This is the full transcription of podcast 'GNU World Order Linux Cast' - gnuWorldOrder_567.
#Podcast #Transcription #ReadAlong #KnowledgeUnlocked
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This is the full transcription of podcast 'GNU World Order Linux Cast' - gnuWorldOrder_567.
#Podcast #Transcription #ReadAlong #KnowledgeUnlocked
Let's talk about the steam deck the steam deck by valve in case you don't know is a personal portable video game Console and for that to make sense we have to really really backtrack to I think around 2013 for a quick refresher history lesson so back in 20 as I recall 2013 maybe 2014 yeah, actually it might have been 2014 valve a software company not open source announced that it had basically had enough of dealing with Windows and Microsoft and was basically re-platforming on Linux and accordingly the Steam client the gaming client was released for Linux It was a huge deal. I I feel like I probably talked about it at the time although I don't really remember let's assume. I did I know I've talked about it since but at the time I mean it was a really really big deal to to such a degree that I think most of us the Linux open source using User group most of us. I don't think we really believed that it was going to happen I mean sure it would happen, but it was surely just a little trial (1/54)
run It would last for a couple of months. Maybe a year. It was if anything something that was Maybe a good intention, but it couldn't last and at worst we figured it was probably a ploy a bargaining chip of somewhat expensive Bargaining chip probably I mean you have to pay programmers to port your steam client over to Linux But it would be something to show Microsoft that hey We don't need you we could go over to Linux and write our own rules So that happened in 2013 2014 it was it was a big deal Steam was coming to Linux left for dead to a very popular Zombie shooting game cooperative game that you could play with friends was was day one Released for Linux there were a bunch of other Games as well that just started porting their game to be playable on Linux, and it was a big deal I mean some people came out and and said that it was an Impossible dream and that gaming on Linux would never work, and what was valve thinking again It was the kind of the the assumption was that this is (2/54)
some kind of bargaining chip or some kind of very sort of ill-advised kind of marketing attempt to to to essentially Boot up their own platform based on Linux and that it would never work and that's where things were in 2013 and 2014 and as the years Continued and I think this I think you'll find that That I was that I might reflect this attitude like in 20 I don't know 15 2016 2017 2018 there was a lot of I mean there was some growth first of all I mean the fact that that Linux didn't go away they didn't reach Retract the steam client for Linux So that was sort of promising But but the other things happened and you weren't really sure if valve did indeed know what they were doing I mean it seemed a little bit confusing there's steam and it was running on Linux and there are some games available for it and lots of Publishers are coming out saying yeah They're gonna have to say they're gonna support Linux because that's where because steam is doing it and and they're on board And it (3/54)
didn't take too long for those publishers to stop bothering I mean you don't really see all that many Linux games now but interestingly it doesn't matter because valve started a Open-source project called proton and proton or is it photon never can remember proton or photon? It was essentially the wine library wine isn't Wine is not an emulator. It's the windows Emulator except it's not an emulator. It's it's a reimplementation of very important libraries that typically run on windows It's reimplemented so that it runs as elf binaries So you should be able to in in theory run Microsoft Windows software on Linux Without you just using these these wine libraries Well valve took the bits of wine that they wanted and Started adding to it and and with it with a very game focused Focus so that you could play games on on Linux play Windows games on Linux That's not new. I mean wine has been doing that that's been one of the the key Components of wine for the longest time but now valve was (4/54)
paying programmers to put time and effort Toward that with specific games in mind like hey look at this game right here make it work on Linux That's and we'll pay you while you do it And that's what has been happening this valve has been earnestly Contributing code to the well to their own project their fork of wine to ensure that video games are Playable on Linux that you the video games you buy on steam are playable on your Linux box and that's been a big deal I think that what have happened around 2018 According to my my notes in of my show notes. It looks like about in 2018 in episode 1236 I think yeah 1236 steam rumors confirmed Steam OS is shipping with a compatibility layer so you can play Windows games on Steam OS the rumor mill spins faster than this shows release schedule and apparently valve has confirmed that it is going to ship a boosted version of wine in Steam OS so that's what I that's what I wrote and it is proton. That's what I wrote about 12 1230 yeah 1230 where am (5/54)
I? 1235 that was 1235 episode 1235 of 2018-08 27 so they were now valve was shipping something called steam OS which was an entire distribution of Linux dedicated to playing to launching a Steam interface full screen the big picture mode as they called it then so that you turned on your computer With steam OS installed and it looked and felt like you were playing a console it would be similar an experience to turning on a PlayStation or an Xbox you boot into a An a UI and an interface that doesn't have like a mouse and a desktop It is just all you can do is select which game you want to play and then you click to start that and and you're Off you're you're playing the game around the same time Valve released a steam controller just a game controller branded with steam on it But that that had a high compatibility with with the steam client And it could it could override built-in controller schemes with custom controller schemes And and just make it a lot easier for you to have a console (6/54)
