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.
Meh.
@Fubarberry Why thou?
Some games have security software that requires Windows. Destiny 2 for example.
@jordanlund Too true. Does this new arc version of SteamOS allow for dual booting?
As far as I’m aware, all Steam Decks can dual boot. On my machine you hold volume down on power on to access the boot manager.
I didn’t partition the internal drive because I wanted to preserve the original install, so I boot from the external SSD for Win 11.
@jordanlund Yep, just looked into it. Only the original SteamOS (Debian) couldn’t dual-boot.
Sweet, so that’s a bonus.
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
We should just stop supporting those games.
The assholes with that anticheat need to be pressured to do Linux support properly, not people that run after them!
A part of me wishes hackers do a Crowdstrike on Vanguard to stop this trend.
True
Fair
Also great for people who want to take advantage of gamepass.
Eww…
Uhhh…well. that’s…um. sure. Someone could do that.
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!
It’s a bit late. The original Steam Deck had drivers for Windows too. But is this really “official support”? I mean Valve gives no guarantees that Windows will work fine. Valve gives the drivers away, so people can do whatever they want, but makes no promise and do not support it officially on their website. So I’m a bit confused by the terminology. Maybe its still too early in the morning…
Yeah calling this official support isn’t quite what is actually happening. “Windows works now on the SteamDeck OLED” on the other hand doesn’t generate as many clicks…
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!
who would it when Linux just works in addition to Microsoft’s continued enshitification of Windows?
Some games have security software that requires Windows. Destiny 2 for example.
Well, at least for me the solution is simple: don’t buy those games.
That’s… that’s a lot of games.
Every single one of these games looks like trash. Like 4 out of 5 (on page 1 at least) of the games on the list are games I’ve only heard about from YouTube advertisements that I didn’t use SponsorBlock on.
Not very convincing.
Dude there’s like, maybe twenty real games in that pile. Most of which I wouldn’t want to play on my steam deck anyways, not that I’ve ever wanted to play a battlefield game, but I sure don’t want to try and aim with a controller.
On the 1st page I found exactly one game that I’d maybe want to play, but not like I couldn’t live without it. None on page 2 and one game again on page 3. Every single game I wanted to play on the Deck works (true, some of them needed some tinkering).
Remember, I said the solution is simple for me. Generally the games that don’t work are not really my cup of tea, like online games and generally stuff that’s more cash-grab than a game. There are few games that would make me consider getting Windows to play, but luckily all of those work well. I still wouldn’t install Windows on the Deck, though, I’d probably stream it from some PC.
Yeah, I dunno if that list was supposed to be convincing lol… Most of the games on there are total “games as a service” garbage.
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).
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.
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”
Geez why are some people so ready to install malware.
If you can get Rocksmith 2014 running without ear piercing screeching or extreme audio latency then by all means.
Until then, it’s a good thing people have more options, even if it’s not a great one.
Blech! Why would somebody sully such a wonderful device with a piss patty OS?
Personally, I think this is great because I can now use my game pass subscription on the steam deck, I know I could use the cloud functionality on steamos, but it is not the same.
This limitation made be realize the vendor lock-in that game pass is, sure it provides awesome value, but forces you to have windows or buy an Xbox.
Why did you subscribe to services you couldn’t use?
I only bought a steam deck recently, when I subscribed for 3 years, I mostly gamed on Windows or on my Xbox.
True, still a little salty I had to cancel the subscription, I genuinely liked it. But I’m not installing Windows.
Getting Game Pass on steamos is pretty easy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U22q9mKfW3Y
Did you actually watch the video and/or read what I said? I want to be able to play the games locally, not from the cloud.
I guess I skimmed over ur comment. I definitely watched the video tho lol
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.
Weird that the drivers are that dramatically different for the OLED version.
The standard Steam Deck Windows drivers have been out for ages, I have a Win11 external SSD and it works fine.
Weird that the drivers are that dramatically different for the OLED version.
The WiFi and BT modules are completely different (the OLED’s product page says this since the announcement), hence new drivers required.
So now you can play fortnite on the steam deck. I like to think valve did this just to mess with epic.
Also… Photoshop I guess?
I’d rather have SteamOS officially support more devices including desktop. Good on Valve for giving people options though.
I guess it’s nice of them to release the drivers but that still won’t make it a good experience. They should have designed the deck to use full length nvme so you could get bigger drive sizes and not feel like a dual boot leaves no room for games. Not that I would do this or recomend it, yuck.
I use a 2TB Kingston SSD through the USB-C port. All the Steam Deck stuff stays on the internal drive, Windows 11 on the Kingston.
https://www.kingston.com/en/ssd/xs2000-portable-usb-c-solid-state-drive
There are also docks that support NVMe:
https://jsaux.com/products/m-2-docking-station-for-steam-deck-hb0604
That kinda makes it not very portable. However, it’s true that you can get short high capacity drives. They’re just a bit harder to find.
Is that faster than loading it on a microsd card? That’s how I currently boot windows on my steamdeck, but it’s a little slow to load and initial loads for some games can be painful.
Yeah, the MicroSD slot is around 100mb/s:
https://www.polygon.com/deals/22938610/steam-deck-best-sd-card-micro-storage-price-speed
USB-C is anywhere from 5 Gbps to 20 Gbps. Not sure what standard the Deck supports, but even the slowest is 625 to 2500 mb/s.
Thanks, I’ll have to take a look into that, I can definitely tell the microsd struggles (and it would free up my microsd slot for extra steamos storage).
