Considering all the competitors are windows based, they already have access to steam. And the open source holo iso(steam OS) is available if they want to use it.
Holo iso is completely open source. The reason for the compatibility issues is that it is forked from software meant for a very specific device so there will always be issues on other devices if it is used as is
Competition is good, and I belive helps innovation. I hope that we get closer to the ideal experience and don’t get locked down into one choice. I would give someone other than Valve a look if they also committed to Linux as a platform (which really isn’t that weird, historically). One of my complaints about the Deck is the D-Pad is kind of bad for fighting games. The left direction is obviously cut off some to make space, and strict left inputs tend to be down left instead. It’s a bit of a nit pick, but I would like to see improvement there.
I’m pretty sure Valve would rather not have to build hardware at all, they just want to sell games. The Deck was Valve declaring “Fine, I’ll do it myself” after they couldn’t convince OEMs to roll the dice. Of course they’ll give competition kudos, competition proves the technology and market conditions for handheld PCs is present and in demand.
i dont think its that its just to spur more competition imo. Handheld gaming PCs have been a thing since like 2015, but it was almost exclusively chinese conoanies only producing it over a kickstarter and some grew big enough to have a amazon presence (GPDWin). the lack of competition led to high handheld price costs that are reletively speaking, terrible (over 1000$ for what is essentially a handheld netbook).
the steam decks price was to garner interest and grow a market, which it will likely want other conpanies to take the reigns to. Valves decisions has ALWAYS been about growing a new market (steam machines(linux console pcs), steam link(porting pc gaming to the TV), VR(self explainatory), Steam deck(on the go linux gaming))
And to save you a clock, the entirety of the portion referencing their competitors.
The More the Merrier
We’re not the only ones who introduced amazing hardware last year. Several other companies have seized the same opportunity to serve users with high-powered on-the-go gaming PCs, with products like the Asus ROG Ally, the OneXPlayer OneXFly, and the Ayaneo Air. All these choices provide users with a bunch of options and price points for portable PC gaming, and reward the investments game devs are making to support better gamepad input and smaller screen sizes. We hope to see even more of these handheld PCs in 2024.
Feels like the OP article could have been much shorter.
A lot of them also prioritize high resolution displays, which hurts performance and battery life. I’ve said before and I’ll say again: IMO the 720p display is the Steam Deck’s killer feature
And I disagree, considering the 1080p+ displays can play low end games at higher resolution. High end games can also be downscaled to lower resolution.
Regardless, on a ~7” display, the difference is negligible.
Downscaling doesn’t fully solve the battery life issue; the graphics are lessened but it’s still lighting a lot of pixels. And the fact that the difference is negligible is exactly why I think it’s so great. Don’t waste hardware and software power where it will do no good.
I own the Lenovo Legion Go, which runs Windows 11 and has one thumb touchpad. It also has removable controllers, one of which turns into an ergonomic mouse.
I needed a new computer for photo editing and my cousin wanted me to start playing Star Citizen with him so this ended up being the perfect solution for me.
I’m super psyched seeing more competition in the market, though. I’d love to see how comprehensive yet portable PCs can become.
Depending on what I’m doing, not at all or religiously.
If I’m just doing edits in Bridge, Camera Raw, or Lightroom, I actually mapped my controller’s buttons using JoyToKey so that I’ve now got an incredibly fast workflow for those. If I’m using Photoshop, Illustrator, or playing games, that vertical mouse is my best friend and an absolute game-changer.
I used JoyToKey for years, but I’ll add that you can make a desktop binding for steam, if you keep it on in the background anyways
It’s a bit more complex macro system and you can use on screen menus and such if that’ll improve your workflow. I used a gamepad as my mouse for almost 5 years in everything I did.
Yeah, I’d really have been far less picky about which handheld I bought if it weren’t for getting Adobe CC for free through work and my cousin wanting to play Star Citizen. I’d instead be rocking whatever flavor of Linux made me feel good, just like I am on my home server and my old Chromebook.
