A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
I love my deck because
But I was wondering what kind of uses other people have with it, as a non gaming machine?
I have used it a couple times to use Plex and watch movies/TV. Weirdly though it seems it requires an internet connection. I went on a trip and was hoping to watch 2 episodes on a flight and they were downloaded, showed as downloaded and when I clicked play it just spun and failed to play. Later when I had WiFi I clicked play and it was showing small amounts of network activity. Would much rather watch movies on that compared to my phone
I use it as a tablet to watch F1 on my couch / armchair. It has better sound, screen and battery life than my laptop, while not burning my lab.
Other than that I mostly play games on my Deck.
I have a needlessly complicated but high quality signal path (USB-C to A dongle -> some extension cable -> Edirol UA-1D -> looong Toslink optical cable -> active speakers) to play music off Spotify and MPD on the Deck to entertain the family and guests.
I've been meaning to install ROS (Robot Operating System) on it, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
I have mine plugged into my TV, with a wireless controller and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I spend most of my time in the desktop mode
I use it to:
It works great as an all in one device. I don't really use the smart features on my TV or my Fire stick anymore - I don't need to see all the shitty advertising or use their compromised UIs that try to sell me shit.
Honestly, the Steam Deck is one of the best devices I've bought in years.
Which makes it all the more sad that 4% is the current peak of Linux Desktop usage. Now with Proton we could all be living so much better digital lives. I recently set up Nobara and it's an absolute marvel. I was never a Fedora guy, but I think I'll come around to this out-of-the-box fully gaming-capable experience.
I use my Steam Deck for producing audiobooks, set up a little closet space and soundtreated it, set up a mic with a Focusrite and I use Reaper on the Steam Deck.
Works great, bit small but I'm not doing music production so I don't need a larger screen for the moment.
Best part is, it's all via USB-C Anker Dock, so I just unplug it and the whole set up is perfectly in place still. Sans Deck :D
I recently started trying run stable diffusion on my deck CPU. It’s slow, but probably my fastest option as I’m very new to PC gaming and the deck is probably my most powerful computer for now.
Check my recent post history lol.
That's actually kinda amazing..
I once saw a video of soldiers in Ukraine using it to control some drones. Truly a versatile machine.
To watch YouTube on my"smart tv" and to watch pirated TV shows and movies.
How to watch YouTube on Steam Deck? Via Desktop Mode?
Go into desktop mode and add Firefox as a non steam game. Then you can access it from gaming mode.
I use an app called FreeTube, I believe it uses Piped in some way and integrates SponsorBlock and DeArrow. You can install it through Discover and then add it to your Steam Library and use it in game mode (works best with the Web browser Steam Input config).
It's amazing for traveling with. I've found that streaming devices like a Chromecast or Roku are hit or miss at most hotels/motels, but the Steam Deck in desktop mode with a USB hub and HDMI cable works basically anywhere.
I also keep some movies and shows downloaded just in case the Wi-Fi particularly sucks wherever I am.
You can use the box to collect cats in.
Steam Cat
Updating? Charging?
I travel a lot for work with a not very big weight allowance so it has replaced my laptop as my daily machine.
I game on it, use it for discord and dndbeyond to play dnd at work, have jellyfin on it to stream media to my phone+ar glasses, and use it to access my home server to deal with downloads and my main jellyfin server.
It's an awesome tool.
I have it plugged into my TV via dock and use it to watch illegal video streams from sketchy websites that don't have apps. Most often they are live sports streams.
Could you point me in the direction of these sketchy websites? My wife watches a lot of sports and I am looking for a way to stop paying for cable. Most things I have found are very unreliable though.
Sportsurge.net is what I've been using for a long time. Goes without saying, but use an adblocker.
HTPC
With a Dock and my Steam Controller it’s a fantastic media PC.
With a Dock and my Steam Controller it’s a fantastic media PC.
Sadly it sucked last time I tried it to run Jellyfin Media Player :(
Weird, it works flawlessly for me. But I've only tried it in desktop mode. I find gamescope mode isn't great for non games, even Firefox scales wierdly in gamescope mode.
Renoise music tracker DAW.
Same! I've been slowly building a pretty solid custom controller setup for it too. Oh, and found a tiny M-Audio USB keyboard from a flea market, also great with the Deck.
Did you ever make the custom mapping available on Steam?
Thanks for a brilliant idea! Jamming sessions with deck would be awesome !
I'd be interested to know if you use any bindings/plugins for Renoise with steamdeck controls.
I use a headless M8 and run https://derkyjadex.github.io/M8WebDisplay/ in Edge (with launch options for game mode). But I didn't really put in the effort to try and make Renoise work without a keyboard/mouse.
Love a tracker! I saw people running dirtywave M8 headless on a steam deck. Needs a teensy connected and some packages/config, nearly tried it myself but got a preorder for a M8 instead.
That's mostly it for me. Handheld gaming. I used it for a "retro" LAN party 3 times. I also watched a movie on it with some friends with a very scuffed setup consisting of the Steam Deck + dock + external display + old car radio with speakers, lol.
Sure I used it as a desktop (with monitor, mouse and keyboard) browsing the web and stuff just to see how well it does, but I prefer my full-size PC for desktop use and a notebook for the couch to be honest.
Got the deck dock on the living room TV and use it to both chill-game and have the kids Skype with grandma and grandpa.