I’m thinking about switching to SteamOS since it’s built for gaming. Most of my games run fine on Linux Mint, but not all of them. I also heard Valve say “it’s just a PC”, does that mean it’s suitable for software development too?
Finally the discussion I searched for. I bought a steam deck killed steamOS the first day and went full bazzite. But since I used CachyOS on other hardware, I believe it is maybe better. So what? SteamOS, Bazzite or CachyOS?
As others have said, Bazzite is probably a better choice as steamos is pretty much targeting the steam deck. But if you want there is also the HoloISO project that tries to make SteamOS work better on other hardware.
Most of my games run fine on Linux Mint, but not all of them.
You’re not changing much when you’re changing distros, you may have slightly newer or older packages but we’re all running essentially the same Linux Kernel, Proton versions, etc.
You’d probably have less of a headache by trying to diagnose the games that don’t work than swapping OSs blindly and hoping that works.
If you were to swap, I’d look at something Arch-based. This way you’ll have access to the newest versions of everything (for good or ill).
You’re not changing much when you’re changing distros
This needs to be a pinned comment on every distro-hopping post.
For real. It’s basically do you like typing apt, dnf, or pacman more? Do you want stuff ready to go with potentially things you’ll never use, or do you want to do it all yourself? Do you want daily updates or just occasionally updates.
SteamOS is arch based… As a note.
CachyOS is literally what people seem to think steamOS is. Bonus points it’s not atomic.
bazzite is probably the better choice.
you can most likely get all of the same benefits from your existing install, though. just need the right configuration.
you can most likely get all of the same benefits from your existing install,
You can’t get Gamescope, which really makes all the difference in the world, especially in couch/controller gaming.
https://docs.bazzite.gg/Handheld_and_HTPC_edition/Steam_Gaming_Mode/
Bazzite utilizes Steam Gaming Mode by forking ChimeraOS’s
gamescope-sessionand modifying it to fit the needs of our operating system.Bazzite was offered as an alternative to “your existing install”.
Why not just install game scope?
I installed game scope on my Fedora install.
FSR crashes sometimes, so I disabled that. The only real issue OSS that if you use game scope the steam big picture exit menu gets replaced with the steam deck options only, so I had to create a separate “game” to send a kill signal to gamescope.
really? i thought one of the main benefits of gamescope was that it can be nested inside an existing DE?
SteamOS isn’t really avaliable 😅 they said they were gonna do it, but they never did.
Bazzite is basically steamOS for normal pcs- but I would try something like endevaros or other arch distros if u wanna aim for steam.
SteamOS is arch based.
I assume it will come once the steam machine is out in a few months
SteamOS isn’t really avaliable
It is available. Always has been. It’s just a matter of whether it will work on your machine.
^
For those looking to take the leap:
https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/download/?ver=steamdeck
Write image to USB, Boot to USB, press install from inside the live environment.
If you’re using AMD hardware you will have better luck, but it is not guaranteed to work.
Just a warning. Hitting the aforementioned “install” will wipe your machine’s first NVMe drive, and install SteamOS on it. It won’t ask questions.
Think you should edit your comment to remove the misinformation.
gurl what?
SteamOS is made for spesific hardware. hell a couple of years ago you had to try to trick it to even install on smth outside of steamdeck.
You said it isn’t available but it is. So you should edit your comment to not spread misinformation or clarify with a qualifier about hardware.
https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/download/?ver=steamdeck
If it’s only for the games, maybe using steam flatpak can help. So the packages needed for gaming on steam will be up to date (if you have an NVIDIA card it will still be a problem I guess). And install maybe protonup-qt (don’t know if it is still used or replaced, sorry) to manage your proton versions and download the versions needed.
In addition, check protondb website to see if the problem you encounter are known and if it can be solved whether with a different version of proton or a command line in steam launcher exe of the game.
I also heard Valve say “it’s just a PC”, does that mean it’s suitable for software development too?
Yes, I used my Steam Deck for software development briefly. But don’t use the flatpak versions of the IDEs, use the tarballs instead. The flatpak sandbox will cause weird issues when the IDE is trying to access resources outside its sandbox. Also keep everything -as much as possible- in your home directory as intended by SteamOS, don’t try to unlock the read-only filesystem, even though you can, you will lose everything when SteamOS updates.
