this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
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Help dissuade (or confirm) a fear here. Could this be the first step to a sort of Androidization of steamos?
Probably not. Unlike Android, it doesn't take away the Linux desktop features. It's just Arch with a bunch of stuff pre-installed.
SteamOS will most likely be deployed on other handheld PCs, not desktop PCs. The handheld PCs that came out in response to the deck's release (or before) usually run Windows.
Android is not bad because Android itself is bad (well... it kinda is but let's just assume it isn't), but because the phone manufacturers lock down their phones' hardware. They do this to force you into their ecosystem. With SteamOS, you already have an ecosystem, which is Steam. There is (at least for now) a clear distinction between Hardware manufacturer and software provider.
For now at least Androidization is nothing you should worry about. Maybe in 10, 20 years. edit: and even then it's never going to be as bad as with the smartphones
I agree that we shouldn't worry (at least for the moment), but I think the main reason is the lack of locks, both when it comes to hardware (no locked bootloader) and software (getting root access is trivial, so you can uninstall whatever components you might not like and with updates not being mandatory you can keep it under your control).
Currently, the only officially sanctioned version of SteamOS is the one that is shipped with Steam Deck (even though that might change soon), which is hardware sold by Valve (ie, the same company making the software). Meanwhile, most people using Android don't use Pixel / Nexus devices and thus their hardware is not being sold by Google.
So I'd say this depends entirely on how do the new manufacturers wanna go about it when it comes to offering their own custom versions of SteamOS. At the moment this is ok because Valve has been acting as a "benevolent dictator" and they have essentially had a monopoly on SteamOS 3 devices until now. Once that monopoly breaks (and if Valve actually allows third parties to ship their own customizations) we'll have to see what kind of control will their partners want to assert over it.
The thing we should be more concerned about are the parts that Steam haven't opened up, for example Steam input. However they've done everything as openly as possible for the move to Linux and I applaud that. If steam goes away or stops being so open, we still have proton and wine and other projects that mean we're not locked in to a Steam-specific OS, so we avoid the android problem there too.
Good to know! Thank you for explaining it.
I would very much so run it on my laptop, tbh, if it used GNOME. Lol
You don't need SteamOS to game on Linux. I've heard good things about Bazzite, and there other Linux distros that focus on gaming.
I've been considering switching my deck to bazzite, tbh, because I prefer gnome so much, and I like being to use desktop mode when I'm out. I got a tiny Bluetooth mouse keyboard combo that looks like a remote or flat controller. I'm the only one who drives in my family, so I spend a lot of time just sitting in the car, waiting at doctors and stuff. It's nice being able to take just one device and work on school work or something.
You can do that with SteamOS too. It launches into Steam Big Picture, but you can exit it and just use it like a computer. It can do everything a computer can do. I don't own one but have used one, and I think it was running KDE, not Gnome, but I don't really recall. You can install whatever DE you want though. There's no need to switch distros unless you want to.
You can switch distros, but every update wipes it and puts you back with kde.
You can install different DEs on top of any distro. I haven't done so, but updates shouldn't reset anything.
SteamOS is immutable. Each update wipes that kind of that. You can do it, but it's a pita getting things back the way you like just for the next update to take it away. I'm familiar and comfortable switching DEs, it's how I figured out I like near stock GNOME so much, by distro hopping and then DE hopping. It's just an unfortunate part of steamos that they decided to go with only one DE and not give people a few options, but I don't think they intended the desktop mode to get enough play time for it matter.
Ah, OK. Well, that's certainly a choice. It sounds like a bad choice to me, but I'm sure they had some reason. I agree that I don't think they expected many people to use Desktop mode, but I wish they would. It let's people use this "gaming" device as a full computer. They should really lean into that in my opinion. They could probably get a lot more sales with a marketing campaign focused on that fact and a dock to go with it.
From what I understand there was some technic reason behind it, but I hate it. Kde works on a laptop or desktop, but on a small touch screen it's horrid. Gnome is more intuitive for a small device like that, and would let you use it almost like a tablet. C'est la vie, but I do think I'm going to try bazzite at some point
I get it a bit. It's a device almost explicitly made for people who don't have a strong understanding of technology (and especially Linux). It prevents them from messing things up too much. It's luckily not locked down though so people who do know what they're doing can switch Distros.
What do you mean by "Androidization"?