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Comment by danpalmer | Hacker News Reader

I can't wait. I recently built a gaming PC and installed Windows on it, having only used macOS/Linux since about 2008. People decry the fall in quality of macOS, but damn did using modern Windows make me appreciate macOS more. I'm still now, 6 months later, finding new places I need to disable Edge, new adverts I need to disable, new dark patterns, new subscription trials to dodge. I look forward to the day I can run Steam OS on it and never touch Windows again.

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May I ask why you want to wait for Steam OS? Especially if you have Linux experience already.

Last year I was fed up with Windows, and switched to Linux. Since I had a lot of experience with Linux already, I went with Arch. I thought it was going to be really difficult. Sure, the initial setup was a lot of work, but now I'm extremely happy with it. Much happier than I ever was running Ubuntu, Mint, etc.

But anyway, nowadays I don't even think about that I'm running Linux anymore. I have a pretty big Steam library and play a lot of games. I install a game, I run it, and play it. I haven't found any instance where it doesn't work yet. Granted, I don't play multi-player games nor games with DRM (I'm a patient gamer, most games I play are >2 years old).

As mentioned in another comment, I use a Steam Deck which runs Linux, and I love that, but Steam OS isn't available for non-Decks yet in a fully supported manner.

I have enough programming adjacent hobbies (and I'm a SWE/SRE at work). Windows is requiring too much management, and I don't want to move to a DIY gaming setup on Linux, I'd rather wait for Steam OS to be fully supported, or just buy a console.

And before someone pushes back with Linux being easy to manage, that's not really the point. I use Linux, it requires more sysadmining than my Steam Deck does. Just because I can do it doesn't mean I want to.

But what's the aspect of sys-adminning do you find separate from normal use that SteamOS addresses?

Is it the updates that break your system? There are mature immutable distros like Fedora Kinoite, which I personally used for years without reinstalling. Is it hardware workarounds? The only way to solve that is to use OEM-tested hardware, which in the case of Linux laptops is sparse and still requires some research for desktop. If it's Windows compatibility, Steam itself has supported Proton years before the Deck was released.

The only thing SteamOS provides is an immutable base with preconfigured kiosk UI. Unless your use-case is exactly that, a home console, I don't see any added value in it specifically.

What kind of sysadmining is that? I find that after installing, I spent about as much time on "admining" my Linux installation as I was doing my Windows installation. Which is installing updates once a week.

Nothing is stopping you from switching right away. It's not as hard. You can check whether the games you are interested in are supported on protondb

I know, I have a Steam Deck and enjoy Steam OS on that, but what I want is as close to a console like experience (which is what Windows is not giving me). Right now it seems that DIY installs of Steam OS are not yet as simple as I want for that sort of experience, and I'm not looking for another Linux sysadmin hobby machine, I've got enough of those.

I'm waiting until there's a big download button on a Valve page, and ideally a supported upgrade path from an existing Windows install.

There is nothing Steam OS will give you that isn't available right now.

Use any low maintenance Linux distro and install Steam through flatpak and you got the exact experience you want. There is no difference. You are waiting for something which might never come out so that installing might be 10 minutes faster. That is totally absurd.

Steam OS ist not more maintenance than any other low maintenance distro.

I've used low maintenance Linux distros, and they're not comparable to Steam OS in my experience. It's not about a 10 minute install, it's about the hour here and there to update, to fix, to browse the Arch wiki to figure out why my bluetooth mouse doesn't work today. Linux is a lot better than it was 10+ years ago, but to say it's as low maintenance as a game console (which is what my Steam Deck is to me), is actually absurd.

Exactly. Linux is great but never actually 'low maintenance'. I personally felt like my OS needed frequent attention.

Bazzite is what you’re asking for.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of Bazzite. It does look like it might be the solution. I'm skeptical given my experience with Linux distros, even very well supported ones, but I may give it a go.

Nope, do not fall into the hype, i did this and a lot of games did not work. Driver issues, random crashes not to mention games from big studios straight up do not work and are not supported due to anti-cheat software or another layer of sign-in. Yes, some games work but can also stop working with the next driver/kernel update. I also want to completely stop using Windows but it is still very hard for a gaming PC.

