaming working on Linux. I don't play a lot of games but the few that I do, it was your videos that helped me do it. No more dual boot, thank you!!!
That's not true. I was right that the OS updates are what wipe the system, not reboots. They even admitted it in their corrections comment. th-cam.com/video/tdR-bxvQKN8/w-d-xo.html&lc=UgzgZvtumzhDjuOHlAp4AaABAg Edit: I misunderstood your comment. My bad!
I just switched to Bazzite and learned quickly that having a valve index connected or a 3.5mm audio cable connected caused issues. Once both were unplugged everything works with no issues. Can’t wait to start diving in to Linux gaming full time on my main PC.
The problem with gaming on Linux is the huge fragmentation and lack of standards. This includes simple things like installing apps (no single install format), maintaining repositories (GPG keys expire and the end user doesn't have a one-click solution to fix it without using console commands), inconsistent UX/UI (we may have a modern system, but the apps look like they're from the 90s). How many modern GPU features work on Linux (RT, FG, VRR, HDR, HDMI, low latency, AV encoders)? You pay for 100% product and its features and what you get on Linux is 50%. No easy-way to overclock, no easy-way to monitor/change fan speed, no well-known and established software for gamers (beside OBS and Steam). Proton-GE, Wine-GE, X11 vs Wayland - those tools are not easy-to-use, configure-and-forget for non-technical users. You need to do a research which version is compatible with your game version. In my opinion, most problems can be solved with ONE (emphasis on ONE) dedicated distro, but it has to be published, maintained and developed by large corp with serious interest in profit, like Valve - pre-configured shop, pre-configured repos, pre-installed tools following the same UX/UI and/or overlays, a control panel where you can change every important function, certified drivers from Intel/AMD/NVIDIA/Logitech/Corsair and so on + easy to install and not game-breaking updates every 2 weeks. Each element of the ecosystem must be coherent and compatible with each other (even if developed/manufactured by different companies). I use Linux in my daily work as a developer and it fits this use-case perfectly (docker, kubernetes, intellij, databases etc.). But I wouldn't recommend it to my younger brother or non-technical colleague - unless they have an IT guy who can support them via Remote Desktop. Many content creators make experiments switching from Windows to Linux, but they only show their first week of experience. However, this system has to defend itself for several years of daily use. So there will definitely be some technical, compatibility, update or performance issues (hardware issues too - you need to do a research and buy hardware which will work well). I'm interested in what happens next and how the end user is supposed to fix it itself? By using the command line like a developer? Trust unverified comments, where trolling often appears (i.e. "remove french language" joke)? Trust outdated guides, because the pace of Linux development is rapid and often unstable + differs per distro? Again, there are no universally accepted best practices among community. Reading whole tirades among community members about which way to solve the problem is better on GitHub or Reddit? Give me a break. It's a great option for IT guys, developers and DevOps: you can discuss with people of a similar skill level which solution has a better pros/cons ratio in your specific use-case, perform automated tests, verify what stupid/crazy ideas people write on the internet, and deliver it to the production environment. So no: buying computers with Linux pre-installed won't help (at least not as much as we hope). People will just ask customer service to install Windows or do it themselves once they encounter first major issue. Maybe Valve should create some gaming-focused foundation/consortium and bring together the big-tech? That would help with the lack of standards + we (as gamers) would have a list of verified hardware that works seamlessly with SteamOS.
Oh man…i got tiered to read all this😄 I’m just a normal user and I don’t have many knowledge, but with some reading I install Fedora on my PC, install steam and for the games that I play it just works…I think the secret is to have the right hardware…
Another thing regarding there not being a clear standard for doing things, I've noticed there's quite a lot you NEED to learn about to have the best possible gaming experience. Lots of letter combinations (DXVK, VKD3D, AMDVLK, mesa, and similar), and lots of tiny tricks you just need to know about (gamemoderun %command%, wine profiles, ProtonUp-Qt, -dx11 and other such flags, random env vars you need to set, etc.) Many games will probably work great "out of the box", once you have everything set up, but suddenly you run into fps drops or stuttering in one game, and a simple env var or command flag might fix the problem instantly, but you won't know about it until you research it. And if you want to run mods, there's even more issues you may run into. Like mods simply not working if you run the flatpak version of steam, but works fine if installed from the package manager. Contrast that with on windows, you download the installer and that's it. And you download the AMD or Nvidia graphics drivers, and that's it. Rarely do you have to fiddle about with hundreds of different little levers to get things working well. (But in the few cases when it's not working well on windows, you usually can't do much as about it either.)
Anyone knows what’s the issue with the nonsteamlaunchers script? In the video he didn’t explain why it is the wrong way, just curious if it is because of a drama or if technically it’s bad
I did explain it but I didn't go into a ton of detail. There are several issues with the Nonsteamlaunchers script. 1. By default it installs all launchers and games in a single proton prefix. This leads to app contamination and general instability. 2. By installing all launchers and games in a single prefix, you can't customize proton settings on a per-game basis. 3. Losing the ability to set specific versions of proton for each game you have installed means that there will be many games that are less performant than they could be or they might not work at all.
I think his point was that if you buy steam deck just for the OS, you still can only use the OS on the steam deck. Buying a steam deck doesn't give you easy access to the OS on your own hardware.
36:35 To be fair, Linus only said they "found a scripton the Internet" but actually recommended staying away from the script and using the storefront instead.
You missed the part with the printer. BTW also annoying thing for me since I use the deck as my primary all-day pc. As a dev I was able to write a script which I run everytime after an OS-update. But printing is so basic and does not take much disk-space, that it simply should be on board by default. In fact I think none of the standard features of Plasma should be cut off, because for most users this will be the first Linux desktop they get in touch with. And from their perspective it just looks that printing (or whatever has been cut off) is not working in Linux at all. The same has been with KDE-Connect in the beginning (Simply not there), but in the meantime Valve added it finally. I really hope that a publicly available SteamOS will bring the complete Desktop experience.
@godminnette2 Yess. Just noticed it now. Halleluja. And I also noticed after my last update that the new BIOS Version not shutting down my steam deck anymore when playing Witcher 3. Great not needing to prevent updating anymore 🙌
Work needs to be done on VR as well on Linux. I dual boot just so I can play stuff on the Quest smoothly. I got it working on Linux but it's way too janky atm. All my other games I stick to my fave distro Aurora DX (immutable os where I do software dev for my job as well)
I don't get the hate towards NonSteamLaunchers. It works great, I've never had any issues. And you didn't even elaborate what exactly is wrong with it so I assume it's some kind of personal vendetta. UPD. Heroic launcher is awesome but it doesn't work with Ubisoft store, for example.
Because (maybe it's different now) you install the store under the same proton that the games are. If it's only for a couple recent games, you will never see a problem. But when you need a specific version for an old game, you have to change proton for the launcher and the other games.
Yeah utilize Lutris on my PC. Tried Heroic early on but found Lutris more complete. Switched to NonSteamLaunchers and didn't go back. I actually would prefer to not use the native launcher, but it doesn't work that way for every store. But I have had issue utilizing the storefront for GOG and Epic. So not perfect.
@@Hamtarotaro I just tried to run a couple of games (installed using NSL) under different versions of Proton, and everything seems to work just fine. You probably couldn't launch 2 games simultaneously but I've never had the need to do that.
@@hamartia_theorist that was the only problem for me at the time (I don't know about the drama) so it's good that you can select a different proton for each game.
i'm very confused about why chimera keeps coming up as a viable distro for gamers to use in the same sentence as bazzite. i looked up the installation process and it seems like infinitely more work than installing ubuntu was 20 years ago, everything is manual and command line based. it reminds me of when i used to use arch and how much of a pain that was to install by myself. i can't imagine even a technically inclined gamer would bother to go through all of this. am i missing something? please tell me if i am because i'm wracking my brain trying to figure out why both gardiner and linus brought it up
The only thing stopping me from installing bazzite on my living room PC is the lack of HDMI 2.1 support. I want to be able to fully utilize my OLED TV, which includes VRR, HDR, and 120fps support.
Why include all drivers in the kernal? Wouldn't it be better to simply have the kernal install the drivers when it detects a new device that needs a driver?
excluding live services games with anti-cheats, there's literally no support to get cn/jp/kr visual novels working on the Steam Deck, so video scenes are either pitch black and/or no audio due to WMV codecs support. tbh, it will never be officially supported due to licensing issues, and never really unofficially supported because the genre is an afterthought by the proton community and Valve staffs, and/or even look down on due to the theme and style of the VNs, especially since a lot of VNs content adult content.
Thank you for your video. As I use arch as my daily driver, and obviously run Steam on it (AMD/RADEON), it never occurred me I´d have to install gamescope. Doing a quick research I've also faced the Deck-ifier and I'm currently trying to decide if I should install gamescope only or the required SteamDeck's binaries for Gamescope as well. Since I'm running KDE Plasma on X11 (not Wayland) I'm reading before doing anything. Any insights are more than welcome.
I'm missing influencers talking about the priority of making Linux not only compatible to Windows games, but also more Windows applications vor * "VASTLY" * improving the chancesd to finally get rid of Windows once and forever, very much! I know multiple people with small offices who just won't make the switch solely because of Photoshop for example!