All that being said, I really do love the vertical mouse. There’s something incredibly satisfying about having a pistol-grip and using my trigger-finger to pelt the opposition in Halo followed by a middle-finger-activated melee. Plus, the thumb placement for the scroll wheel just feels superb in any situation.
I’d give the Lenovo Legion Go a solid 9/10 if it were running Linux, lol. For now, it’s gotta settle for my 7.5 since I gotta deal with Microsoft popping up some ridiculous alert every other 30 seconds because I don’t wanna log into stuff.
I ended up getting a steam deck after being an owner of multiple GPD products and dealing with windows on those. I considered a Go, but I’m done with windows handhelds. I hope either steamOS catches on as a mainstream or all the other hardware manufacturers get together and decide to all use Linux.
I tried Linux on a GPD Win 2, it was a such a nightmare that I’m not interested in any handhelds that dont COME with Linux either. I want proper driver support and not be forced to spend hours and hours diagnosing why my screen is either sideways or only showing half
That’s a very fair point. And to your credit, the screen on the LeGo is natively portrait, which really screws me over in some highly specific scenarios.
Steam Input integration with the touchpads is so underrated, mode shifting between a keypad and game commands is something that literally nothing else can replicate. Not to mention the dual haptic feedback, and accurate pressure sensing. Really opens up a world of possibilities
Wish Valve considers a Steam Controller 2 with the game guts as the controller in the Deck. Despite the Deck taking heavy inspiration from the OG controller, the difference in experience is night and day
There is no competition. All of these devices will be used to buy and play games on Steam, which was always the goal.
One could argue an ancillary goal was to promote Linux/SteamOS but in that regard they have failed since they haven’t released an official image for general use and no other handheld devices have adopted it.
They have done better than that. They got the community to adapt their image to other devices. Now there is broader device support for mobile Linux gaming and they aren’t on the hook to maintain it. But since it’s open source, can’t really be mad about it.
Sorry my implied meaning didn’t come across. It’s not better for users, it’s better for Valve as they are not taking on responsibility for maintaining other devices.
It would be nice if Valve did that, but I don’t see that happening. They have only done this much because Microsoft wanted to pull an Apple by not allow non-MS markets on Windows. At least with Valve being privately owned they are content to just keep feeding the goose laying the golden eggs.
The goal was to not lock down their hardware to someone else’s operating system, it wasn’t just to sell games on steam. Valve has always been very open about not wanting to be beholden to other corporations for their success and innovation. They realized they could have their own software and hardware platforms that work in tandem more efficiently than slapping windows on the deck due to owning both pieces of that puzzle. Not to mention they were paying modders under the table to help them build dxvk and integrate it into proton.
No other handhelds have adopted it most likely because the drivers aren’t updated for the latest chipsets, which means all efficiency goes out the window (no pun intended). Sure you could probably run the updated Ryzen graphics on SteamOS but it probably wouldn’t benefit the hardware as much as Windows would, considering most power efficiency on Windows is handled more by the OS and not the chipset drivers.
At this point what valve needs to do for more OEM adoption is provide better compatibility for SteamOS’s integrated power management tools and expand the compatibility for SteamOS outside the steam deck hardware. Until that happens these handhelds will just opt for Windows instead because it’s less overhead on the OEM partners.
the goal was to not lock down their hardware to someone else’s operating system
The irony is now that the Deck is locked down to Valve’s ecosystem, while other devices can play games from Steam too but also from Origin, GOG, Xbox, EA Play…
Steam deck is capable of installing apps from all of those stores except obviously Xbox… It’s just an arch Linux desktop. It’s probably the least locked down handheld computer you can buy. Not sure where you’re getting this info that the deck is locked to valve’s ecosystem.
No other handhelds have adopted it most likely because the drivers aren’t updated for the latest chipsets, which means all efficiency goes out the window (no pun intended). Sure you could probably run the updated Ryzen graphics on SteamOS but it probably wouldn’t benefit the hardware as much as Windows would, considering most power efficiency on Windows is handled more by the OS and not the chipset drivers.
Ayaneo already started taking preorders on a SteamOS based handheld, in addition to working on their own distro of Linux
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