As a long time Linux enjoyer, this is honestly the easiest way to get it into the mainstream. People have already seen the success of the steam deck which only reinforces that Linux can be used for gaming better than ever before. As long as people stop using Windows I'm here for it.
Eh, I don't really care if they stop using Windows, I care that they start using Linux. Dual boot if you need, but more market share for Linux increases the likelihood that devs will support Linux directly.
For sure. I'm doing the dual boot life these days because as much as I want every game to work on Linux there are still some that don't. And some games just work better on Windows. But at the same time that's why more devs supporting Linux is what we wanna see.
I just installed Linux and holy shit it is so much easier and more straight forward than a windows install. Really wish I would have done it sooner.
It's funny because while some of it has to do with work to make Linux desktops better, a non-trivial amount of it is how worse Microsoft has made it to deal with Windows.
Because Windows is a data-mining and advertising tool these days, more than anything. So they want to make sure you have a MS account on day 1 and that you have to opt out of all of their services 34 times over before they let you use the damn thing.
Yep, and then have to opt out all over again the next week when an update decides you need to verify you really mean to opt out again...
And if you managed to not have an MS account when you installed, interrupt your login and say "you cannot proceed like you have been doing for the past year without adding an MS account now", and then look up how to get out of that dialog without doing the MS account...
I had issues with drivers, like I would have to find them somewhere on the internet, trust a random stranger to download and install them. And even then some things required me to launch drivers manually every single time I wanted to use my hardware.
I had issues with games, constant crashes or some games flat out not working. Some even crashing the entire system occationally.
I had issues where my pc would randomly turn on. Going to sleep was funky and would break the system requiring restart. I had to find drivers for my audio systems to get them running.
I had to run around confusing settings and tweak them through different control panels made by random people that largely overlapped to fix basic issues.
Thankfully those issues were solved the moment I installed linux.
Which distro ? I've been rocking Bazzite for a year, and holy mother of christ, it requires less maintenance than my smartphone.
I've been rocking endeavourOS.
It's really nice, but I hear great things about bazzite. I'm going to have to take bazzite & steamOS for a spin
As a Mac user I too want SteamOS to succeed, because it will indirectly result in more games that are compatible with macOS via game porting tools and wine.
Honestly windows is just annoying to deal with. I don’t like the ads, and I don’t like my start menu bar being reorganized. I run it in a VM and managing my install keys is a huge pain with their login system.
Linux is awesome, it’s neat watching its developer friendliness result in snowballing market share.
If a SteamOS desktop system gets established, it would be time to add productive software to the ecosystem. Like a web browser, email, libreoffice, maybe some other tools. There are good free versions of all kinds of productivity software, and having them nicely packaged for a system like that would add a lot of value to the SteamOS driven family PC.
FYI, if you switch to Desktop mode on SteamOS, all those applications you listed are available via the included app store that taps into Flathub. SteamOS also ships with Firefox out of the box. I have them all installed on my SteamDeck already.
Steam is terrified of the Microsoft store. It's part of why they're moving to linux
Sure, but Valve is terrified of the Microsoft store for a subtly, but importantly, different reason than why Microsoft should be terrified of Steam OS.
Microsoft should be terrified that Steam OS will destroy their monopoly by making it so users no longer have to use their product.
Valve is terrified that Microsoft will destroy their monopoly by making it so users no longer can use their product.
thats exactly why Valve start Fighting Against Windows, UWP And Microsoft store.
(2025 is “The year of the Windows 11 PC refresh,” allegedly)
Wait. Since when has Microsoft's Windows team been drinking from the same copium jars as us Linux users have for years?
That's hilarious.
Oh it will be the year of the Windows 11 refresh, there's no question of that. Untold millions of business PCs will be making the change as Windows 10 goes EoL.
It's a very different story in the home market. Frankly the only thing holding Windows Gaming in place is decades of increasing personal PC ownership but that ownership / use rate is now declining as normal people transition to using smartphones and tablets.