A few months ago or last year linus and his channels were in a lot of heat for pisspoor conduct and misinformed content accused of pushing to many videos out of poor quality, they came out saying they would change and focus on quality. Now there's less videos coming out but their quality coming from a tech channel clearly show a complete lack of home work, linus is out of touch and thats fine but how can such a large team of people miss so much so often boggles my mind. Update i had missed some stuff he does specify bazzite and some other discros on scrip he's mostly technically right, but i don't know ho or why you would at this stage want to install the steam os image. with any homework you will know it's very clear it's not made for anything else than the steam deck and that there are distributions of linux tailored to make your system work with most or all of the steamOS gamescope goodies so the premise is flawd and misreprents what a steamOS like experience is like today with the nearest being bazzite, chimera, cachyOS.
I think steamdeck is an entry level to the world of Linux but for casual gamers, i doubt it highly. I've seen people who are casual users, whether on phones, desktop, laptops, etc, that keep it so bloody default, that it annoyed me at one point, but now, i kinda get it, the fear of the unknown so to speak. I think one can't underestimate what people routinely see on their tech peripherals and iif steamOS can be with some OEMs like say, HP and Dell and marketed right, I think there is a chance. My friend even bought a new laptop because he couldn't figure out the Linux distro (i installed it) on his old laptop because it didn't have notepad or something..that was really eye opening for me that people stick to what they know , unlike tech enthusiasts
Every single issue described in the "What Gamescope really is" section is also present on Windows. (The game changing resolution and then a pop-up taking focus, forcing you to go for a keyboard and all that stuff).
I see within 5-10 years linux taking a substantial market share at least when concerning gaming pcs. In a lot of ways, it's genuinely just straight up superior to windows, while really only slightly lacking in others. And anticheat is strictly a developer problem, not an issue with linux itself.
Little sidenote: Heroic even offers "add to steam library" in the menu for each game, so installing games in heroic lets you add those games to the steam library and play it there. It is not perfect as you'll not be able to use all of steams integrated features of course but for the integration of gog or epic games into the console-like-experience it's extremely awesome
10:22 He probably means that they'll make something akin to the windows utility that can automatically download and flash a windows image to a usb drive. It works well for normal users, but it's kinda clunky and annoying to use.
I've been a Nobara Linux user for an entire year... and my experience has been fantastic. Steam and Proton barely gave me any problem. And my 8 bit do controller work flawlesly.
The overwhelming majority of people watching LTT would not even care about running an immutable OS... As a software engineer, I actually prefer running one. Currently using Bazzite's big sister Bluefin and absolutely love it. Shoutout to Jorge and everyone at Universal Blue, you all are doing great work!
@@theBoomerDoomer I try to like it, but can't help but give up. Tried bazzite and vanilla on, but having a stable Linux install that I don't have to reinstall every two months is very intimidating for me. Fedora and arch (cachy) just let me mess with things a lot and I find it annoying to get around not being to mess with system files. That being said, I wonder if I can use distrobox and supercharge bazzite into a stable, immutable yet wildly capable Linux install. Might be worth a try once.
I work a lot with containers and always wondered why nobody has come out with a desktop container to make it more robust and portable. Just reading Bluefin's intro page it seems like that's what this is. Is that right?
Okay, so I dunno if LTT actually found about this but they are KINDA right. SteamOS 3 always has two copies of the root and boot file systems(A and B) on hand. If SteamOS fails to start for any reason it will swap to the other root file system. You can infact manually choose which root fs to boot into by holding power plus the quick access button when powering up your steam deck. I found this out when a bungled beta channel update had me stuck in an update loop never being able to update to the actual current version. It's a pretty rudimentary backup solution but it does work really well for the immutable FS.
I just checked - about 2/3 of my Steam library is now "verified or playable". Still leaves about 500+ games that are untested or don't work, but… you know, it's a lot better than the last time I checked.
One of my favorite VR experiences on my setup is Resident Evil 7 with the praydog mod. Over the weekend I was able to get this working on Linux with little effort, its amazing how far Linux gaming has come. I use OpenSuse primarily, but I wont mind trying SteamOS when its fully released.
As a windows sys admin who personally uses linux for his desktop and for homelab, it is my desire to start migrating regular users to linux... however, if you work in a company with M365 you will struggle. It isn't worth it.
If steam would move away from being mostly games only, and just become an entire package manager by itself, that would be awesome. Most package managers are awful, and I have never found one that I would prefer to use over steam, if I had the choice to use steam.
I'm relatively new to PC gaming and Linux in general. I'm running chimera OS on my living room PC. Watched 1 or 2 tutorials and Installed it no problem. Was intimidating for sure. But I've had almost no issue with it for close to a year. I did try to run the PC on windows at first but got tired of always having to reach for a keyboard at unexpected times. Excited to see how steam OS and Linux gaming progress and evolve going forward.
I think the biggest point that most people on both sides of the argument gloss over is what you both briefly mentioned: Windows has problems too, but you're probably used to dealing with _those_ problems if you've been using Windows for a long time. Same goes for the whole Android vs iOS turf war. And what's nice for the nooby user is that since a lot more people use Windows, if you run into a problem there it's way more likely that someone else has already found a solution and written a beginner-friendly guide for it. So while I'm all for Linux becoming a more inviting OS for gaming (love my Steam Deck), I do think users need a little tough love: the only way to ultimately reduce the amount of frustration and alienation you feel for the device that your way of life likely depends on, is to _suck it up_ and learn a bit more about working with it.
Been using Bazzite on a couple of machines for sometime now, but I just installed stock SteamOS on a mini AMD machine, and I do prefer it, Bazzite is great, but SteamOS "feels" a little snappier and performance "feels" better, but this maybe just my interpretation.
"I had have trouble with sound in the past" Same though it's very rare and usually very minor these days. And I've also had trouble with sound on Windows - from the mediocre sound controls just not being frustrating to use to windows updates deleting my audio drivers twice in a three month period a year or two ago. I switched over to my windows install for something for the first time in months only to find that my audio didn't work. After some digging I found that the audio drivers were wrong (not flagged in device manager though). So I spent 20 minutes trying to find the correct driver, grabbed it and reinstalled it and all was well...until I booted into windows a few months later and discovered that Windows had fucked up my audio again. Thankfully I only had to spend a few minutes fixing it since I knew what the issue was and already had the correct driver in my downloads.
Didn't know GameScope was so crucial to the handheld/console mode. Makes sense to me now why launching another game or app, it doesn't change your active window.
I used Linux Arch for a month and had my Steam Deck connected to a monitor, using it as a PC with a keyboard and mouse. I was so impressed with the experience that I decided to install Arch on my main PC as well. However, I eventually switched back to Windows because of several issues, such as my keyboard’s macro keys not working in Linux, audio problems, sleep mode issues, and wireless/Bluetooth connectivity problems. If Valve were to release SteamOS for general use, I would switch to it immediately. You mentioned there are already good options for a SteamOS-like experience-Chimera, I think you said? Could you recommend a good Linux distro for someone who isn’t very experienced with Linux?
At around 18:14, you mention that gamescope doesn't support anything other than AMD graphics cards. Gamescope does work on my Nvidia rig just fine (using it to get HDR working properly lmao). There's definitely some driver bugs (which I had to workaround), but it does work well enough for me. Have a nice day and keep up the good work :)
I couldn't get gamescope working for me on my nvidia 3080 ti rig. I needed that to get Neptunia VII working and just gave up at that point where gamescope was needed.
For future context, I'll list the graphics card I'm using and all the relevant software versions I'm running: - Graphics card is a RTX 3080 12gb (running on Nvidia 565.77 proprietary drivers) - Gamescope is version "3.16.1-4-gf873ec78+" built from latest git revision (gamescope-git on AUR) - Desktop is KDE Plasma 6.2.5, running on Wayland. - Distro is Arch, kernel is 6.12.8. - I usually use either the latest Proton-GE (currently 9-22) or Proton Experimental. I have experienced an annoying crash/freeze/hang in some games when using gamescope with the Nvidia drivers and I've had to workaround it by adding "env VKD3D_DISABLE_EXTENSIONS=VK_KHR_present_id,VK_KHR_present_wait %command% " to Steam game launch options (seems to work only on DX12 games, do this only if you're experiencing this issue). Your mileage may vary, however. I hope this helps in getting gamescope working on other peoples machines as well :) If I'm missing anything or said anything incorrect, feel free to ask or correct me.
I've had more fluffing about on windows than Ive had on Arch lol. I've been watching your channel for a long time! I hope your headaches have been okay
To his credit, he did a much better job with this video on Linux Gaming than some more famous ones in the past. Valve and Code Reavers improving so much certainly helps too. I think it really needs a well known person like Linus Sebastian to promote Linux towards people often still know things from 10 years ago which they picked up usually from reading discussions online or by trying some damned RTFM distro that's not suitable for beginners and that's only good in Valve's own hands, before they went back to Windows. I unsubscribed all of his channels and stopped watching LTT when the whole situation around Riley blew up and they also gave away prototype hardware that was supposed to return to the manufacturer.
Same, I scrubbed my youtube and socials of all their content after that. Irredeemable shitshow, especially with his Arrogant "sorry you found out" apology. The sheer hubris.
I think a lot of people hesitate to jump into Linux because they're so invested into windows, that moving to Linux is going to be a hurdle. Having big companies put their hardware behind is very reassuring. The software is mature enough for mainstream use.
I do have to make one correction, it is insanely rare that I have to go to pc gaming wiki for something. Generally like 1 out of every 30 or so games I play I have to figure out how to get ultra wide mode working.
I think it’s interesting Linus focussed so much on Linux being hard to install, especially now an install experience like bazzite is as nice as a windows or MacOS install. My gut feel guess is that 90% plus of windows gamers have never installed an OS from scratch, instead the pre built system comes with it installed and then they just roll through the upgrade process instead. Challenge a user like that to install windows and bazzite and I’d guess they’d find it very similar.