experience on your PC So at this point if you don't know what a what what steam is I'll try to explain it steam is the product produced by a company called valve valve software and all Steam does all steam is is a an application where you can open a store to purchase Video games once you have purchased a video game from the store You can launch that video game from this application and the application also Tracks things that happen inside your game so you can take Screenshots in your game and when you go back to steam when you've stopped playing your game you go back to steam There's all your screenshots right there in your little steam window when you do something really special in a game like you've killed a hundred orcs well you get an achievement for that an achievement is kind of a Little badge that you get in recognition of having accomplished something within the game Well that achievement is listed in your steam window. Why is this important? Well, it's it's really a question (7/54)
of just sort of it's just a presentation. It's a choice of presentation could you just buy that game from the publisher and install it on your machine and then just launch it from your application window as normal as your application menu as Normal generally yes, that is something that you can do however in that case You're kind of playing the game in isolation. It is a game that exists on your computer You have to sort of remember that it's there you have to go to your application Menu and go to the game Section of your menu or type in the name of the game, and then you launch it And you maybe you earn some achievements Maybe you take some screenshots they get dumped into your pictures folder as usual And it's just kind of part of your computer really which there's nothing wrong with that that that works now on Linux Very frequently because there's no Linux version of that game you may the question of how to install it might be rather complex You might have to purchase it and then (8/54)
install wine and then launch the installer and just kind of hope that everything exists in wine that needs to exist and if not then you might have to Download some missing library or look up on wine to see what kind of Modification of the configuration file of the game you need to make or whatever or what what magical Combination of settings that seem to work for most people it can be pretty complex So between all of that work just to play a stupid game on your computer Steam is is kind of a real value add for a lot of people and for Linux users specifically a lot so for normal people Who are just running Windows um I don't know why I'm calling those normal people, but you know for a lot of people They're running Windows. They were there. They've downloaded steam and now they have steam well Why is steam better than not having steam for them well again steam has this built in store? There's a new video game out for a PC. You can go to the steam store and 99.7% chance that game is going (9/54)
to be in steam now There are some publishers who hold out and don't want to be listed on steam for whatever reason But it is far. It's few and far between generally speaking That's just a go-to place if you want a game on PC That's where you get the games on steam what achievements to have you done in all of your video games well You don't have to launch every video game to find out you're in steam you just go to that the game You know that the category of that game the game the game's page on in steam And and you'll see all of the achievements that you have Earned in the game you'll also probably see a bunch of the achievements that are available But you have not yet earned which again you can do that with the just just the game But you'd have to launch each game and look at all the different achievements that are possible Also the steam interface tells you how many hours you've spent it has other people's reviews There's a whole social aspect to it there are friends that you can chat (10/54)
with there are people You can share your your stats with so that now you know how many hours you? Have played compared to your friend and how many achievements you have or which achievements you have compared to that friend and so on so steam is a Sort of a a gaming hub for your computer and again for Linux users on top of all of that there's the simplicity of just purchasing a game clicking install and Let's say seven times out of ten you just have the game that is now playable you're done It's it's it's ready to go and and that's a big deal, and if you're on Linux these days Installing steam as a flat pack makes it even easier because now you don't even have to worry about sort of versions of libraries or Conflicting versions of of something or another on your machine versus what steam wants it's all containerized It's a flat pack you get everything you need and it runs pretty darn well And I say pretty well and seven times out of ten because realistically there's a lot of games out (11/54)
there and some games Just nobody's thought to look at how that game is gonna play on Your particular setup and so something may go wrong I've bought plenty of games that just don't run on Linux there Everything says they should but it doesn't or even maybe there are even forum posts people saying yes I've played this on Linux it runs great, and then you download it And you try to play it and it doesn't work so great there are a lot of variables with gaming This is the exact reason why people don't like to play video games on Computers, and that's this is why there is a console market when the studios know exactly what they're targeting Like the developing studios when they know exactly what to target they can write games that work very very predictably on On a specific console if they know they're targeting PlayStation 5 PlayStation 4 Xbox Whatever then or Nintendo switches they know exactly what to target. They know what they have available to them They know what is too much to ask of (12/54)
