Pretty exciting times ahead as Valve might finally release SteamOS to more hardware. This amount of Linux desktop coverage would be unimaginable few years ago.
Man hopefully they just mercilessly rake companies that don’t support Linux because of kernel level anticheat over the fires as well. We need more advocacy in this space I think (and honestly I’d like it if kernel level anticheat was banned from steam on account of security).
They should bring some attention to what happened with Apex Legends. It was removed from Linux with cheats being the reason cited.
It will be great to see more PC hardware reviews with Linux in mind.
Does SteamOS offer something significant over other GNU+Linux distributions? Waiting for it to release as a catalyst to start including Linux seems a bit odd. I hope it won’t be like waiting for Half Life 3.
GN could pick any Linux distro and get metrics but they’ll want to be consistent and pick what will be most relevant.
For most people SteamOS will be the pick when moving away from windows pretty much entirely because it’s “Valve’s” OS, who are a known entity compared to “whoever makes this Bazzite thing” (or whatever other distro). This will give them more confidence to switch as they are familiar with/trust Valve to some extent and know that they’re going to make sure their os works and can play games as well as can be expected on Linux. Obviously we know you can do it on other distros but switching your OS is a big change and people will want more assurance.
GN could cover performance on other distros but I think that would probably just be noise to people who are on the fence/not that interested compared to “here’s how things work on Valve’s SteamOS”. (Also probably just provides a clear starting point and direction for GN)
Exactly this. When my brother has a problem with Windows, I just tell him this.
He doesn’t let me install linux on his PC, but when I told him that Valve is coming with their own Linux distro, he said that he will try that one when it comes out.
*Of course I try to fix his windows problem when I can.
I could see him doing a deep dive video testing across several distros at some point.
That would definitely make sense for it’s own video but I could see them wanting to focus on just SteamOS if they plan on having it be a regular stat when they do benchmarks
Bazzite basically is steam OS for the most part. You get generally the same experience. The only reason there is a Bazzite at all is because steam OS itself has t come to any other handhelds besides the steam deck.
They’re likely to get the same kind of benchmarks from games using steam OS or Bazzite on the same hardware.
Honestly, the only outstanding thing about it is that it boots directly into Steam Big Picture with tight integration into the Stem Deck controls. Everything else is more or less standard Linux. (apart from some Deck-specific drivers that haven’t been upstreamed yet)
But the standard Linux parts are great because it means that it can (and is) easily copied into other distros and that you can also use a standard Linux distro on the Deck.
So I’d say it’s only suited for consoles where you don’t need a full fledged desktop.
It’s immutable too, no?
Yeah, but there are tons of those.
Does SteamOS offer something significant over other GNU+Linux distributions?
It’s pre-installed on the device and pre-configured. If you can configure and troubleshoot a GNU+Linux system I don’t think it has anything unique to offer to you. The thing where it boots directly into Steam big picture mode should be implementable on other distros as well. But most people can’t or don’t want to learn how to set up a Linux distro so it’s actually a big deal for the average gamer. It’s also made by a big corporation that people already trust, which might be something Gamers Nexus feels more comfortable implicitly endorsing by including it as a platform for their benchmarks.
Level1techs already does on a separate channel, they’re friends with Gamer’s Nexus, and met up in person recently. I’d bet that’s the inspiration haha.
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Thank you for linking directly to the relevant segment of the video. Steve and his team do good work; I just wish they would make more of their findings available in text format.
Aside from GN Steve’s site and HUB Steve’s techspot articles do any other PC hardware channels do any text content at all?
Text, photos, CT scans, stats, testing, graphs, etc. Still a work in progress, but it’s come a long way.
I think they do a pretty good job of that, here’s recent B580 review, for example. I’m guessing they’ll post something once they figure out how they’ll do Linux testing.
Why wouldn’t they? It’s an important metric.
I would love this.
I feel like that’s good for the wrong reasons.
I hope GN complains about how certain things that should have been fixed years ago are still broken because of bike shedding.