That's why they suggested checking protondb, it really depends on the type of games you play. All the games I play work fine on Linux, but if you want to play Fortnite or League of legends then you're out of luck.

As I have learned from experience, ProtonDb means nothing. You can have slightly different hardware from SteamDeck and the game may not work for you. I am not talking theory, I am talking from real experience using latest hardware and multiple retires with CachyOS, Bazzite etc.

Protondb includes reports from all sorts of hardware.

> anti-cheat software or another layer of sign-in

Kernel level anti-cheat is unethical and dangerous. The sign-ins are mostly spyware.

I’m sick of Microsofts shameless embrace of dark patterns as well but I’m waiting for more game and mod compatibility. I’d love to jump ship though and fully support Valve in their efforts. I’m keeping an eye on it for now.

I also recently built a gaming PC. First I installed Pop!_OS and it worked really well for games. But as I do some work on it, I wanted something with fresh(er) packages, so I installed CachyOS instead. Games still work (Proton is fantastic) and I have access to AUR. Just try installing Linux, gaming on Linux is not bad at all.

I would suggest checking out Bazzite, if you haven't already. Fantastic gaming-focused linux distro, based on Fedora Kinoite.

Steam OS ob Desktops is entirely pointless.

Why do you care about having that particular Arch derivative? Any mainstream distro (except Ubuntu derivatives) are perfectly usable for gaming.

There really is no point in waiting for Valve to drop their own Arch derivative. It won't do anything you can not do right now.

Why aren’t Ubuntu derivatives usable for gaming?

Because Ubuntu is the worst mainstream Linux Distribution available.

still very usable for gaming ;)

I care because I don't need to know that it's an Arch derivative. Someone else cares about that bit for me. I press the on button and I get a list of my games to start playing. OS updates are packaged by someone who just wants my list of games to work.

EU version of windows doesn't have many of these issues.

As some who uses EU Windows for work I can assure you that it is a terrible OS, with a terrible interface and a terrible user experience as well.

What do you dislike about it?

Microsoft is painfully inept at design and it is barely usable for any kind of "power user". Besides that it is noticeably slower than Win 10 and even more full of garbage.

All around it is the worst computing experience I have ever had. KDE easily outclasses Microsoft at interface design and basically any Linux distro has a superior user experience for a tech literate person.

I find osx a bit worse, multiple windows of the same app and fullscreen is particularly atrocious. Both are usable with some 3rd party software though.

Option-click the green traffic light to expand a window without full screening it. The app-centric model is more different than it is bad, and in fact I feel like I’ve lost something with the lack of that logical grouping under Windows and Linux.

I just install rectangle and don't bother with mac's weird window mgmt. I install powertoys on Windows but I wouldn't say its required compared to osx.

Windows by default groups windows of the same app in the task bar, isn't this what you're asking for? I can still access the other windows of the same app by clicking or using keybinds (win+number). On osx if a settings window is behind the main window I need to press some keybind to cycle through windows or go into the menu to get it on top again.

The problem is that in Windows, the taskbar is the only place where there’s any kind of grouping. This greatly limits what you can do with windows belonging to an application.

You can’t hide, minimize, or restore all windows belonging to an app for example, and you can’t move all windows belonging to an app to a different virtual desktop, either, all of which macOS is capable of. The per-app grouping also enables OS-provided tabbing for apps that want it, giving you browser-style tabs in non-browser apps with the ability to merge all windows into a single tabbed window.

The Win+number key shortcut for cycling through app windows is better than nothing, but falls short in that it’s only reasonable to remember the shortcut for apps pinned to your taskbar, since non-pinned apps will shift around, it’s limited 10 apps, and is awkward to use for numbers in the middle. Command-` doesn’t have these issues.

For closing inactive windows, if its corner is peeking out is behind your other windows, you can hold down Option and click the close button to close it without bringing it forward. This isn’t very helpful for users who keep their windows tightly tiled and is more aligned with the style that the Mac desktop has always been developed around, which is to let windows pile up organically and be sized to fit their content rather than keeping every pixel of the screen filled at all times.

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