I still love my Index, but I'm 100% buying the Frame when it comes out. I haven't tried the Index on Desktop SteamOS yet. I should do that. The groundwork for Linux and VR has likely already been laid out.

Yes but ...

• no hand tracking
• no color passthrough
• no hardware upgrade
• no WebXR
• no new VR proper content

Still, it's good obviously, not having to rely on BigTech. This was also possible before though as I pointed out in https://lemmy.ml/post/38899489/22202786 with e.g. Lynx XR1, as a rooted Android standalone HMD with no account required.

Anyway IMHO the big questions for VR on Linux more broadly is what changes upstream on KDE in terms of immersive UX? Is KDE Plasma becoming a VR graphical shell? Does it have 3D widgets? Does it impact freedesktop in any way?

Edit : I have a SteamDeck since its out, Lynx XR1, etc so I absolutely want Linux VR and FLOSS XR to succeed. In fact I even gave a talk at FOSSXR years ago about that, fact did it twice. Still it doesn't mean I can't be disappointed by those points. I like Valve, I want to give them money, that doesn't mean I can't be objective. You might have different requirements, that doesn't mean you shouldn't compare to alternatives which have existed for years.

Valves choices the last few years are making me more optimistic that a Linux phone ecosystem could grow and improve. Sideloading APKs on an ARM-based easy-to-use linux system? Nice! It is possible using Waydroid etc today, but it is not very polished.

are there any linux WMs that provide a good desktop experience with VR headsets yet? I'd love to get a niri like scrolling experience with goggles - although it would make meetings weird.

I'm a bit surprised that Quallcom doesn't have a custom XR3 chip yet and Valve used the Snapgdragon8 Gen3