yeah major problem with that, every time some distro managed to become the shipped OS from a manufacturer the OS Dives off a cliff, i remember Time Computers doing it in the UK, and a few others, your quite litterly repeating claims that have been proven to be false.
@@MartinBarker Then do you know the better way to grow the use of Linux? At least what Valve do is more effective to make me try Linux on VirtualBox than Linux marketing that I never see if I'm not searching for it.
@@shadanzar you are aware you just quite litterly provide an example proving the OP is wrong, more hardware using it has not made it grow... and also your thing about bulk purchasing it just wrong, there was a case not that long ago where MS sued the sh*t out of Dell because Dell was using it's VLK and not telling MS how many they were actually selling and effectivly stealing lisences from MS. so i don't know where your thing about Europe and MS comes from... But lets look at it, Valve, Amazon (Echo, Fire, Fire-TV), Google TV dongle, Android are all massive companies using Linux for there products and yet Linux desktop share has not grown, Linux is the market leader in Servers and servers are being used more and more and yet linux still can't make a significant dent into Desktop PC's and it's for a reason Linux Desktop is not an easy to use experience the moment you go slightly advanced
@@shadanzar problem with the smartphone market, iOS and Android dominate the market and you have the rest of them fighting over crumbs. Especially Android, it doesn’t cost the hardware manufacturers anything to use and there are very few rules governing them. It would be hard for a Linux distro to compete with Alphabet Company (Google).
If you want to try Linux on a desktop, use your old PC. Some dual core Core2Duo or Athlon X2 with at least 4 GB RAM. Try a few of the popular distros like Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Linux Mint, Manjaro. For the user interface (DE or Desktop environment), there is GNOME and KDE and about 8 others. For your filesystem, I think most people use ext4. It's more resistant to damage and quicker to repair compared to previous versions. For gaming and high end computing, I think AMD has opened source their drivers except for the OpenCL part. nVidia has its closed source drivers. Installing them is easy under Ubuntu, Kubuntu, OpenSUSE. If you want to play DVDs, you probably have to install a certain CSS library.
@@abdullahzafar4401 I wasn't trying to scare him though. I'm just letting him know about his choices and the options and some minor info about the technology. I think it is best to try it for himself and choose what in his opinion is best. Also, I have been a Windows user since Win 3.11 all the way to Win 7. I did the same thing myself. I used a distro for a while and took time to learn some of the details, I asked questions.
Welcome to the Linux world. Don't worry too much about people saying there's too much choice in Linux. Just pick one of the top distros and they'll make many of the choices and guide you to make these choices for you to get a usable and well functioning system. The so-called overwhelming choices aren't really necessary to use Linux. They're available for you if you want to extend your knowledge or if you want to do something unique with your machine, but they aren't really necessary if you just want a simple and functioning system, and you can learn them over time as you get more familiar with the system and if you want to do more with it.
When I preordered my Steam Deck, I planned to do at least a dual OS system. In the meanwhile, after some use of it, I am quite sure, that I will stay with Steam OS.
Same here. It's impressively compatible with non steam windows games. (I've not had a Linux computer that had enough performance to even try it before).
I had the same plans and now I'm just not interested in using Windows on it. It runs so damn well with Steam OS, it's constantly updated, I face no issues playing almost any game at all, I'm using my GOG bought games on it, it's a perfect base which is improving week over week.
Valve is what we need to counter Microsoft right now. And it is indeed sorely needed. Windows is quickly becoming something that's less an OS and more a platform for Microsoft to exploit their userbase. Microsoft isn't primarily about delivering a good OS anymore. It's about data harvesting their customers and forcing them to use proprietary products such as Bing, Xbox, etc. With each iteration of Windows, you lose a bit of freedom, you lose a bit of privacy and you lose a bit control. A major factor that has helped this unethical business practice along is the fact that there has been no valid alternative for PC gamers.
They can't be about delivering a good OS when Windows has never been a good OS. It has always been the bottom of the barrel for OS's. They've never had a clue how to design anything that represents consistency and reliability in the slightest.
yup, every year the users of windows are becoming the products that microsoft actually sells. Our data, our privacy, and even our money with integrated ads, sponsored bloatware, etc.
Correction: The reason Alienware shipped that box with Windows is because they had the hardware ready but SteamOS was not ready yet at the same time and they decided to just ship with Windows instead of all that stock costing money in their warehouses.
Not only was SteamOS not ready, the Steam Controller was delayed pretty significantly from the time it was announced. By the time the Steam Controller was actually available, all of the hardware partners for Steam Machines had already given up. The Steam Machines that DID ship all shipped with Xbox 360 controllers instead.
And this was just a quick history. I'm old enough to remember that Gabe and his team created the PC Gaming we know and after that Valve literally saved PC gaming from dying like 2 or 3 times already.
The steam deck has literally changed the way I play video games again, it's huge. Even when I'm at my computer, I find myself playing games on it, testing games on it, messing with various settings, seeing what is out there besides just games. It tickles the PC enthusiast in me and it's been basically amazing. My wife makes fun of me because I'm sitting in front of an ultra wide monitor, playing video games on the Steam Deck.
@@xpmon Introduction of Microsoft's own app store , Windows Marketplace as it was known back then and Microsoft pushing developers to get onboard with them Valve predicted that they will soon get windows games on their store and monopolize the PC Gaming market and this is exactly what they are trying hard to do still ...
@@abdullahzafar4401 Not just the app store, but the Universal Windows Platform application standard. At the time it was announced Microsoft made it sound like they were going to completely lock out any non-UWP applications from running, or that some DirectX 12 features would only be available for UWP apps, and they ended up backtracking that talk pretty quick.
Steam Deck made me realize the progress gaming on linux have been made. I've been trying some stuff on Linux yearly, and looking at all the things going on it's great. I don't need windows anymore for gaming (beside VR, because of Facial Tracking and I work on models that use it). It's so nice to see Linux becoming more and more easily usable for gaming
@@localandonlinepreciousmeta3575 sounds like the typical hyping of the rmour mill whilst vale has said they see no reason why there wouldnt be a steamdeck 2 theyve not said anything about what it will be because they dont even know what hardware there gonna use i wouldnt even expect to hear anything from them till atleast 2 years into steam deck and thats if they say anything steam deck wasnt spoken off untill it was pretty much a done deal and ready to start pre orders
@@RunePonyRamblings While you're not completely wrong, it kinda feels to me like their efforts at "lock-in" have been quite weak in recent years, and they are really concentrating on just being the best gaming storefront they can be. That sounds a lot like "being a competitor in the marketplace" to me. I'm kinda okay with that, as long as they aren't abusing their position in the marketplace in evil ways (as is *so very commonplace* these days).
@@RunePonyRamblings hundreds of videos showing how to run other launchers from other stores. and even, less than legal games, and emulators on steam? but by all means, go ahead and let microsoft know the color of your underwear.
Your first question can be directly answered with independence from the competition (which in this case is Microsoft). In order to be able to continuously provide Steam, Valve can't rely on Microsoft, which could try to pull a "Windows 10 S" any time again soon, once they were able to force enough customers into Microsoft's ecosystem.
Windows 11 already has this. It's only a matter of time now once everyone is on 11 they can block steam or any program that is not verified by Microsoft. Microsoft is doing a Apple or Google, with a store.
@@NerdPower454 They've came out recently and said they won't lock the desktop Windows down. Do you really think that Microsoft would essentially kill their own platform? Microsoft Store at this point has basically no restrictions on how any app there should be packaged and distributed. It has the most liberal policy among all the stores. And even if they did that, why do you think they would block Steam? Most of their games on PCs are sold via Steam and they seem to have a sort of exclusivity deal with Valve.
@@TheTytan007 I don't know. MS has been doing a lot of stupid things lately. Such as remove the ability of the user to apply updates to the OS. A new Control Panel that seems pointless. I use use the old style since I know where things are located. The Win 8 ugly flat colorless look and they removed the Win 95 theme.
@@louistournas120 Everything you've said stems from your personal preferences. Those things are no way close to the hypothetical complete locking down of Windows which would kill the whole platform as we know it. Even Microsoft understands that Windows won't exist without the ability to install apps freely.
Got mine yesterday and it was worth it. To top it off the 64gb models screen is brighter then the 512gb. The upgrade drive is getting cheaper but SD losing times are not horrible.
@@consciouscool Wow, thats the first time i hear something concerning the screen brightness!? Is there a official statement about this "issue"? Ill have to look into this.
I switched to Linux recently, I must say initially I missed Adobe suite, but once I understood Linux, daaaamn, the world is changing and the Adobe suite better update and actualize itself. The FOSS Storm is blowing and Linux Community has the bravest sailors on these waters, and increasing in numbers :)
The biggest threat to steam deck's on going success is Valve itself. Will Valve lose interest the moment things aren't going perfect and focus on something else like they have so many times in the past?
This is possible. We all kno how they dislike the #3. That said, its the perfect "beta" product to dive into because it is VERY open from a hardware (reparability) and software (modifiable) point of things. User base, interest and price point entry means their is enough incentive for things to happen by the community if something happens.
@@NeoRichardBlake I guess I'm so excited that this will be my first foray into a "built for Linux" computer. I've installed Linux on other computers, but they were built for winblows. But I do want to get another built for Linux computer as well. There are a few manufacturers I am interested in for different reasons... System76, Starlabs, Slimbook, and Purism.
@@trapspringer9891 you do realise there is no such thing as "built for windows"? theres hardware and then theres your choice of OS that interacts with the hardware, simle as that
@@professionalbreather62 there are many examples of hardware not working outside of the windows ecosystem, especially because particular hardware manufacturers choose to not support Linux when building their drivers. That is the choice of the manufacturer. A good example of this are WiFi cards in a laptop. There are laptops whose wifi will not work under Linux, but it works under windows. So those computers were not built for Linux in mind. The Steamdeck is another example, steam built it with Linux in mind, so that all components work under Linux. However, steam also built it the drivers so that if you choose, you can change our the operating system and install windows instead. But the windows drivers had to be built out. It wasn't that it suddenly works.
It's what I want to do with a sleeper PS3 build: swap out the internals with a badass PC setup running steamOS and capable of emulating MGS4 with no probs.
Great video for this indepth history of Valve / Steam 👍 Edit - I'm excited about the Linux software with Proton. Looking forward in the future more and more games are able to run on linux. It's going to be freaking epic ! 😅👌
To me, this was obvious, but I have been watching what Valve has been doing for well over a decade now. I'm sure I'm in the minority who already knew this stuff though, so nice to see it consolidated into one spot.
Theory: I believe they will come back again. They will use the steam deck as a means to finance and drive interest to steam os and proton. I'd say they will come in 2-3 years
I felt the same. It was a premature product but, did help develop proton and Steam Deck. I do believe that Valve could have another go around using their exsisting Deck hardware. Maybe use the controller parts in a Steam Controller 2? I could see deck owners and console gamers buy a Valve "PlayStation TV"
I don't know, the Steam Deck is more niche and the tv console market has really strong competition with XBOX and Playstation. Also everyone using Steam has already a PC and if you want to play on the tv you can just stream your games without any issue.
