Item — HN Reader

1. How many people use Steam Deck or Asus whatever as a desktop OS for running actual productivity applications, doing work, printing and scanning, installing an removing apps, and not just running games curated by Valve?

2. Can you install an average Linux distro on the said two devices and have them work flawlessly? Nope.

1 comments

All I’m saying is that a position “desktop Linux can’t into games” is very very wrong in 2024. I wouldn’t pick desktop Linux for productivity use because I need a laptop, and Linux doesn’t seem to have figured out power management or reliable sleep-to-suspend yet. Sleep power management is Steam Deck’s biggest weakness - a day asleep it will drain the battery.

> All I’m saying is that a position “desktop Linux can’t into games” is very very wrong in 2024.

Ping me when you find a way to play modern online Windows games with a kernel level anticheat.

Oh, and people don't care that Linux can play games from 2015. People are interested in AAA titles and something that OTHER people play. Leave obscure indies to yourself.

Linux runs (emulates!) Windows games just fine, except when it does so horribly or doesn't do at all.

Yeah, great, kudos to Codeweavers (a commercial company) and Valve (a commercial company). The Linux community has done barely anything to make running Windows applications under Linux a reality.

So much for Open Source.

The one 2024 game release I wanted to play but couldn't at release on my Deck was Star Wars: Survivor (although recent reviews says it runs great now). Every other 2024 game I bought worked flawlessly. Maybe kernel anti-cheat is important to you, but I haven't wanted to play any such titles ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

You are welcome to "no true scotsman" and "move the goalposts" about this but I still think it's a silly position to hold that "desktop Linux can't into games".