but most importantly it’s a linux computer, I can browse the web, watch a movie, even be productive on it, and I sometimes don’t even need to plug in a mouse and keyboard or an external screen !
But I was wondering what kind of uses other people have with it, as a non gaming machine?
It’s actually my main travel computer. I bring it to work with a Bluetooth keyboard and a little nreal glasses display if I need it. I find that the form factor reduces back and neck strain by allowing me to use different muscle groups. I changed the desktopofe controls to map to a bunch of keyboard shortcuts to make it so that I rarely need the keyboard. I mostly do coding and research on it.
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 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:
play steam games on the deck directly
stream games at high settings form my PC to my TV via Steam link and Moonlight (I find Moonlight works better for me)
browse the Web via Firefox
stream video from my PC via jellyfin
watch YouTube via Freetube
watch streaming services via Web browser
unhook it to occasionally play games in bed on a lazy Sunday morning
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.
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.
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.
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.
I sold my laptop and used my Steam Deck as my main PC for a couple of months (till the parts for my new PC arrived). Worked out great. Convinced me to install Arch Linux on my new PC.
The Deck works well as an HTPC too. Works great with Plex, etc.
I’ve dual run Linux and Windows for ages on my main PC but the Steam Deck is what moved me over to Linux as my daily driver and started me using KDE. Since switching from Mint to OpenSuSE on my PC I now very rarely use windows - I basically use it for occasional games that don’t run on Proton well yet.
And agree on the HTPC use - I use my deck mostly plugged into my TV.
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