@@anonymunsichtbar3715 I believe the future steam machine might be 2 things: - Any brand can preinstall steam os instead of windows (fewer licensing costs) which will be free and call the machine a steam machine - Valve will make several tiers like the steam deck and sell them themselves Depending on the day I believe one or the other is more likely
@@PereViader I would say 1 to 2 years. Might even start hearing rumors late this year. They have a dedicated hardware team who are continuously at work. There are also leaks of a tv console inside valve headquarters. It's all a matter of when the steam tv console gets released.
Another neat point regarding the Deck: In theory, it has no expiration date. It should still be able to play brand new 2D indies a decade from now and emulation will always be there. PCs are kind of immortal like that.
@@khaledm.1476 As long as there's enough interest in the platform, they can always be repaired and there will be parts manufacturers that will make and sell replacement components for it. Yes, at some point, it may become too expensive to repair it, but the possibility will always be there and enthusiasts and preservationist will continue to keep the fire going for as long as possible.
Kinda... You would also have to swap out CPU/GPU/MoBo or put in a larger PSU to support bigger GPUs. Consoles tend to age better than PC's as on a PC the day you are building it, it is already not the latest and greatest VS buying a console allows you to have the latest and greatest of that generation until a new generation is released. Similar to a dam breaking.
@@yvrelna My 1060 died and no one in my country could (tried) to repair it. So that's not a given if my steam deck died no one would fix it, heck where I am no one fixes keyboards they just tell me to chuck it and buy a new one. P.S I am in a spoiled country where people have an excess of money
@@khaledm.1476 The reason your device is dead is because many modern devices are designed to be basically unrepairable. There's no componentisation, things are glued shut, and the manufacturers are often actively hostile to those that provide repair services or any third party part manufacturers. Steam Deck tries to be different. Steam provides a list of authorised resellers of replacement parts, CAD files for third party manufacturers/modders, there are parts in replaceable boards, a much more modder friendly attitude, etc. There are still things missing, like schematics, open hardware, etc, but these are still much better than most other major manufacturers.
It's been about 2 years since I switched to Linux as my daily driver but I've been interested in Linux since the early Linux Mandrake days but back then, Linux wasn't as friendly or look as good as it is now. Most of the apps I use doesn't have a good equivalent of it in Linux too so that kept me from switching. Fast forward to today... all of that has changed! Most of the apps I use in Windows has counterparts now in Linux.. and some of them even better! Heck, I even switched my mom's main PC to Linux. She was scared at first but I knew she would be ok since she mainly just uses the browser anyway and doesn't install apps. I taught her which icon is the browser and how to use some of the common apps such as office suite, printer, cam, etc. and she picked up quick and never looked back. I truly hope gaming on Linux be supported fully by developers. The only reason nowadays I login on my Windows machine is if a game I play doesn't run on Linux. I hate it how Windows forces you to update and even does force restarts even if you're in the middle of doing something... Not to mention Windows spies the heck out of you using their telemetry! Linux doesn't do that! 😁
I think Linux/vulkan is the future. And steam os will probably challenge window directly for gaming on pc. I’m looking forward when steam os is more desktop supported.
I don't know what I'm going to do when my beloved steam controller dies. The two-stage triggers and paddle buttons have become integral to my gaming techniques.
Mine died some weeks ago ;( My children somehow covered it in milk... Still worked... But every button did not click anymore or felt strange when pressed... So I removed the batteries... Waited some days... And tried to clean it under pure water... Then waited again some days... Put the batteries back in... Turned it on... Made it's beep sound and connected to my machine... And that was it... It's on but nothing works :D Hope there will be a Steam Controller 2 also with 2 Sticks and 2 Trackpads like on the deck in the future... Please Valve!
I really love this type of video, so much better than what you were doing a few years ago, keep up the great work! You seem so much more confident and professional, I'm loving it!
I think the Steam Deck is also about bringing attention to how well Linux can do gaming now because I suspect most were unaware how well Proton is and it's only going to get better in time. Now if Valve can bring SteamOS to desktop PC's, there might be a real opening for Valve to make some inroads with PC gamers and I have to admit, I would be interested in trying SteamOS on my gaming PC and if it works out well, having it as my main OS for gaming and a big part of that is because of the direction Microsoft is going with Windows 11 but I also like the fact that SteamOS is more optimized for gaming whereas you feel Windows treats gamers as a bit of an afterthought.
Steam OS 3 is basically just Arch Linux with Valve Steam Deck specific tweaks and Steam pre-installed. You should be able to easily get a similar experience with any Arch based distro and KDE desktop + Steam installed. Manjaro is a pretty popular Arch variant that's pretty newbie friendly.
>50% of my library is listed as not compatible, and that's just Steam (the only platform Proton supports). I have a ton of games on GOG and EGS that are SOL. That's hardly what I'd call "doing gaming well" unless you're comparing it to Mac or something.
From what I've heard, Elden Ring on proton in Linux actually runs better than on its native Windows. Probably just an optimization issue but the fact that proton sort of "fixes" the issue really says a lot about Linux gaming.
That title makes it look like the video will be very fun Edit: Just watched the video, it was very informative, nicely presented and clearly formatted. I loved the background music, your music choice is great! Keep up the great work!
It's enough to Valve for now have a year of polishing Linux for a gaming. And in a year to announce another Steam machine - with Apu like in Xbox series X, in the same size and similar design for a 650-800$. They would easily sale millions of units.
Dont think there will be a yearly steamdeck release, think it will be more like a console release cycle, esp if they shift millions if them as developers will optimise for it as the target medium to low end hardware
@@simonupton-millard for sure it's at least 3-4 years cycle. But I mean another product - Steamdesk, it would be a totally different niche so they can release it in the next summer for example. On this time everything with Steam OS would be polished and ready to it.
@@fugbn2 yes could see a steam desktop gaming rig but bet it would be a steamdeck in a different case like the mini ryzen desktops you see bundled with a steam controller
@@fugbn2 I hope to see Valve license or allow laptop manufacturers to use the custom AMD chips to create SteamTops that can offer the same performance (or maybe even enhanced performance) in a form factor that can better serve as an all around daily driver. Even without Valve's custom AMD chips, I expect that some companies will release SteamOS powered AMD laptops that also include preinstalled productivity software. If manufacturers can all settle on a single Linux distro and Valve sets up baseline performance standards and a unified branding, I imagine many people shopping for laptops in big box retailers and college bookstores would choose a Valve branded device. Linux suffers from a huge branding issue right now in addition to the lack of drivers and additional complexity of using the system. Much of that can be solved by Valve, if they are willing to support the project and develop the branding.
@@fugbn2 i'm pretty sure if the next thing valve is doing isnt a new VR headset, then it's a sign that the VR market is dying off. but i can see the handheld market survive and evolve, i don't see a reason for valve to make a home console tbh, people already just buy a pc or build one and use steam, the Handheld is definitely where they can place them self between their own product, the steam app / OS and hardware. now is also the right time to do it since hobby tinkers already had started making their own handhelds, so it had to be done before it became obvious how everyone can build them, in a few years ofc. where the hardware is actually available for the newcoming builders.
For the PC gaming side of things, I completely agree with the statements and comments in this video. I was stuck in Mac gaming land growing up, so I’m already familiar with Aspyr, Feral and VP. It’s not surprising they moved into Linux ports due to their experiences with macOS as Linux and it share a common ancestor: Unix. Also, macOS has been benefiting from Gabe’s anger toward Microsoft, as they created MoltenVK to translate Vulkan into Apple’s Metal. Even Apple has started to use the translation layer from Valve as well. So, Gabe has a plan to chase Windows out of the gaming market at least, even if he pushes people to Mac as well. Although, I’m hoping my next PC build will be running SteamOS and not Windows. I daily with macOS, so I wouldn’t lose anything except those ‘wonderful’ Windows updates. I think Linux might get it’s day in the sun, especially with Arm-based PCs on the horizon powered by Qualcomm, Samsung, SiFive and AMD. It’ll be super cheap and easier for businesses to issue PCs to their employees, plus using many office and web applications over straight Windows. However, that’s still a road to travel right now. Where I disagree: console gamers. I can’t see the Deck converting PlayStation and Xbox gamers, let alone the super diverse market that is the Switch. Firstly, consoles still have an advantage, you turn it on and play. Most people rarely play with these graphics options, even when they’re offered on consoles, they just want to experience the game and not the hardware. It’s why the PlayStation 4/5 and Switch have been so successful, just turn it on and hop into your game. Xbox has caught onto it, but there’s still a lot to do (I’m an Xbox fan too). Secondly, as Linus has put it, “the normies” aren’t going to accept the Deck because it might be too confusing and hard to understand. Take the battery life argument, the Switch software is optimized to take full advantage of everything inside the hardware, whereas the Deck is allowing games to operate on its hardware. When it comes to portability, the battery life can almost stump the graphics. Finally, as I stated already, I JUST WANT TO PLAY! It’s hard for me to even realize that people don’t want to tinker and play around, but I get it. I’m in the minority with all of you. Another thing to add to this final point, people don’t have the big currency of time to get invested. Now that we’re coming into this new normal, people are going back out into the world again. Their free time is vital, testing out their games to see if they’ll run or optimizing for battery life isn’t something they want to spend 15-20 minutes on. The people who use their phones and tablets as daily drivers, they’re not really going to care since they’ve accepted a closed garden in PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Apple and Google. They’re happy in this existence and it’s always been true of people who buy tech to use and not understand it. Will Gabe try to go after console gamers? Maybe. However, it was a very hard lesson to learn with the Steam Machines that he might not get those people to abandon their content on those platforms. Especially, if they stopped gaming on PC or never started. The silver lining? There is still a vibrant market for the Deck. The Switch is getting Portal, so Gabe knows he isn’t going to get the “mobile and smart device” customers at this junction. I see the Switch and Deck being complimenting each other rather than competing. Which is a big win for all gamers. Nintendo has won the argument against mobile games, which has allowed deeper experiences to classified differently. However, it hasn’t help iOS or Android be platforms for deeper gaming experiences. Instead, the Switch has become another device to join with the phone, tablet and streaming box (or TV). For those kinds of people, they want great tech, but none of the tinkering. These people probably haven’t had a PC of any kind in over a decade as well. The Switch is for them. The Deck is going to join my Mac mini, gaming PC, Switch, Xbox(s), PS3 and PS5. However, my Deck is going to compete with my gaming PC and not the others. My Switch will travel with my iPad Air and iPhone, so I have devices that just work on trips (rarely play any games on when I travel anyway). I don’t game on my Mac at all, my Switch, Xbox and PlayStation libraries dwarf or on par with my Steam and GOG ones. I’m not going to consolidate into Steam for ALL my gaming, but for what I have in my library and emulating everything from the NES to PS2. Another great video Gardner. However, I think trying to convince console gamers isn’t going to help the Deck. Especially, if their digital libraries on those platforms are massive and their Steam libraries either don’t exist or haven’t been touched since 2013. The PC gaming market has vibrant consumers. The Deck is going to be fine and succeed with the audience Gabe is targeting. It’s not going to grab the people who want to keep it simple at this point, especially those who live in iOS and Android.
