Even gamers nexus’ Steve today said that they’re about to start doing Linux games performance testing soon. It’s happening, y’all, the year of the Linux desktop is upon us. ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ
Edit: just wanted to clarify that Steve from GN didn’t precisely say they’re starting to test soon, he said they will start WHEN the steam OS releases and is adopted. Sorry about that.
I’m hoping to see more software support for Linux from this
Once the userbase becomes bigger, those folks will move over. Capitalist will follow the money, they don’t care what OS it is as long as they can make their lords shareholders happy.
It already started with a lot of gaming communities, but most of what I use is already in Linux so no Biggie for me, productive apps being moved is likely very far into the future
I’ve already seen a lot of work for audio production in Linux but still would love to see more from other industries
The only bastion left is anticheat. Everything else are just (bad) old habits fueled by marketing.
Anti-cheat systems already have to make changes, since Microsoft have plans to significantly restrict kernel mode access after the major Crowdstrike issues earlier in the year. Kernel mode code is very invasive, difficult to get correct, and can result in major security holes or stability issues if not written correctly.
A bug in userland code may crash that one app. A bug in kernel mode code can (and often does) cause bluescreens, that people blame Microsoft for. I’m sure they’re tired of being blamed for buggy code written by other companies.
Running the anti cheat code in userland will (in theory) make it easier to run on other OSes too.
Yes indeed, I’ve followed that from afar (as I generally mostly play offline, definitely not competitively) so I hope this will be the final missing piece.
Well put.
…and VR. VR is already finicky on its own, gaming on Linux can be finicky in different ways, and the issues multiply if you have two things like that.
Tends to depend on the headset you own, some work perfectly. Also, Valve is very likely releasing a headset based on SteamOS, which should help.
I work in VR, I play in VR, including Windows games, all on Linux. No specific problem for me on that front.
Can you provide some context… VR has many devices? Can you make meta shit work?
I’m basically just using Steam with SteamVR on the Index, no tinkering in there.
I also tried other things, e.g. Monado, streaming to headset, etc but in practice I prefer to “just” play when I’m playing and for that the Index works great.
Yes, Meta shit actually works quite well using Wivrn apart from it being, well, from Meta. lvra.gitlab.io is a treasure trove of Linux VR info. SteamVR is kinda shit on linux, so using the open source openXR runtime Monado is ideal. I personally use a pimax 5k I got cheap used to play Beat saber and it works quite well. While not complete, there is very promising progress on getting WMR headsets working. The Index, Vive and Vive pro all work with no fiddling though if that’s what you’re after.
How do you work ‘in’ vr?
Apologies I wasn’t clear. I actually I work “on” VR, namely I’m a software developer who write VR/AR code.
Still though… I also do work “in” VR as I have numerous demo where I’m coding in the headset. Most recently you can check this 1min video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGvc4kNXiUY that I did for https://futuretextlab.info/ and it’s all open source, cf https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/text-code-xr-engine/src/branch/fot-sloan-companion . To clarify a bit I drag&drop file on my (Linux) filesystem and they are reflected in AR in that example. I can open them, manipulate them, if it’s code (here JavaScript and AFrame) it can live reload part of the scene, etc.
I’m also working “in” VR for the NLNet sponsored project xrsh aka XRshell https://nlnet.nl/project/xrsh/ where thanks to WASM we basically put a (small) Linux system with its terminal on a Web page and thus can code and work in the headset.
Maybe they mean that they use flatscreen applications in VR, or maybe they take all their meetings in VRChat.
Powered by Steamos and Stamos are not to be mixed up
Only 1 downvote? woah.
Bill Gates? Where is he?
To paraphrase the gay chant from the 90’s: 4% is not enough RECRUIT RECRUIT RECRUIT!
I have about 7-9 months to decide what to do with my PC. I don’t want to move to windows 11. Because I will have to basically fresh-install my entire system that has 4 drives and god knows how many antiquated programs on it from the XP, Vista and 7 era that I still use. and Im just not ready for it. Im too busy
headache
Try Win10 LTSC if you don’t want to make the switch to Linux.
