I’d love for something more casual than steam deck (cheaper) but more powerful than a oven processor.
A mini deck that can play everything from atari to ps3 games or games from 2015.
Somewhere in the 100 to 150 dollar range.
There are some android based handhelds in the 200€ to 350€ range that can play a lot of emulated stuff as well as a solid number of PC indies/older titles through translation layers.
You can also grab a Retroid Pocket 5 and install Rocknix Linux on it if you want to avoid android, but it’ll be more limited when it comes to playing PC games until the modding community figures out how to incorporate valve’s arm translation layer.
I don’t think something like that will ever exist. There is stuff like the R36S (https://r36sgameconsole.com/) that is great for older games up to the PS1. That thing also runs emulationstation and arkOS.
But PS3 emulation (and PS2 to some extent) is fairly taxing - so a 150 bucks device will most likely never be able to provide a good experience. I’m pretty sure that RPCS3 is expecting a RX5000 or a GTX 2000 series card which by itself costs more than 150 bucks, even now lol.
Yeah the retro gaming handheld community has some Linux viable ones with PortMaster but its just not the same as an officially supported mini Steam machine. I know its silly but I want one that is pocket-able instead of the massive SD.
That being said I love the Miyoo Mini Plus and other linux handhelds. They are flipping awesome!
I believe retroid pocket 5 can run Linux but I don’t know what the current price is. The Ayn devices can also run Linux but thet are more expensive.
Valve is working on arm support, would be peak, they dont need the extra cooling
Is anyone positioning themselves besides Valve?
Andoird an iOS, I guess. And maybe you want to count in playstation and Xbox. I don’t thing anyone besides valve bets on windows/Linux/mac
And maybe you want to count in playstation and Xbox.
Xbox runs Windows.
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The regular average joe isn’t going to switch on their own. The average person sees Windows and MacBook as their two options for a laptop.
Also, Linux isn’t a replacement for Windows. It’s its own thing, with its own issues but also advantages.
And most young people don’t have their own computers growing up anymore, it’s all phones and tablets and in the USA apple has won that race.
And most young people don’t have their own computers growing up anymore, it’s all phones and tablets and in the USA apple has won that race.
I agree full on that. Even if Linux ends up getting more marketshare on PC, PC as a whole seems to be getting less and less popular. There are people I know that dont have a PC at the house because their phones can do everything. And I do mean everything. Its wild to me thats the case, cause I use my laptop/desktop 90% of the time im online…but if an app can do it and you have less income, its a viable alternative.
Worldwide, theres more android devices regularly used than Windows (https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/). And in the US, Windows has been going down in the graphs like crazy: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/united-states-of-america/#monthly-200901-202512
Just this year windows has been stable at 30-35% but thats nothing compared to what they were a decade ago. https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/united-states-of-america/#monthly-202501-202512
With the RAM/SSD/compute shortage happening, I can see people:
- Using their existing win 10 machines for WAAAY longer than is good. 2 Switching over to iOS/MAC (cause if its expensive, might as well get something good)
- More and more Android/small linux devices gain traction in niche markets (like retro handhelds is almost exclusively linux)
- Us nerds using Linux with our old machines raging against the system slowly gaining market-share.
Us nerds using Linux with our old machines raging against the system slowly gaining market-share.
I swear the majority of us nerds using Linux have pretty new and powerful machines - sadly that hasn’t ever been my case, though, but in online forums, Lemmy, Reddit, and what have you it feels like people interacting have pretty cool hardware.
I have two ends of that spectrum:
2010 IOmega arm board network drive, loaded with headless Debian for samba, minidlna, and 256MB RAM.
And 2024 laptop with 32GB RAM and Nvidia RTX card for runing Tumbkeweed for gaming.
Both run very well
Its a half joke lol. Linux has an interesting history of both working on cutting edge setups and old stuff collecting dust. We are an eclectic bunch!
If people can function only with a phone, there’s a LOT they aren’t doing.
I use my phone constantly, but trying to get even a rooted Android phone to replace my PC’s? Yea, no.
I’m not doing spreadsheet stuff only on my phone, or documents, or page layout, etc.
That younger folks are heavily mobile centric is a result of pressure by Google/MS, etc to get them used to it. When they’re used to the limitations of mobile it’ll be easier to limit PCs in the same ways.
And business, yea, no, mobile isn’t replacing computers. They’re great adjuncts, but even my laptop screen is sometimes too small - and I’m not someone that needs a large screen although time.
I agree! Its just a trend I was pointing out. God spreadsheets would be a pain and a half on mobile. Yuck!
At work we did have an app take over a workflow. Thats usually what I see at work. A slow trend towards app based workflows, which isnt necessarily a bad thing…as long as the phones are company phones.
Yeah as soon as you try to get to the advanced level of any task then mobile sputters out.
I’m making a personal spreadsheet on my phone, and as soon as i want to do anything even slightly advanced it turns out that that feature either doesn’t exist in the app or is extremely undiscoverable.
Similarly for video and audio editing, you can really do a lot of it on mobile, but as soon as you want to do advanced things then the features either don’t exist or are much slower and harder to accomplish on mobile
“Everything” that they do. Only because they don’t know how efficient browsing with 100 tabs can be.
I am not joking. Comparing products online can’t be efficient with only five tabs.
Pc gaming was a 52 billion dollar industry in 2025.
Each 1% of gamers using Linux is then around 500m… and Linux users trend English speaking, so likely wealthy nations unlike the majority of steam windows users.
Conflating 1% of Linux users also being 1% of revenue is pretty asinine lol
Yeah because I’m sure windows users pay way less than macOS users.
I wonder what the techies pay like me who are using Linux. I think I’m up to about $2000 this year on software alone.
I remember humble bundle stated once that Linux users paid much more than windows and iOS per user. It was a number of years ago. There is something to say about per user $$.
I’m somewhat better than the average Joe but I’m also lazy as hell.
When I handed down my laptop to my cousin, I didn’t install a flavor of Linux. I reseted it back to basic ass windows and called it a day. I’m not interested in tech support either.
When my brother in law bought a gaming PC, I didn’t push him to leave Win 11. That guy just wants to watch YouTube and play CoD.
Linux is cool and all. But let’s face it - people only change to something if they’re in pain. Otherwise they stick to the default.
people only change to something if they’re in pain. Otherwise they stick to the default.
Microsoft is making sure everyone who uses Windows will be.
Linux isn’t a replacement for Windows. It’s its own thing, with its own issues but also advantages.
Linux isn’t a replacement because Linux isn’t an operating system. The “battle” isn’t between Linux and Windows, it’s between Windows and specific distros, like Ubuntu or Fedora. Mainstream Linux will require one of those to up their game when it comes to hardware partnerships and customer/end user support. Doing so will require competing against Microsoft along those same business areas, not just from an engineering perspective.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that will be easy. Microsoft is incompetent at a lot of things (incl business most of the time), but they have unlimited money and leverage, and their relationship with the US govt means they’re unlikely to see any antitrust scrutiny when they do illegal shit to suppress competitors.
Edited: sorry wrong comment