I also believe by around 2025 when ARM takes hold Windows (with NT Kernel 11) is finished along with x86. However, Microsoft Windows may just swap out kernels at that point. I mean whats all that WSL nonsense that Microsoft is pulling and MS loves Linux for the past few years. Maybe when Windows 10 dies they'll kill 11 at the same time and release Windows Linux for Workstations. 😂😂 Also, I agree with the battery life issue, hopefully Steamdeck 2 will be ARM based and unlock lots of battery life just like an IPhone. Now that Nvidia is open sourcing that may be a path for Valve.
Just got a Steam Deck & new to Linux OS. Appreciate the lore behind this handheld, dockable console/pc. Remote play for PS4/PS5, XBox Gamepass, Xcloud, (Awaiting XB Console remote play), Heroic Games Launcher for Epic Games & GOG. That's a lot of options Valve let's us use the Steam Deck however we want, oh it has access to the Steam Library too 🙃 Bonus: EmuDeck for retro options.
So far the one (of many) things that I love about the steam deck is the emulation. That isn't to say I love playing up to date games on it (I DO). I work as a seafarer and for 6 months of the year I get a very sketchy connection to the internet (from 0-15kbps to 4mpbs if im shore side). Through emulation and external Hard Drives I can see the stream deck creating thousands of Hours of possible game-play, from Elden Ring to games from my school days. For perspective given the weight the PS5 takes up close to 25% og my checked in baggage allowance not including controllers or a tv to play it on. The steam deck, by perspective can easy placed in a backpack. Then again I can take it out and play it one the plane. I LOVE THIS LITTLE THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've never been a pc gamer, so seeing the Steam Deck, i created a Steam account and reserved one, currently my expected date of getting one is October or after. I've only been a console gamer, so the Steam Deck will be something totally new for me.
You're forgetting 2 additional factors that add to Steam Deck's success, which are: 1. Posibility to run regular programs, Emulators etc. without additional complications. 2. It's very easy to develop for. (esp. with proton) I still remember hoops I had to jump through just to make Hello world for PSP
Though not directly related, but let’s not forget the work that Valve did with Nvidia in enabling developers to choose which of their games can be hosted on the GeForce Now platform.
Thank you for this I've followed Valve's efforts and Steam for Linux since the very beginning, and I've had to repeat a similar story (albeit less detailed as I did forget some of the key points over the years) to everyone I've tried to explain to why I'm excited about the Deck so much. Now I have a video that goes over literally everything that I can just send people.
The portable aspect is also important with Valve's interest in expanding VR. Most consumers aren't interested in buying a PC + headset and with the success of the Oculus Quest 2, I wouldn't be surprised to see Valve's next headset have an in-built PC.
7:25 Portable Emulators and pocket gaming PCs started with Linux. It’s interesting they went to windows a decade later, then went back to Linux with Valve. Does anyone remember the Open Pandora?
I just switched to Linux on my pc a few months ago, and I feel so lucky to have done so in a time where gaming on Linux and Linux in general is making rapid advancements. its crazy to hear how many things I do and games I play on Linux daily weren't possible even a couple years ago. Linux is going to be a totally viable competitor to windows someday and I'm glad I'm here to see it
Last time I used Linux was about 5 years ago probably. It did basically everything I could need it to aside from gaming. When I get some time, I'm gonna install one one of my laptops again and see how it does for me. I'm pretty excited with how things are progressing.
Gaming on Linux is the best it's ever been because of Gabe. The improvements Valve has sent upstream to Wine proper has made it so that even outside of Steam I can now play Battlefield 1, Mass Effect: Andromeda, etc. all on Linux outside of Steam with very little effort.
I've wanted Linux gaming to take off for years, and honestly the mainstreaming of Linux was for me the most exciting part of the steam deck's release. Windows has been a mess for a very long time and I want to switch to Linux, but the gaming potential wasn't there before.
I built my first gaming PC in 2015 after wanting to do it for an embarrassingly long time. Eventually I got more and more fed up with Windows 10, and gave Ubuntu another shot (I'd given up on it several years before). Over time I got more and more comfortable using Linux for essentially everything except gaming. Installing Windows Steam with WINE was a pain, and I kept wishing WINE could somehow be incorporated into the Steam client. When Proton came around and I learned that Valve had been pouring money into both WINE and DXVK, I was floored. And when the Steam Deck was announced, I knew I was going to buy it despite not "needing" it. I got it last week and it is just tremendous. I expected to give it the benefit of the doubt because I am already accustomed to the issues that can come up with gaming on Linux, but it has been a far better experience than even I expected.
Is it possible for windows to change directx in a way that it identifies if proton process is running? Or they put unnecessary system calls that confuses proton? *I am no OS guru or know a lot about proton*
i doubt very much. proton is just a compatibility layer on top of the games. wtv dum sht they do to directx would only harm themselves and proton would get around it and probably even improve performance
You're not running Microsoft's DirectX code on Linux. DirectX is closed source and part of Windows. The idea of Proton is to provide an open source compatibility layer which translates both DirectX and Windows API calls to an equivalent that runs on Linux where the function caller (a game or piece of software you are running) is unable to tell that it has been replaced with a new function. This isn't perfect as the Windows API is massive and has convoluted behavior that comes from having a massive company working on things in parallel with poor communication. The purpose of all this is to prevent Windows Software from being locked to the Windows Operating System in case Microsoft becomes hostile to both the consumer and developer in the way that Apple is.
For me, simply being able to travel with it for work, be productive, and obviously having fun on the go. I'm in the airline industry and I've already carved out enough space in my bags for the Steam Deck. Q3 warrior here.
Personally I really liked the idea of the Steam controller, but didn't have money to buy one till they liquidated them and was I unluckly with them being sold out before I signed in. People on reddit kept saying to just refresh the page, but it never worked. I payed $80 dollars for one Amazon spent 3 months with it and was so happy with I played $150 for a spare one. The main thing I like with it is finally provides a convenient way to play First Person Shooter from the couch. It has a gyro for gyro aim (usually a game doesn't natively support, so what you do is in the steam controller setting set gyro to emulate mouse and have it triggered by either touching the right trackpad or when you aren't touching the right trackpad, I go for when I'm touch to disable it so I don't get two conflicting inputs at the same time and then use the trackpad as an analog stick or flick stick mode) and the back paddle buttons are exactly what you need for knifing zombies in Waw or Black ops, or crouch walking in CSGO. The steam machine I wouldn't of been apposed to having one, it came out when I was trying to get back into PC (economic reasons as a kid and my parents not knowing better dumped an Xbox 360 on me to get me off the family desktop, when I would of preferred a low end PC even one without a video card to start with and I was already a Linux user via live USB to get around time restrictions in Windows 7). I prefer PC gaming, because I love First Person Shooter, but find them frustrating to play with thumb stick aim (have no control over them, it's a know thing thumb stick aim lacks the refinement mouse aim or gyro aim provide). The steam machines did however miss the mark for both audiences they were trying to serve. For console gammers there were "too many" hardware configuration choice (kind of like how Linux has "too many" software configuration choices for a windows slave) and for existing PC gamers the form factor was a downgrade from a PC, weather you start with a pre built or build your own one of the main reason to choice PC gaming over console is the upgrade ability mainly with Graphics card swaps in the case of gaming. Which most steam machine models I knew of didn't support. Even with a steam controller this never came up, but I feel SteamOS 2.0 was best used on your own dedicated living PC. Weather that be the OS on your own home theater PC (I consider this with an Xbox controller for streaming Netflix and Amazon, as my old blu-ray player has become slow trying to navigate those apps and I can't view HBO or Hulu without plugging in a laptop to my TV) enabling steam in home streaming or a full fat desktop PC hooked up to your Living room TV with PCI express cards enabling GPU upgrades. I feel Steam Deck hit the nail on the head for both audiences. Existing PC gammers while potentially technically downgrading got a handheld experience that can run games directly or stream them from their desktops. Console gammers where given a one size fits all system with the scare desktop hidden behind steam big picture preventing them from getting confused. It is a win win.
The title is misleading. I almost didn't watch the video. I thought, "Oh, just another Steam Deck video.". Thanks for sharing all this information, Gardiner.
I bought the Steam Deck for one reason. Valve's contribution to Linux. I am currently using my Steam Deck on a USB-C dock connected to a 32" display as a desktop PC. Despite the fact that I greatly dislike KDE Plasma and Dolphin File Manager it is a great experience. I really don't have a desire for handheld gaming, but it is amazing for retro games.
Funny enough, still use my steam controller. I found it to be a great gamepad for casual couch rts. Not as good as a keyboard and mouse, but much easier than trying to adapt a game for a regular of gamepad or lugging a massive tray for the keyboard/mouse.
I was introduced to Linux back in the early 90's at university and it felt like a hacked together experience at best. I never thought it would take off. Now I've ordered a Steamdeck and can actually see a future where Linux might overtake Windows or be on a par with it on the gaming front. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future brings.
Currently enjoying my Steam Deck as a secondary gaming device behind my “heavy” windows gaming PC. May build a “Steam Machine” in an ITX case if AMD desktop APUs get powerful enough…that should get me 1080P 60Hz, high settings for use with a living room/bedroom TV and controller. Things will only get more interesting as the other portable device makers start adopting SteamOS 3, too. The experience is actually pretty nice for a handheld and I can definitely see GPD and Aya offering it as an option
It's great that a large OEM is shipping Linux pre-installed (Dell and Lenovo do too but only on a tiny number of models and "well hidden" [i.e. not just an OS selection on the same page you buy the Windows version on]), but my suspicion is that the Steam Deck alone is not enough to shift Linux market share by more than 1% in the long run. Valve need to release a general purpose SteamOS 3 ISO that will install on a wide array of desktops and laptops (Intel and Nvidia included) and also release a Steam Controller 2 to closely match the Steam Deck controls (allowing it to use the Deck's Steam Input configs). Let the community report issues and get the SteamOS+SC2 combo working flawlessly. Hopefully, in parallel to this, Proton can improve to 90%+ compatibility and get most of the big anti-cheat-using games to work. After that, Valve needs to approach major OEMs with deals to have SteamOS pre-installed as a selectable OS alongside Windows and bundle in a subsidised SC2 (maybe free for a limited period and then half-price after that?). SteamOS should boot into desktop mode in these scenarios, but have the option to default to either mode on boot in the settings (SteamOS on the Deck needs this option too!). Pre-installation by major OEMs on desktops/laptops on the same page as the Windows version (not hidden away somewhere) is the only way SteamOS/Linux will gain market share. You also want your computer-selling brick'n'mortar stores to show off/sell the SteamOS version.
I haven't touched windows in 20 years and have been gaming on linux using a variety of tools and methods for the last decade. I am a huge fan of Steam supporting linux, and very impressed by the steam deck performance and interface. I even managed to install non-steam games through lutris, then launch them from the Steam Deck interface. I also own an Index, and really hope Steam continues to support their tech on the linux platform natively far into the future.
Happiness is me online racing the current games with the fedora gaming computer I built, amd 5900 & 6800 water cooled. Thank you Proton for giving me the freedom to game.
