A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
Just got mine in the mail a couple of weeks ago. I love it. I haven't played PC games since I was in high school in the 90's. My son has one, and my girlfriend's grandson has one. We're all connected with family sharing. My daughter is interested in getting one now too.
Side note: Desktop mode is getting me used to Linux and I'm enjoying it. It doesn't seem as intimidating as I imagined.
My kids freaking love it, and family sharing is crazy good. I use it on trips. My other two PCs are running Bazzite.
Just added a 1TB m2 SSD Upgrade in mine
No surprise there. It's backed by a reputable company, built well, supported well, and continues to receive updates that affect not only the handheld itself, but the rest of the linux gaming scene all together. Plus it's an absolute steal for the money.
Other brands had it all written out for them, but they all opted in for a quick buck, with generic bullshit with no understanding of what made the Deck so appealing
Agreed, the ease of repairs and ability to upgrade the SSD were a huge selling point for me.
I haven't bought it because previous hardware has been quick to get discontinued or support has stopped (steam machine, steam controller, steam link) and I didn't like that.
Told myself I'd buy a Steam Deck 2 because that would show long term support, though.
Dude, my Steam Link and Steam Controllers are still in active use and get updates to this day. I even have 2 backup Steam Links - at the end they were selling them at 5€ per piece, and since i use it to stream pretty much everything to my TV, i got some in reserve.
I'm still on the first one, and one of the Controllers is now working with my Steam Deck out of the box.
I agree (a bit) on the Steam machines, those were pretty much a flop when seen as isolated device - but they laid the groundwork for the Deck.
I can't really agree with that assesment of Valves past hardware.
Steam Machines were DOA, and anyone that actually bought one from one of the manufacturers likely got one that came with windows installed, because valve delayed the controller and software for so long the manufacturers pivoted to putting windows on them to be able to start selling the inventory. That meant very few that actually run SteamOS made it into the wild, most of them getting sold as just console-sized windows PCs.
And if you still have one, it's just a PC. You can slap Bazzite or Windows on it and it'll work just fine even today.
Both steam controller and link continue to get software support, and also function to this day. Valve stopped manufacturing and selling them, but support has not stopped.
No matter how you look at it, buying valve hardware has meant that even as it ages, they make sure it doesn't turn into a brick, or even have its usefulness compromised.
Same goes for the Deck, Valve couldn't brick the thing if they tried. When you buy one, you will still have what came in the box ten years from now.
Yup. My Steam Link was a semi-cheap purchase when they were on sale, and over time their continued support of it only pushed me to use Steam more and more. I still use it today, and it was a big part of why I adopted the Deck right away.
I had one of the Alienware Alphas with the 860m and desktop haswell 4130t. You could swap in a 4160 but your big enemy would be heat.
I swapped the steam OS for windows and threw in some cheap 240gb adata ssd. Ran it for years.
Only problem was the cmos battery would fail every now and again and I’d have to solder a new one in because Dell…..
Anyways, I was in it ~$400 and it was a great htpc. Only real problem was haswell couldn’t decode 4k YouTube.
The steam controller I still have, and it’s quirky. But I like it for the mouse function.
Was the soldered CMOS different than the removable one? I fought the battery (removable) in mine for a year or two and eventually just shelved it. Would love to get it running as a low energy emulation station if it's salvageable
It was removable, but used Dells weird connection. I just had to solder the connections of the new battery on instead of paying Dell $20 for a watch battery haha.
Previous hardware mostly immediately flopped. Steam Deck has been seeing regular hardware and software improvements over the last several years.
If you're waiting for Steam Deck 2, you're most likely going to be waiting a while. Valve doesn't do anything quickly or on a regular basis.
support has stopped (steam machine, steam controller, steam link
Steam Link is still getting software updates. Steam Controller doesn't get updates anymore afaik, but it did get updates for a long time including firmware updates that added BLE support. Steam input on both the steam deck and in big picture mode still supports it and still allows community sharing of controller profiles.
In general I think Valve supports their less successful hardware pretty well by industry standards.
And I'm just here dreaming about getting one, with no chance of that happening anytime soon (or ever)... :'(
I was sceptical on how good it could be when it was first announced. Steam Deck 2 will be day one for me though
Seems like they're making good on a promise of incremental improvements too. Really happy with that device.
I'm not gonna lie, I was hyped since the announcement, and the love for this device hasn't died down.
I'm not a big gamer nor do I play on portable consoles, but the idea of an accessible portable console running a linux distro was amazing to me.
Yeah I preordered for sure
I’ll preorder Steamdeck 2 so fast my pants will fly off
I don't know how to react to this
Proper decorum demands also removing your pants
With the gift of suspenders
Same, sadly there probably wont be a steamdeck 2 for a while considering valve is working on the deckard, I REALLY hope they announce it sooner rather than later though. I gave my steamdeck to my girlfriend and I'm waiting next gen.
I don’t think a deck 2 is the goal. I think it’s Steam OS. Third parties will be building better hardware and just throwing Steam OS on it. Your Deck 2 will be made by whoever built the hardware configuration you prefer.
Deckard is probably a means to ensure Steam OS is VR capable as well, which would also liberate PCVR from windows and meta as well.
You're probably right, but I hope not. Those third parties keep focusing on chips poorly optimized for a handheld and ditching touchpads.
I’ll preorder the deckard so fast my shirt will fly off
This is great news but I'm curious what it's going to take for your underwear to fly off
Half Life 3
I’ll preorder Half-Life 3 so fast my dick will fly off
Wake up babe, new lower surgery tech just dropped
Well, you're probably right, but they could also work on two things at a time, it's not like Valve is a single person...
It's been 3 years ???? 😱😱
Dude it feels like a year ago maximum, Jesus.........
It doesn’t hurt that a brand new console, the switch 2, will ensure new AAA releases will still be playable on older mobile hardware. It guarantees that the current deck will still be able to chug along with new releases for another 6 or so years.
Never underestimate the siren song alure of releasing the least optimized UE5 game ever made. Publishers seem to really struggle with that temptation.
I hadn’t thought about that, but you are so correct it hurts.
Building quality products to earn money by providing value to customers, what a novel idea!
The main appeal for the deck to me is the ability to run games well on lower wattages. Sure the other options can run games better than the deck but it seems like you want handheld efficiency/battery life over better performance for less battery then the deck is the main choice.
i'm glad at least one company is doing shit right