I’ve went from 7 to LTSC. I didn’t realize how cool LTSC was until I had to use a W10 machine at work. There’s a good chance I’ll go full Linux when the support ends but I’ll have enough time to consider it.
Sounds like a nightmare. I got sick thinking about it. Lol
Its just gonna be a question of how unsecure Win10 gets , and how fast.
My pc is from 2019, although I’ve upgraded the hardware several times. But I’ve basically reached a ceiling of practicality, its no longer practical to upgrade anything. Im on an outdated chipset (AM4) and jumping from a 3080 to a 4080 isn’t really going to fix the problem of games just being unoptimized. It makes more sense to build a new PC than it does to just change OS on this.
but right now, it just doesnt make sense to build a new PC either… I dont lift a finger on anything unless im going to be able to see at minimum 20% performance increase, I just dont see that without emptying my savings account…
Not a good advice. A friend of mine is still on win7 and it still works and got security updates time to time. But some programs actually stopped working or only older lts versions remain workings. Win10 is probably still ok for a year or two.
Absolutely not. Windows 7 may still function, but it is a target for unpatched vulnerabilities. Attackers are actively seeking windows 7 hosts for remote code exploits, lateral movement, and privilege escalation.
Do not run Windows 7. Stop running Windows 10 after the end of life date next year.
Im on an outdated chipset (AM4)
Bruh, why do you have to say that? 😂. I just built my PC a couple of months ago and I bought an AM4 and I thought I had some kickass specs.
I bought one when I upgraded my truenas, solid performance paired with good names and motherboard, no issues.
No worries about that, it was a bad wording. The company has stopped producing it, and that’s it. Your cpu is fine, compatible with current software, and can serve you well for still a long time.
Corporations were so successful in promoting consumerism, that they already messed with us on a psychological level.
Oh it’s totally fine, my friend. I just thought it was very funny. No hard feelings towards the commenter at all. I even actually laughed out loud. I’m that guy who never buys a brand new car, always used and has to be a great deal. Shit works, why spend the extra money? When you are bron and raised in a poor 3rd world country, you learn to be very careful with your money when you have it.
When you are bron and raised in a poor 3rd world country, you learn to be very careful with your money when you have it.
Oh, I totally feel you there. Nice to see a fellow third worlder around!
Hey 👋🏽
They did still release a few ones recently for them. But am5 is the main one right now. It’s not incredibly old, just no new ones will probably be produced. (I think the last am4 were a surprise already) Just for curiosity, why did you go with am4?
might have been a deal. some retailers are dumb and think lower number means worse, so discount justified. lol
100% nailed it. I bought all parts for $500. Works great. The processor is a Ryzen 7 5700G and it comes with an iGPU, so I didn’t get a dGPU at the time, a friend of mine had an RX 580 laying around and gave it to me. Gamed on it for about a year or less, worked fine. Later on, I got an RX 6600 from Facebook for $100.
They are end of life now and have ceased production, but if you can manage to find a 5800X3D , that CPU is the definition of sleeper. I had a 5700X I think it was, and the performance boost was f***ing unreal, I expected meagre gains, I saw 20 to 50% performance increase on many games. if you’re into that kind of thing. if you see one for sale, seriously think about grabbing it.
its the whole reason aside from the OS issue, Im not even remotely worried about the next few years, it can compete with the high end stuff of the AM5 generation still. unreal.
Realistically the AM4 is still more than enough for now. but its technically end of life. the AM5 isn’t worth the jump until theres no other option.
As long as they can keep it rolling stable, which is possible even with arch, I can see this pickup up a bit, especially for new users.
Plenty of users are sick of windows 11.
I’ve been saying for years: we need a dedicated gaming operating system.
No we don’t. Who needs that? That’s what consoles are for. Every time I want to play on my computer I would need to dual boot and change to the OS? That’s nonsense
Game Devs and device driver Devs need to get their shit together and fix things.
Personally I’d love a dedicated console experience that’s Linux.
Do you mean a dedicated gaming flavor of Linux? Because otherwise, isnt that just a console?
Well here you go: https://bazzite.gg/
cloud native
Already rings an alarm bell, but thank you for sharing regardless.