Really nice timeline/history. I've been running the steam client on linux (Arch) since 2013. Gaming is not my primary use case - though I have spent too many hours playing Stellaris. When the deck came out, with the help of your videos (and others), I discovered proton. As you described, I can now run most of the games on steam. They work and my RX480 (4G) is enough for 1080P at 60fps for many of them.
I remember the time when TF2 Linux players would receive Tux if using Ubuntu. Something I refused to do as I back then recently switched to Debian 6 Squeeze and because I hated the idea of having Unity on the desktop. How ironic an Unity like launcher bar placement is what I made my Plasma desktop look like these days.
Honestly nowadays most things I get done on my PC are done through a browser. If they can get steamos staple enough I'll install it on my PC full time. As long as hardware manufacturers get behind valve and give support via drivers I think it could be a smashing success.
Valve has also made massive contributions to the AMD graphics drivers on Linux. The open-source driver RADV, combined with Valve's shader compiler ACO is in many cases faster than AMD's proprietary driver, which is just flabbergasting.
I though AMD had open sourced those drivers already - and that it was how Valve was able to improve it. Am I totally lost here? It would make sense at least - I'm predicting huge improvements to nVidia's drivers now that they're open sourcing them as well.
@@robsku1 The opensource AMD drivers started as an independent community effort and were only later directly supported by AMD with HW documentation and dev. resources. Nowadays, AMD also does the bring-up part of getting support for new devices into the kernel. Some time inbetween, AMD released their own opensource Vulkan driver (AMDVLK) that uses the same kernel module. The userspace part is based on the Windows version, but is not a community effort. Essentially it's just monthly code drops with heavily truncated changelogs. Noone really uses it, except when game or driver devs have to compare behaviours or rendering outputs as part of troubleshooting - AMDVLK is actually slower and has worse frametimes (in some games significantly so) than the RADV (Mesa) driver that is maintained by Valve (and RedHat IIRC), aswell as several Mesa developers. In many cases, RADV is also faster than AMD's closed-source AMDVLK-Pro (which is essentially AMDVLK + some secret souce and except for the kernel module the same code that runs on Windows), which is an enourmous achievement. As for Nvidia's recent "open-sourcing" - they moved large chunks of the driver into the firmware (which is now 34MB instead of a few KB), so that they don't have to expose the code and algorithms doing the actual work. This is stuff like switching clock speeds or memory timings, fan control, uploading data structures to the GPU, load balancing between the SMs, etc. Nvidia users gain better 3D support in Mesa, Wayland and Gamescope support, etc. but the hardware becomes even more locked down and issues get harder to diagnose - the firmware is essentially a cryptographically signed (=unmodifyable) black box and the driver is wrapped around it, so I am not particularily hyped about it tbh.
"There's some other stuff too like system calls" No. Wrong. Wine and the core of Proton specialize in system calls. When you speak of translating to Vulkan, you're thinking of dxvk and vkd3d.
Microsoft HQ is down the street from Valve and Phil Spencir has been seen recently visiting their offices talking about Steam Deck. I would not go so far as to say Gabe Newell "has a strong distaste for Microsoft now days." They actually have a great relationship.
I mean from Phil's perspective...even if the deck isn't running a Microsoft operating system. It still carries the potential to be a portable gamepass machine. With Valve being a lot more open to collaboration then say Nintendo. I believe Gabe's ire with Microsoft has a lot more to do with actions carried out by Microsoft's upper management and a lot less to do with specifically the Xbox division of Microsoft
GPD Win 2 was/is amazing. Ran numerous games at great settings. Beating out the PS3/Xbox 360 visuals in said games. From pure spec and performance, it was 75% there against the Switch, but the Switch had a notable GPU edge and premium support that allowed games like Witcher 3 to run with all the visual benefits. Still, there continue to many videos of premium games running on the GPD Win 2, games that aren’t even on the Switch.
Steam deck is kind'a give Microsoft an Idea to build similar ecosystem for handheld if they want to. Gaming mode and Windows Mode. seems more interesting. but the problem with Microsoft now is that their "Control Panel" is so obnoxious in Win 11, finding the setting is basically 2 or 3 layer interface it's so bad. XD
While watching this video it just hit me that I'll be using all three operating systems thanks to my steam deck when I get it as I plan to use the doc feature to do basic documents processing on Google docs and light podcasting. The fact that it's a perfectly usable computer with a simple doc that a lot of people might already have it great benefit in the long term. I fully plan to one day in 15 years to have my first steam deck doing something on my network and (I pray) I can still repair it!
Until the Steam Deck was announced, I didn't realise how much work and how many versions of Proton there had been. I use Windows for gaming and work (not necessarily in that order ;). Nowadays, work tends to be through our company web access, using online versions of Office. The only reason I stick with Windows is for gaming. I think the Steam Deck is opening a very dangerous door for Microsoft!
3:19 Linux is whatever developers make it to be. You can say it's "consumer" friendly, but that depends on the platform it's making. Look at Android, it also has a (nearly) walled-garden app-store, and depending on what brand of phone you have, that openness varies.
You make me proud to be part of valves fight for games on Linux. I'm honestly excited to use Linux for the very 1st time and steam os sounds exciting. Friday I get my deck, can't wait.
Well, with the recent insanity with utility prices going through the roof, the steam deck is now looking like a god send for those with costly gpu power consuming desk top Pc's, and i have mine on pre order for just that reason.
I know this is just a video title for "the algorithm" but valve actually did tell us COUNTLESS times what their end goals were. When it comes to the tech they are very transparent with the consumer. Having said that, Great video !
I immediately saw the deck as a further push for linux support, they probably saw the demand for switch ports and thought "huh, we could make that work for linux". Also nice to see the importance and often misunderstood failure of Steam machines being based on lack of Linux support more then a conceptual or hardware failure.
Got my Steam Deck & the word that comes to mind is freedom, theirs just so much freedom on the deck, u can play so many games from different consoles & I never get bored, feels great in the hands, its loud, graphics R insane, I honestly can’t find something I don’t love about it. It’s Steam, Best customer service I ever experienced, Thats why they get almost all my business anymore.
Way to go valve. Never imagined that they actually could do this good to linux gaming community. Steam Deck is a great piece of hardware even for an old linux user.
I placed my preorder expecting to install Windows almost immediately. Now, as I watch all these videos about it, and about SteamOS, I've decided to at least give it a chance.
This was an awesome video. Not many have told about Gabe's history with Windows. I for one have been a dedicated Linux gamer for several years now. Win7 was the last Windows I had used and moved over when I saw what Win8 was going to be like.
I forgot about the Steam Link! That thing worked so well for me when I needed it. I played through all of Nier Automata on my big screen, using the Link hardwired. It was great.
I've been using the Steam Deck for a couple of months now and I have really learned a lot. Installing linux versions of Retroarch and Duckstation as well as the Brave browser, has made me get acquainted with Linux....and now I want a desktop running Steam OS. Feels liberating playing Witcher 3, Persona 4 G, and Super Mega Baseball on a non-windows OS. If a Steam OS gaming rig was for sale now online by a major company, I'd buy one. Immediately.
Well this made me even happier then I already was about my steam deck purchase( gonna get it in Oct) . I'm currently traveling and I got a laptop from Costco to play path of exiles. It has windows 11... And I HATE IT! Going to return it as soon as I get back home and just wait for my beloved steam deck.
The thing I want the most from Valve is for them to release their proprietary version of SteamOS to the public for desktop use. While there is a recovery image available, it wouldn't surprise me if booting it would be more difficult than installing macOS.
I have to say after I got the steamdeck and made FF14 run on it I tried it out on my desktop I now run EndeavourOS as it is based on Arch like SteamOS 3.0 for over a month now and rarely boot into my Windows Partition as only one game that I play does not run on Linux due to the Anticheat I fully Support it and hope that Linux gaming is getting better and better
Dude you nailed this video man, I’ve watched you for awhile and even have modeled my own TH-cam content after you but I love when you do history of posts
On a related note, people don't know what they're doing when they support Epic game store and their exclusivity policy. I don't know if Linux will be the future, and I thank valve for their efforts, but we as customers must be able to see attempts to constrain and restrict our market. The openness of PC gaming is one of its biggest strengths.
![ตีสิบเดย์ [FULL] | นางเอกหมอลำเงินล้าน "อุ๋งอิ๋ง เพชรบ้านแพง" & ไฮโซสาวสุดฮอต "ลิลลี่ เหงียน"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jPxQS_EgrJ4/mqdefault.jpg)
Like The Linux Experiment say "Linux won't grow if Linux is not sold with the hardware" and Valve understand this.
yeah major problem with that, every time some distro managed to become the shipped OS from a manufacturer the OS Dives off a cliff, i remember Time Computers doing it in the UK, and a few others, your quite litterly repeating claims that have been proven to be false.
@@MartinBarker Then do you know the better way to grow the use of Linux?
At least what Valve do is more effective to make me try Linux on VirtualBox than Linux marketing that I never see if I'm not searching for it.
@@shadanzar you are aware you just quite litterly provide an example proving the OP is wrong, more hardware using it has not made it grow... and also your thing about bulk purchasing it just wrong, there was a case not that long ago where MS sued the sh*t out of Dell because Dell was using it's VLK and not telling MS how many they were actually selling and effectivly stealing lisences from MS. so i don't know where your thing about Europe and MS comes from...
But lets look at it, Valve, Amazon (Echo, Fire, Fire-TV), Google TV dongle, Android are all massive companies using Linux for there products and yet Linux desktop share has not grown, Linux is the market leader in Servers and servers are being used more and more and yet linux still can't make a significant dent into Desktop PC's and it's for a reason Linux Desktop is not an easy to use experience the moment you go slightly advanced
@@MartinBarker The claim was "Linux won't grow if Linux is not sold with the hardware", not "Linux will grow if Linux is sold with the hardware".
@@shadanzar problem with the smartphone market, iOS and Android dominate the market and you have the rest of them fighting over crumbs. Especially Android, it doesn’t cost the hardware manufacturers anything to use and there are very few rules governing them. It would be hard for a Linux distro to compete with Alphabet Company (Google).
Never touched linux before owning a steamdeck. Now I'm learning it bit by bit to make the most of the steam deck.
If you want to try Linux on a desktop, use your old PC. Some dual core Core2Duo or Athlon X2 with at least 4 GB RAM.
Try a few of the popular distros like Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Linux Mint, Manjaro. For the user interface (DE or Desktop environment), there is GNOME and KDE and about 8 others.
For your filesystem, I think most people use ext4. It's more resistant to damage and quicker to repair compared to previous versions.
For gaming and high end computing, I think AMD has opened source their drivers except for the OpenCL part.
nVidia has its closed source drivers. Installing them is easy under Ubuntu, Kubuntu, OpenSUSE.
If you want to play DVDs, you probably have to install a certain CSS library.
@@louistournas120 Now that's how you scare away new linux users
@@abdullahzafar4401 You are 100% right. There is too much choice and that is very daunting for a newbie.
