Broderbund made it‽ It must have been awesome!

I miss that company…

Unfortunately, I tend not to play anything that pushes the power needs above 12W—usually something 2D, so it’s possible that I just don’t do anything that would make a noticeable change. Take my experience with a grain of salt.

I have not noticed that. What have you been playing? If you’ve been playing the same games, and they’ve had updates, it’s possible those updates are unoptimized or just heavier to run at the settings you had previously.

Steam Deck was the best tech expenditure I’ve made in the last five years.

I think you misunderstand what the Deck is. It’s a handheld laptop with a built-in controller with the express purpose of playing games. It’s not a GPU with a screen.

I feel you about GPU pricing, but the Deck is one of the few things I’ve bought in recent years where I didn’t feel buyer’s remorse, even slightly. How it’s priced is fair for what you get: an ultra-portable Linux gaming laptop. Plus, you get the added benefit of knowing that you’re further supporting gaming on Linux; Proton literally changed the gaming landscape, and Valve has directly partnered with Arch Linux.

I still frequently play my Desktop, but there are times when I just want to chill in bed, sit on the couch, play on vacation, and there’s simply no way I can take my desktop computer with me to those places.

Not being snarky, but you bring a screen for your device with a screen? Any particular reason?

Benefits:

• Changes are persistent. Unlike SteamOS, which uses an A/B partition scheme for upgrades, every update is a new system image but leaves your home directories alone, and you can easily rollback or rebase at will without much issue.
• Several built in tweak commands to set up or modify different settings/apps.
• Comes with many QoL bundled apps.
• Can utilize Distrobox to install other software from other distros.
• Active and responsive devs and community.
• Works on both desktop and handheld hardware.

Drawbacks:

• Does not always get updates as quickly as SteamOS (it’s nearly bleeding edge, but not quite).
• The fully Atomic nature has a learning curve, and system management may be challenging, depending on what kinds of tweaks a user intends.

There may be other technical aspects that differ, like battery life, but I don’t know enough to say if they are different in practice. Fwiw, I have Bazzite on a laptop and SteamOS on my Deck.

For a couple of real world examples:

• CrossCode from GOG needs a specific version of both Proton and the underlying engine. Otherwise, the controls don’t work using the Linux Native version.
• Stardew Valley (Steam version) will not work with mods and multiplayer unless you use the Windows version and follow the manual instructions for installing the windows mod loader. The Linux version of Stardew will not connect to multiplayer.

Those are just two I could recall off the top of my head, but I’m confident there’s others like that.

I tend to agree. I wish League worked on Linux, only because I have friends that play it frequently, but I’m not going back to Windows just because of that. There’s still a bevy of multiplayer games that work great, and missing out on one game isn’t much of a loss in the grand scheme.

Fwiw, I almost always get some amount of buyer’s remorse when I make a purchase, usually on expensive items. There’s some hidden cost or feature that isn’t quite what I’d hoped for.

Not so with the Steam Deck. It has been virtually everything I hoped for, and not once have I felt like it did or had something I didn’t want. When you pull the trigger, I hope you get the same experience.

Sounds like the perfect use case for an email alias service like addy.io, though, if Revolt is something somebody wants.

I agree that federation would be better, though.

Same. I should replay that one.

• Lost in Play - adorable game about two siblings and their imagined adventure…or is it?
• Tinykin - platform puzzler collectathon with zero enemies. Just cozy vibes.
• Freshly Frosted - Want to feel personally encouraged by a soothing narrator while making donut machines?
• Tiny Glade - make cute castles. That’s it!
• KeyWe - kiwi mail delivery. Literally.
• The Were Cleaner - werewolf janitor.
• Little Inferno - silly game where you burn things to get more things to burn. Also, Sugar Plumps!
• A Hat in Time - puzzle platformer collectathon that’s cute and creative
• Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulate - silly point and click adventure. Looks like I’m gonna have to jump…!
• Hidden Through Time - Where’s Waldo but more animated.
• Thomas Was Alone - platformer where Thomas might not be as alone as he thinks (in a good way).

I should also mention that you might want to look into a Deck Saver. It’s a little bit of plastic you can 3D print that fits into the original Deck case, and it will hold your device in place in the event you pick up the case with the lid open.

If you don’t want to bother, I have a rule I follow: if the Deck is in the case, the zippers go shut. First thing. No exceptions.

-I love Gnome, but I’d be willing to give KDE a shot. If I don’t like it, how difficult would it be to have Gnome while keeping the normal Steam OS?

Afaik, not possible. SteamOS uses a mostly immutable A/B partition structure, so while you could likely install Gnome, the next time SteamOS updates, I expect it would wipe out your tweaks (or enough of them to break shit).

-I know that I could wipe Steam OS and get Bazzite with Gnome. Except getting Gnome, what are the advantages of getting Bazzite over Steam OS? What are the inconvenients?

Pros:

• It won’t wipe out your system tweaks at every update.
• It will use the most updated versions of things available in Fedora’s repos.
• A bad update can be easily rolled back.

Cons:

• It’s not like traditional Linux distros, like Workstation, so learning how to work with an atomic distro can be a challenge at first.
• It might not have every patch SteamOS has, or at least not right away. This tends to be minor in practice, but Valve has a vested interest in making the Deck awesome, not Linux as a whole. The community is pretty good at keeping up with downstream patches, though, if any.

Noteworthy:

• It uses Wayland by default. That matters to some.
• Some software cannot be easily installed (like some VPN clients) or installed at all. The more a program has to touch system files, the less likely it is that you can install or use it.
• Updates take a long time due to how the snapshot imaging works.

-I think that KDE is now in version 6.3 or 6.4. What is the version that you now have on Steam OS?

5.27.10. SteamOS uses X11.

-What can you easily upgrade on a used Steam Deck (probably not Oled)?

For the LCD version, lots. From the screen to the shell to the buttons. I vaguely remember there being a fan mod, too. There’s a whole ecosystem of Deck mods out there. You can even remove the screen and controllers entirely, if you’re so inclined.

Yes, you could use it as a replacement for Lutris.

No. It’s an alternative, just like how Bottles is an alternative to either of those. I like Heroic, but use the launcher(s) you like.

People are so creative!

A Valve x Framework collaboration would be awesome.

Sometimes, you just do things because you can.

Here’s the Steam Brick, a very similar project. To quote the maker:

I was so preoccupied with whether or not I could that I didn’t stop to think if I should.