My wife has an Asus ROG Ally X and I constantly have to help her with issues - Windows on a handheld is definitely not a "it just works" experience. She would have a much better time if I would install Bazzite on it but she doesn't want me to.
I'm like not a huge nerd, but like I went from Mint to Arch to Nix in about 3 months of my Linux journey When Linus was like it's still a bit difficult to understand, I'm just like how I guess maybe the barrier to learning it is that people think it's boring and so that makes it difficult? Idk
The point is having to learn anything at all. People don't want to learn a new way of doing things, because the current experience they have isn't so bad that it's worth investing time into learning how to do another method. This applies in many contexts of people considering the switch from Windows to Linux - Windows may have its issues, but they're not worth installing a new operating system and having to use a command line for a while to fix.
Isn't SteamOS based on Manjaro? They might as well just partner with the Manjaro team and focus on their immutable version to use as the new base. That alone might fix most of the hardware compatibility issues.
On my Linux gaming rig, SPDIF(TOSLink) is being a pain for GZDoom and other games. The sound card in question is an Asus Xonar U3(has Dolby licenses/hardware). In Linux, the link goes to sleep after a second or two and cuts off the second or so of a new sound if music is not playing in game. IE doom menu sound or pistol sound when firing a single shot. The Asus windows drivers don't have this problem. I think they are keeping the link alive at all times. Playing a youtube vid in the background at 1% volume fixes it, but it's a pain as I need TOSLINK for my 5.1 surround sound system. In order to get rid of TOSLINK all together, I would need to buy a AVR receiver....that would give me an all HDMI solution.
Not on reboot but during the next Update, at least as far as i know. And maybe good to know: you can do almost everything in your Home. Install Programs, Set Up Services, whatever. Some Things can't be changed but the whole Thing is at least as customizable as Windows without ever touching the Base OS
I don't get it? Is there any major Linux distro that doesn't work with Steam/Proton? All I had to do was install Steam and enable Proton within Steam and all my games run without a hitch.
I have to disagree with you on the printing. One of the things that was advertised was that you can use the steam deck as a computer, and printing is a bog standard computing task. Every computer should be able to print. Adding it should at least be optional.
At 10:32 you can't download deb steam os 2 [Download the SteamOS installation] has all ready been replace Steam Deck Image form nov 2023 3.5.7 if you try to get version 2.
5:12 I actually find the Chimera installer "less" scary than the Bazzite one because it's literally just, "What drive would you like to install to?" And then it just does its thing, 😛
I would love to own a steamdeck... but no Valve hardware is availiable here in Norway... so you would need to buy it seccond hand, or get a friend, who for example lives in Sweden, to buy it for you, and then ship it to you, and then risk not being able to send it back to Valve if there is a waranty issue, etc.
There are really only a couple things keeping me on Windows these days. For some reason I've been unable to get the pc version of House of The Dead 3 working on any distro I've tried despite there being a configuration for it using PlayonLinux (I've also tried configuring through Bottles and even Lutris, each one had its own unique issue that made it unplayable), and also I have a Phillips Hue smart bulb as a backlight behind my monitor for ambience and the app for it is not supported on any distro I've tried. I think I can confidently say that if those things were ever solved I would strongly consider migrating to Linux as my daily driver. Until then though, I'm still gonna be using a dual boot setup. I'm glad to see things coming along like this though, it really gives me hope that one day that day will come for me.
Glad you talked about the audio issue. I have the same problem with Bazzite not pumping sound through HDMI (which was working on Windows). Now I don't have anything plugged into it but I wonder if that's where the audio was going? Have to see if I have any old speakers laying around. I did try manually selected HDMI for audio but I got lost and couldn't get back into steam without rebooting Bazzite and thus any change I made reset.
It resets itself when it updates he corrected himself in the comments. I for one am excited for SteamOS, I work in IT but when I am at home I don't want to take time to figure stuff out I just want to relax and play on my PC or use it for watching media etc...Linux has come a long way since last time I tried it and I am looking forward to an official release with a corporation that is PC gaming backing the development so much easier for the little guy.
I'm researching Linux right now as im a windows 10 user who is not happy with windows 11 and may switch to Linux once October comes around. Happy to find this channel as i want to know more about Linux both good and bad. I probably won't go for steam OS as i want to be able to do more than gaming but definitely do want steam and there seams to be plenty support for it.. Luckily i have an AMD GPU 5600xt but my CPU is a intel 11400f, no idea if that's supported.
I dont know if i would say flat hub has anything you want. Tried to make a steam deck my main programming environment and basically everything was painfully out of date. On other hand it came with podman pre-installed... so i was able to just make any dev box i wanted.
The last few days I tried a few distros and I really like Mints look. The problem I have that all my games have been modded and getting Linux to work with mod tools is a nightmare for me. If there are more native mod tools that you don't have to run the windows version of the tool that's when I will switch. All my games run flawlessly on Linux and the desktop is so good, but for now I have to stay with windows.
I am a arch linux gamer and I love trouble shooting as much as gaming. I recently helped two co-workers build gaming pc, one of them played Xbox and loved playing whatever his friends were playing so I set him up on windows, the other had a home made arcade running off a hacked PS3 and a few raspberry pi projects so I set him up with Linux, both are happily enjoying there setup. My point is nothing is right for everyone, and everything has its place. Do what's right for you, and there will is no "year of the linux gaming pc". There is only education and growth.
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I'm 42, have been using MD-Dos and Windows since I was 12. I switched to Linux Mint a month ago and have zero reason to boot up my windows drive. If I can make the switch and use it as my daily driver, then why should the majority wait for Steam OS? Linux Mint does a great job of making windows users feel at home I think. Switch right now!
@@Slinky511nx7 50 something mint user here, I love it.
Aye bro should link where u can buy steam decks too even tho it wouldnt be an affiliate link
@@Slinky511nx7 I gave a Linux Mint mini PC to an 80-year-old lady, and she has no problem using it. Linux has been ready for general public use for a long time.
not only is Hero in Flathub, Lutris is there too
"It just works" is what most people want.
But not even Windows just works.
@thingsiplay It used to, then they bloated it with AI, Un-nessary Programs, and a whole bunch of ancient systems that are inefficient.. it can make for a sub-par gaming experience even if it has the best compatibility.
I think Linux "just works" in more scenarios than Windows does. It's just that Windows is more familiar to folks so they overlook when it is an obnoxious inconvenience (or worse).
@@thingsiplay The difference is that when it doesn't it is the exception not the rule.
@@gardiner_bryant well typically linux doesn't "just work", you have to make it just work before it just works
Linux' biggest issue today is that you have to actively take a choice to install it, so if Steam is able to fix this by partnering up with more manufacturers, it's a big win.
I mean if you look at old interviews from Linus (kernel dev). He very much echos that sentiment.
I'd agree with this take.
💯people buy a computer and use whatever OS comes installed with it. There's plenty of people who will simply buy a new computer once they've put enough junk on their current machine to slow it to a crawl. You couldn't make the installation process simple enough for someone like that before it becomes dangerous, i.e., it completely wipes the system with one interaction.
And thats the way it should be.....linux is a strong community....if you are gonna use something made in linux code...then adapt ..this aint microsoft as some would like steam deck to be.
That is so true. I have a couple of experiences of introducing non-tech people to Linux systems as their first proper computing experience. And it's a broad spectrum, some of those are older people who last used MS-DOS or Windows 95 at best, and one of them is a younger family member who previously only had a Windows laptop for a short while when he was like 10 and later we built him a PC with Linux on it to save the cost of buying Windows. He was given the option later to buy Windows, but all his games ran the way they should so he saw no need to. He's been on Linux for 3 years now. In both cases these users learned (or re-learned) using computers with Linux from the beginning and for them that's the default, Windows is the weird one.
This proves that Linux is not "hard" in most cases, it's just not what people are used to, especially with so many desktop enviroments that provide very different experiences. But give people a Linux OS preinstalled and they will not question it and will eventually learn.
7:45 - I don’t quite agree with the observation that people care that Valve is behind the operating system. Rather, they care that they can buy a device and use it. The penguin migration will happen because people will be able to buy computers with Linux pre-installed; not because Valve is behind SteamOS.
100% agree. I do think SteamOS on Steam Machines and Steam Handhelds will be the can opener to OEMs finally giving up on the Windows discount volume licensing and offering machines with Linux preinstalled though. Then those OEMs wont spend their engineering efforts on Windows drivers and Windows software, they will spend it on Linux drivers and Linux software. And, as you were saying, those pre-installed Linux machines will be the train that brings people to Linux.
Yea, Dell tried selling computers with Linux pre installed way before and distro was ready for general normie use. It was a disaster. Desktop Linux' reputation has yet to recover despite the enormous progress. We need System 76 type systems sold in mainstream storefronts but with complete transparency about what people are getting.
This is absolutely it. We in the tech space will argue until the cows come home about which OS to use and their advantages and disadvantages. But I think this level of familiarity can lead to us forgetting that the vast majority of people just want to buy a machine, turn it on and play.
Linux will increase in popularity in the consumer market as more devices come with it pre-installed. The people who actually sit down and install their OS and decide what they want (be it Windows or some flavour of Linux) are a very small minority.
Valve is giving manufacturers an excuse to pre-install it for the end user.