@@abdullahzafar4401 I wasn't trying to scare him though. I'm just letting him know about his choices and the options and some minor info about the technology.
I think it is best to try it for himself and choose what in his opinion is best.
Also, I have been a Windows user since Win 3.11 all the way to Win 7. I did the same thing myself. I used a distro for a while and took time to learn some of the details, I asked questions.
Welcome to the Linux world.
Don't worry too much about people saying there's too much choice in Linux.
Just pick one of the top distros and they'll make many of the choices and guide you to make these choices for you to get a usable and well functioning system.
The so-called overwhelming choices aren't really necessary to use Linux. They're available for you if you want to extend your knowledge or if you want to do something unique with your machine, but they aren't really necessary if you just want a simple and functioning system, and you can learn them over time as you get more familiar with the system and if you want to do more with it.
When I preordered my Steam Deck, I planned to do at least a dual OS system. In the meanwhile, after some use of it, I am quite sure, that I will stay with Steam OS.
Same here, proton already supports all the non-Steam games that I care about so there’s no point installing Windows imho.
Same here. It's impressively compatible with non steam windows games. (I've not had a Linux computer that had enough performance to even try it before).
Yeah, I'm really happy with mine and use it a ton, including the desktop mode for setting up emulators and getting familiar with Linux.
Yep, windows user my whole life, and I'm loving Steam OS 3.0!
I had the same plans and now I'm just not interested in using Windows on it. It runs so damn well with Steam OS, it's constantly updated, I face no issues playing almost any game at all, I'm using my GOG bought games on it, it's a perfect base which is improving week over week.
Valve is what we need to counter Microsoft right now. And it is indeed sorely needed. Windows is quickly becoming something that's less an OS and more a platform for Microsoft to exploit their userbase.
Microsoft isn't primarily about delivering a good OS anymore. It's about data harvesting their customers and forcing them to use proprietary products such as Bing, Xbox, etc. With each iteration of Windows, you lose a bit of freedom, you lose a bit of privacy and you lose a bit control. A major factor that has helped this unethical business practice along is the fact that there has been no valid alternative for PC gamers.
each windows that microsoft pumps out it belongs less and less to the customer
They can't be about delivering a good OS when Windows has never been a good OS. It has always been the bottom of the barrel for OS's. They've never had a clue how to design anything that represents consistency and reliability in the slightest.
There is good news. HoloISO is SteamOS 3 Without the Deck
yup, every year the users of windows are becoming the products that microsoft actually sells. Our data, our privacy, and even our money with integrated ads, sponsored bloatware, etc.
@@_skud On top of being never ending beta testers.
Correction: The reason Alienware shipped that box with Windows is because they had the hardware ready but SteamOS was not ready yet at the same time and they decided to just ship with Windows instead of all that stock costing money in their warehouses.
Not only was SteamOS not ready, the Steam Controller was delayed pretty significantly from the time it was announced. By the time the Steam Controller was actually available, all of the hardware partners for Steam Machines had already given up. The Steam Machines that DID ship all shipped with Xbox 360 controllers instead.
I found the history of Valve and of Gabe really interesting, so thanks for that!
And this was just a quick history. I'm old enough to remember that Gabe and his team created the PC Gaming we know and after that Valve literally saved PC gaming from dying like 2 or 3 times already.
The steam deck has literally changed the way I play video games again, it's huge. Even when I'm at my computer, I find myself playing games on it, testing games on it, messing with various settings, seeing what is out there besides just games. It tickles the PC enthusiast in me and it's been basically amazing. My wife makes fun of me because I'm sitting in front of an ultra wide monitor, playing video games on the Steam Deck.
🤣 been doing the same ha
Is the steam deck as good as people say been wanting to play pc games for some times now and looking to get my hands on the steam deck oled
@@hawkzeye3862 I think it is 100% as good as people say. I stand by what I said in this comment.
I remember how scared valve was with that windows 8 thing , I really REALLY want this to workout , It's better for all of us
What was the windows 8 thing?
@@xpmon Introduction of Microsoft's own app store , Windows Marketplace as it was known back then and Microsoft pushing developers to get onboard with them
Valve predicted that they will soon get windows games on their store and monopolize the PC Gaming market and this is exactly what they are trying hard to do still ...
@@abdullahzafar4401 ah gotcha
@@abdullahzafar4401 Not just the app store, but the Universal Windows Platform application standard. At the time it was announced Microsoft made it sound like they were going to completely lock out any non-UWP applications from running, or that some DirectX 12 features would only be available for UWP apps, and they ended up backtracking that talk pretty quick.
@@Fafhrd42 Oh, yes yes , I remember the ...
Thanks 👍, here I was just thinking maybe Microsoft is good now (cliche)
Steam Deck made me realize the progress gaming on linux have been made. I've been trying some stuff on Linux yearly, and looking at all the things going on it's great. I don't need windows anymore for gaming (beside VR, because of Facial Tracking and I work on models that use it).
It's so nice to see Linux becoming more and more easily usable for gaming
Also thanks you for making all thoses videos during all thoses years !
Steam Deck 2 is supposed to work with VR. When it’s released, so I heard.
@@localandonlinepreciousmeta3575 sounds like the typical hyping of the rmour mill whilst vale has said they see no reason why there wouldnt be a steamdeck 2 theyve not said anything about what it will be because they dont even know what hardware there gonna use i wouldnt even expect to hear anything from them till atleast 2 years into steam deck and thats if they say anything steam deck wasnt spoken off untill it was pretty much a done deal and ready to start pre orders
My favorite part is that the benefits that go to deck owners also go to me on a linux desktop, all their work isn't to lock you in to their hardware.
No, it's to lock you into their store/launcher.
@@RunePonyRamblings While you're not completely wrong, it kinda feels to me like their efforts at "lock-in" have been quite weak in recent years, and they are really concentrating on just being the best gaming storefront they can be. That sounds a lot like "being a competitor in the marketplace" to me. I'm kinda okay with that, as long as they aren't abusing their position in the marketplace in evil ways (as is *so very commonplace* these days).
@@RunePonyRamblings hundreds of videos showing how to run other launchers from other stores. and even, less than legal games, and emulators on steam? but by all means, go ahead and let microsoft know the color of your underwear.
VALVE SUCKS!!
@@RunePonyRamblings Doesn't the Steam launcher let you add games that didn't come from Steam and run them through Proton?
Your first question can be directly answered with independence from the competition (which in this case is Microsoft).
In order to be able to continuously provide Steam, Valve can't rely on Microsoft, which could try to pull a "Windows 10 S" any time again soon, once they were able to force enough customers into Microsoft's ecosystem.
Windows 11 already has this. It's only a matter of time now once everyone is on 11 they can block steam or any program that is not verified by Microsoft. Microsoft is doing a Apple or Google, with a store.
I know it's wrong, but I'd really like Valve to embrace extend and extinguish Windows.
@@NerdPower454 They've came out recently and said they won't lock the desktop Windows down. Do you really think that Microsoft would essentially kill their own platform? Microsoft Store at this point has basically no restrictions on how any app there should be packaged and distributed. It has the most liberal policy among all the stores.
And even if they did that, why do you think they would block Steam? Most of their games on PCs are sold via Steam and they seem to have a sort of exclusivity deal with Valve.
@@TheTytan007 I don't know. MS has been doing a lot of stupid things lately. Such as remove the ability of the user to apply updates to the OS. A new Control Panel that seems pointless. I use use the old style since I know where things are located. The Win 8 ugly flat colorless look and they removed the Win 95 theme.
@@louistournas120 Everything you've said stems from your personal preferences. Those things are no way close to the hypothetical complete locking down of Windows which would kill the whole platform as we know it. Even Microsoft understands that Windows won't exist without the ability to install apps freely.
As “after Q3” is still far far away, videos like these help me keep my motivation to hang on to my reservation. And thats a thank you, from me!
It will be worth the wait! Hang in there!
I’m sitting in the same boat! Hope you’ll get it soon
Got mine yesterday and it was worth it. To top it off the 64gb models screen is brighter then the 512gb. The upgrade drive is getting cheaper but SD losing times are not horrible.
@@consciouscool Wow, thats the first time i hear something concerning the screen brightness!? Is there a official statement about this "issue"?
Ill have to look into this.
How likely is it to get the steam deck on the "after q3" before 2022 ends lol
I switched to Linux recently, I must say initially I missed Adobe suite, but once I understood Linux, daaaamn, the world is changing and the Adobe suite better update and actualize itself.
The FOSS Storm is blowing and Linux Community has the bravest sailors on these waters, and increasing in numbers :)
The biggest threat to steam deck's on going success is Valve itself. Will Valve lose interest the moment things aren't going perfect and focus on something else like they have so many times in the past?
This is possible. We all kno how they dislike the #3. That said, its the perfect "beta" product to dive into because it is VERY open from a hardware (reparability) and software (modifiable) point of things. User base, interest and price point entry means their is enough incentive for things to happen by the community if something happens.
Got my steam link and steam controller and now my steam deck. I support those who support Linux!
I'm still waiting for my deck notice. Hahaha.
@@trapspringer9891 Same! I have no idea how I'm still so hyped for this thing after reserving 10 months ago!
@@NeoRichardBlake I guess I'm so excited that this will be my first foray into a "built for Linux" computer. I've installed Linux on other computers, but they were built for winblows. But I do want to get another built for Linux computer as well. There are a few manufacturers I am interested in for different reasons... System76, Starlabs, Slimbook, and Purism.
@@trapspringer9891 you do realise there is no such thing as "built for windows"? theres hardware and then theres your choice of OS that interacts with the hardware, simle as that
@@professionalbreather62 there are many examples of hardware not working outside of the windows ecosystem, especially because particular hardware manufacturers choose to not support Linux when building their drivers. That is the choice of the manufacturer. A good example of this are WiFi cards in a laptop. There are laptops whose wifi will not work under Linux, but it works under windows. So those computers were not built for Linux in mind. The Steamdeck is another example, steam built it with Linux in mind, so that all components work under Linux. However, steam also built it the drivers so that if you choose, you can change our the operating system and install windows instead. But the windows drivers had to be built out. It wasn't that it suddenly works.
Well that explains why the steam deck includes Linux, and I whole-heartedly agree with Gabe's decision - what a legend.
With the deck’s SteamOS getting released to the community, members are going to go and build their own living room Steam Machines using AMD hardware
It's what I want to do with a sleeper PS3 build: swap out the internals with a badass PC setup running steamOS and capable of emulating MGS4 with no probs.
With the new open-source Nvidia drivers. We might be seeing some Nvidia systems in time aswell
Just installed steamos on my Nvidia machine. It's working great so far.
@@JordanDavidson3102
Which card do you have?
@@hanro50 it doesn't matter. you can install nvidia's proprietary drivers on steamos, so any card should work.
Great video for this indepth history of Valve / Steam 👍
Edit - I'm excited about the Linux software with Proton.
Looking forward in the future more and more games are able to run on linux.
It's going to be freaking epic ! 😅👌
To me, this was obvious, but I have been watching what Valve has been doing for well over a decade now. I'm sure I'm in the minority who already knew this stuff though, so nice to see it consolidated into one spot.
