[Windows] can make the experience crippling for non-technically minded users
Wild seeing this in an article talking about Linux.
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
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It's very often true, though. Windows has pretty graphics, but doing anything technical that doesn't work out of the box is fucking obscure.
What do you mean, the registry is a perfect piece of software, crystal clear on how or why it works the way it does !
Yes, I agree!
Who would want to enable cycling through application windows on the taskbar via graphical settings in KDE Plasma, when you can just press Win+R, enter regedit.exe, get administrator privilages, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced and add a new 32-bit DWORD named LastActiveClick with the value of 1 in Windows.
It can't be that easy.
Elementary users are probably looking away now, all embarased... mainly because they don't have a minimize button, to hide the shame. Not without screwing around with dconf, that is :)
Not even too technical stuff. Settings which a slightly advanced user might need or want to change are freaking spread out across 3 different applications. Good luck finding it through the their amazing search.
Me: Ask for default browser setting Windows: Excuse me, did you mean to search for Bagels Near Me?
Linux works better on appliances than Windows does, and this is really just one of those areas where you can see it in action. Great to see another OEM jump on the wave -- it benefits the whole market.
Good to hear! My main gripe with steamdeck alternatives is that steam os is just so much better than whatever goofy flavor if windows they ship in.
The main problem is that they all kind of do their own layer on top. But they're hardware companies, not software companies, so it ends up being a bit janky. And since they're on Windows, users expect to be able to do Windows thing, which makes everything even more janky because it's trying to do too much.
I think that's why Steam Deck worked out. Valve is a SW company, already had a start with Big Picture Mode, and they didn't need to make desktop Linux a first-class citizen. It's there, but it's not right in front of you like it is with Windows handhelds, so the experience can be super focused.
If these handheld companies teamed up and made a common UX across their devices, perhaps it would've worked out better.
I think thats cool to see SteamOS on more hardware.
First, they will ignore you, then they will laugh at you, then they will fight you and then you win.
We're at the end game.
https://ayaneo.com/article/806
Here is from their website which also says "AYANEO NEXT LITE comes pre-installed with the SteamOS gaming system for the first time".
Interesting.
Anyone know the status of Valve "generalizing" that? Or is the idea going to be that ayaneo will work on a delay as they swap out drivers and all the other "immutable" stuff?
You can install SteamOS on your PC. As long as ayaneo's handheld can run Linux, it should be able to run SteamOS.
https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown
There is also HoloISO which is based on Steam Deck's version of SteamOS: https://github.com/HoloISO/holoiso
Please don't use that guide. That's the old 2.x line of SteamOS which hasn't been updated since 2019 and is based on a very old version of Debian. The SteamOS that the deck uses is 3.x and has also moved from Debian to Arch. Valve really needs to update that page.
If you want to build your own SteamOS machine, take a look at something like HoloISO (https://github.com/HoloISO/holoiso) which is built on the current branch of SteamOS with the deck-exclusive OS/hardware items swapped out for standard kit.
Man, I didn't know HoloISO is the only way to get the Arch-based SteamOS 3. I thought it's a custom fork like Proton vs Proton GE.
That's basically what this is though. From the project page:
Is this official?
No, but it may as well be 99% of the way there. Most of the code and packages, are straight from Valve, with zero possible edits, and the ISO is being built same rootfs bootstrap as all HoloISO installations run.
And also:
I have an NVIDIA G-
No. Not even questionable. If you have an NVIDIA GPU, You're on your own. Latest Valve updates for Steam client including normal and Jupiter bootstraps have broken gamepadui on NVIDIA GPUs, and if so, no support will be provided for you.
If this was a reimplementation, Nvidia GPUs would work because they're supported on Arch. But this isn't, it's just a repackaging of what Valve has already done.
Proton GE is to Proton what HoloISO is to SteamOS 3, an unofficial repackaging with some small tweaks.
Could you get the Nvidia drivers on your own?
Yeah, you could probably grab the PKGBUILD from Arch and build it, You might need to make some tweaks and perhaps build some other packages as well. There's nothing stopping you, but why do it?
You can just use regular Arch (or any other distro) and not have the limitations of SteamOS (read only filesystem, old and fewer packages, etc). Install Steam and use Big Picture Mode and you're good.
If you're making a handheld, it's probably worth the effort. If it's a desktop PC, just use a regular desktop Linux distro and add stuff you like from SteamOS.
Yeah. valve have George Foreman syndrome. That is the old SteamOS that was used with Steam Machines. You can tell because it is based on debian rather than arch
I would actually be shocked if ayaneo were trying to pull that scam (and the promotional stuff definitely looks like modern steamdeck version of big picture).
SteamOs is built on?
Arch linux + KDE
And proprietary Valve stuff sprinkled on top. So you're not going to be able to just pull in Arch images and expect it to work, it's a separate thing based on the same source tools, not just a couple packages on top of stock Arch.
It's built on Arch, and jt uses KDE Plasma as the desktop environment. The game mode is all custom.
Arch
This aged well