that platform that they know everything that's possible and and the reliability is Extremely high like probably down to the lower than a point one percent like I mean, it's just a failure rate you know I mean, there's just you just don't get a game for a console and find that it that it needs a An adjustment in its configuration file or a missing library that does not happen whereas on a PC Who knows what's gonna happen there are dozens of different video cards you might have installed. There's a different amount of RAM There's a different CPU. There's there are different operating systems There are different patch levels to your operating system, and so on it can be very very complex And this is why consoles are popular so around 2018 or so I started to get a little bit grumpy about what exactly valves plan was Because it didn't seem like they had one they they said that they were switching just to Linux for everything They released steam for Linux and they continue to support it for (13/54)
a good five four or five years But but but the support kind of started to wane right I mean yes sure they had proton Libraries to make sure that you could play Windows games on Linux, but I mean that's not really Switching to Linux is it I mean not really And what were they doing exactly and there were murmurs of something called a steam deck and if if you look There are some Consoles that came out that were branded. I think they were branded with steam I can't remember But they were called a steam deck and they were apparently the console version of steam and it came out with Without any fanfare. I didn't hear anybody talking about it seriously it felt like probably exactly what it was Which was a computer with steam? Installed on it in big picture mode and that was the extent of this steam console And that felt pretty bad because that didn't feel like a first-class kind of console release That's not the kind of thing you're going to see go up against PlayStation Xbox Nintendo switch (14/54)
that's just not a realistic Contender and that felt pretty confusing and so then I started thinking well if steam is serious If valve is serious about this then they need to have some kind of steam exclusive because in the land of consoles and If you even count a PC as a console in in the land of video games the way that you attract people to a Specific platform is you come out with a game that they can't get anywhere else, but that is extremely Extremely appealing to them PlayStation has spider-man because Sony has spider-man So if you want a spider-man game that's easy to play like I mean easy to get working Possibly a spider-man game at all. I don't think it's out on PC. Then you're gonna get a PlayStation like there's no other choice That's just that's where you go for that that game and and sure enough that does attract a lot of people to To PlayStation. I mean there are lots of other reasons to get a PlayStation But I mean that that's that's the exclusive title is the spider-man (15/54)
game du jour Nintendo switch I mean certain of course Nintendo. I mean Nintendo has nothing but exclusives. They've got so many Classic video games that you just can't get anywhere else but on a Nintendo device Super Mario Brothers and Zelda and Probably a lot of other things that I'm not thinking of right now, but there are exclusive Xbox I think has some kind of sci-fi game or something. Is it Halo or is it Mass Effect one of those two? So, I mean there are exclusives and that's the big deal That's the thing that people sort of that's the that's the straw that broke the camel's back That's the thing that tips the scales should I get this or that? Oh, well This one has this game that I really really am excited about I'll go get that one and and steam certainly doesn't have anything like that or these these little steam The steam console things that were being sold from various, you know third-party manufacturers It just I don't know. It didn't feel like something coming from valve for (16/54)
all I know it wasn't coming from valve I'm not really sure where this came from either way I just felt like if they're gonna do a console then they need an exclusive. Well sure enough a little bit later. They come out with Half-life Alex Lyx and this is a virtual reality game set in the half-life universe Which if you're into video games that would mean something to you and it's I mean half-life is one of the reasons valve Software is valve software. I mean, it's a huge huge deal for them the big big property for them And so a game that you could play Exclusively through steam was kind of a big deal. But again, it's through steam It's not through like a special steam console So it really kind of seemed like things had kind of fallen over like yeah valve switched to Linux Supposedly they were doing a really surprising amount of support toward Linux compatibility like with proton and yet there seemed to be a missing component here was like they'd set everything up for Something but (17/54)
hadn't decided what they'd set it up for. I mean, okay, they've they've gained Independence from Microsoft, I guess they have a platform of their own. I guess it's called steam OS. I don't know who's running it I don't know anyone running that some people have lots of people are running steam But the more you hear, you know when you hear about people using a steam it's not on Linux They're not they're not talking about how they're playing steam on Linux It's just the same old steam for whatever platform they happen to be on So what exactly has valve done and then it landed finally finally it landed the steam deck The proper the real the branded the official steam deck. What was the steam deck? What is the steam deck? It is a portable console Which is basically saying it's a reinvention of the Nintendo switch the Nintendo switch in case you don't know is a sort of a tablet sized Screen with Little controllers that you can attach to the sides of the screen and you can use those (18/54)