Yeah steam machines came at a bad time. I think if they could make them now as a living room console they would probably sell a lot more.
Theory: I believe they will come back again. They will use the steam deck as a means to finance and drive interest to steam os and proton. I'd say they will come in 2-3 years
I felt the same. It was a premature product but, did help develop proton and Steam Deck. I do believe that Valve could have another go around using their exsisting Deck hardware. Maybe use the controller parts in a Steam Controller 2? I could see deck owners and console gamers buy a Valve "PlayStation TV"
I don't know, the Steam Deck is more niche and the tv console market has really strong competition with XBOX and Playstation. Also everyone using Steam has already a PC and if you want to play on the tv you can just stream your games without any issue.
@@anonymunsichtbar3715 I believe the future steam machine might be 2 things:
- Any brand can preinstall steam os instead of windows (fewer licensing costs) which will be free and call the machine a steam machine
- Valve will make several tiers like the steam deck and sell them themselves
Depending on the day I believe one or the other is more likely
@@PereViader I would say 1 to 2 years. Might even start hearing rumors late this year. They have a dedicated hardware team who are continuously at work. There are also leaks of a tv console inside valve headquarters. It's all a matter of when the steam tv console gets released.
Another neat point regarding the Deck: In theory, it has no expiration date. It should still be able to play brand new 2D indies a decade from now and emulation will always be there.
PCs are kind of immortal like that.
Will they're immortal till they fail. My 1060 served me well but eventually died like everything else
@@khaledm.1476 As long as there's enough interest in the platform, they can always be repaired and there will be parts manufacturers that will make and sell replacement components for it.
Yes, at some point, it may become too expensive to repair it, but the possibility will always be there and enthusiasts and preservationist will continue to keep the fire going for as long as possible.
Kinda... You would also have to swap out CPU/GPU/MoBo or put in a larger PSU to support bigger GPUs. Consoles tend to age better than PC's as on a PC the day you are building it, it is already not the latest and greatest VS buying a console allows you to have the latest and greatest of that generation until a new generation is released. Similar to a dam breaking.
@@yvrelna My 1060 died and no one in my country could (tried) to repair it. So that's not a given if my steam deck died no one would fix it, heck where I am no one fixes keyboards they just tell me to chuck it and buy a new one.
P.S I am in a spoiled country where people have an excess of money
@@khaledm.1476 The reason your device is dead is because many modern devices are designed to be basically unrepairable.
There's no componentisation, things are glued shut, and the manufacturers are often actively hostile to those that provide repair services or any third party part manufacturers.
Steam Deck tries to be different. Steam provides a list of authorised resellers of replacement parts, CAD files for third party manufacturers/modders, there are parts in replaceable boards, a much more modder friendly attitude, etc. There are still things missing, like schematics, open hardware, etc, but these are still much better than most other major manufacturers.
It's been about 2 years since I switched to Linux as my daily driver but I've been interested in Linux since the early Linux Mandrake days but back then, Linux wasn't as friendly or look as good as it is now. Most of the apps I use doesn't have a good equivalent of it in Linux too so that kept me from switching. Fast forward to today... all of that has changed! Most of the apps I use in Windows has counterparts now in Linux.. and some of them even better!
Heck, I even switched my mom's main PC to Linux. She was scared at first but I knew she would be ok since she mainly just uses the browser anyway and doesn't install apps. I taught her which icon is the browser and how to use some of the common apps such as office suite, printer, cam, etc. and she picked up quick and never looked back.
I truly hope gaming on Linux be supported fully by developers. The only reason nowadays I login on my Windows machine is if a game I play doesn't run on Linux. I hate it how Windows forces you to update and even does force restarts even if you're in the middle of doing something... Not to mention Windows spies the heck out of you using their telemetry! Linux doesn't do that! 😁
I think Linux/vulkan is the future. And steam os will probably challenge window directly for gaming on pc. I’m looking forward when steam os is more desktop supported.
I don't know what I'm going to do when my beloved steam controller dies. The two-stage triggers and paddle buttons have become integral to my gaming techniques.
My original reason for buying a deck was actually to use it as a controller if my SC ever died...
I got two just in case!
Same, Il hope Steam Deck success lead to a new Steam controler
Mine died some weeks ago ;(
My children somehow covered it in milk... Still worked... But every button did not click anymore or felt strange when pressed...
So I removed the batteries... Waited some days... And tried to clean it under pure water... Then waited again some days...
Put the batteries back in... Turned it on... Made it's beep sound and connected to my machine... And that was it... It's on but nothing works :D
Hope there will be a Steam Controller 2 also with 2 Sticks and 2 Trackpads like on the deck in the future... Please Valve!
@@TetraChild IIUC S.Deck does not have two stage triggers.
I almost cried of happiness when I heard what valve was doing for linux
This is amazing
I really love this type of video, so much better than what you were doing a few years ago, keep up the great work! You seem so much more confident and professional, I'm loving it!
I think the Steam Deck is also about bringing attention to how well Linux can do gaming now because I suspect most were unaware how well Proton is and it's only going to get better in time.
Now if Valve can bring SteamOS to desktop PC's, there might be a real opening for Valve to make some inroads with PC gamers and I have to admit, I would be interested in trying SteamOS on my gaming PC and if it works out well, having it as my main OS for gaming and a big part of that is because of the direction Microsoft is going with Windows 11 but I also like the fact that SteamOS is more optimized for gaming whereas you feel Windows treats gamers as a bit of an afterthought.
Steam OS 3 is basically just Arch Linux with Valve Steam Deck specific tweaks and Steam pre-installed. You should be able to easily get a similar experience with any Arch based distro and KDE desktop + Steam installed. Manjaro is a pretty popular Arch variant that's pretty newbie friendly.
>50% of my library is listed as not compatible, and that's just Steam (the only platform Proton supports). I have a ton of games on GOG and EGS that are SOL. That's hardly what I'd call "doing gaming well" unless you're comparing it to Mac or something.
From what I've heard, Elden Ring on proton in Linux actually runs better than on its native Windows. Probably just an optimization issue but the fact that proton sort of "fixes" the issue really says a lot about Linux gaming.
The story is written so fluent man. GREAT JOB 👏
That title makes it look like the video will be very fun
Edit: Just watched the video, it was very informative, nicely presented and clearly formatted. I loved the background music, your music choice is great!
Keep up the great work!
It's enough to Valve for now have a year of polishing Linux for a gaming. And in a year to announce another Steam machine - with Apu like in Xbox series X, in the same size and similar design for a 650-800$. They would easily sale millions of units.
Dont think there will be a yearly steamdeck release, think it will be more like a console release cycle, esp if they shift millions if them as developers will optimise for it as the target medium to low end hardware
@@simonupton-millard for sure it's at least 3-4 years cycle. But I mean another product - Steamdesk, it would be a totally different niche so they can release it in the next summer for example. On this time everything with Steam OS would be polished and ready to it.
@@fugbn2 yes could see a steam desktop gaming rig but bet it would be a steamdeck in a different case like the mini ryzen desktops you see bundled with a steam controller
@@fugbn2 I hope to see Valve license or allow laptop manufacturers to use the custom AMD chips to create SteamTops that can offer the same performance (or maybe even enhanced performance) in a form factor that can better serve as an all around daily driver. Even without Valve's custom AMD chips, I expect that some companies will release SteamOS powered AMD laptops that also include preinstalled productivity software.
If manufacturers can all settle on a single Linux distro and Valve sets up baseline performance standards and a unified branding, I imagine many people shopping for laptops in big box retailers and college bookstores would choose a Valve branded device.
Linux suffers from a huge branding issue right now in addition to the lack of drivers and additional complexity of using the system. Much of that can be solved by Valve, if they are willing to support the project and develop the branding.
@@fugbn2 i'm pretty sure if the next thing valve is doing isnt a new VR headset, then it's a sign that the VR market is dying off.
but i can see the handheld market survive and evolve, i don't see a reason for valve to make a home console tbh, people already just buy a pc or build one and use steam, the Handheld is definitely where they can place them self between their own product, the steam app / OS and hardware.
now is also the right time to do it since hobby tinkers already had started making their own handhelds, so it had to be done before it became obvious how everyone can build them, in a few years ofc. where the hardware is actually available for the newcoming builders.
For the PC gaming side of things, I completely agree with the statements and comments in this video. I was stuck in Mac gaming land growing up, so I’m already familiar with Aspyr, Feral and VP. It’s not surprising they moved into Linux ports due to their experiences with macOS as Linux and it share a common ancestor: Unix. Also, macOS has been benefiting from Gabe’s anger toward Microsoft, as they created MoltenVK to translate Vulkan into Apple’s Metal. Even Apple has started to use the translation layer from Valve as well. So, Gabe has a plan to chase Windows out of the gaming market at least, even if he pushes people to Mac as well. Although, I’m hoping my next PC build will be running SteamOS and not Windows. I daily with macOS, so I wouldn’t lose anything except those ‘wonderful’ Windows updates. I think Linux might get it’s day in the sun, especially with Arm-based PCs on the horizon powered by Qualcomm, Samsung, SiFive and AMD. It’ll be super cheap and easier for businesses to issue PCs to their employees, plus using many office and web applications over straight Windows. However, that’s still a road to travel right now.
Where I disagree: console gamers. I can’t see the Deck converting PlayStation and Xbox gamers, let alone the super diverse market that is the Switch. Firstly, consoles still have an advantage, you turn it on and play. Most people rarely play with these graphics options, even when they’re offered on consoles, they just want to experience the game and not the hardware. It’s why the PlayStation 4/5 and Switch have been so successful, just turn it on and hop into your game. Xbox has caught onto it, but there’s still a lot to do (I’m an Xbox fan too). Secondly, as Linus has put it, “the normies” aren’t going to accept the Deck because it might be too confusing and hard to understand. Take the battery life argument, the Switch software is optimized to take full advantage of everything inside the hardware, whereas the Deck is allowing games to operate on its hardware. When it comes to portability, the battery life can almost stump the graphics. Finally, as I stated already, I JUST WANT TO PLAY! It’s hard for me to even realize that people don’t want to tinker and play around, but I get it. I’m in the minority with all of you. Another thing to add to this final point, people don’t have the big currency of time to get invested. Now that we’re coming into this new normal, people are going back out into the world again. Their free time is vital, testing out their games to see if they’ll run or optimizing for battery life isn’t something they want to spend 15-20 minutes on. The people who use their phones and tablets as daily drivers, they’re not really going to care since they’ve accepted a closed garden in PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Apple and Google. They’re happy in this existence and it’s always been true of people who buy tech to use and not understand it.
Will Gabe try to go after console gamers? Maybe. However, it was a very hard lesson to learn with the Steam Machines that he might not get those people to abandon their content on those platforms. Especially, if they stopped gaming on PC or never started.
