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I see all of these “Why SteamOS and why not another distro?” comments and it kinda blows me away how much the idea of approachability designed by a trusted name seems like a foreign concept here.
Then again, we’re talking about Linux fanatics who probably also argue over whether emacs, vim, or vi are the best text editor lol
VIM is the best because once you try it you are unable to quit.
Just like meth! :D
real linux users don't need a graphical session!!! everything can and should be done on the terminal!
/s
I love running Elden Ring in the terminal. Hells yeah, foul tarnished
SteamOS would be a particular poor choice as a desktop operating system compared to basically any other Linux distribution. It uses an immutable file system and reverts all system changes upon every update. That's nice if you don't want to fuck up your handeheld gaming device with some dumb changes, but it's generally not what you will want on a device you use for all kinds of things. Of course, with some effort you can work around this, but then, why don't use a system that doesn't just use such a paradigm in the first place and won't roll back your workaround to make it usable with the next update?
It doesn’t revert things stored in /home according to my experience, that’s good enough for most users
As someone who uses my desktop for gaming (and maybe web browsing) exclusively, and as someone mildly but not very familiar with OSes, I read this as “SteamOS is bad because of reason I personally don’t like that many people don’t understand, so do more research about Linux”
The barrier to Linux as an OS is not how good it is but how understandable it is. After Pewdiepie’s video went up I’m confident the search phrase “Linux OS download” skyrocketed in popularity because people don’t know let alone understand what a distribution is.
SteamOS is a great intro to Linux for the majority of PC gamers because it’s not only basically ready to use as soon as you boot it up, but also because it is being maintained by a team of people intent on making it the optimal PC gaming platform.
Once Windows users are introduced to a basic Linux experience why not let them take their time learning more about the variables in distros?
Maybe SteamOS is not the perfect distribution because but is there a perfect distribution?
Maybe you don't understand it, but that doesn't mean you don't rely on it. If I said an OS was unusable by 99% of people because it didn't support multithreading, it doesn't matter if 99% of people know what multithreading is, that's clearly a true statement. Similarly, if you've ever expected your PC to have the same files on it tomorrow that you put on it today, then you might find it annoying when that's not the case.
Not true. Steam OS is not the only immutable distro. Lots of people actually prefer that for their desktops.
Fedora bluefin is a much bigger project and a much larger paradigm shift in how Linux distros can be understood than what you make out to be. Tweaking system files might be a good choice for users who need to go beyond what comes with the standard, but it's not something a wide majority of users will or should need.
When you can easily spin up virtual operating systems with distrobox, you never need to. You might, for some hardware support reasons, need to layer in some additional packages, but I'm curious how true even that is.
I use Bazzite on my main laptop (basically SteamOS) and it's fantastic.
It's really not that difficult to learn his immutable works, and it's really not that limited at all, just different.
Hows it work with rtx(looks supported now?) and vr? last time i tried and said i had nvidia it said "Go away!"
I'd personally prefer to have an OS dedicating to playing, one I can't broke by installing too many stuff or, on the hand, I could reinstall quickly without having to reinstall all the other stuff (printer, cloud syncing, etc...)
So having a multi-boot for gaming and regular (although rare) computer use. There's a good chance I'll still sadly have a Windows boot option for some multiplayer online games (anticheat 😐)
OP clearly overestimates how many people would use SteamOS or any other Linux distro for that matter. Most users are casual gamers these days, they are not changing OS just because there is a forced Windows update.
They are if they can't afford a new computer.
Windows 10 won't just stop working. I still see businesses rocking Windows Vista occasionally.
No one is trying to play games on those vista machines, though. Valve pulled steam support for win 7 and 8.1 over a year ago because they were EOL. If they also pull support from win 10 once it's EOL, then people will need to make a change to keep playing their games. If msft refuse to support existing hardware with win11, then many people will be forced to choose between buying a new laptop/PC, or trying Linux.
This isn’t about people not wanting to use Windows 11 this is about people not wanting to purchase a new computer
I don't know, I think you're clearly underestimating how many people would install Valve's OS. The number of people with a Steam Deck that don't know that what it's running is a Linux distro is pretty high. The other piece to this is that it's not just a forced Windows update for a huge chunk of users, it's a forced device upgrade. Valve offering a free upgrade that negates the need to buy new hardware would absolutely capture people's attention.
Yes and no, people can still use win10, it just won't receive patches anymore. And in this particular case, my best guess is, that most people would rather use and outdated OS for a long time, rather than changing the OS altogether. Not every game is on steam, also not every non game programm is easily available for Linux. Humans are lazy.
You're forgetting that valve can also drop support for EOL versions of windows, which so far they have.
I don't disagree in principle, but from what I've heard the full screen "buy a new computer" pop-ups are pretty bloody annoying!
If they wanted to "make a splash" they could have released it 3 years ago. I don't know what they're waiting for. With the launch of Steam Machines it was made available to everyone on day 1.
They are actively monitoring for "HL3 confirmed" and adds a hour to the release time for each they find.
The current release date is in the year 252525.
That's dumb. The only technology in 252525 will be a rusty sword for practicing proctology.
You think that's bad, wait for the giraffes.
That won't be for another 747475,5 years, worry about that later.
I heard we don't even need our eyes by 4545 and in 5555 our arms are going to be limp. Guess the game is going to run all in our brains.
In the year 9595 I'm kinda wonderin' if man is gonna be alive
Likely not tbh. At least not in any way we currently understand a human to be.