controllers to Play games. That's what the Nintendo switch was. It's a huge deal. It took the gaming world by storm It's a really I mean, it's from a very very trusted game company Nintendo They've got a great library that you could fall back on I mean if you don't like half of their games, you probably like the other half of their games I mean, they've got amazing games and then to everyone's surprise I think a lot of publishers started porting their games to the Nintendo switch This is unheard of this doesn't happen there. That's not how consoles work and yet that's how the Nintendo switch worked It came out. It's a Nintendo device You're supposed to be able to play Nintendo games on it And indeed you can but for whatever reason a bunch of other games Started popping up on the Nintendo switch games that have never been on Nintendo devices before elders What's it called sky Skyrim? On Nintendo switch Dark Souls on Nintendo switch like there were just so many games on Nintendo switch (19/54)
In fact, there was a an acronym an acronym P-e-t-s port everything to switch. I mean it was a big deal. Everyone was porting Everything to this little handheld sort of you know Modern era Game Boy and then the steam deck came out and the steam deck came out at exactly the right moment I think it came out after the Nintendo switch had made an impression upon everyone it showed everyone what was possible for portable gaming but you know as with any console Nintendo switch has a life cycle and Towards the middle to the end the arguable end of the Nintendo switch at least in its current iteration The steam deck appeared as kind of I think almost an unofficial Successor to the Nintendo switch not saying the Nintendo switch is dead by any means but by the way, here's another powerful device with Basically the same form factor and you can play all of these PC games on it What a crazy idea and that's exactly what the Steam deck is it's a again a tablet size Maybe a small tablet size screen and (20/54)
on the sides They're not detachable like they are on this Nintendo switch But on the sides there are that there's there's sort of half of a controller so you you carry the Nintendo switch you hold it in two hands and you've got a joystick on the An analog stick on both the left and the right thumb you've got trigger buttons for your index and middle fingers and you've got a You got the buttons For your right thumb and you've got a d-pad a digital Input pad for the thumb of your your left hand and then there are some other buttons as well just in case a game Wants to go a little bit crazy and add some some further interface Interactions to it and when you first look at it if you look at pictures of it online You might think that it does not look like it would work I mean it is a it's a piece of plastic with controllers sort of stuck on on the upper right corners It just doesn't look like it should work but boy when you hold it does it work? I mean it feels great It feels absolutely like (21/54)
a little handheld console The handhold console of your dreams, it's amazing and as you may be surmising I have purchased one I've got one now and so I'm gonna talk about What exactly about the steam deck? You and I as Linux users should care about because that's the exciting point about the steam deck for I think you and me This is a portable console running Arch Linux with steam Installed on top of it. That's all this is you launch the device to steam to the steam interface But you can switch to the desktop with one press of a button Well, no two presses of a button one press of a button and one click How's that one one button one click and then you're at the desktop? There's no special developer mode that you need to enter. There's nothing you need to do It is that simple to be at a Linux desktop in a handheld device being Commercially sold on the market to millions of gamers. It's really exciting Let's talk about it after we go get some coffee Oh All right, I'm back I've got coffee (22/54)
and it's it's good coffee it's fine it's house coffee I was in the United States about two weeks ago now. Well three weeks really for a week So two weeks ago, I got back and I had some fantastic coffee on my travels I have to say it's not because it's like oh, it's the United States It's just I had lots of coffee from lots of different places because I was traveling and I had some great coffee Really like the hotel I was staying at I think it was called the Magnolia in Denver, Colorado It was they had a restaurant downstairs and it was fantastic coffee I had it with breakfast a couple of times when when I wasn't at the conference where they had catered food and Really good coffee there as well. No, that wasn't really good coffee. What am I saying? That was okay coffee The the hotel coffee was Amazing and then to make matters even better They they put big like a you know Big pots of coffee out just in the lobby so you could grab a coffee to go or to take up back to your room And it (23/54)
wasn't around the clock by any means but it was for a good portion of the day and it was excellent coffee So I'm kind of missing that Specific coffee to be perfectly honest nothing else about Denver, Colorado Interests me but the coffee at that one place just happened to be really good on that week I'm not vouching for it forever. I'm just saying I had good coffee Okay, so I being in the States is actually what sort of enabled me to get a steam deck steam decks are not impossible to find in New Zealand but you do have to get them through an importer and there's usually a bunch of extra costs added on to that and Sometimes you can't get the latest model and all this other Stuff go to the States and they're just they're everywhere. They're just falling off the shelves. They're just all over the place You can just go into whatever store you want and grab one. I mean, I guess I don't know I just had one I I mail or not mail ordered I I ordered it over the internet and they had it not it (24/54)