The silver lining? There is still a vibrant market for the Deck. The Switch is getting Portal, so Gabe knows he isn’t going to get the “mobile and smart device” customers at this junction. I see the Switch and Deck being complimenting each other rather than competing. Which is a big win for all gamers. Nintendo has won the argument against mobile games, which has allowed deeper experiences to classified differently. However, it hasn’t help iOS or Android be platforms for deeper gaming experiences. Instead, the Switch has become another device to join with the phone, tablet and streaming box (or TV). For those kinds of people, they want great tech, but none of the tinkering. These people probably haven’t had a PC of any kind in over a decade as well. The Switch is for them.
The Deck is going to join my Mac mini, gaming PC, Switch, Xbox(s), PS3 and PS5. However, my Deck is going to compete with my gaming PC and not the others. My Switch will travel with my iPad Air and iPhone, so I have devices that just work on trips (rarely play any games on when I travel anyway). I don’t game on my Mac at all, my Switch, Xbox and PlayStation libraries dwarf or on par with my Steam and GOG ones. I’m not going to consolidate into Steam for ALL my gaming, but for what I have in my library and emulating everything from the NES to PS2.
Another great video Gardner. However, I think trying to convince console gamers isn’t going to help the Deck. Especially, if their digital libraries on those platforms are massive and their Steam libraries either don’t exist or haven’t been touched since 2013.
The PC gaming market has vibrant consumers. The Deck is going to be fine and succeed with the audience Gabe is targeting. It’s not going to grab the people who want to keep it simple at this point, especially those who live in iOS and Android.
I also believe by around 2025 when ARM takes hold Windows (with NT Kernel 11) is finished along with x86. However, Microsoft Windows may just swap out kernels at that point. I mean whats all that WSL nonsense that Microsoft is pulling and MS loves Linux for the past few years. Maybe when Windows 10 dies they'll kill 11 at the same time and release Windows Linux for Workstations. 😂😂
Also, I agree with the battery life issue, hopefully Steamdeck 2 will be ARM based and unlock lots of battery life just like an IPhone. Now that Nvidia is open sourcing that may be a path for Valve.
Video's looking slick, Gardiner. Found you during the LTT Linux Challenge, and you're already looking and sounding much better. Keep it up, boyo!
Just got a Steam Deck & new to Linux OS. Appreciate the lore behind this handheld, dockable console/pc. Remote play for PS4/PS5, XBox Gamepass, Xcloud, (Awaiting XB Console remote play), Heroic Games Launcher for Epic Games & GOG. That's a lot of options Valve let's us use the Steam Deck however we want, oh it has access to the Steam Library too 🙃 Bonus: EmuDeck for retro options.
If they get access to Google Play store natively or smoothly via BlueStack emulator Nvidia's shield may have to worry!
So far the one (of many) things that I love about the steam deck is the emulation. That isn't to say I love playing up to date games on it (I DO). I work as a seafarer and for 6 months of the year I get a very sketchy connection to the internet (from 0-15kbps to 4mpbs if im shore side). Through emulation and external Hard Drives I can see the stream deck creating thousands of Hours of possible game-play, from Elden Ring to games from my school days. For perspective given the weight the PS5 takes up close to 25% og my checked in baggage allowance not including controllers or a tv to play it on. The steam deck, by perspective can easy placed in a backpack. Then again I can take it out and play it one the plane. I LOVE THIS LITTLE THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've never been a pc gamer, so seeing the Steam Deck, i created a Steam account and reserved one, currently my expected date of getting one is October or after. I've only been a console gamer, so the Steam Deck will be something totally new for me.
You're forgetting 2 additional factors that add to Steam Deck's success, which are:
1. Posibility to run regular programs, Emulators etc. without additional complications.
2. It's very easy to develop for. (esp. with proton) I still remember hoops I had to jump through just to make Hello world for PSP
Though not directly related, but let’s not forget the work that Valve did with Nvidia in enabling developers to choose which of their games can be hosted on the GeForce Now platform.
Thank you for this
I've followed Valve's efforts and Steam for Linux since the very beginning, and I've had to repeat a similar story (albeit less detailed as I did forget some of the key points over the years) to everyone I've tried to explain to why I'm excited about the Deck so much.
Now I have a video that goes over literally everything that I can just send people.
The portable aspect is also important with Valve's interest in expanding VR. Most consumers aren't interested in buying a PC + headset and with the success of the Oculus Quest 2, I wouldn't be surprised to see Valve's next headset have an in-built PC.
7:25 Portable Emulators and pocket gaming PCs started with Linux. It’s interesting they went to windows a decade later, then went back to Linux with Valve.
Does anyone remember the Open Pandora?
I just switched to Linux on my pc a few months ago, and I feel so lucky to have done so in a time where gaming on Linux and Linux in general is making rapid advancements. its crazy to hear how many things I do and games I play on Linux daily weren't possible even a couple years ago. Linux is going to be a totally viable competitor to windows someday and I'm glad I'm here to see it
Last time I used Linux was about 5 years ago probably. It did basically everything I could need it to aside from gaming. When I get some time, I'm gonna install one one of my laptops again and see how it does for me. I'm pretty excited with how things are progressing.
Gaming on Linux is the best it's ever been because of Gabe. The improvements Valve has sent upstream to Wine proper has made it so that even outside of Steam I can now play Battlefield 1, Mass Effect: Andromeda, etc. all on Linux outside of Steam with very little effort.
I've wanted Linux gaming to take off for years, and honestly the mainstreaming of Linux was for me the most exciting part of the steam deck's release. Windows has been a mess for a very long time and I want to switch to Linux, but the gaming potential wasn't there before.
I built my first gaming PC in 2015 after wanting to do it for an embarrassingly long time. Eventually I got more and more fed up with Windows 10, and gave Ubuntu another shot (I'd given up on it several years before).
Over time I got more and more comfortable using Linux for essentially everything except gaming. Installing Windows Steam with WINE was a pain, and I kept wishing WINE could somehow be incorporated into the Steam client.
When Proton came around and I learned that Valve had been pouring money into both WINE and DXVK, I was floored. And when the Steam Deck was announced, I knew I was going to buy it despite not "needing" it. I got it last week and it is just tremendous. I expected to give it the benefit of the doubt because I am already accustomed to the issues that can come up with gaming on Linux, but it has been a far better experience than even I expected.
Is it possible for windows to change directx in a way that it identifies if proton process is running? Or they put unnecessary system calls that confuses proton?
*I am no OS guru or know a lot about proton*
i doubt very much. proton is just a compatibility layer on top of the games. wtv dum sht they do to directx would only harm themselves and proton would get around it and probably even improve performance
You're not running Microsoft's DirectX code on Linux. DirectX is closed source and part of Windows. The idea of Proton is to provide an open source compatibility layer which translates both DirectX and Windows API calls to an equivalent that runs on Linux where the function caller (a game or piece of software you are running) is unable to tell that it has been replaced with a new function. This isn't perfect as the Windows API is massive and has convoluted behavior that comes from having a massive company working on things in parallel with poor communication. The purpose of all this is to prevent Windows Software from being locked to the Windows Operating System in case Microsoft becomes hostile to both the consumer and developer in the way that Apple is.
detecting Wine/Proton is very possible if the app maker wants to code it in... yes.
For me, simply being able to travel with it for work, be productive, and obviously having fun on the go. I'm in the airline industry and I've already carved out enough space in my bags for the Steam Deck. Q3 warrior here.
Personally I really liked the idea of the Steam controller, but didn't have money to buy one till they liquidated them and was I unluckly with them being sold out before I signed in. People on reddit kept saying to just refresh the page, but it never worked. I payed $80 dollars for one Amazon spent 3 months with it and was so happy with I played $150 for a spare one. The main thing I like with it is finally provides a convenient way to play First Person Shooter from the couch. It has a gyro for gyro aim (usually a game doesn't natively support, so what you do is in the steam controller setting set gyro to emulate mouse and have it triggered by either touching the right trackpad or when you aren't touching the right trackpad, I go for when I'm touch to disable it so I don't get two conflicting inputs at the same time and then use the trackpad as an analog stick or flick stick mode) and the back paddle buttons are exactly what you need for knifing zombies in Waw or Black ops, or crouch walking in CSGO.
The steam machine I wouldn't of been apposed to having one, it came out when I was trying to get back into PC (economic reasons as a kid and my parents not knowing better dumped an Xbox 360 on me to get me off the family desktop, when I would of preferred a low end PC even one without a video card to start with and I was already a Linux user via live USB to get around time restrictions in Windows 7). I prefer PC gaming, because I love First Person Shooter, but find them frustrating to play with thumb stick aim (have no control over them, it's a know thing thumb stick aim lacks the refinement mouse aim or gyro aim provide).
The steam machines did however miss the mark for both audiences they were trying to serve. For console gammers there were "too many" hardware configuration choice (kind of like how Linux has "too many" software configuration choices for a windows slave) and for existing PC gamers the form factor was a downgrade from a PC, weather you start with a pre built or build your own one of the main reason to choice PC gaming over console is the upgrade ability mainly with Graphics card swaps in the case of gaming. Which most steam machine models I knew of didn't support. Even with a steam controller this never came up, but I feel SteamOS 2.0 was best used on your own dedicated living PC. Weather that be the OS on your own home theater PC (I consider this with an Xbox controller for streaming Netflix and Amazon, as my old blu-ray player has become slow trying to navigate those apps and I can't view HBO or Hulu without plugging in a laptop to my TV) enabling steam in home streaming or a full fat desktop PC hooked up to your Living room TV with PCI express cards enabling GPU upgrades.
I feel Steam Deck hit the nail on the head for both audiences. Existing PC gammers while potentially technically downgrading got a handheld experience that can run games directly or stream them from their desktops. Console gammers where given a one size fits all system with the scare desktop hidden behind steam big picture preventing them from getting confused. It is a win win.
The title is misleading. I almost didn't watch the video. I thought, "Oh, just another Steam Deck video.". Thanks for sharing all this information, Gardiner.
I bought the Steam Deck for one reason. Valve's contribution to Linux. I am currently using my Steam Deck on a USB-C dock connected to a 32" display as a desktop PC. Despite the fact that I greatly dislike KDE Plasma and Dolphin File Manager it is a great experience. I really don't have a desire for handheld gaming, but it is amazing for retro games.
Thanks for the discussion about Linux gaming, Bryant.
Funny enough, still use my steam controller. I found it to be a great gamepad for casual couch rts. Not as good as a keyboard and mouse, but much easier than trying to adapt a game for a regular of gamepad or lugging a massive tray for the keyboard/mouse.
I was introduced to Linux back in the early 90's at university and it felt like a hacked together experience at best. I never thought it would take off. Now I've ordered a Steamdeck and can actually see a future where Linux might overtake Windows or be on a par with it on the gaming front. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future brings.
Currently enjoying my Steam Deck as a secondary gaming device behind my “heavy” windows gaming PC. May build a “Steam Machine” in an ITX case if AMD desktop APUs get powerful enough…that should get me 1080P 60Hz, high settings for use with a living room/bedroom TV and controller.
Things will only get more interesting as the other portable device makers start adopting SteamOS 3, too. The experience is actually pretty nice for a handheld and I can definitely see GPD and Aya offering it as an option
It's great that a large OEM is shipping Linux pre-installed (Dell and Lenovo do too but only on a tiny number of models and "well hidden" [i.e. not just an OS selection on the same page you buy the Windows version on]), but my suspicion is that the Steam Deck alone is not enough to shift Linux market share by more than 1% in the long run.
