this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1532769

If you own a Steam Deck (either OLED or LCD) or have used one in the past, what are your thoughts? Did you find it easy to use? What is your opinion on the "Desktop mode" with KDE? Do you think it helps or hurts Linux adoption? What are your opinions on Steam as a whole and Valve's business practices beyond the technical stuff like Proton.

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[–] spectre@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago

It think it's great, already had a ton of time playing many of my favorite games multiplayer on the couch, or in bed, or when travelling.

Don't really care about desktop mode, but I'm glad it's there so I can go behind the curtain and configure discord and emulators and stuff.

I really really wish they would implement CEC so my TV can turn on and jump over to it from my Roku or Switch automatically.

They need to find a way to do better than Bluetooth controller support. It's a bit laggy for games like Rocket League, and I wish it could wake up the device and kick in the CEC (see above).

Getting it to show up on my TV when docked took a bit of poking (I think I had to force it to use 720p).

I know I spent a lot of time on the "rough edges", but I have no regrets at all about the purchase. It's a "very good" device that will hopefully get even better.

[–] GluWu@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

LCD, got a 256gb second pre-order batch but I got mine sooner than a lot of the first batch people. Probably because I'm the only one in this and several surrounding zip codes who would have bought one.

Love it. Very easy to use. Takes some remapping of your brain for controls but if I spent enough time using it it would be faster with the dual track pads than I ever was using the clit mouse on my old Dell laptop which I put at least 1000 hours of mine craft with since that was one of like 5 games than ran on Linux in 2010. I've always used KDE so I'm very happy.

I don't think it helps with adoption as far as users wanting it goes, but it does help in that there's millions of dollars and a huge market that's now behind Linux gaming. Users just want to play games easily.

Steam has severely decreased in quality but for me they make up for that with consistency. They've done a lot of great stuff, they've had some major flops, they've stopped making things that people demand they want. But at least they've stuck around and still don't seem like they're going anywhere. Only hardware(including consoles) manufactures have been able to stay in the gaming market as long as valve/steam has.

[–] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I have the OLED 1TB version for a week now and I finished Miles Morales on it.

It looked and played wonderfully. The power of a HDR PS3+ in the palm of my hand. Playing HADES on it is good. Touch screen is very responsive. It's built so it keeps your hands away from the hot stuff so you aren't sweating on the grips. It feels suprisingly light.

The controls feel comfortable and responsive. It is versitile. Got a gaming rig in one room and want to just chill on the couch or bed - it can stream the game from your rig to the Deck and take a 4 hour session to 10 hours. They worked out a lot of problems with thier streaming games since their first attempts. I'm in a pretty crowded wifi area with my neighbors and controls felt (0 It charges up pretty fast too. Have yet to see how the dock and 4k screen do so I can't say to that yet.

Copy paste on the virtual keyboard I havent quite figured out. Bit of a PITA trying to bypass EA launcher but those are few. I'm having some difficulty trying to tether it to my phone net. Not sure if its a me thing or a Deck thing. So seek more info if you want to connect it to a cell for those "I need to beam home to the mothership to play a single player game....games."

It has the latest bluetooth and wifi capabilities.

RTS games...they're doable....but it's rough. Probably better with a bluetooth mouse.

Audio is ok. It's not Dolby Atmos virtual surround, but it's functional to do the job. Voices are clear. Music is good. The bluetooth option can be used to beam to external headphones or speakers. It has a USB C port and a dedicated old school headphone jack. You can connect an external keyboard if you want.

It has a linux desktop behind the scenes you can access to tinker with everything or run your own say...emulators. i don't know enough how to yet so I can't attest to them, but it's got enough under the hood to run most.

You can tweak this thing any which way you want. They let you have full control of the experience and are pro self repair. Either preset or customize the power, the display, the graphics. It's all open to you if you want. Haven't needed to use that and dont plan on it maybe except a larger nvme down the road,, but I think an SD expansion will do for now.

It's a great comanion to take my games library on the go with me. Especially on the off shifts or on trips away from home. There is an opt in user experience that would ask you if the game ran ok. Then there's a feedback option in the main deck menus for bugs and such.

While it's not perfect, I am happy with it for what it sells itself as and what it can do.

Yes I think this is a game changer for linux gaming. Granted its through Proton, but the games work.