mail I had them mail it to my parents who live in the United States because that's where I'm from Originally and and then I picked up the the steam deck when I when I went to the u.s And it was great. It's the new the new steam deck OLED OLED OLED version so I guess it's better than the old one. I think it's maybe 256 gigabytes if that I mean it might be less I have a 256 gigabyte SD card in the SD card slot So technically I have more space but I don't really know what that space is used for So, I don't know if that'll be useful at all for me. I'm not sure point Is though I have one I've got a steam deck and I've been using it daily ever since I got my hands on it I mean it is a pleasure to use but what's really really exciting for me as a Linux user and open-source Enthusiast this is Arch Linux like this is this is this is Arch Linux I don't know how else to say it. I mean, this is a Linux device. There's no caveat here You can't you know, you know how when we all talk about like (25/54)
Android and chromo ass and all that other stuff We all kind of we kind of you know, we have that asterisk like well, you know, it's it's yeah, it's Linux No, it counts as Linux like really it does but we're like when I'm using this thing It doesn't really feel like Linux. But I mean it's it's technically Linux. I can install a Linux like Emulator thing or something, but it's Linux and and that's a little I mean that's it's still I'm not Trying to take away from those devices. I think that it's really great to see Linux being used For for sort of you know for mass consumption. I think that's really really cool But the steam deck like there's no asterisk there like if you hit the power button on the steam it was like if it's on if you press and hold the power button you get a special like a Sort of a menu, you know much as you do on like on a cell phone or something you get a menu That'll offer to like, you know shut down or something like that But one of the selections as opposed to (26/54)
shutting down is to switch to desktop. I'm not in any kind of special mode here This isn't developer mode. This isn't Developer beta this is standard steam deck off the shelf you press and hold the power button you get the power menu switch to desktop it closes steam and shows you a KDE plasma desktop with minimal if any I mean it's it's a Recognizable KDE plasma desktop. This is not like well technically it's right No, this is like you've seen a plasma desktop before dear listener. You've you're running slack Where you've seen what your computer looks like? That's what this thing looks like except it has a wallpaper With the steam deck logo on it There's an application menu down in the left because I haven't switched the panel to the top yet You can click on that there are little mouse pads track pads on the steam deck so you can just use your thumb to zip over there to the application you right or not right click you you click with your right index finger the it's the right The (27/54)
trigger button on the on the steam deck like you're you know The right trigger and and it opens the application menu and then you can go over to like dolphin It's labeled dolphin. It doesn't say files It says dolphin you click on dolphin and there are files or there's your home directory here. Anyway with folders in it Everything's there. I mean, it's no there's no you can go to settings. You know, it's it's a desktop. It's the KDE plasma desktop I don't know what else to say. That's what it is I mean this is it's it's you're just at a desktop and it's amazing I mean, it's it's just it's stunning. It's staggering to see that kind of capability just built into the steam deck I mean there are there's someone out there who's discovered that feature Because it's not at all hidden in plain sight. It is in plain sight They've discovered that feature and they're using this thing as their computer. I just know they are why wouldn't you I mean Do you want a Linux device like pre-configured? (28/54)
Pre-installed Linux device the steam deck is the device you're looking for the the disadvantage to the steam deck as a primary computer I guess is that it has exactly one port it has one USB-c port for primarily for power you could use it I think you could I think you can just plug a you know A mini HDMI or whatever it's called into that and and shoot your video out to your to your TV Haven't actually tried that but I mean that works on a lot of phones So I'm assuming it works on the steam deck But you know so for for your input and your power I mean you'd have to figure something out I guess or does HDMI does HDMI deliver power I don't think it does I mean so yeah, you'd have to kind of figure some stuff out. It might be inconvenient I don't know. Maybe you could do a like a hub or something probably a little USB hub I should try all of these things actually I didn't think of it before but I should try some of these things I know that there are USB C hubs that you could get maybe that (29/54)
would do power and HDMI I don't know, but you and you'd probably still have to use a Bluetooth Keyboard and mouse which I mean Bluetooth is built in so it shouldn't be that big of a deal You just have to consign yourself to that if you're not using Bluetooth normally, which I don't Maybe that would be slightly inconvenient, but I mean this is a this is a computer that has everything already configured This is a Linux computer in a weird weird form factor, and it's not weird I I mean it's weird if you're gonna use it as your primary computer and not as a gaming device It's really really not weird if it's a gaming device It's it's it's a great gaming device form factor But in terms of of getting Linux in an easy way This is legitimately like this is an option. This is an actual thing that you could do and again there are no Caveats or asterisks here this isn't like my Chromebook review where it's like well It's really interesting if you flash a new image on to it or failing that enable (30/54)
the Linux Emulation terminal that gives you sort of access to some Linux stuff But it could break the next time you update so don't update too often and you can also kind of run some Android applications on it, but only if the Chromebook agrees with your Your intentions you know who knows like it's just this isn't like that This is Arch Linux that there's not a whole lot more to it than that now Primarily I mean I think you know if you're getting a steam deck you're likely going to get it Because it's a gaming device, and you're probably not gonna get it. Just because oh well It's a thing with Linux pre-installed I'm just saying like as an added bonus to being a really good gaming device if you're looking for one There's also a full-fledged Linux computer running the whole thing now the side effect of that is Remember how I said there's about seven out of ten games that'll run just great on Linux And then those other times maybe not so great well That's a that that's the same thing (31/54)
