To be clear, while the article says this is “official support”, this is only drivers provided by valve.
Per valve:
We are providing these resources as is and are unfortunately unable to offer ‘Windows on Deck’ support.
Great! Like installing square wheels on my bike
Minecraft players in en shambles right now.
“Big paws on a puppy… to a tee.”
Well, put, friend, well said, thanks for sharing!
I’d rather have SteamOS officially support more devices including desktop. Good on Valve for giving people options though.
Eww…
I would rather trust GamingOnLinux here:
While it is not in any way officially supported by Valve, they have now released Windows drivers for the newer Steam Deck OLED model.
(emphasis mine)
Yeah, that is a good point to make.
Main reason I linked the steamdeckhq coverage is because they covered it last night, where gamingonlinux didn’t have any coverage of it until a few hours ago.
Cool but also meh, I really like steams and have had 0 issues getting games to play.
It’s a great option for people who wants to play those games where the anti cheat system doesn’t support Linux
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A part of me wishes hackers do a Crowdstrike on Vanguard to stop this trend.
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True
Ikr
Also great for people who want to take advantage of gamepass.
Fair
We should just stop supporting those games.
Blech! Why would somebody sully such a wonderful device with a piss patty OS?
I could imagine that games with invasive anti cheats are a reason.
As someone who played a couple, i just stopped playing them.
I’m a little sad they did this, i hoped that the pressure on the game devs would rise so they support Linux, oh well.
Personally, I think this is great because I can now use my game pass subscription on the steam deck, I know I could use the cloud functionality on steamos, but it is not the same.
This limitation made be realize the vendor lock-in that game pass is, sure it provides awesome value, but forces you to have windows or buy an Xbox.
Why did you subscribe to services you couldn’t use?
I only bought a steam deck recently, when I subscribed for 3 years, I mostly gamed on Windows or on my Xbox.
True, still a little salty I had to cancel the subscription, I genuinely liked it. But I’m not installing Windows.
Getting Game Pass on steamos is pretty easy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U22q9mKfW3Y
Did you actually watch the video and/or read what I said? I want to be able to play the games locally, not from the cloud.
I guess I skimmed over ur comment. I definitely watched the video tho lol
Meh.
I’ve used the ASUS ROG Ally and I do not recommend running Windows on anything, let alone a handheld. Don’t tarnish your Steam Deck with this!
I fully agree, but the Deck should be less painful to run windows on thanks to the track pad.
The trackpad is amazing on the Deck.
Good news, Lemmy! You will no longer be forced by big tech corporations to run uh… [checks notes] a version of Linux on your Steam Deck anymore!
Uhhh…well. that’s…um. sure. Someone could do that.
And then there’s me, who got a new laptop a couple of days ago after looking into things, and the pre installed Windows worked perfectly to test the hardware worked fine… before being replaced by Linux.
who would use it when Linux just works in addition to Microsoft’s continued enshitification of Windows?
The only reason to use Windows over Linux is compatibility with certain games (or even applications). Also the price of the device is pretty low. That means people who are interested into handheld PCs who want to use it as a sort of laptop for cheap and don’t care about Linux, can still install Windows on it. I’m not recommending it, but I’m glad people have this option and Valve is not actively trying to stop people (unlike other companies).
Yeah I’m sure they have their reasons but if it were up to me I would never allocate resources for that.
“Let it rot and fester somewhere else”
Perhaps it’s due to the games I play not being online multiplayer for the most part, but I’ve yet to encounter a game that I couldn’t get to work on Linux, with ~99% requiring absolutely no effort (besides clicking a drop down menu).
And this includes games that Steam has labeled “unsupported” (not even just “unverified”).
At risk of being that annoying, “but have you tried lately?” guy but… Have you? Because it’s pretty wild. In many cases, the Windows version of the game, played using Proton, works better than the native Linux runtime.
Yes, I’m playing unsupported and unverified games just fine too. Its the nature of progress, where the game, the drivers/system or Proton gets updated and the tested state no longer is accurate. There was a few cases when I tried the Windows version over Linux native build to see how it works. However I was never in a position where I needed that or when it was obviously much better. I always have this in mind in case I need to switch. Maybe in future versions where the native build is no longer functional under Linux.
Some games have security software that requires Windows. Destiny 2 for example.
Well, at least for me the solution is simple: don’t buy those games.
That’s… that’s a lot of games.
On the 1st page I found exactly one game that I’d maybe want to play, but not like I couldn’t live without it. None on page 2 and one game again on page 3. Every single game I wanted to play on the Deck works (true, some of them needed some tinkering).
Remember, I said the solution is simple for me. Generally the games that don’t work are not really my cup of tea, like online games and generally stuff that’s more cash-grab than a game. There are few games that would make me consider getting Windows to play, but luckily all of those work well. I still wouldn’t install Windows on the Deck, though, I’d probably stream it from some PC.
Yeah, I dunno if that list was supposed to be convincing lol… Most of the games on there are total “games as a service” garbage.
Every single one of these games looks like trash. Like 4 out of 5 (on page 1 at least) of the games on the list are games I’ve only heard about from YouTube advertisements that I didn’t use SponsorBlock on.
Not very convincing.
The Call of Duty franchise is one of the biggest games going. PUBG Battlegrounds is huge, so is Destiny 2.
Dude there’s like, maybe twenty real games in that pile. Most of which I wouldn’t want to play on my steam deck anyways, not that I’ve ever wanted to play a battlefield game, but I sure don’t want to try and aim with a controller.
Gyro-assisted aiming is actually quite effective.
Thst’s not to say anything about those games though.
ew
No thanks
Good to have the option, but probably only worth it if you play anti cheat infested games or subscribe to game pass. I’ll stick with the OS optimised for the hardware
This is definitely meant to make it less painful for the players of those games.