It is a weird decision to me though, because as much as I like Linux, the Linux desktop isn’t at all a stable platform. Your experience can be vastly different depending on what distro, mesa version, display server, driver, etc you use. So in a way, I wonder if they’ll bother to show “the best case scenario” or just go with what’s most popular.
Hot take: If they are doing it, they should use what’s most popular and if it’s bad, sh!t on it, as that seems to be the only way to get long standing issues fixed…(look at pop!os and KDE as an example)
I mean, Steve said they were looking into it specifically if SteamOS comes to the desktop market. So that is the benchmark they would use, and they use consistent sets of test hardware across their product category benchmarks. It’s not a secret what their methodology is/would look like. And they have a reputation for calling out shit when they see it. No offense, but your hot take seems pretty ice cold to me
Show me a stable windows desktop.(The same applies to Windows.)
I mean, Windows is undeniably more stable than certain linux configurations. Nothing will ever be 100% stable, but if you compare Windows to basically any rolling release distro, Windows is gonna be more stable. That’s just the nature of the two things.
You say it’s because of configs etc., i.e. problems caused by the user. That is a serious difference. You should also narrow it down to SteamOS, Garuda, Bazzite, CachyOS or one of the other distributions designed for gaming. After all, these are also experiencing the most growth in gaming from people leaving Windows behind.
Windows and stable? So blue screens during OS installation are stable? Windows didn’t catch on because it was stable. It stole the most important thing and then the dirty gag contracts where Intel and Nvidia were also involved. That’s the only reason why this trickery has prevailed. Windows is and always has been rubbish, but MS knew how to damage competitors and secure a monopoly position. Windows and stable are a joke.
Every OS was programmed by humans and contains errors. This does not apply to just one OS or the other. In addition, faulty software also runs on faulty hardware. From this point of view, stable is no longer possible with today’s CPUs, even if you counteract this via microcode.
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What do you have to tinker with first so that you can only install a local account? Or so that the whole thing also runs on older hardware without TPM. People also have to look on the web to see what needs to be fixed during the installation… and then, depending on the version, install Manuel group policies and everything. You also have to fiddle around with Windows, which makes more and more people switch.What do you first have to fiddle around with the OS installation so that you can install with a local account? Or so that the whole thing also runs on older hardware without TPM. People also have to look on the web to see what needs to be fixed during the installation… and then, depending on the version, install Manuel group policies and everything. You also have to fiddle around with Windows, which makes more and more people switch.
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I wouldn’t buy a Mac in the first place just to slap another OS on it. Why an example with a closed ecosystem? Do you even get Windows installed there and if so, with how much fiddling? There are reasons why MS uses its own linux distribution internally. Even with tabs etc and functions that other distributions have been using for decades, Windows still has problems. So stable that you still use the NT kernel… because ms is no longer capable of programming something like that and it will take several Windows versions to get rid of legacy issues… After all, the UI is no longer a single process that regularly kills the entire desktop.
Literally read past the word “configurations” and you’ll see that I’m talking about how a distro is configured by its maintainers AKA the meta level, not fucking dotfiles. Grow a brain.
That’s why I mentioned certain distributions afterwards. But thinking doesn’t seem to be one of your strengths. If you are going to compare then only with distributions that focus on gaming. Everything else is completely idiotic with the huge variety of distributions available. Of course it’s easy to choose a completely different one and then make mimimi… but you don’t try to install current games in ms-dos, for example… that would be just as much of an inane comparison.
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I feel like stability has a different definition for some of us Linux users.
Stability to me as a Linux user is a non-issue. I have so many backup and snapshot solutions to a point that any problem isn’t even a threat. I don’t consider what if’s because I can just walk around anything, even if the entire boot drive corrupts.
Also, what do you mean by stable? The OS? The entire system under heavy graphical load?
Some more, some less as far as Linux goes, but if we’re comparing Windows to a peer like… KDE?
Yeah, they’re about just as buggy.
Does Linux have an issue in that the bugginess is almost directly tied to the experience level of the end user? …Yeah, but at that level, it just means no problem is impassable, you just don’t know what you’re doing. 😬
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The @IceFoxX and @presi300 situation is insane
Frankly, it’s about time!
Linux or bust!
They should of have been doing this from a start
