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this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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Linux Gaming
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No, but it doesn't work as a controller outside of steam, because it's what makes sense. Every time someone complains about this I feel like they're completely missing the point of the controller.
Does your BIOS know how to handle a controller? Most don't, but can handle a mouse and some specific keys. How are you expected to change your BIOS settings with a controller unless it can act as a mouse+KB?. Or even without going into BIOS imagine something corrupts Steam and now you need to reinstall it, or do some other OS fixes, can you do that with a controller? Probably not. The steam controller allows you to plug your PC behind your TV and not having to get a KB+Mouse to use it in the vast majority of cases.
Those are just a few examples, but at the end of the day the difference is that most controllers are meant to be used to play controller games, the Steam Controller is meant to be used to control your PC a part of which is playing controller games, but also a lot of other things were never intended to be used with a controller. Therefore it needs to be able to emulate KB+Mouse by default because with a KB+Mouse you're likely to be able to go from most states into having Steam to launch a game, whereas a controller is useless to navigate your OS or BIOS.
No, it doesn't make sense. What makes sense is a standalone controller.
Oh and your BIOS example is not the analogy you think it is.
It's not an analogy, it's an actual use case for the controller. I don't remember if it was LTT or GN that had to do some BIOS change when reviewing the controller and showed how it even works there. You might not care about it, but to me being able to select a grub entry with a controller means I never again need to struggle with my PC that's behind the TV to plug a keyboard if something breaks.
Edit: Forgot to mention launchers and other similar stuff that expect mouses to interact.
Dude, you can't seriously be simping for Valve so hard that writ entire paragraphs defending a hardware released without a standalone driver.
I mean, this is a thing that exists. It's not like peopler are asking for something that can't be done.
You're right about the analogy part, I totally misread your previous comment xD. However, why on earth would you want to control bios settings with a controller? If you're thinking of the Steam Machine, then valve could add "controller support" to the BIOS. It doesn't make sense to do it the other way around and fuck over literally the vast majority of users that don't have a steam machine.
Again, asking for a driver that doesn't require you download a game client and create an account is perfectly reasonable. Why do I need to have Steam running in the background if I'm running an epic or gog game?