It’s not the gotcha that they think it is. Increasing share of Linux, steam deck or not is progress. Any development or considerations made for the SteamDeck and its Arch based OS benefit the non SteamDeck Linux gaming scene too.
Mostly a stab at Reddit PCMR, Lemmy PCMR has a different vibe.
My understanding is that it implies most Deck owners aren’t using them for anything other than purely gaming, then switching back to Windows for everything else. I kind of agree with that point, sure there are more Linux machines out there, but people are still using Windows over them, if the Deck was a standard PC and people were ditching their Windows machines for it that’d a different story. That said, it still means more people using Linux at the end of the day even if just occasionally and in a very restricted way, make of that what you will.
I think the argument being made is that it doesn’t mean more users are manually migrating to linux, because you don’t buy a steamdeck because of its OS. You use steamOS because it comes with the steam deck.
However, users choosing linux over windows is only one aspect of the good news: Widespread linux use, intentional or not, makes it less likely that a developer will skip it as a platform “not worth the extra effort”
Being a Steam Deck owner myself, it also exposes more people to the underlying OS. I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding that people who use a Steam Deck only ever use it in Game Mode, and that’s simply untrue.
I was convinced to buy one, because a user said they bought one for each of their kids as a stand-in for a laptop, and they would do their homework on it (in addition to playing games).
And now, because of my personal exposure, I have Bazzite running full time on a laptop, and I’m testing a few other Linux distros to eventually replace my Win 11 Pro install on my main desktop machine.
Those people should leave the purity tests and gatekeeping to the religious fundies.
I’ve never touched a steam deck nor its OS. How much of the underlying OS is exposed to the user? Is it easy to bring up a terminal emulator?
It’s surprisingly straightforward! There’s a menu option in the UI that can switch you to desktop mode, which is KDE Plasma. You can open up a terminal emulator from the K menu there.
Isn’t that how most laptops are sold? People use Windows on them because they ship with Windows?
True, but there isn’t really much of a discussion of users moving TO windows, as using windows is, on a broader scale, the de facto default.
I’m curious how the linux share would be today if no PC ever was sold with a preinstalled OS.
I was going to argue against this but you have a point.
I was originally going to call out the Linux laptops selling worse, assuming that people were more comfortable with Windows.
But Chromebooks sold a LOT. So maybe the average consumer doesn’t care as long as the laptop is easy to use.
People count Chromebooks as ChromeOS even though it is Linux.
ChromeOS is not counted as Linux for the same reasons Android isn’t counted as Linux and MacOS isn’t counted as BSD. Those are proprietary, locked-down operating systems. It contrasts with what is broadly understund as Linux, meaning Linux distributions that adhere to some kind of FOSS philosophy.
Year of the Linux Desktop may never be a relevant measure, but it was Steam Deck and Proton that marked the transition for me.
The deck is awesome because it’s Linux
I’d argue it’s awesome because it’s a great product that lets you play games on the go.
The huge win is that its running on Linux, and valve contributes to open-source with Proton!
Bought my child the Steam Deck and that convinced me to switch to Linux. Games were the biggest reason I didn’t make the switch earlier and seeing how well they ran on SD helped me realize most of the games I play, will run just fine.
I’ve noticed some posters in these communities have that toxic attitude of superiority and exclusivity–they simultaneously want people to use Linux, but also take pride in their “chops” and look down on people who don’t know as much. It’s along the same lines as those rude or hostile responses to more basic questions. I haven’t seen it as much here on Lemmy, fortunately.
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I think it’s because generally speaking, thanks to the efforts of Valve with game mode etc to create the console like experience, many that have a Steam Deck don’t “use” Linux…they use Steam, they click Install and they click Play and that’s it.
Does it really matter? How many Windows users’ usage just launch a browser and use that, aren’t they effectively not “using” Windows per se?
People are buying a game system that uses Linux. They aren’t choosing Linux, and most of them aren’t using it as an operating system of any sort aside from gaming. So yeah. It only half counts.
Am I the only one, who thinks Linux gaming is a Valve/Steam walled garden?
It’s more of a white picket fence than a wall.