Also, their website runs like shit. I don’t have much hope for them making a gaming OS that doesn’t, but time will tell.
That is astoundingly judgmental. Good lord.
Cloud native is a weird term I’ll agree, but it just means container based.
Bazzite is amazing and worth a try. I’ve been using it as a daily driver for nearly a year now.
Perhaps you’d prefer the Github over their “shit” website: https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite
Or perhaps you’d like to positively contribute to the state of Linux gaming, and make some suggestions for the website in their post just for that: Requesting input: Bazzite’s website
At this point when people tell me the website runs like shit I just laugh and tell them they’ve been filtered. That does 120 FPS on a phone, if you’re lagging on that site just go ahead and give up on gaming.
The animations are stuttery for me on … Fedora Linux.
I bet they’d be smooth as butter on Windows. x)
Or even better, a dedicated gaming runtime environment. And that env can then be made multiplatform.
Hello, flatpak exists you know
This could lead to some sort of controlling mechanism that will check if your OS is actually SteamOS, otherwise some kind of DRM would prevent you from playing online for example. I’m weary.
Also people are forgetting that gaming isn’t the only thing people use their computers for. They are convenience devices. They want to game on the PC they also use for other things. They will not switch for gaming only. Companies who sell software will see this and start piling on their controlling mechanisms, tracking, … More proprietary things will come, I mean games already are, and they are not in the spirit of Linux.
I’m bad at expressing my thoughts, but I hope you understand what I’m trying to say.
Not really. The “control mechanism” is already in place for games that rely on Steam’s infrastructure for their online functionality.
You meant “wary”. Weary means tired. Wary means suspicious.
It didn’t feel right when I wrote it, but English isn’t my first language. Thanks!
No problem; it’s a common English mistake, even for native speakers.
New to the Linux community here; why is a valve owned Linux OS better than any other massive company OS. Like if Microsoft released their own Linux OS, would it be good suddenly?
At the end of the day, we don’t want our OS’s big company owned right?
I am not gonna use SteamOS. But if a bunch of regular folk do, then it might convince peripheral and game makers it’d be worth putting in a modicum of effort to support linux. That’s why I’m excited for SteamOS.
It’s way easier to move from one Linux distro to another if Valve starts enshittifying SteamOS (which would really suck) than it is to move from Windows to Linux. Either way this is a good stepping stone that’s well supported.
Like if Microsoft released their own Linux OS, would it be good suddenly?
It’s worth noting that steamOS, like any Linux distro has its issues and a bit of a learning curve. Especially if you want to go off the beaten track, it’s pretty much just using a stock arch distro.
As for if MS switched to Linux, no it wouldn’t be good because the issues with Win11 overwhelmingly aren’t a matter of incompetence or anything inherent to the code, but of conscious anti-consumer business decisions. There’s nothing about Linux that would actively stop MS from cramming telemetry, bloat, etc. In their distro.
Valve dosnt really “own” SteamOS. They maintain and update SteamOS, but SteamOS is free and open source
Plus just about everbody who knows anything about steam would tell you they are probably the most consumer friendly billion dollar company ever, and have been for decades. So yes even if they owned it like microsoft owns windows it would still be better
If it’s like the steam deck version, it’ll be based on Arch with a bunch of steam-specific patches/configs to make games run more easily (with the added bonus of making non-steam games run pretty well too). Steam exists to sell games, and if they want to make it easier for me to play games, that’s fine by me.
Not sure what a Microsoft distro would look like, but if they make a distro that’ll run Xbox games with gamepass, I’d give it a shot.
Another nice bonus for either/both of those situations is that it wouldn’t be too hard to incorporate those changes into other distros. That way people who want more of an “install and go” experience would have their official distros, people who like to tinker could work on importing the official code into their unofficial setup, and people who use arch btw can install it from the AUR.
Not answering your comment directly, and I don’t even use Linux, BUT…
One reason a lot of us don’t use Linux even if we really want to us because it’s biggest strength is also one of its biggest weaknesses, that being it’s modularity.
There isn’t a single packaging system, window manager, file system, shell, etc etc.
This makes it hard for companies (and devs in general) to target Linux for releases. For example you want to release something for Windows, you build a single exe, apple is a dmg (I think) etc so you just build for one single platform with a consistent API.