that's the same that's the same case with the steam deck When when when you sign into your steam deck with your steam account? You do you do get a sort of a list of all of the games that you own and One of the default filters is great on steam deck or something like that great on steam deck or whatever You know approved for steam deck or whatever, so there's this you know sort of not artificial not arbitrary, but Maybe a somewhat Obfuscated filter I mean what they're really saying is that our proton libraries Haven't been able to unravel this game's Structure yet, and so we can't really guarantee that it's going to play on steam deck and yet it may also be saying well You could run it on steam deck, but this is a small ish device It's not a big monitor that you're staring at it's not a big TV screen. It's it's a tablet sized Screen so some of the text is gonna be really small some of the inner you know the UI elements might be too small So there's a level of kind of plausible (32/54)
deniability Deniability kind of like this you know like you could say oh, it doesn't work on the steam deck well Why doesn't it work on steam deck is it because it's Linux well? No, it's because if the UI wasn't designed for the steam deck and for an optimal experience You should probably play it on something else or yes. It's because it's Linux and the game was written for Windows What can you do so there's in and the reason that's important is because there are gamers out there lots of gamers Millions of gamers who are using the steam deck and couldn't care less whether it runs Linux or Windows or PlayStation You you know whatever OS the PlayStation runs I mean they just they don't care what it's running all they want to know is what they can do with it as a Gaming device and that's fine. That's that's actually good. I prefer it that way I prefer that most people don't think I'm running Linux or I have to think about the fact that I'm running Linux before I Purchase this game because (33/54)
I wouldn't want it to you know who cares does it work on the steam deck does it work for? That form factor does it work for that size of the screen? Does it work with that console and that's something? I think that gamers and and really you mean gamers of any level like if you've if you've played games on a video game Console then you're you're familiar with that line of thinking does this game come on this console well Of course Zelda doesn't come on the PlayStation. That's silly Zelda is a Nintendo game It would never play it would never be on a PlayStation into story like there's no argument about like well What about the operating system? What about porting it for these libraries blah blah blah? It's just there's a device There's a an appliance does this thing go on that appliance yes or no and when the answer is no That's that's not really the end of the story like there are plenty of forum posts in fact I would argue that probably at this point most games Listed in Steam probably (34/54)
have a forum post saying what's the support like for the steam deck and there's either Yes, it works on steam deck or doesn't really work or yeah I've kind of gotten it to work blah blah blah and then developers of the games sometimes Chime in and they say yeah, we're working on porting it to the steam deck whatever so I mean It's it's a target and as I've said several times before about flat pack and lots of other things Half the time all a developer really wants all they really need is a Definable target, and I don't care what anybody else says but saying well, there's Linux Why don't you just target Linux? That's not a target because there are RPMs and there are deb's and there are different distributions with different library versions and all of these different things at least flat pack gives Developers a single target, but better than that in a bizarre way at least this physical device The steam deck that is a very very definable target You don't get as the user you don't get to (35/54)
choose what graphics card you put in your steam deck You don't get to choose what CPU you're using by the way. It's it's all AMD Which is which makes me quite happy You don't get all of those choices you you buy one of I don't know three or four models They're basically sold to you based on the storage capacity and that's your choice And so all the publishers out there know exactly what they're targeting and it really really works The proof is as they say in the pudding I mean this thing works is what I'm saying like it actually works like you you you know the games that work really well on the platform you install them and you can Play them and you don't really think about what's underneath the cool thing here for me and probably you dear listener Is that what's underneath happens to be Linux late last year? there were a couple of different articles like on PC gamer and ours technica about how Linux had surpassed Mac OS as the second most common OS on Steam so I mean 96% of gamers, (36/54)
you know according if you look at the the steam Little survey the hardware survey that they run I think it's an opt-out opt-in or opt-out thing where it'll take a look at your system and record it in in its data So I it's it's a little bit like an I don't know a TV Nielsen's family type deal where like I don't know how representative it actually is But according to it 96% of steam users are Windows users. Okay, great way way down You know in the like 2% range is Linux and then further down is Mac and that used to be the reverse it used to be 96% Windows and then some number of Mac and then a fewer number of Linux so Linux has climbed up the chart a little bit It's easy to just kind of pat yourself on the back and say well the the the OS that I like is winning And doesn't that make me feel great? And I mean, yeah, I guess we're not playing football here These aren't football teams like no one has to win. No one has to lose everything can coexist What benefit is there that this is Arch (37/54)