I don't think it's 100% that. I think it has a lot more to do with "it just works". Joey doesn't want to be having to decide between Gnome or KDE and they don't want to have to troubleshoot random issues. If it just works they will use it though and I think that's the biggest thing Valve is contributing with SteamOS.
"just like gaming on Windows, a complete mess" Linus was taking about game he was playing, not the setup.
Yeah, he meant his favourite ice hockey game (because he is Canadian, after all) is complete chaos to play, not either SteamOS nor Windows.
I honestly don't get this guy's raging on windows gaming, then it clicked when he said he preferred playing doom with a controller.
You should really check out James Lee "How I broke up with Adobe" This is one of the 1st times I have seen a non-Tech TH-camr basically say F Windows. He brings up some good points about how big tech is now using a money first, and not a human first design.
I did that pre-2000 in the Macromedia-era.
It's all become scamware they don't even bother to make good features any more. They have just taken over these products and given them the Evony treatment. Fake products.
It's EXCELLENT
Money first, human last. I just watched that video in the early hours of the morning when I should've been asleep. Awesome seeing a creator not just proving you don't need Adobe, but also promoting Linux.
I think that has to be hands down one of his best videos.
The reason why the mass likes having a big corporation backing a product is very simple. when there is money involved, you actually get support and updates until the business interest is nolonger there. yes, there are times when corporations stops supporting bc there is no longer financial benefit for them, but as long as there is, they will support these software. heck, the only reason Linux gaming is where it is now is precisely because Valve saw value in making a platform for their game distribution business that doesn't rely on Windows and I think it would have taken a LOT longer if it were up to just volunteers and community support (if ever).
5:29 I think Linus is referring to the fact that there are limited supported mainstream hardware and you need to do your research before blindly installing, or in some cases require some manual workarounds for your hardware. and some distros does require you to do some manual work to get some of the more minor stores like GoG or whatever working and that is not a "your ordinary person" type of experience.
there is also a "windows as the default" is a value add; when a driver for a new piece of hardware is being designed there is a 99% chance the driver is going to be written for Windows first then either ported, or in the worst case needing to be re-written for Linux (sometimes Linux Kernel driver integration people will just spout "make it expect like AMD Graphics driver calls" even for things that are not a graphics driver...).
when it comes to configuring the systems there is a better chance of being struck by lightning then making a windows system config that doesn't work (I don't mean have incompatible CPU motherboard combo), and troubleshooting said configurations is more reproducible on windows.
@@gardian06_85 Unless it has anything to do with Ethernet and USB devices that aren't classes 0x00 or 0xFF - in those cases typically Linux is the ones who gets to have the drivers first. Also server hardware in general, but that's not as relevant for home use.
And the linux desktop as a whole is a similar situation, it's mostly because red hat basically spend all their money to make linux as great as possible
There's a pattern with Linux gaming boosters that they exaggerate every problem with Windows gaming and minimize every problem with Linux gaming. There are many problems with Linux gaming, and lots of the time it doesn't "just work." That's why it isn't at all surprising that people pin their hopes on a corporate sponsor such as Valve. Corporations have an understanding of UX and an appreciation of the importance of polish and lack of rough edges that volunteer FOSS projects just don't.
I had this discussion with a co-worker today. I use Linux and he uses Windows. He is very technical, more than me. He was into folding, overclocking, former WoW gamer, Crypto miner before Bitcoin was a thing and much more. He knows Windows and he play games that don't work on Linux like League of Legends.
I'm a linux user first, gamer second. If Steam and Proton disappeared tomorrow I would still use Linux. I use community builds because I like to support projects/devs and not huge corporate entities. Linux is not for everybody and that's okey. But it's not garbage because Fortnite doesn't run.
Yeah I totally agree with this. Gnome accent colours come to mind. Actually…accent colours in-general come to mind 😂
> Corporations have an understanding of UX.
*insert slideshow of Windows Vista/Aero, Windows 8/Metro, Current Windows 11*
I mean Gardiner obviously knows this since he qualified with the 'once you get it setup it works great'. Sure. Once you get past the problems with anything they generally run smooth afterwards. 🤣
I have flirted with Linux many times, but the faff is strong with this OS. . . Though it has gotten much better over the last couple of decades. My current hold off is 4K monitors and scaling and the weird things it does when gaming. Set to 150%, nice, your game defaults to screen rez of things like 5760x3240 ; or only shows a corner of the screen; or shrinks the mouse to 4picxels wide; or mouse misbehaving by being off centre when you go to inventory or map (might be hardware accel but I am not sure scaling isn't impacting the movement by overexaggerating). Depending on the games these can be mildly annoying to burn it all down frustrating. LOL.
I think the over 40,000 games type thing is a bad marketing choice also. Sure, there are a lot that run, but how many (just like windows) are old old games that no one will take a second look at these days unless they are into retro gaming or something. 🤣
So for me - I am repurposing an old desktop that isn't gaming rated to be a general use Linux box to try linux for other things but gaming. Will probably retry linux on my game rig in another 6 months or closer to win10 phasing out.
They are just inept and plain lazy.
I think that it is very difficult for people in the linux community to see the problem with Linux. For instance as soon as Rufus is involved you have lost a lot of people
I then question why these people are in PC gaming in the first place. You need some form of USB drive installer to even get Windows on your PC.
@@spartaninvirginia Nearly every normie just has windows preinstalled and doesn't have to deal with installing it because they will just pay the noob tax and buy prebuilt systems rather than building their own.
@@koolkrafter5And that's one of the biggest problems; finding a gaming device with Linux preinstalled that doesn't suck.
I mean, Valve could just make a clone of Fedora Media Writer. It asks you what you want, images the flash drive itself and after you're done installing the OS it gives you the option to restore the flash drive. Honestly, on par or even easier than Windows Media Creation Tool
@@spartaninvirginia prebuilts dude. Most of those people won’t care if it has Windows or Linux, but most are Windows Prebuilts.
Also Microsoft also makes that process smooth by making a downloadable that do all the work for you on a USB with an additional option for a Windows ISO, while, as far as I know, Linux needs an ISO and then the use of Rufus.
12:30 This is the issue, you KNOW all the dist´s to be used for gaming, most users dont and dont even know where to start. And the big mass of users dont care if it open source, they dont give a flying F about it. They want it for free and easy to use and work with ALL of their games. THAT´s not what Proton can do in any Dist, damn Proton sucks then it comes to Helldivers. Helldivers 2 runs SMOTH and good on my AMD CPU and AMD GPU, but in Proton, damn its problems even tho it works.. And that´s not acceptable for the general users for SURE!
Around 8:30 ish you mention about companies having comfort in corporation backed stuff, I think maybe you don't understand the context why that would be the case but there is rationale beyond technical.
Risk is one part, if you have a reputation for quality in a space that builds trust but even more than quality and this is true about the Crowdstrike situation is also about not breaking things so they can do their business. So safety and trust are a big deal.
Another part of this is regulatory compliance. Ubuntu, Oracle Linux and RHEL provide compliant images for government regulation. This is more than just signing images but audits, dev time to work on configuration of security profiles...etc those sorts of things cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and they only get a return in those spaces that require compliance. A bank won't use Arch and I don't think Arch cares one bit so this is a use case that the likes or RHEL, OL and Ubuntu...etc can only be attached to and that's fine. The question "can we use Arch?" in those situations even in a Docker is a straight no every time for that reason.
The trickle down to users is about wariness and issues that people have with difficulty in entering the market. I think the only reason why those sorts of people are afraid of Linux is more of a historic hangover about issues that aren't around anymore. And it happens even with technical people, I know a very overpriced software engineering manager who refuses to use Network Manager because of bugs 10 years ago that he had. There is a hill there with regards to perception versus reality.
You nailed many points with your comments. This should be pinned.
Hope your comment gets enough attention.
Yeee
Compliance not just in terms of government regulation, but some certifications (e.g., ISO 27001) either directly or effectively require you to have support contracts for software.
I will reply to my own comment by adding this regarding the "historic hangover" issues: I work in IT since early 90s, and we all know AMD's server CPUs are far more advanced and offer more performance than anything Intel's Xeon-like offers since the last 5+ years. Well, I still stumbled with managers that are supposedly 'tech aware' and are still ordering Intel servers for their datacenters when HP, Dell, Lenovo, IBM, etc all have offers with EPYC servers at a fraction of what an Intel-based server costs, but will outlived and outperformed it. This behavior, in 2020+, has the same kind of historic hangover from the decades prior to 2020 regarding AMD vs Intel, and it costs businesses millions of dollars wasted on the wrong technologies. And all this to say that Arch is the wrong technology to use for Steam OS.
23:10 Not really referring to controllers specifically (or SteamOS), but you basically just described what it's like using Linux for me.
This has never really been a Windows experience for my needs - things generally did JUST work. So I can't really agree with your point about "Windows users are just use to fighting with their system," when, on LINUX, I've spent the past couple of days just trying to get everything to work the way I want it to, unlike on Windows. I use a Windows machine to backup my files and never had an issue, while my Linux servers break all the time from just updating and rebooting. Linux is a pain.
As soon as I watched Linus' video, I was already anticipating your response 🍻
I hope it didn't disappoint
It was inevitable
Ah I don't bother any more, not after I discovered gamers nexus.
Wait a sec, Linus never recommended to install non steam launchers, quite the opposite. He told they found a way to , not even THE way, and he recommended to stick to stick of whats in the steam repository (and you, correctly, told Heroic is there...)...
When you're as big as Linus, the example given is dethatched from the wording nuance and instead attributed an endorsement factor just by being shown on scree, for Joey Mainstream especially.