Valve need to release a general purpose SteamOS 3 ISO that will install on a wide array of desktops and laptops (Intel and Nvidia included) and also release a Steam Controller 2 to closely match the Steam Deck controls (allowing it to use the Deck's Steam Input configs). Let the community report issues and get the SteamOS+SC2 combo working flawlessly. Hopefully, in parallel to this, Proton can improve to 90%+ compatibility and get most of the big anti-cheat-using games to work.
After that, Valve needs to approach major OEMs with deals to have SteamOS pre-installed as a selectable OS alongside Windows and bundle in a subsidised SC2 (maybe free for a limited period and then half-price after that?). SteamOS should boot into desktop mode in these scenarios, but have the option to default to either mode on boot in the settings (SteamOS on the Deck needs this option too!). Pre-installation by major OEMs on desktops/laptops on the same page as the Windows version (not hidden away somewhere) is the only way SteamOS/Linux will gain market share. You also want your computer-selling brick'n'mortar stores to show off/sell the SteamOS version.
I haven't touched windows in 20 years and have been gaming on linux using a variety of tools and methods for the last decade. I am a huge fan of Steam supporting linux, and very impressed by the steam deck performance and interface. I even managed to install non-steam games through lutris, then launch them from the Steam Deck interface. I also own an Index, and really hope Steam continues to support their tech on the linux platform natively far into the future.
Happiness is me online racing the current games with the fedora gaming computer I built, amd 5900 & 6800 water cooled. Thank you Proton for giving me the freedom to game.
This isn't just a video, this is a documentary
It took them more than 20 years, but they finally managed to count to 3, at least on one of their products xD
Really nice timeline/history. I've been running the steam client on linux (Arch) since 2013. Gaming is not my primary use case - though I have spent too many hours playing Stellaris. When the deck came out, with the help of your videos (and others), I discovered proton. As you described, I can now run most of the games on steam. They work and my RX480 (4G) is enough for 1080P at 60fps for many of them.
I remember the time when TF2 Linux players would receive Tux if using Ubuntu.
Something I refused to do as I back then recently switched to Debian 6 Squeeze and because I hated the idea of having Unity on the desktop.
How ironic an Unity like launcher bar placement is what I made my Plasma desktop look like these days.
Just got my steam deck Friday. So thrilled, it’s so good!
Honestly nowadays most things I get done on my PC are done through a browser. If they can get steamos staple enough I'll install it on my PC full time. As long as hardware manufacturers get behind valve and give support via drivers I think it could be a smashing success.
First time i've seen a Gabe video. Solid editing, presentation and information.
This guy has ultimate dad face. He makes me smile. Idk why. 🤷♂️
Valve has also made massive contributions to the AMD graphics drivers on Linux. The open-source driver RADV, combined with Valve's shader compiler ACO is in many cases faster than AMD's proprietary driver, which is just flabbergasting.
I though AMD had open sourced those drivers already - and that it was how Valve was able to improve it. Am I totally lost here?
It would make sense at least - I'm predicting huge improvements to nVidia's drivers now that they're open sourcing them as well.
@@robsku1 The opensource AMD drivers started as an independent community effort and were only later directly supported by AMD with HW documentation and dev. resources. Nowadays, AMD also does the bring-up part of getting support for new devices into the kernel.
Some time inbetween, AMD released their own opensource Vulkan driver (AMDVLK) that uses the same kernel module. The userspace part is based on the Windows version, but is not a community effort. Essentially it's just monthly code drops with heavily truncated changelogs.
Noone really uses it, except when game or driver devs have to compare behaviours or rendering outputs as part of troubleshooting - AMDVLK is actually slower and has worse frametimes (in some games significantly so) than the RADV (Mesa) driver that is maintained by Valve (and RedHat IIRC), aswell as several Mesa developers.
In many cases, RADV is also faster than AMD's closed-source AMDVLK-Pro (which is essentially AMDVLK + some secret souce and except for the kernel module the same code that runs on Windows), which is an enourmous achievement.
As for Nvidia's recent "open-sourcing" - they moved large chunks of the driver into the firmware (which is now 34MB instead of a few KB), so that they don't have to expose the code and algorithms doing the actual work. This is stuff like switching clock speeds or memory timings, fan control, uploading data structures to the GPU, load balancing between the SMs, etc.
Nvidia users gain better 3D support in Mesa, Wayland and Gamescope support, etc. but the hardware becomes even more locked down and issues get harder to diagnose - the firmware is essentially a cryptographically signed (=unmodifyable) black box and the driver is wrapped around it, so I am not particularily hyped about it tbh.
A very well written video, Gardiner! I enjoyed every minute of, and learned a bit more.
"There's some other stuff too like system calls" No. Wrong. Wine and the core of Proton specialize in system calls. When you speak of translating to Vulkan, you're thinking of dxvk and vkd3d.
Do normies know this? No. Do they care? No.
Man, this paints a really nice picture of the future and gives me hope.
I hope the steam deck skyrockets Linux popularity
Microsoft HQ is down the street from Valve and Phil Spencir has been seen recently visiting their offices talking about Steam Deck. I would not go so far as to say Gabe Newell "has a strong distaste for Microsoft now days." They actually have a great relationship.
I mean from Phil's perspective...even if the deck isn't running a Microsoft operating system. It still carries the potential to be a portable gamepass machine. With Valve being a lot more open to collaboration then say Nintendo.
I believe Gabe's ire with Microsoft has a lot more to do with actions carried out by Microsoft's upper management and a lot less to do with specifically the Xbox division of Microsoft
GPD Win 2 was/is amazing. Ran numerous games at great settings. Beating out the PS3/Xbox 360 visuals in said games. From pure spec and performance, it was 75% there against the Switch, but the Switch had a notable GPU edge and premium support that allowed games like Witcher 3 to run with all the visual benefits. Still, there continue to many videos of premium games running on the GPD Win 2, games that aren’t even on the Switch.
Wow. Good video. I am starting to rally like this Gabe guy!
Steam deck is kind'a give Microsoft an Idea to build similar ecosystem for handheld if they want to. Gaming mode and Windows Mode. seems more interesting. but the problem with Microsoft now is that their "Control Panel" is so obnoxious in Win 11, finding the setting is basically 2 or 3 layer interface it's so bad. XD
10:44 "Plus it's still just a PC"... That was a surprise to hear!
While watching this video it just hit me that I'll be using all three operating systems thanks to my steam deck when I get it as I plan to use the doc feature to do basic documents processing on Google docs and light podcasting. The fact that it's a perfectly usable computer with a simple doc that a lot of people might already have it great benefit in the long term. I fully plan to one day in 15 years to have my first steam deck doing something on my network and (I pray) I can still repair it!
You know I was skeptical of the Steam Deck until this video. I may be jumping in on it at some point. Great video awesome information.
Until the Steam Deck was announced, I didn't realise how much work and how many versions of Proton there had been.
I use Windows for gaming and work (not necessarily in that order ;).
Nowadays, work tends to be through our company web access, using online versions of Office.
The only reason I stick with Windows is for gaming.
I think the Steam Deck is opening a very dangerous door for Microsoft!
3:19 Linux is whatever developers make it to be. You can say it's "consumer" friendly, but that depends on the platform it's making. Look at Android, it also has a (nearly) walled-garden app-store, and depending on what brand of phone you have, that openness varies.
You make me proud to be part of valves fight for games on Linux. I'm honestly excited to use Linux for the very 1st time and steam os sounds exciting. Friday I get my deck, can't wait.
Couldn’t fall asleep, so I watched this video and boom.. I slept. I am very appreciative.
Well, with the recent insanity with utility prices going through the roof, the steam deck is now looking like a god send for those with costly gpu power consuming desk top Pc's, and i have mine on pre order for just that reason.
The problem with the steam machines was that valve didn't do what they are doing with the steam deck. And some of this was obvious.
I know this is just a video title for "the algorithm" but valve actually did tell us COUNTLESS times what their end goals were. When it comes to the tech they are very transparent with the consumer.
Having said that, Great video !
The number of reasons i even need to have a windows pc is dwindling fast.
I immediately saw the deck as a further push for linux support, they probably saw the demand for switch ports and thought "huh, we could make that work for linux". Also nice to see the importance and often misunderstood failure of Steam machines being based on lack of Linux support more then a conceptual or hardware failure.
Got my Steam Deck & the word that comes to mind is freedom, theirs just so much freedom on the deck, u can play so many games from different consoles & I never get bored, feels great in the hands, its loud, graphics R insane, I honestly can’t find something I don’t love about it. It’s Steam, Best customer service I ever experienced, Thats why they get almost all my business anymore.
Steam has done so much for linux it's crazy. One of, if not the biggest factor in someone staying on Windows was games.
Great lesson on Steam and Linux. Thanks!
great video. I remember my first empierces with Wine. I owe most of what i know about Linux to the struggle that is missing dependencies!
Way to go valve. Never imagined that they actually could do this good to linux gaming community. Steam Deck is a great piece of hardware even for an old linux user.
I placed my preorder expecting to install Windows almost immediately. Now, as I watch all these videos about it, and about SteamOS, I've decided to at least give it a chance.
This was an awesome video. Not many have told about Gabe's history with Windows. I for one have been a dedicated Linux gamer for several years now. Win7 was the last Windows I had used and moved over when I saw what Win8 was going to be like.
I forgot about the Steam Link! That thing worked so well for me when I needed it. I played through all of Nier Automata on my big screen, using the Link hardwired. It was great.
I've been using the Steam Deck for a couple of months now and I have really learned a lot. Installing linux versions of Retroarch and Duckstation as well as the Brave browser, has made me get acquainted with Linux....and now I want a desktop running Steam OS. Feels liberating playing Witcher 3, Persona 4 G, and Super Mega Baseball on a non-windows OS. If a Steam OS gaming rig was for sale now online by a major company, I'd buy one. Immediately.
Well this made me even happier then I already was about my steam deck purchase( gonna get it in Oct) . I'm currently traveling and I got a laptop from Costco to play path of exiles. It has windows 11... And I HATE IT! Going to return it as soon as I get back home and just wait for my beloved steam deck.
The thing I want the most from Valve is for them to release their proprietary version of SteamOS to the public for desktop use. While there is a recovery image available, it wouldn't surprise me if booting it would be more difficult than installing macOS.
I have to say after I got the steamdeck and made FF14 run on it I tried it out on my desktop I now run EndeavourOS as it is based on Arch like SteamOS 3.0 for over a month now and rarely boot into my Windows Partition as only one game that I play does not run on Linux due to the Anticheat I fully Support it and hope that Linux gaming is getting better and better
Dude you nailed this video man, I’ve watched you for awhile and even have modeled my own TH-cam content after you but I love when you do history of posts
On a related note, people don't know what they're doing when they support Epic game store and their exclusivity policy.
I don't know if Linux will be the future, and I thank valve for their efforts, but we as customers must be able to see attempts to constrain and restrict our market. The openness of PC gaming is one of its biggest strengths.