I still haven’t gotten to give it a full proper go. But Toolbx is designed to assist with development on immutable OSs. Let’s you do regular package installs for all the various Dev tools into a container. Can either install your IDE into the container and run it like a regular app, or use an IDE with built-in Dev Container support.
You want to install SteamOS on your desktop PC? Because thats not officially supported. You can still do it, but you might get unlucky with hardware compatibility. Its primarily intended for use with custom hardware like handhelds or for dedicated gaming machines that you would put in your living room.
If you just want a desktop OS that can be used for productivity, but also goes well with gaming, i would choose something else.
Popular choices are CachyOS or Bazzite if you want to have very up to date software, but personally im just running good old debian even if it does not have the absolute latest drivers.
Unless something is badly configured, there shouldnt be a major difference between any of these distros game performance wise, so its more about what you like in terms of UX and UI.
And heck, I’m on Ubuntu and have no problems. I played BGIII and Cyberpunk 2077, full graphics,no glitches. Currently back on Skyrim with a couple hundred mods using Vortex.
Any Linux distro with Protontricks should be fine.
I’ll echo this, minus the Skyrim part because it’s been years since I touched it. Also, I’m on Debian, not Ubuntu. BGIII, Cyberpunk, Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West, Satisfactory, Doom 2016/Eternal, Diablo III when I’m in a particularly self-loathing mood…anything I throw at it, it’s handled. Haven’t played a single game on Windows in at least 3 years.
Also runs DaVinci Resolve Studio like a beast. That includes peripherals like the Speed Editor and Micro Color Panel, as well as the Blackmagic Intensity 4k capture card in a Thunderbolt enclosure. For my use case, there’s nothing Windows does that Debian can’t, apart from the whole “I paid like $200 for a license for this OS so the can serve me ads and spy on me all the time” thing.
It’s optimized for gaming and you can install a lot of standard Linux apps. But it only works on specific hardware like the Deck and Legion at the moment, the Frame and Machine should be running their versions. A lot of things that come in a standard Distro for PCs have been removed that you might take for granted. I like to think of it as a balance between PC and game console, remember when you could side load Linux onto a PS3, sort of like that.
I use my Deck in desktop mode and connect it to my TV for web browsing, Steamlink to my tower and occasionally use the Libre apps, but I wouldn’t recommend using it as your daily PC. It does exactly feel like a fully fleshed out PC, hard to put a finger on it until you use it.
I use it as my daily pc. Though ive got another for docker and shit so maybe thats enough.
at the end of the day, steamos is still linux which runs steam, just (AFAIK, and on steamdeck) immutable, which is probably not something you want on desktop (or you do, I’m not here to tell you how to computer).
Just the default steam/valve vendor decorations don’t make games run any better, imo.
I’d just keep to a regular distro for a general use pc.
edit: but, yea, I’ve seen people run eg. video editors etc on steamdeck, so it does work as a regular pc too, if you really want to.
The gamescope micro compositor does make games run better. You can obviously run that on others distros as well, but on SteamOS it’s out-of-the-box.
Is SteamOS immutable though? I thought that was just Bazzite.
Yes, SteamOS is an immutable version of Arch (Bazzite is immutable Fedora)
Is SteamOS immutable though? I thought that was just Bazzite.
I don’t know of the version that’ll be available (when ever that happens), but on steamdeck it is.
ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SteamOS#Features (yea yea wikipedia and lack of citations…)
Version 3.0 still utilizes an immutable file system
Is SteamOS even available for desktop PCs yet? I don’t think it is.
From the SteamOS page:
We expect most SteamOS users to get SteamOS preinstalled on a Steam Deck or device that incorporates SteamOS. The only devices officially supported on SteamOS right now are Steam Deck and Legion Go S. We are working on broadening support, and with the recent updates to Steam and SteamOS, compatibility with other AMD powered PC handhelds has been improved.
Until this changes, which I think is in the works, I recommend using some other popular distro.
