With the widespread support for Steam/Valve on this forum because of their contributions to making Linux gaming easier, I'm now confused as to why people here are using Linux in the first place.
I personally do so out of support for FOSS software, the customizability, and actual ownership of software, which I thought were most people's primary reasons for using any Linux distro. Steam seems antithetical to all of these. The software in the first place became popular as a form of DRM, and it gets publishers to use it for the allowance of DRM on the platform. The Steam client has the absolute minimum customizability. Your account can be banned at any point and you can lose access to many of the games you have downloaded.
Whenever I game on Linux I just use folders to sort my game library and purchase any games I want to play on itch.io or GoG. On my Linux PC I stay away from clients like Steam because I want a PC that works offline, and will work if all of my accounts were banned. It's more of a backup PC.
Since Steam has every characteristic of Windows, 0 customizability, DRM, plenty of games that are spyware, I see no reason to really not use Windows instead for the much easier time I can have playing games.
Yes, I prefer many of the features of Linux distros, but using a client like Steam defeats the purpose of them. Ridiculous storage requirements due to unoptimized dependencies, having to have a background client running for some games and wasting resources on doing so.
So, why use Linux and support Steam, or use Linux and use Steam?
I use it for my servers and for remotely programming for over a decade. Using it on a desktop setup for work or games? Fuck no!
It's my criticism of the Linux community: They don't understand what "being productive" really means. I need to do work during the day, and produce results. I don't have time to deal with my docking station not working, monitors settings breaking, and tinker with them every day... not because I can't, but because I SHOULDN'T NEED TO.
It was cool when I was a teenager... now I need to make money.
As frustrating as it sounds. On windows and mac, literally plug and play. Every time I get the exact same setup. On Linux... dear Lord... every day a different problem and a different tinker until I swore that I'm done, and went back to remote use of Linux. Linux terminal is perfect, and that's probably all I'll need. Linux desktop through VNC, if ever.
Random breakage and weird behavior is why I stopped using Windows at home. On so many machines, I've seen the Start menu just stop functioning... or what's up with the system trying to update the video drivers to the version dated 1968 (the year of Intel's founding)? Nagging me (again?!) to change my web browser to Edge... Is your browser compliant to web standards this time, Microsoft? I still don't want to use it.
Users are taught to fear Linux "because you might have to use the command line!" when in Windows you need to use brain-melting Powershell commands like
just to get a functional OS back.
You pay for Windows, but the privacy terms make it clear that it's Microsoft's computer, not yours, yet you have to fix it yourself when things spontaneously break. If I manage to break Linux (by my own actions), at least I feel like I'm learning a bit in the process of fixing it.