Recent patch notes sounded like they might be hinting at upcoming ROG Ally support, but it’s now confirmed.

  • BmeBenji@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    How funny/great would it be if the PSP2 and Switch 2 ran branches of SteamOS?

  • Daxtron2@startrek.website
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    I’ve been looking at the ally for a while, the eGPU support is interesting too. SteamOS support would be the final addition to make me pull the trigger on it. Anyone own it and can give their 2¢?

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      Don’t own it, but I would recommend against the regular Ally due to some known hardware issues and Asus warranty trying to scam people into expensive “not covered by warranty” repairs.

      The new Ally X has some tempting hardware upgrades though, if no major defects have shown up in a couple months it might be worth checking out.

    • Cort@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      Their proprietary external GPU connector (xg Mobile graphics) was recently reverse engineered so you may soon* be able to connect desktop graphics cards.

      Still in the early revisions, though all the info is on GitHub by osy86

  • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    How’s Linux support for the Ally? I know Valve has been doing a lot to make Linux work well on the Deck, so I kind of wonder how much extra work they need to put in to get a similar experience.

    As any Linux user with Nvidia hardware probably knows, driver support makes all the difference. Just getting the GUI on screen isn’t enough.

    • smoothbrain coldtakes@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Bazzite is fine. It’s serviceable enough to get the job done. The hardware is supported through a bunch of different emulation tools and bespoke applications like HandHeld Daemon for hooking into power draw and managing extra buttons.

      Bazzite is based on the Holographic base that SteamOS uses, but opts for a Fedora-based immutable back-end over Arch. Running SteamOS itself is going to be better once Valve implements native support for all of these things that are covered by HandHeld Daemon, at least in theory.

      Due to the non-optimal nature of both Windows and Linux at this stage, they tend to perform about equally.

      I get that the Fediverse is disproportionately made up of Linux users, but the reality right now is just that no operating system is fine-tuned for the hardware its running on besides SteamOS and the Deck itself. It’s not better yet, but it’s getting better at a massive clip - which is above and beyond whatever Microsoft is doing (looks like nothing) to improve their software for the form factor.

      • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        Microsoft actually recently announced modifying their game bar to be more mobile friendly. MS clearly wants handheld manufacturers to use the Xbox bar which isn’t going to happen, but they’re trying. The problem with Windows for handhelds is that the launchers are the unique selling points for most of these manufacturers, so any official Microsoft toolkit would be hidden completely if the manufacturers could have their way.

        All of those extra daemons to make Linux usable is exactly what I was wondering about. SteamOS for the Ally means nothing if they don’t build all of that stuff into their distro, preferably by fixing the drivers rather than user mode proxies patching over lacking driver support.

        • smoothbrain coldtakes@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          3 months ago

          Well, the problem is honestly just Windows. It’s not designed for mobile or touch interfaces at all, and all the telemetry and crap bloatware degrades the battery performance. If you get rid of all of that stuff it’s actually on par with the Linux equivalent.

          I dual boot my Ally and I actually spent time messing around with different OSes. ChimeraOS was not ready when I had initially given it a shot (around March) and it crashed constantly and didn’t have full support for things like RGB. I also tried Bazzite at that time and it was a similarly strange experience. It’s gotten much better in the last few months. I’ve been running Bazzlite on my Ally since early July. HHD has progressed immensely and offers a lot of good control over the device.

          If you start off with the IoT version of Windows, it comes with essentially nothing. The store app isn’t installed, but neither is Teams or Paint. You don’t actually have to spend time “debloating” it, since it comes more or less bloat-free. You actually have to spend more time installing dependencies and drivers than removing things. Run the telemetry disabling script and then you have a version of Windows that still sucks to use in general, but is much less awful on battery life.

  • Santo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    I really hope Valve takes up this market with strong software. I believe Microsoft is lagging behind just using regular Windows for that.

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      The lower storage Deck models have been sold at a loss, with the plan of recovering that through game sales. So rival hardware running SteamOS could make valve more money than the deck does.

      It’s possible that the deck’s are no longer sold at a loss, both due to components getting cheaper over time and higher sale numbers leading to lower cost per unit. But either way the money comes mostly from game sales, not hardware sales.

      • xavier666@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        I have bought more games than ever when I got the Steam Deck. Playing games on the PC can be tiring when you are 30+

        • LoamImprovement@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          3 months ago

          I got it for travel and it really is a top notch portable gaming hub. Doubly so because emulation is really easy to set up and run through the frontend. I love being able to play Elden Ring on the go.

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    This is so exciting, very happy for Ally owners. Choice is a strength of PC ecosystem, and I’m confident SteamOS experience is going to win over many users. It’s a great upgrade.

    Edit-

    “And it’s not like Valve is suggesting it’ll offer SteamOS for rival handhelds anytime soon, either”

    Oh :( I thought this was further along than it is… got excited.