Valve Announces Steam Deck As Portable SteamOS + AMD Powered Portable PC

[AHOY]

Valve has been heavily pushing Wayland/XWayland so it would be quite surprising if they ship this thing with X11. Even if they ship it with X11 and plan to upgrade to Wayland later, this is really setting them up for lot of upgrade pains which happens all the time with such updates (particularly since they are giving you a raw Linux device which they advertize can be tinkered with)

Isn't Valve also funding the KWin fork?

[mdedetrich]

Isn't Valve also funding the KWin fork?

No idea but it wouldn't be surprising. I run KWinFT myself (although on X11 since I still get issues with Wayland) but them shipping KDE with KWinFT + Wayland is definitely likely while also being a hilarious blow to the mutter/gnome crowd.

[Cotyso]

I'm very curious about Proton compatibility, specially with games with anti-cheat, which they claim will work.
Of course Valve has done a lot, but right now it's still so very far from perfect.
Do you guys think it will be improved by the end of the year?
Does Valve have a secret fork they're not showing us?

They did say that it will be ready by the time it's launched, and that they're already working with the anticheat vendors. Anticheat is probably the biggest obstacle Proton has yet to tackle, and I can't imagine they'll launch a console that can't run big titles like Destiny 2 or PUBG, alongside ~25% of the top 1000 games (https://www.protondb.com/)

[Linuxxx]

If they stick with the default kernel config of Arch Linux like they did when SteamOS was still Debian based, then it will definitely be a notably improved gaming experience thanks to having a fully preemptible Linux kernel (PREEMPT).

Now, if Valve also raises the kernel ticks to 1000 Hz instead of sticking with Arch's default of 300 Hz, their handheld should be able to provide the same low-latency gaming experience of Google's Stadia streaming service.
(And no, I'm not joking here and actually mean it:
Say what you will about Stadia, but as long as a crappy internet connection doesn't get in the way, the smoothness of the games running there has been noticed many times already.)
[Stadia fun fact:
"Yakuza - Judgement" is the very first AAA game in history to have a native Linux port in the form of a Stadia version, but never ever getting a port for Windows! Look it up...]

[LeJimster]

I'm very curious about Proton compatibility, specially with games with anti-cheat, which they claim will work.
Of course Valve has done a lot, but right now it's still so very far from perfect.
Do you guys think it will be improved by the end of the year?
Does Valve have a secret fork they're not showing us?

I too was wondering about anti-cheat support. This is the final big hurdle in the way of the majority of Windows games just working on Linux through proton. Exciting times.

[lumks]

Maybe but this would be concerning if its a primary factor because they should pick the DE that is best for the users

For now there is nothing thats better or worse, because there is no data. So going with what they have experience with is the best they can do

…

Valve has been heavily pushing Wayland/XWayland so it would be quite surprising if they ship this thing with X11.

While I have to agree, I also have to say Wayland isnt a thing for gaming yet. The whole "Gaming stack" still sits 100% on X11 only. This might change in a future release and Colabora still works on WineWayland. But until this is merged there is no point in touching anything wayland. So Let's say Steamdock2 will probably be a wayland device. Not this one.

Even if they ship it with X11 and plan to upgrade to Wayland later, this is really setting them up for lot of upgrade pains which happens all the time with such updates (particularly since they are giving you a raw Linux device which they advertize can be tinkered with)

Thats possible. I still don't see it happen, because why.

This I somewhat agree with but TBH its a pretty minor point considering you are going primarily spend almost all of your time in SteamOS on this thing. Hooking it up to a display and using it like a computer is nice but in reality its a gimmik/perk and not the main point of the device

This.^

[HenryM]

I said a few years ago that Valve is probably waiting for a much better AMD "APU" to try making computing hardware again, but I didn't expect something portable. it makes the most sense though, given how hard it is to compete against desktops and major consoles.

interesting that they also switched to Arch+KDE. I did a few years ago and it's still my favorite OS. I always hated Debian, Ubuntu usually just works, but Arch does everything I want.

[schmidtbag]

I'm very intrigued by the custom APU, especially considering it uses DDR5. I wasn't expecting to see any DDR5 APUs for over a year from now; interesting how Valve might be getting one out before AMD releases the rest of the lineup.

[mdedetrich]

For now there is nothing thats better or worse, because there is no data. So going with what they have experience with is the best they can do

Let me put this another way by providing a more clear example. If Valve happens to use tiling window managers (i.e. i3/sway/awesome), this may be fine/great for developers/engineers but absolutely terrible as default DE for users.

Granted this is a pretty extreme example, but point still stands which is that I would expect Valve to pick the DE that is best for their intended demographic, which is gamers/users.

Of course what you said could be a factor, I am merely pointing out that it should be a very minor one and it would be quite concerning if its not.

I'm very intrigued by the custom APU, especially considering it uses DDR5. I wasn't expecting to see any DDR5 APUs for over a year from now; interesting how Valve might be getting one out before AMD releases the rest of the lineup.

Considering they are using an integrated APU, DDR5 will quite a big impact when it comes to graphics performance

[flower]

tbh i really love the hardware and that it's portable.
but... i think it would be better for them if they would have used chrome os / convertible as a base system.
just the term "linux" will probably stop many people to buy it.

i really like it. but the games i would use it for require a keyboard (eg factorio and rimworld) and i just dont like controllers.

i really hope for their success. all linux players would benefit from their success.