To be clear, while the article says this is “official support”, this is only drivers provided by valve.
Per valve:
We are providing these resources as is and are unfortunately unable to offer ‘Windows on Deck’ support.
Great! Like installing square wheels on my bike
Minecraft players in en shambles right now.
“Big paws on a puppy… to a tee.”
Well, put, friend, well said, thanks for sharing!
I’d rather have SteamOS officially support more devices including desktop. Good on Valve for giving people options though.
I would rather trust GamingOnLinux here:
While it is not in any way officially supported by Valve, they have now released Windows drivers for the newer Steam Deck OLED model.
(emphasis mine)
Yeah, that is a good point to make.
Main reason I linked the steamdeckhq coverage is because they covered it last night, where gamingonlinux didn’t have any coverage of it until a few hours ago.
Eww…
Cool but also meh, I really like steams and have had 0 issues getting games to play.
It’s a great option for people who wants to play those games where the anti cheat system doesn’t support Linux
Also great for people who want to take advantage of gamepass.
Fair
We should just stop supporting those games.
Blech! Why would somebody sully such a wonderful device with a piss patty OS?
I could imagine that games with invasive anti cheats are a reason.
As someone who played a couple, i just stopped playing them.
I’m a little sad they did this, i hoped that the pressure on the game devs would rise so they support Linux, oh well.
Meh.
I’ve used the ASUS ROG Ally and I do not recommend running Windows on anything, let alone a handheld. Don’t tarnish your Steam Deck with this!
I fully agree, but the Deck should be less painful to run windows on thanks to the track pad.
The trackpad is amazing on the Deck.
Good news, Lemmy! You will no longer be forced by big tech corporations to run uh… [checks notes] a version of Linux on your Steam Deck anymore!
Uhhh…well. that’s…um. sure. Someone could do that.
And then there’s me, who got a new laptop a couple of days ago after looking into things, and the pre installed Windows worked perfectly to test the hardware worked fine… before being replaced by Linux.
No thanks
ew
who would use it when Linux just works in addition to Microsoft’s continued enshitification of Windows?
The only reason to use Windows over Linux is compatibility with certain games (or even applications). Also the price of the device is pretty low. That means people who are interested into handheld PCs who want to use it as a sort of laptop for cheap and don’t care about Linux, can still install Windows on it. I’m not recommending it, but I’m glad people have this option and Valve is not actively trying to stop people (unlike other companies).
Yeah I’m sure they have their reasons but if it were up to me I would never allocate resources for that.
“Let it rot and fester somewhere else”
Perhaps it’s due to the games I play not being online multiplayer for the most part, but I’ve yet to encounter a game that I couldn’t get to work on Linux, with ~99% requiring absolutely no effort (besides clicking a drop down menu).
And this includes games that Steam has labeled “unsupported” (not even just “unverified”).
At risk of being that annoying, “but have you tried lately?” guy but… Have you? Because it’s pretty wild. In many cases, the Windows version of the game, played using Proton, works better than the native Linux runtime.
Yes, I’m playing unsupported and unverified games just fine too. Its the nature of progress, where the game, the drivers/system or Proton gets updated and the tested state no longer is accurate. There was a few cases when I tried the Windows version over Linux native build to see how it works. However I was never in a position where I needed that or when it was obviously much better. I always have this in mind in case I need to switch. Maybe in future versions where the native build is no longer functional under Linux.
Some games have security software that requires Windows. Destiny 2 for example.
Good to have the option, but probably only worth it if you play anti cheat infested games or subscribe to game pass. I’ll stick with the OS optimised for the hardware
This is definitely meant to make it less painful for the players of those games.