Linux really ultimately at the end of the day? I guess there isn't a benefit if all you do is play video games I mean, you'll never know what the benefit is in other words But then again, there is the benefit of it being Linux I mean, there's the real benefit of there being a platform underneath all of that code There's a platform where you can do whatever you want and and that is a really really powerful thing You don't have to wade through Advertisements in your application menu. You don't have to buy into a dev kit that it's Linux It's whatever you want it to be And so if you were curious about using a platform that is truly liberated There it is. There's Arch Linux just lingering quietly underneath the big picture mode of Steam and Available for you to do anything you want with it. I mean, obviously you go too crazy You could theoretically feasibly screw something up and I don't know what kind of safeguards they have built into the Steam deck to prevent you from I don't know (38/54)
uninstalling steam or something silly like that or changing the The the the init scripts such that the big picture mode doesn't ever start or something like that I don't know what they have built into into this into this desktop I haven't played around with it enough to try to break things but it is there and there are no restrictions I should say it is there and it is an open platform. It's it is Linux. So the the Possibilities are really really strong that you'll be able to do something very very cool With that platform and I think that that's really really empowering Whether people are using it or not, it's there So in other words rather than having something broken by design underneath all of the all of the intended Interface there's something that's just not broken there's Linux and I just that that comforts me to to know that that there's something that is That that's capable rather than something that is designed to to disable Capability and I'm comparing, you know, I mean, I'm (39/54)
sure that the steam deck would work just as well with a win with a Windows Base like you get now I'm sure there are things online where you can flash your steam deck with Windows 11 or something and then run steam and then you'll have Something that I guess could feasibly play games that aren't maybe even optimized for steam deck Which again, I think that the UI might be a really good Reason not to do that, but let's say that you did then you could that would be fine You could do that But then you're you're then you're stuck with Windows and I know to some people that that's not that's not being stuck That's that's a world of possibility Now I can buy into the dev kit and do this and do that and purchase all the things and that's you know Whatever if that's what people want then that's what a person should have but with Linux It's there for everyone and I love that that's what's underneath steam on the steam deck Because it it is just full of possibility whether or not people use it or (40/54)
not I don't know but I mean it is still full of possibility so I'm gonna talk a little bit from a from a consumer standpoint now of Sort of what I get out of the steam deck I mean from a from just a literal consumer pretend like I don't know that it's running Linux Let's talk about this device and what it does for me. It does a couple of things First of all, it gives me time to play games. So I have a steam account I have video games that I've purchased through steam and I do very often intend to play games But there's only 24 hours in a day and I've got a lot of stuff I have interest in I've got little miniatures for the tabletop games. I've got lots of tabletop games I've got other hobbies and I just frankly I just don't find the time to sort of disappear into my office put on the the headphones pick up the controller and Play a game for several hours because video gaming often is not a short thing It's something that you kind of want to do for an extended amount of time So I figured (41/54)
that maybe the way to get myself to play more video games is to the correct way Maybe is to optimize the the opportunity to game So in other words find a way to fit gaming in video gaming into the moments where where I'm not doing anything else rather than trying to find time to Go and play a video game and the steam deck being portable is exactly what I needed I mean really you might think well, why don't you just play a mobile game? And and that's definitely that's an argument I could just start playing video games on on a phone But there are reasons I don't prefer to do that and I have found within like a week of owning a steam deck I'd already completed banner saga a little I wouldn't call it an RPG. It's really a war game simulator That I had meant to play for years I mean it's been in my library for ages and I just never got around to playing it and Within a week of owning the steam deck. I'd finished the game. It was only about a 20-hour game It's not a huge big game But it's a (42/54)
lot of fun and I just found I I with the steam deck I could I could just drop in and Play a quick scenario a little battle and then drop back out and it wasn't a big investment it was just something you could do when you're just waiting for a plane or You know like sitting around the the hotel waiting for the the clock to tick back around to when you can actually go to The conference or whatever so it was great. It was really really useful There are other games that do feel a little bit like mobile games like Lara Croft go or hitman go or journey I mean those you could imagine playing on a mobile phone But again, the the steam deck is a little bit more of the correct form factor It's got the game controller built in so it feels familiar in your hand And and it just feels like a really great way to play those games. And again, they're drop in drop out It's really easy to kind of start and stop without sort of removing yourself from the rest of the world So the convenience of the steam (43/54)
