I’ve been exclusively gaming on my Steam Deck since launch and have a slightly different experience. For me, if the game is certified “Playable” or “Verified” on the Steam page, I just download and play it. I have never once tweaked any settings or tried a different version of Proton. I’m sure there are tweaks that can achieve better performance on certain games, but I have never personally felt the need to research that on any game.

For reference, below are my recently played games. All but Trials worked great for me. Trials is marked “Unplayable” on Steam, though I did get it to work for a few hours before it broke.

I have used FF based browsers for a long time and still do. I recently saw this from the GrapheneOS developers, which kinda freaks me out and has me considering switching to a Chromium based browser:

https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing

Chromium-based browsers like Vanadium provide the strongest sandbox implementation, leagues ahead of the alternatives. It is much harder to escape from the sandbox and it provides much more than acting as a barrier to compromising the rest of the OS. Site isolation enforces security boundaries around each site using the sandbox by placing each site into an isolated sandbox… Browsers without site isolation are very vulnerable to attacks like Spectre…

Avoid Gecko-based browsers like Firefox as they’re currently much more vulnerable to exploitation and inherently add a huge amount of attack surface. Gecko doesn’t have a WebView implementation (GeckoView is not a WebView implementation), so it has to be used alongside the Chromium-based WebView rather than instead of Chromium, which means having the remote attack surface of two separate browser engines instead of only one. Firefox / Gecko also bypass or cripple a fair bit of the upstream and GrapheneOS hardening work for apps. Worst of all, Firefox does not have internal sandboxing on Android. This is despite the fact that Chromium semantic sandbox layer on Android is implemented via the OS isolatedProcess feature, which is a very easy to use boolean property for app service processes to provide strong isolation with only the ability to communicate with the app running them via the standard service API. Even in the desktop version, Firefox’s sandbox is still substantially weaker (especially on Linux) and lacks full support for isolating sites from each other rather than only containing content as a whole. The sandbox has been gradually improving on the desktop but it isn’t happening for their Android browser yet.

EDIT: I really hope Ladybird turns out to be amazing.

I was considering a switch but due to recent policy changes at Google, I’m now concerned about long-term (or even short-term) support for GrapheneOS and other custom ROMs:

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114671100848024807

Potentially the same problem since Nobara is also Fedora based.

I went on the same path. I was surprised how many sites were broken in IronFox.

I have a launch LCD Steam Deck and yesterday was planning to upgrade to the OLED version. Unfortunately:

Steam Deck OLED 512GB and 1TB models are temporarily out-of-stock in the US and Canada as we adapt to recent supply chain constraints. We anticipate being back in stock by end of summer, and currently expect prices will remain the same. We’ll update here as soon as we have more clarity on what the timeline ultimately looks like.

https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck/

I agree the Steam Deck is a better option for many people but the screen on Switch 2 is larger than Steam Deck.

I believe they said a Cosmic spin is also planned.

They make a pretty good keyboard too. It doesn’t have network permissions and is open source and privacy focused.

It runs great. I haven’t checked FPS but it runs smoothly and I’ve never noticed any stuttering. I’m also super impressed with the draw distance. The ground sometimes has some graininess to it but it doesn’t bother me.

Eternal Strands. I’m loving it! I almost quit playing a few times in the first couple of hours but once you get into the loop of it and learn some more skills and combat techniques, things get amazing.

It has that same sense of wonder and exploration that I got from BOTW, even though it’s broken up into zones instead of one open world. It also takes a lot of great parts from Dragon’s Dogma, Shadow of the Colossus, and Monster Hunter, while still very much being its own thing. Plus, the loot is not overwhelming and feels meaningful, and you can re-spec all gear without penalty.

It’s all really streamlined to maximize fun.

Thank you! I immediately wondered if OP was a shill since s/he also didn’t name the company in the title or summary.

I believe Librawolf defaults to “strict” fingerprinting blocking. Try setting it to moderate and see if that works with your bank

I vote the same, but I’d suggest a uBlue spin of the Fedora Atomic desktops. They have better defaults (all batteries included, as they say) and are easier to use overall IMHO. Bluefin and Bazzite are both great options, and both offer KDE and Gnome variants.

https://universal-blue.org/

I added this edit above. Pasting here in case you are curious. Cheers.

EDIT: This thread motivated me to try and fix this issue. Installing Firefox using rpm-ostree worked. I expected it would, though I am still hoping to figure this out using the Flatpak version at some point. I also tried using Distrobox/Box Buddy to create a Fedora 40 box and install Firefox there. That version of Firefox couldn’t even see my NAS at all (unlike the Flatpak which could see my NAS but couldn’t upload files from the NAS to Proton). This was my first time ever using Distrobox. I thought it was super cool to see it in action and get a working Firefox, even though I couldn’t use it to access my NAS as hoped.

Are you using librewolf to upload files from your NAS to Proton Drive?

I readily admit I am still not super proficient with flatseal. I spent a lot of time trying to fix this by adjusting the file permissions, but I’m now wondering if it was some other local network setting I missed.

I also don’t use fstab to mount my NAS. I just sign in using Files which creates a smb link. On Firefox/proton drive website I can see the files but I cannot upload them directly to Proton Drive from my NAS using Firefox (or Zen) on bluefin.

I haven’t tried any distobox stuff yet but I’m very curious. I will at some point.

Whoever downvoted this is lame. I appreciate your question.

I’m using Bluefin and overall it’s great. However, there are some unique issues due to immutability and flatpak.

1. It’s more difficult to utilize a NAS. For example, on something like Mint, I can open Proton Drive on Firefox, and I can upload files from my NAS to PD.

On Bluefin, I can access my NAS and all files using the Files app, but not using I cannot accomplish the above task in the same way. Firefox cannot fully access my NAS, and I have not figured out how to make it work. I’ve played around with Flatseal, but can’t get it to work. Instead, I need to use Files to download the files from my NAS to a local folder, and then I can use Firefox to upload to PD from that local folder. I’m guessing there is a better way, but I haven’t figured it out yet.

2. I would desperately like to use a screenshot tool with built-in annotations, but I haven’t found a flatpak that works. As I understand, it might have something to do with Wayland and/or my Nvidia GPU.

So while most things “just work,” there are some problems. Planning to stick with it and keep learning. I do love the concept and I’m overall very happy with the everything.

It’s so good! I love the design right out of the box, with very few settings adjustments.

Note that zen currently only has vertical tabs (horizontal tabs are on the roadmap). If horizontal tabs are a must, try Floorp browser instead, which has several similarities with Zen.

Firefox gets switched to Zen Browser (and before that, Floorp).

I also always download Okular for PDFs. It always seems to be better than whatever the default is.

I typically also substitute OnlyOffice for Libra Office.