In just a few short years, ten at most, gaming on Windows will be about as relevant as gaming on Mac. It may still be called "PC Gaming", you can already see media trying to redefine gaming on SteamDeck and other handhelds as "PC Gaming", but those games won't be built around the Windows OS.
Microsoft could also be terrified of how shitty Windows 11 is. I have to think back to Millennium Edition to compare to something this disastrous, but Satya doesn't care about Windows, Surface, or XBox. Microsoft's future is M365, Azure, and D365. Big fat high margin Enterprise Agreements since everyone is locked into their proprietary shitty office formats. And they get enterprise problems with audit, identify, access control like few other businesses.
What I don't know understand is why companies refuse to sell off businesses that they know will die off from their neglect. A shame, except for Windows.
There is nothing to be terrified of for MS, windows can implement mandatory rectal scans to log in and linux wouldn't break 20% market share.
Microsoft always follows the pattern of good OS, bad OS, good OS, bad OS. We just have to wait for Windows 12 for a good one.
That would be nice, having good competition solves a lot of problems. Plus if steamOS gains enough traction more large game studios may start to specifically support it.
When most/all multiplayer games start working on Linux that's when Linux can really start taking off.
They do. We're already there.
The only titles that don't work are the ones with kernel level anti-cheat, and that needs to die anyway.
Are you serious? Most games can be played on Linux? I don't care about the kernel anti cheat games, since that shit is not going on my pc anyway
It's the year of the Linux Desktop!!
I'm at an uncomfortable crossroads of knowing enough to hate Microsoft, but not knowing enough to trust myself with switching to Linux. I'm like just barely tech-literate enough to wander into places like Lemmy, but beneath some surface level shit I'm probably one of the dumbest motherfuckers here when it comes to not setting my devices on fire.
So... a 'Linux for dummies' sounds exactly like what I need!
Well, there are a lot of newb-friendly distros these days. Some options:
Any of those should be pretty friendly to users new to Linux, and they go roughly in order from fitness as a regular desktop (top down) to fitness for gaming (bottom up), but any of them can handle gaming and desktop stuff pretty equivalently.
I feared making the plunge as well but it was so seamless tbh. Got Linux Mint and it just feels like a newer version of old Windows. Not sure how it's with other distros, but I find it to be precicely Linux for dummies.
I'd say the difficulty to getting used to new environment was on a similar level to getting from Windows XP to Windows 7. If you can dual boot I recommend just trying it - the water is fine.
Year of linux desktop, amirite?
Jesus, news outlets love hyperbole, don't they. We are not even at 5% market share.
He specifically didn't say that. Instead of criticizing that they aren't nuanced enough you should read the nuance they actually wrote:
Let me be clear: The odds of a massive, immediate shift away from Windows PCs aren’t great. This isn’t a “year of the Linux desktop” rallying cry. But if there is a Linux desktop that exists today, it’s the Steam Deck. And that makes SteamOS a bellwether for greater proliferation of non-Windows devices (if not necessarily “Linux” specifically) in a huge range of form factors.
I’m legitimately curious how many half-baked ad-filled second-to-the-punch products will be too many for Microsoft before they finally capitulate.
Gaming is only a fraction of what we need to get people to move away from Windows.
Yes, it's only a fraction, but most of the rest is going to SaaS through web browsers or mobile apps, because companies get to control and force subscriptions that way, but has a side effect of targeting a browser as a platform rather than an OS. Gaming in browser is more in the pain point of browsers, so it's a use case that demands OS.
Imagine gaming with no windos OS…. The future is better!
I hope to see this before the EoL date set for Windows 10 and a bunch of people throw out perfectly good machines to but something that works with Windows 11.
Personally, I won't use Windows 11 on my home machines. But my concern is that I install a distro this year and want to switch to SteamOS later, but would have to start over with customizations, etc. in the new distro. I wish SteamOS was available now for gaming rigs!
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