To get to the idea stated in your OP you need 3 things:
Above average Eng comprehension skillz (found a way =/= The way)
Prior, at Least average Linux and SteamOS experience. Y is that git-hub option not recommended ? Have the ❗spidy sense for it.
Attention span. It was at the end of the video. Linus Himself made a video about video length, structure, drop-off. Actually not just A video.
Personal note. I failed at the 2nd item. Never cared about SteamOS and didn't have the ⁉sense . But at least i'm nird and i would obsessively research "Is this good? " before even testing a new OS, not to mention committing.
Edit: typo.
The LTT video has me really hopeful, I'm not against learning stuff in Linux, it's just that I want a no hassle living room PC, which SteamOS seems PERFECT for. I just don't have the time to get it working consistently and I dont want to do my job at home
You can pay for somebody to setup SteamOS.
The same way you pay for formating a virus from windows.
@@mercurieteDoesn’t paying someone to setup SteamOS defeat the purpose of using a free OS?
@jbingbao no, you are confusing free as in a beer with free as in freedom.
You can pay a person for do IT work for you.
It only took me a few hours here and there every few days over 6 months learning Linux from scratch to get the experience you are talking about. Was it really annoying at times...oh yeah. Did it anger me at times...oh yeah. Does it bother me now nearly a year later...nope. It is worth it, even reading 10 pages per day in a Linux book (command line, shell scripting). You would be surprised at the issues that seemed impossible to me, and after maybe 10 minutes searching the net I found the answer. Going down this route saves you so much money, not only in what is spent on software, but also ignoring the forced hardware upgrades that Microsoft loves forcing on their users in order to run their latest and greatest OS (Windows 11 runs just as bad for me as XP did, no thanks Microsoft). Bottom line, I have a gaming PC running Linux, my 4tb Steam library games run fine, in my living room hooked up to a high end Samsung 65 inch TV, desktop looks slick, liquid cooled, and the computer runs like a Mac.
This is my thing, I am perfectly comfortable using Linux, it's fine, but I don't need a project every time I want to do any random thing. People can hate on Windows/Mac all they want, but fact is, yes, they just kind of work and do what I expect them to. I do IT at work, I DON'T want to do IT at home/on my free time or have friends/family confused because this or that module is broken.
And for anyone who complains about Windows/Apple/Google collecting/selling your data / advertising to you. Yeah, sure. But You're looking at a TH-cam comment. And if you're in the US, you're either running an Android or Apple phone. Spare me the fake outrage.
Just an FYI very shortly after their video went up there’s a pinned comment correcting several things in his video including the “reboot to fix” immutable OS changes.
But I fully agree Heroic or Junk Store (what I use based on your recommendation)
He mentioned heroic but don't see it on Google or steam search but I think he said you could just install it. Any idea where to find reference?
I installed bazzite on my rog ally 3 days ago. I don‘t agree with your statement about the ease of installation. The installer appears to be simple, but the partition manager was useless for me. The simple task of wiping the SSD was too much - I had to go to the commandline to delete all partitions.
And then it took me three attempts to have the files copy over - it just froze. Now that was likely due to the usb connection being janky, but I‘d expect an error message and retry button.
also the installer could be more touch screen friendly
But that‘s just feedback on that particular statement in the video. Once installed the software is awesome and I really enjoy my higher def screen, while the experience is so streamlined
The way he talks as if Bazzite is actually extremely viable bugged me a little. It is not. We shouldn't talk as if it replaces an official steamOS launch even in the slightest
Linus did say not to use scripts and to stick to the discovery store. He was making a point of the rabbit holes that exist. I have fallen into them. The fact that you have to use this "heroic" app is exactly the point that Linux doesn't just work. The installers for these apps should just install on Linux.
I think Linus has Linux people on his team also, but Gardiner didn't elaborate other than it's not the best way. But if Linus was just googling and came across the script like a regular non-tech would do, then yeah, how would people know not to use it. Beyond the usual never run scripts you aren't sure about the origin of. Especially if it was the prompted answer on a linux forum. . .
@@sociallyferal4237 Truth be told, the one big (pun not intended) Linux Guru LTT had that would REALLY help ease people into Linux once again has left LMG long ago.
@@OfficialDJSoru Ah. I have seen a few LTT videos, but I am not a follower. So that might explain it.
You're wrong about Bazzite. It's pretty difficult to install as a dual-boot option. It works great if you just nuke 1 drive on the PC and leave it at that. But I'm running Linux as a daily and wanted to setup Bazzite alongside in a new partition, but sharing my already existing Steam library. It's just impossible to do, you get lots of different errors, the bootloader does not work, most of the time I got fatal errors during the install which aborted everything. I even tried rsync'ing my way around by copying a clean installation that I did on my laptop, but it also failed multiple times. Spent an entire day trying every kind of approach that I knew about. So yeah, it's very difficult to install it on a separate partition with shared home and EFI partitions.
This! I wanted to keep SteamOS + Windows on my SD OLED while installing Bazzite and I ended up just wiping the whole disk and leaving Bazzite there. It was a nightmare of raining errors, and that's on top of the awful Fedora installer that I've never liked.
Mind you, I'm a senior sysadmin with lots of Linux experience who has used desktop linux as my *main AND ONLY OS for more than 10 years, and as dual boot for even longer, and virtualized desktop Linux for even longer.
@@KnightRiderOfVoid fedora installer is the worst.
I think we should be pushing more towards fixing it instead of saying "it will get fixed with time". we should be making lists and push towards fixing those issues one by one until we exhaust them.
I think the biggest issue with the linux ecosystem is that while it's awesome when it works, a lot of software never gets around to making something fully polished, but I've seen that things are improving a lot now.
I have seen some youtube videos talking about coders and those who have knowledge and experience getting to that retirement point and there being less new blood coming into the Linux Dev space. So there are probably many projects and features that might just drop off.
As someone who Really wants to get off of Windows I've tried everything, from Cachy OS to Fedora to Mint to Debian, but Linux is simply not there yet. The fact that so many games and software simply doesn't work on Linux feels like forcing myself to use an OS that is clearly inferior just because Gnome looked good to me.
The amount of games that don’t work is so few compared to those that do. I literally only can’t get a few anticheat games to work. Everything else does. 17k verified games on protondb, and 23k playable. It’s easy for me to just decide that if the devs are actively blocking linux, it’s not worth my time.
Yeah anti cheat games most of the time sucks would recommend searching protondb for games which work and which do not.
@@InnerFire6213 And 15K of them are pre 2007. . . 🤣
There's two minor but noticeable issues I encountered playing with Cinnamon Mint distro: 1) HDR. HDR on Linux is still not ready for primetime. I suspect we'll get there by the end of the year maybe but like, this has been in works for too long and HDR is nearly a decade old at this point. 2) Clock related problems when dual booting. Basically, windows will forget what time it is when you swap from linux to windows.
There's other minor issues that players can't control like anticheat support and general game compatibility, but Linux has come a long way from even just a few years ago. It's just got that last mile kind of stuff to work out before it's truly competitive with windows. Still, I'm surprised how much 'just works' now with little thought required from the user. With Valve giving Arch some muscle, and more people volunteering, we'll get there eventually, probably a lot sooner than people realize.
The clock issues are all on Windows. Back in the 1970 years vendors decided to Go with Unix time on all operating systems. Only Windows doesn't do that, similar to the Drive Letter nonesense they invented and the Backslash separators in paths. Without any good reason they Made dos incompatible to everything Else, so Stop to blame Others for their stupid decissions please
@@matthiasbendewald1803 The Time issue is because Windows expects the BIOS to store time in Local Time. Everything else uses UTC.
The drive letter and path separators weren't invented by Microsoft, they were invented by Gary Kildall for his OS, CP/M, and released by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).
They bought MS-DOS from an outside company. It was originally called 86-DOS and made by Tim Patterson of Seattle Computer Products. It was originally a clone of CP/M, at the time was one of, if not, the biggest and most important Operating Systems of it's day.
These "problems" are a legacy of that lineage. So I'd get your facts straight before you take that condescending tone with people.
Look at:
1. The System Time Page on the Arch Wiki.
2. the CP/M page on Wikipedia, more specifically the Legacy section.
@@matthiasbendewald1803 Not sure I agree about the "drive letter nonsense." The way Linux handles drives is pretty convoluted sometimes.
The clock issue is because Windows wants your Bios time be what ever timezone you set in the OS but Linux wants Bios time to be in UTC so you can either tell windows to respect UTC or tell Linux to respect local timezone to fix the issue.
As far as HDR goes I use KDE and HDR works better in Linux then it does in Windows. In windows I would only use HDR to play a game or movie that supported it because anything in SDR looked washed out and the colors were off, like reds being orange instead, but with Linux I activated HDR and haven't disabled it since because it looks great regardless of whether the content is HDR or SDR.
@@dansanger5340 okay; back in the 70ties the UNIX path system was "dominating", as it is today.
What are the advantages of trying to force all volumes into "drive letters" instead of creating one flexible tree of all files? Now you can't just replace the /home folder with an own partition - you'd end up with still having C:\Users plus D:. Which I didn't want.
Yes, sure, the advantage is that you'll always know which drive/partition your files are on by just looking at the path. What else? You probably know it better, so it feels more "natural" to you. The opposite is true for me.
Gardiner, I do not think I can ever express my gratitude to you enough for helping me get gaming working on Linux. I don't play a lot of games but the few that I do, it was your videos that helped me do it. No more dual boot, thank you!!!