When you want to build for Linux there can’t be just one build/package. This has actively been cited as reasons why some commercial software doesn’t support Linux, as it takes far more effort to support all major permutations of platform and package management.
So back to your question, why is Valve’s Steam OS going to help? Because it’s going to be a single platform with a single way of doing things. You can always go and replace the bits like any Linux distro but out the box it will be easy enough for vendors to support, it will hopefully also get more adoption because it has commercial support.
Look at Android as an example (I know it’s not entirely the same), but that is just a customised version of Linux, but as it’s consistent and has a single way to manage packages it’s widely adopted.
I am pretty sure Linus himself said how one of the reasons why Linux desktop doesn’t have mass adoption is because no one can agree on how things should be done, so we have hundreds of libs all doing the same thing in a different way. Valve will pick what they think is best (even if it isn’t technically the best) and through that we all have a singular point of effort and adoption to centralise on.
SteamOS is better than, for example, macOS and Windows because of licenses.
Since you’re new (welcome!), I should let you in on a little secret: pretty much the entire free software movement is built around licensing. I know, it’s boring and seems insignificant. But the outcomes are profound.
Because SteamOS is built to function within the free software ecosystem, it means users are never beholden to the decisions of one centralized entity (usually the company that owns the software patents.)
If Valve ever decides to, say, include candy crush ads in SteamOS’ start menu (they’d have to make their own start menu, since right now SteamOS uses one that’s already made by the free software community), then users can choose to remove that part of the menu or replace the menu altogether without having to start from scratch.
For wealthy people who can always pay the “proprietary tax,” this might seem like a non-issue. Practically speaking, these people only want their software to work without hassle. They don’t care about the true cost of that software, such as only one entity being able to modify/distribute the software. It’s not until, say, photoshop starts charging a subscription (which they can always increase the price of) that people start to see the value in free software and the importance of licensing.
Like IBM and Red Hat!
Microsoft is deeply entrenched and has undergone decades of enshittification. SteamOS is at only the beginning of this cycle. And since SteamOS is linux-based, it’s likely to have ramifications for the whole GNU/Linux ecosystem. Furthermore, if there are two vastly different OSes that developers and graphics card manufacturers need to seriously target, they’re more likely to write more platform-agnostic software that everyone can benefit from.
Because valve is a private company. They don’t have to answer to shareholders. That means, they don’t go through enshitifaction, they care about their product and their customers. Are they perfect? Absolutely not, are they good? Better than every single company out there that tries to be like them. Period.
I’m glad people bring this up.
Private companies are not intrinsically better than public ones, but at least they have the capacity to be.
Valve is one of the very few examples of a company that sees the value in working with customers, not against them. This would be impossible if Valve were publicly-traded.
Exactly. They’re (as far I know) the only company that emailed me to tell me that I can take to court directly without an arbitration. Not that I’ll ever be able to afford it, but seeing how confident and pro-consumer (I fucking hate the word consumer lol) they are is amazing.
To be fair, that was in their own financial best interest. Since arbitrations are charged a fee per customer someone figured out that you can do an effective “class action” against valve by having many people submit the same arbitration claim against valve and costing them so much through the arbitration fees that it it was almost impossible for them to cone out on top regardless of the outcome of the arbitration (iirc).
They changed to allowing lawsuits because they can request those to be merged, and therefore its cost-effective for them to fight them.
Since arbitrations are charged a fee per customer someone figured out that you can do an effective “class action” against valve by having many people submit the same arbitration claim against valve and costing them so much through the arbitration fees that it it was almost impossible for them to cone out on top regardless of the outcome of the arbitration (iirc).
It’s not even that they’d have to pay for it; usually the filing party has to pay. Valve tried to be the good guys and while they did push for arbitration they said that they’d pay your arbitration fee for you, basically allowing you to file a legal complaint against them at their expense.
And then some fucking legal company figured out it’s a neat loophole on how to bleed them through arbitration where the point isn’t really the result but the costly process. Guess that’ll teach Valve to try to be better than others. :|
Because it’s open source and based on the Linux kernel. It’s owned by them but you can do what you want with it. You can’t with Windows.
