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Comment by mhitza | Hacker News Reader

Definitely the number is gonna increase dramatically next year with the Steam deck. Unless it's going to fail in some major way.

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The odd thing to me is how immediately people jumped to "you can install Windows on it", like one would need to. The other thing that was funny is people saying "with Windows, you can run emulators", as if Linux couldn't already do that and with better framerates.

Lots of people (especially younger people who are used to consoles) don't seem to understand what Linux is exactly. To many, PC = Windows and !PC means there is no software for it. Many seem to be under the impression that Linux is just a commandline thing.

Yeah, this is why like another commenter had stated that it's so imperative influencers like Linus Tech Tips distilling how to install and first-time operate GNU/Linux to the casual tech enthusiast and gamer crowds that don't focus on software or free software movements. I'm hopeful to see this be the trend, especially if it goes to non-Ubuntu-based distros strictly to avoid monoculture in the ecosystem.

I have used the popular open source NDS emulator - Citra, and it runs like 15 times faster on Windows compared to Ubuntu (NVidia GPU).

Versus like cemu which you can see people in forums suggest running through WINE to get better FPS even without an working Linux build.

It's Valve hardware, so more likely than not it'll flop and you can pick one up for $50 on the 2022 winter sale. Even then it might be relevant for enough weeks to make devs consider designing for native Linux and be in too deep to back out.

Speaking as someone with a steam link and controller floating around their house.

I wouldn't mind it flopping an having the option to get it for 50 buckaroos :). But that's highly unlikely.

Even if it fails as a portable gaming platform the hardware sounds very decent and I wouldn't expect them to have Apple level margins on those.

I've skipped the link/steam machine because "livingroom entertainment" isn't my thing, but I was pleased with the quality of the Steam controller. Although I would have liked them to be bold with the design and keep just the original prototype (without thumb stick/face buttons) (wouldn't have minded a novelty controller that works well with just a few games).

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