I'm so glad I could help!
37:30 Linus is correct that the changes are wiped every reboot if you don't reboot often, thanks to frequent OS updates
That's not true. I was right that the OS updates are what wipe the system, not reboots. They even admitted it in their corrections comment. th-cam.com/video/tdR-bxvQKN8/w-d-xo.html&lc=UgzgZvtumzhDjuOHlAp4AaABAg
Edit: I misunderstood your comment. My bad!
@gardiner_bryant maybe I phrased it oddly. I reboot my steam deck infrequently, so every reboot ends up applying an update
@@gardiner_bryantthe comment is about how if you only ever reboot to update, it will always wipe on a reboot
@@XGD5layer standard joey here.. and yeah .. outside of a update, i only restartet my steam deck twice in half a year
Sorry, I had a long day yesterday and I simply didn't comprehend what you were trying to say!
Correct me if I'm wrong but: I think rm -rf /* on SteamOS would basically be a worse factory reset (assuming the filesystem is locked)
I just switched to Bazzite and learned quickly that having a valve index connected or a 3.5mm audio cable connected caused issues. Once both were unplugged everything works with no issues. Can’t wait to start diving in to Linux gaming full time on my main PC.
The problem with gaming on Linux is the huge fragmentation and lack of standards. This includes simple things like installing apps (no single install format), maintaining repositories (GPG keys expire and the end user doesn't have a one-click solution to fix it without using console commands), inconsistent UX/UI (we may have a modern system, but the apps look like they're from the 90s). How many modern GPU features work on Linux (RT, FG, VRR, HDR, HDMI, low latency, AV encoders)? You pay for 100% product and its features and what you get on Linux is 50%. No easy-way to overclock, no easy-way to monitor/change fan speed, no well-known and established software for gamers (beside OBS and Steam). Proton-GE, Wine-GE, X11 vs Wayland - those tools are not easy-to-use, configure-and-forget for non-technical users. You need to do a research which version is compatible with your game version. In my opinion, most problems can be solved with ONE (emphasis on ONE) dedicated distro, but it has to be published, maintained and developed by large corp with serious interest in profit, like Valve - pre-configured shop, pre-configured repos, pre-installed tools following the same UX/UI and/or overlays, a control panel where you can change every important function, certified drivers from Intel/AMD/NVIDIA/Logitech/Corsair and so on + easy to install and not game-breaking updates every 2 weeks. Each element of the ecosystem must be coherent and compatible with each other (even if developed/manufactured by different companies).
I use Linux in my daily work as a developer and it fits this use-case perfectly (docker, kubernetes, intellij, databases etc.). But I wouldn't recommend it to my younger brother or non-technical colleague - unless they have an IT guy who can support them via Remote Desktop.
Many content creators make experiments switching from Windows to Linux, but they only show their first week of experience. However, this system has to defend itself for several years of daily use. So there will definitely be some technical, compatibility, update or performance issues (hardware issues too - you need to do a research and buy hardware which will work well). I'm interested in what happens next and how the end user is supposed to fix it itself? By using the command line like a developer? Trust unverified comments, where trolling often appears (i.e. "remove french language" joke)? Trust outdated guides, because the pace of Linux development is rapid and often unstable + differs per distro? Again, there are no universally accepted best practices among community. Reading whole tirades among community members about which way to solve the problem is better on GitHub or Reddit? Give me a break. It's a great option for IT guys, developers and DevOps: you can discuss with people of a similar skill level which solution has a better pros/cons ratio in your specific use-case, perform automated tests, verify what stupid/crazy ideas people write on the internet, and deliver it to the production environment.
So no: buying computers with Linux pre-installed won't help (at least not as much as we hope). People will just ask customer service to install Windows or do it themselves once they encounter first major issue. Maybe Valve should create some gaming-focused foundation/consortium and bring together the big-tech? That would help with the lack of standards + we (as gamers) would have a list of verified hardware that works seamlessly with SteamOS.
@@airwaves93 An amazingly based take here. Couldn’t agree with you more mate.
Oh man…i got tiered to read all this😄 I’m just a normal user and I don’t have many knowledge, but with some reading I install Fedora on my PC, install steam and for the games that I play it just works…I think the secret is to have the right hardware…
Another thing regarding there not being a clear standard for doing things, I've noticed there's quite a lot you NEED to learn about to have the best possible gaming experience. Lots of letter combinations (DXVK, VKD3D, AMDVLK, mesa, and similar), and lots of tiny tricks you just need to know about (gamemoderun %command%, wine profiles, ProtonUp-Qt, -dx11 and other such flags, random env vars you need to set, etc.)
Many games will probably work great "out of the box", once you have everything set up, but suddenly you run into fps drops or stuttering in one game, and a simple env var or command flag might fix the problem instantly, but you won't know about it until you research it. And if you want to run mods, there's even more issues you may run into. Like mods simply not working if you run the flatpak version of steam, but works fine if installed from the package manager.
Contrast that with on windows, you download the installer and that's it. And you download the AMD or Nvidia graphics drivers, and that's it. Rarely do you have to fiddle about with hundreds of different little levers to get things working well. (But in the few cases when it's not working well on windows, you usually can't do much as about it either.)
@@Imevul well my experience with Fedora Linux is been very good, no problems at all with the games i play. I guess I’m lucky😄
Most Distros come with a Store, you have no clue to what you are talking about.
Anyone knows what’s the issue with the nonsteamlaunchers script? In the video he didn’t explain why it is the wrong way, just curious if it is because of a drama or if technically it’s bad
I did explain it but I didn't go into a ton of detail.
There are several issues with the Nonsteamlaunchers script.
1. By default it installs all launchers and games in a single proton prefix. This leads to app contamination and general instability.
2. By installing all launchers and games in a single prefix, you can't customize proton settings on a per-game basis.
3. Losing the ability to set specific versions of proton for each game you have installed means that there will be many games that are less performant than they could be or they might not work at all.
I think his point was that if you buy steam deck just for the OS, you still can only use the OS on the steam deck. Buying a steam deck doesn't give you easy access to the OS on your own hardware.
36:35 To be fair, Linus only said they "found a scripton the Internet" but actually recommended staying away from the script and using the storefront instead.
Yeh he cuts in with his comments before listening fully to what LTT was saying so jumped the gun on a few things video
You missed the part with the printer. BTW also annoying thing for me since I use the deck as my primary all-day pc. As a dev I was able to write a script which I run everytime after an OS-update. But printing is so basic and does not take much disk-space, that it simply should be on board by default.
In fact I think none of the standard features of Plasma should be cut off, because for most users this will be the first Linux desktop they get in touch with. And from their perspective it just looks that printing (or whatever has been cut off) is not working in Linux at all.
The same has been with KDE-Connect in the beginning (Simply not there), but in the meantime Valve added it finally. I really hope that a publicly available SteamOS will bring the complete Desktop experience.
They actually added printer support in May - just in a spot that Linus didn't think to look. They pinned this correction to their video.
@godminnette2 Yess. Just noticed it now. Halleluja. And I also noticed after my last update that the new BIOS Version not shutting down my steam deck anymore when playing Witcher 3. Great not needing to prevent updating anymore 🙌
A video covering the differences between Heroic and Lutris might be awesome! Food for thought.
Work needs to be done on VR as well on Linux. I dual boot just so I can play stuff on the Quest smoothly. I got it working on Linux but it's way too janky atm. All my other games I stick to my fave distro Aurora DX (immutable os where I do software dev for my job as well)
What's the issue with NonSteamLaunchers?
Yes would like to know why as well. If it's "objectively wrong" then it should be simple to quickly explain why?
I don't get the hate towards NonSteamLaunchers. It works great, I've never had any issues.
And you didn't even elaborate what exactly is wrong with it so I assume it's some kind of personal vendetta.
UPD. Heroic launcher is awesome but it doesn't work with Ubisoft store, for example.
Because (maybe it's different now) you install the store under the same proton that the games are. If it's only for a couple recent games, you will never see a problem. But when you need a specific version for an old game, you have to change proton for the launcher and the other games.
Yeah utilize Lutris on my PC. Tried Heroic early on but found Lutris more complete. Switched to NonSteamLaunchers and didn't go back.
I actually would prefer to not use the native launcher, but it doesn't work that way for every store. But I have had issue utilizing the storefront for GOG and Epic. So not perfect.
@@Hamtarotaro I just tried to run a couple of games (installed using NSL) under different versions of Proton, and everything seems to work just fine.
You probably couldn't launch 2 games simultaneously but I've never had the need to do that.
@@hamartia_theorist that was the only problem for me at the time (I don't know about the drama) so it's good that you can select a different proton for each game.
i'm very confused about why chimera keeps coming up as a viable distro for gamers to use in the same sentence as bazzite. i looked up the installation process and it seems like infinitely more work than installing ubuntu was 20 years ago, everything is manual and command line based. it reminds me of when i used to use arch and how much of a pain that was to install by myself. i can't imagine even a technically inclined gamer would bother to go through all of this. am i missing something? please tell me if i am because i'm wracking my brain trying to figure out why both gardiner and linus brought it up
Linus' audience more casual, therefore the difficulty he refers to setting up Linux is relative to his audience. It makes sense.
The only thing stopping me from installing bazzite on my living room PC is the lack of HDMI 2.1 support. I want to be able to fully utilize my OLED TV, which includes VRR, HDR, and 120fps support.
Not that there is security when a corporation is behind a project, it is a matter of FUNDS! I don´t see it otherwise.