So if a game works on the Steam OS, it works on pretty much any distro
I game with Steam on Linux, but I’m not using Steam OS
Also, that means that every effort made by Valve to improve compatibility is beneficial to everyone.
Edit: Also, even if it were closed source, I think it would still be good as it gives us alternatives to Windows. But
The source is always free so you could fork it if you disagree with them. Also it means broader support for Linux gaming
Thanks Steve
let’s goooo
This is so great to see, and the timing is perfect.
My son already calls the PC Steam, as in “we played game A on Xbox and game B on Steam,” so maybe by the time he has a PC in his room Steam really will run the whole platform.
Hell yeah, brother.
I thought this had already happened?
I remember seeing ads on Steam for SteamOS years ago—wasn’t there a point at which you could download and run it on your own computer? What happened?
Old steam os was an Ubuntu derived OS. Ubuntu has issues relating to the organization that runs it. New steam os is basically a coat of paint on top of Arch which is community based. The old os is deprecated.
The version on steam deck is fantastic, but they have been polishing it for desktop use for a while now. I can’t wait to have it available.
Ah, ok—was it also immutable like the new one is?
I think modern steamos is based on a different distro then it was then. Also proton is good enough now to justify switching for a lot of people
If I recall correctly, this has never happened the way it’s happening now. It was a matter of “hey, you can fork it on GitHub and make your own iso thing”, hence why there was a “holoiso” or something like that that (I keep forgetting the name) where people used if they wanted to install steamOS on a device. This one is straight supported by valve. Like “hey, here is our official steam OS that we use on our steam deck. Use it and we will support you”.
My understanding is the big change here is that they’re specifically making it available to other handheld manufacturers, which is huge, because windows handhelds have not been great because of how much the bloat of Windows steals performance and battery life. They’re making steps to make SteamOS (I.e. Linux in general) the default OS for handhelds and non-console dedicated gaming machines in general.
If it works, it will put tremendous pressure on publishers to support linux, which is great.
A close friend of mine hates Linux with a passion. He always sends me meme about how terrible Linux is. He has the ROG Ally, he texted me the other day to tell me he had to put Bazzite OS on it because it was dogshit on windows. He loves it now. Lmao.
Oh, how the turn tables…
Iirc the original steamOS was Debian based and you really had to be an experienced Linux user to use and enjoy it.
With the new steamOS (arch based?) it’s a much more streamlined experience and opens up the user base because of it
From what I recall, it wasn’t something you could easily use like a normal distro, and that version was based on Debian (so stable but outdated software). It only worked on some hardware, and you had to do a full system wipe.
More likely, this is them officially partnering with handheld or gaming laptop makers, using their latest Arch-based distro and allowing them to use Valve/Steam branding as a selling point.
I jumped into Linux, via Mint, about a year ago when I refreshed my hardware. The transition was pretty easy, and I haven’t looked back. Steam runs fine and I haven’t had a modern game that didn’t work under default proton settings except for things I’ve run outside Steam and mods. Most of my personal PC’s workload is gaming and handful of web-based apps that are effectively OS-agnostic; Everything else has an easy equivalent in the apt repos.
I would say that my decision to embrace Linux as my OS was primarily influenced by my Steam Deck. Gaming on it has been simple and the desktop UI was easy to adapt to. I replaced my laptop with the Steam Deck, bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a USB-C dock with HDMI out (all things I already had for the laptop). I now just hook into whatever TV is handy as a monitor when I need a computer on the go.
I was a tech enthusiast when I was younger, and am thus familiar with fucking around on the command line, but now I’m an old man who just wants his stuff to work and it just has… The barrier of entry for the Linux Desktop is effectively gone. We just need PR now.
Also, I think I’d replace Mint on my primary PC with SteamOS, given a simple way to do so. About a year ago, the desktop/beta SteamOS was not fully baked.
You should give Bazzite a go on your desktop, it’s very similar to SteamOS and the desktop experience has been great for me. I didn’t have a Steam Deck and transitioned to it, and the smoothness convinced me to get a Lenovo Legion Go and install Bazzite straight OOTB.