deck combined with its power I think offers really the best of the both both worlds You can play sort of big video game titles that you would otherwise play on a desktop Or you can play casual games that you could imagine playing on a mobile phone or a tablet but it all gets Condensed down into one device and that's an that's the next thing the the the the the concept of a device of a console because as I said as I alluded to before When you game on a PC your gaming system is never really done I mean if you ever talk to a PC gamer, you'll learn that pretty quickly You're never really finished building your system whether you like it or not Some game is gonna get released and it's gonna want a little adjustment or a little improvement or an update of some Library or some hardware it happens in consoles but consoles they do the work for you I mean, they don't upgrade their hardware but when you turn a console on if you have ever owned a PlayStation or probably an Xbox or a Nintendo when (44/54)
you turn a Modern console on you're gonna sit through a bunch of updates before you can do anything. That's just guaranteed I mean heck I have a PlayStation 3 which is like two PlayStation generate two console generations ago And it still gets updates to make to make things work I mean, it's crazy like you cannot turn these things on without downloading an update I don't know what they're updating but they're updating something so that your game will work or when you install a game you sit through The install and then a bunch of downloads of updates for that game So that's just life on a console and similarly its life on a PC except it doesn't get done automatically I mean sure on a PC some some updates do literally happen automatically You know your OS gets updated probably I mean, you know or it alerts you that an update is ready And you click the update button or whatever, you know like on Fedora So, I mean it does happen But your operating system doesn't generally know what games (45/54)
you have installed or it doesn't care what games you have installed So when it says it's gonna update some you know lib foo It's gonna update that whether or not your game wants it to be updated and it also doesn't know that lib bar Needs updated because that's just a library that came with the game and your operating system knows nothing about that And and you know, I mean obviously sometimes there are conflicts as well One thing wants to update something and the other thing didn't want that to be updated or or one thing gets updated and the other Thing just depended on that and didn't expect it to be updated and so on Steam Deck bridges the gap between console convenience and PC power and I guess title Availability is powerful enough to run games delivered to a PC But it acts like a console with updates strictly applied whether you know, you need them or whether you care About them or not, and it's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. If all you want to do is play games That's the (46/54)
exact kind of level of service you want and again the important thing here I think also is that the title availability reflects the PCs I mean it does and it doesn't in theory if it's available on PC It's available for your Steam Deck But in practice as I've said the the form factor the size of the screen and also literally just the compatibility that there there may be a Shift in in what you can actually play on your Steam Deck versus what you could have played on your PC But really most people's Steam Library, I think most people steam most people's Steam Libraries are pretty big and so you get lots of games In in your library and and if you can only play a subset today of those games on your Steam Deck You've got plenty to play. That's what I have found now speaking of games This is a mobile console and that's a big big deal I mean, I've said it being portable has enabled me to find time to play video games in times and places That I normally wouldn't be playing video games whether (47/54)
it's what you know in between talks at a conference or waiting for a plane Or waiting for a bus or whatever now I have enjoyed some mobile games in the past not many but you know They can be fun to play a game on your mobile device, but honestly By and large most video games published to the to like a mobile Target those aren't the kinds of video games I want to play my goal usually is to play through a game with a fairly big scope Like I want a game that tells a kind of a defined story But I kind of want it usually to be a kind of a big story. I want a beginning. I want an ending I want the game to feel like a video game and not like, you know, like a mobile game And I don't want to go into a question of like what's a mobile game versus a video game But I think if you sort of think about the term mobile game You kind of get the idea of what I'm saying Probably unless you've just never thought of video games in which case you might not really know what I'm saying But I mean there's (48/54)
there's a difference in feeling there's a difference in scope I'm not saying mobile games aren't like quote-unquote real video games if you like mobile games, that's fine I'm just saying for me. I'm not looking to get into mobile games I want to play video games that are typically found on a PC or on a console That's just what I'm interested in right now. Maybe it'll change later, you know different circumstances But right now that's what I want. The Steam Deck is mobile in a literal sense It's small enough to carry around with me either around town or just in my own house It's got the physical controllers built in. I love a controller. I don't play on Keyboard and mice I don't I don't do that never have them. I grew up on consoles. That's what I'm used to now It doesn't look to look at it. It doesn't look like a controller you'd love It looks like the designers just kind of forgot to include controls and then stuck them on at the last minute But when you hold it, I guarantee you like (49/54)