Why include all drivers in the kernal? Wouldn't it be better to simply have the kernal install the drivers when it detects a new device that needs a driver?
excluding live services games with anti-cheats, there's literally no support to get cn/jp/kr visual novels working on the Steam Deck, so video scenes are either pitch black and/or no audio due to WMV codecs support.
tbh, it will never be officially supported due to licensing issues, and never really unofficially supported because the genre is an afterthought by the proton community and Valve staffs, and/or even look down on due to the theme and style of the VNs, especially since a lot of VNs content adult content.
Thank you for your video. As I use arch as my daily driver, and obviously run Steam on it (AMD/RADEON), it never occurred me I´d have to install gamescope. Doing a quick research I've also faced the Deck-ifier and I'm currently trying to decide if I should install gamescope only or the required SteamDeck's binaries for Gamescope as well. Since I'm running KDE Plasma on X11 (not Wayland) I'm reading before doing anything. Any insights are more than welcome.
I'm missing influencers talking about the priority of making Linux not only compatible to Windows games, but also more Windows applications vor * "VASTLY" * improving the chancesd to finally get rid of Windows once and forever, very much! I know multiple people with small offices who just won't make the switch solely because of Photoshop for example!
A few months ago or last year linus and his channels were in a lot of heat for pisspoor conduct and misinformed content accused of pushing to many videos out of poor quality, they came out saying they would change and focus on quality.
Now there's less videos coming out but their quality coming from a tech channel clearly show a complete lack of home work, linus is out of touch and thats fine but how can such a large team of people miss so much so often boggles my mind. Update i had missed some stuff he does specify bazzite and some other discros on scrip he's mostly technically right, but i don't know ho or why you would at this stage want to install the steam os image. with any homework you will know it's very clear it's not made for anything else than the steam deck and that there are distributions of linux tailored to make your system work with most or all of the steamOS gamescope goodies so the premise is flawd and misreprents what a steamOS like experience is like today with the nearest being bazzite, chimera, cachyOS.
I think steamdeck is an entry level to the world of Linux but for casual gamers, i doubt it highly. I've seen people who are casual users, whether on phones, desktop, laptops, etc, that keep it so bloody default, that it annoyed me at one point, but now, i kinda get it, the fear of the unknown so to speak. I think one can't underestimate what people routinely see on their tech peripherals and iif steamOS can be with some OEMs like say, HP and Dell and marketed right, I think there is a chance. My friend even bought a new laptop because he couldn't figure out the Linux distro (i installed it) on his old laptop because it didn't have notepad or something..that was really eye opening for me that people stick to what they know , unlike tech enthusiasts
8:18 as someone who works on support, in one of these "big name brands", I can assure you that if I'm behind the screen. You're screwed XD
Every single issue described in the "What Gamescope really is" section is also present on Windows. (The game changing resolution and then a pop-up taking focus, forcing you to go for a keyboard and all that stuff).
Gamescope *doesn't* have those issues. It was designed to fix each and every one of them.
@gardiner_bryant yea, I ment when you don't use it.
I see within 5-10 years linux taking a substantial market share at least when concerning gaming pcs. In a lot of ways, it's genuinely just straight up superior to windows, while really only slightly lacking in others. And anticheat is strictly a developer problem, not an issue with linux itself.
Little sidenote: Heroic even offers "add to steam library" in the menu for each game, so installing games in heroic lets you add those games to the steam library and play it there. It is not perfect as you'll not be able to use all of steams integrated features of course but for the integration of gog or epic games into the console-like-experience it's extremely awesome
My used devices in 2024 according to steam say that 2024 was the year of Linux in the desktop.
13:30 removing the printer drivers also means no cups vulnerabilities, so that's nice
10:22
He probably means that they'll make something akin to the windows utility that can automatically download and flash a windows image to a usb drive.
It works well for normal users, but it's kinda clunky and annoying to use.
I've been a Nobara Linux user for an entire year... and my experience has been fantastic. Steam and Proton barely gave me any problem. And my 8 bit do controller work flawlesly.
The overwhelming majority of people watching LTT would not even care about running an immutable OS... As a software engineer, I actually prefer running one. Currently using Bazzite's big sister Bluefin and absolutely love it. Shoutout to Jorge and everyone at Universal Blue, you all are doing great work!
@@theBoomerDoomer I try to like it, but can't help but give up. Tried bazzite and vanilla on, but having a stable Linux install that I don't have to reinstall every two months is very intimidating for me. Fedora and arch (cachy) just let me mess with things a lot and I find it annoying to get around not being to mess with system files. That being said, I wonder if I can use distrobox and supercharge bazzite into a stable, immutable yet wildly capable Linux install. Might be worth a try once.
I work a lot with containers and always wondered why nobody has come out with a desktop container to make it more robust and portable. Just reading Bluefin's intro page it seems like that's what this is. Is that right?
Okay, so I dunno if LTT actually found about this but they are KINDA right. SteamOS 3 always has two copies of the root and boot file systems(A and B) on hand. If SteamOS fails to start for any reason it will swap to the other root file system. You can infact manually choose which root fs to boot into by holding power plus the quick access button when powering up your steam deck.
I found this out when a bungled beta channel update had me stuck in an update loop never being able to update to the actual current version. It's a pretty rudimentary backup solution but it does work really well for the immutable FS.
I found it funny how he showed Chimera Linux , when he meant ChimeraOS
I just checked - about 2/3 of my Steam library is now "verified or playable". Still leaves about 500+ games that are untested or don't work, but… you know, it's a lot better than the last time I checked.
One of my favorite VR experiences on my setup is Resident Evil 7 with the praydog mod. Over the weekend I was able to get this working on Linux with little effort, its amazing how far Linux gaming has come. I use OpenSuse primarily, but I wont mind trying SteamOS when its fully released.
As a windows sys admin who personally uses linux for his desktop and for homelab, it is my desire to start migrating regular users to linux... however, if you work in a company with M365 you will struggle. It isn't worth it.
If steam would move away from being mostly games only, and just become an entire package manager by itself, that would be awesome. Most package managers are awful, and I have never found one that I would prefer to use over steam, if I had the choice to use steam.
I'm relatively new to PC gaming and Linux in general. I'm running chimera OS on my living room PC. Watched 1 or 2 tutorials and Installed it no problem. Was intimidating for sure. But I've had almost no issue with it for close to a year. I did try to run the PC on windows at first but got tired of always having to reach for a keyboard at unexpected times. Excited to see how steam OS and Linux gaming progress and evolve going forward.
I just discovered this channel. Great commentary. Subscribed.
I think the biggest point that most people on both sides of the argument gloss over is what you both briefly mentioned: Windows has problems too, but you're probably used to dealing with _those_ problems if you've been using Windows for a long time. Same goes for the whole Android vs iOS turf war. And what's nice for the nooby user is that since a lot more people use Windows, if you run into a problem there it's way more likely that someone else has already found a solution and written a beginner-friendly guide for it.
So while I'm all for Linux becoming a more inviting OS for gaming (love my Steam Deck), I do think users need a little tough love: the only way to ultimately reduce the amount of frustration and alienation you feel for the device that your way of life likely depends on, is to _suck it up_ and learn a bit more about working with it.
Been using Bazzite on a couple of machines for sometime now, but I just installed stock SteamOS on a mini AMD machine, and I do prefer it, Bazzite is great, but SteamOS "feels" a little snappier and performance "feels" better, but this maybe just my interpretation.
"I had have trouble with sound in the past"
Same though it's very rare and usually very minor these days. And I've also had trouble with sound on Windows - from the mediocre sound controls just not being frustrating to use to windows updates deleting my audio drivers twice in a three month period a year or two ago. I switched over to my windows install for something for the first time in months only to find that my audio didn't work. After some digging I found that the audio drivers were wrong (not flagged in device manager though). So I spent 20 minutes trying to find the correct driver, grabbed it and reinstalled it and all was well...until I booted into windows a few months later and discovered that Windows had fucked up my audio again. Thankfully I only had to spend a few minutes fixing it since I knew what the issue was and already had the correct driver in my downloads.
Didn't know GameScope was so crucial to the handheld/console mode. Makes sense to me now why launching another game or app, it doesn't change your active window.
You actually can use printers. Cups is installed, you just have to set the service to auto start with systemctl
Linus did address the reboot/update error in the comments.
It would be wild if Valve turns out to be the next major OS vendor. Nobody saw Google coming with Android and now we have 3 major OS vendors.
I used Linux Arch for a month and had my Steam Deck connected to a monitor, using it as a PC with a keyboard and mouse. I was so impressed with the experience that I decided to install Arch on my main PC as well. However, I eventually switched back to Windows because of several issues, such as my keyboard’s macro keys not working in Linux, audio problems, sleep mode issues, and wireless/Bluetooth connectivity problems.
If Valve were to release SteamOS for general use, I would switch to it immediately.
You mentioned there are already good options for a SteamOS-like experience-Chimera, I think you said? Could you recommend a good Linux distro for someone who isn’t very experienced with Linux?
At around 18:14, you mention that gamescope doesn't support anything other than AMD graphics cards. Gamescope does work on my Nvidia rig just fine (using it to get HDR working properly lmao). There's definitely some driver bugs (which I had to workaround), but it does work well enough for me.
Have a nice day and keep up the good work :)
Interesting! I installed Bazzite on my living room PC (which has a 3080 in it) and gamescope didn't work for me.
I couldn't get gamescope working for me on my nvidia 3080 ti rig. I needed that to get Neptunia VII working and just gave up at that point where gamescope was needed.
For future context, I'll list the graphics card I'm using and all the relevant software versions I'm running:
- Graphics card is a RTX 3080 12gb (running on Nvidia 565.77 proprietary drivers)
- Gamescope is version "3.16.1-4-gf873ec78+" built from latest git revision (gamescope-git on AUR)
- Desktop is KDE Plasma 6.2.5, running on Wayland.
- Distro is Arch, kernel is 6.12.8.
- I usually use either the latest Proton-GE (currently 9-22) or Proton Experimental.
I have experienced an annoying crash/freeze/hang in some games when using gamescope with the Nvidia drivers and I've had to workaround it by adding "env VKD3D_DISABLE_EXTENSIONS=VK_KHR_present_id,VK_KHR_present_wait %command%
" to Steam game launch options (seems to work only on DX12 games, do this only if you're experiencing this issue). Your mileage may vary, however.
I hope this helps in getting gamescope working on other peoples machines as well :)
If I'm missing anything or said anything incorrect, feel free to ask or correct me.
I've had more fluffing about on windows than Ive had on Arch lol. I've been watching your channel for a long time! I hope your headaches have been okay
Thank you! They've been happening again with more frequency but I'm going to get my eyes checked soon.
To his credit, he did a much better job with this video on Linux Gaming than some more famous ones in the past. Valve and Code Reavers improving so much certainly helps too. I think it really needs a well known person like Linus Sebastian to promote Linux towards people often still know things from 10 years ago which they picked up usually from reading discussions online or by trying some damned RTFM distro that's not suitable for beginners and that's only good in Valve's own hands, before they went back to Windows. I unsubscribed all of his channels and stopped watching LTT when the whole situation around Riley blew up and they also gave away prototype hardware that was supposed to return to the manufacturer.
Any specific about the LTT riley situation? Never heard about that
I agree that this was better than their previous videos.
What happened with Riley?
Same, I scrubbed my youtube and socials of all their content after that. Irredeemable shitshow, especially with his Arrogant "sorry you found out" apology. The sheer hubris.
@@gardiner_bryant *Abuse*
@@gardiner_bryant to put it very lightly, she got treated like no woman should be treated.
I think a lot of people hesitate to jump into Linux because they're so invested into windows, that moving to Linux is going to be a hurdle. Having big companies put their hardware behind is very reassuring. The software is mature enough for mainstream use.
I do have to make one correction, it is insanely rare that I have to go to pc gaming wiki for something. Generally like 1 out of every 30 or so games I play I have to figure out how to get ultra wide mode working.
I think it’s interesting Linus focussed so much on Linux being hard to install, especially now an install experience like bazzite is as nice as a windows or MacOS install. My gut feel guess is that 90% plus of windows gamers have never installed an OS from scratch, instead the pre built system comes with it installed and then they just roll through the upgrade process instead. Challenge a user like that to install windows and bazzite and I’d guess they’d find it very similar.
My wife has an Asus ROG Ally X and I constantly have to help her with issues - Windows on a handheld is definitely not a "it just works" experience. She would have a much better time if I would install Bazzite on it but she doesn't want me to.
I'm like not a huge nerd, but like I went from Mint to Arch to Nix in about 3 months of my Linux journey
When Linus was like it's still a bit difficult to understand, I'm just like how
I guess maybe the barrier to learning it is that people think it's boring and so that makes it difficult? Idk
>Nix
>Not a huge nerd
lol okay, you don't have to pretend you're not a redditor
The point is having to learn anything at all. People don't want to learn a new way of doing things, because the current experience they have isn't so bad that it's worth investing time into learning how to do another method. This applies in many contexts of people considering the switch from Windows to Linux - Windows may have its issues, but they're not worth installing a new operating system and having to use a command line for a while to fix.
@@shib5267 Reddit is where the internet goes to die lol
I left it years ago
Linus was lying. He knows it isn't difficult to understand but he is a Microsoft fanboy.
@@Barrettfloyd82 You represent an amazing example of what is wrong with the Linux community. Good job.
Fedora isn’t a steam os clone. It was so easy to install. And it just works. No need for terminal commands
Isn't SteamOS based on Manjaro? They might as well just partner with the Manjaro team and focus on their immutable version to use as the new base. That alone might fix most of the hardware compatibility issues.
On my Linux gaming rig, SPDIF(TOSLink) is being a pain for GZDoom and other games. The sound card in question is an Asus Xonar U3(has Dolby licenses/hardware). In Linux, the link goes to sleep after a second or two and cuts off the second or so of a new sound if music is not playing in game. IE doom menu sound or pistol sound when firing a single shot. The Asus windows drivers don't have this problem. I think they are keeping the link alive at all times. Playing a youtube vid in the background at 1% volume fixes it, but it's a pain as I need TOSLINK for my 5.1 surround sound system. In order to get rid of TOSLINK all together, I would need to buy a AVR receiver....that would give me an all HDMI solution.
"Immutable" means the system files (i.e. the OS) are read-only. Anything that is added on, that isn't stored on /home, will be deleted on reboot.
Not on reboot but during the next Update, at least as far as i know. And maybe good to know: you can do almost everything in your Home. Install Programs, Set Up Services, whatever. Some Things can't be changed but the whole Thing is at least as customizable as Windows without ever touching the Base OS
I don't get it? Is there any major Linux distro that doesn't work with Steam/Proton? All I had to do was install Steam and enable Proton within Steam and all my games run without a hitch.
I have to disagree with you on the printing. One of the things that was advertised was that you can use the steam deck as a computer, and printing is a bog standard computing task. Every computer should be able to print. Adding it should at least be optional.
I was wrong. There is printing support now. And from what I've seen, it's relatively easy to set up
@@gardiner_bryant Groovy, it only took them a couple years. ;)
I want support/compatibility for more digital audio workstation (DAW) software, and I'm very glad to see that gaming has been making good strides.
I can imagine Valve having a flash drive formatting utility built into Steam on Windows and macOS. That would simplify the process significantly.
At 10:32 you can't download deb steam os 2 [Download the SteamOS installation] has all ready been replace Steam Deck Image form nov 2023 3.5.7 if you try to get version 2.
5:12 I actually find the Chimera installer "less" scary than the Bazzite one because it's literally just, "What drive would you like to install to?" And then it just does its thing, 😛
Yeah... Customizing partitions and mount points in Fedora's installer is wildly unintuitive.
I would love to own a steamdeck... but no Valve hardware is availiable here in Norway... so you would need to buy it seccond hand, or get a friend, who for example lives in Sweden, to buy it for you, and then ship it to you, and then risk not being able to send it back to Valve if there is a waranty issue, etc.
There are really only a couple things keeping me on Windows these days. For some reason I've been unable to get the pc version of House of The Dead 3 working on any distro I've tried despite there being a configuration for it using PlayonLinux (I've also tried configuring through Bottles and even Lutris, each one had its own unique issue that made it unplayable), and also I have a Phillips Hue smart bulb as a backlight behind my monitor for ambience and the app for it is not supported on any distro I've tried. I think I can confidently say that if those things were ever solved I would strongly consider migrating to Linux as my daily driver. Until then though, I'm still gonna be using a dual boot setup. I'm glad to see things coming along like this though, it really gives me hope that one day that day will come for me.
So if valve made steam os based console
Would that force game companies to create native linux version of their games?
Any good comparison video for gaming focused Linux distros?
Glad you talked about the audio issue. I have the same problem with Bazzite not pumping sound through HDMI (which was working on Windows). Now I don't have anything plugged into it but I wonder if that's where the audio was going? Have to see if I have any old speakers laying around. I did try manually selected HDMI for audio but I got lost and couldn't get back into steam without rebooting Bazzite and thus any change I made reset.
It resets itself when it updates he corrected himself in the comments. I for one am excited for SteamOS, I work in IT but when I am at home I don't want to take time to figure stuff out I just want to relax and play on my PC or use it for watching media etc...Linux has come a long way since last time I tried it and I am looking forward to an official release with a corporation that is PC gaming backing the development so much easier for the little guy.
I'm researching Linux right now as im a windows 10 user who is not happy with windows 11 and may switch to Linux once October comes around. Happy to find this channel as i want to know more about Linux both good and bad. I probably won't go for steam OS as i want to be able to do more than gaming but definitely do want steam and there seams to be plenty support for it.. Luckily i have an AMD GPU 5600xt but my CPU is a intel 11400f, no idea if that's supported.
Hey thanks GB! love your commentary on this.
I dont know if i would say flat hub has anything you want. Tried to make a steam deck my main programming environment and basically everything was painfully out of date.
On other hand it came with podman pre-installed... so i was able to just make any dev box i wanted.
The last few days I tried a few distros and I really like Mints look. The problem I have that all my games have been modded and getting Linux to work with mod tools is a nightmare for me. If there are more native mod tools that you don't have to run the windows version of the tool that's when I will switch. All my games run flawlessly on Linux and the desktop is so good, but for now I have to stay with windows.
I am a arch linux gamer and I love trouble shooting as much as gaming. I recently helped two co-workers build gaming pc, one of them played Xbox and loved playing whatever his friends were playing so I set him up on windows, the other had a home made arcade running off a hacked PS3 and a few raspberry pi projects so I set him up with Linux, both are happily enjoying there setup. My point is nothing is right for everyone, and everything has its place. Do what's right for you, and there will is no "year of the linux gaming pc". There is only education and growth.
I may be wrong, However gamescope does work with Nvidia Open drivers. I use it all the time on my Linux PC for HDR and things of the sort.