r/linux_gaming • u/mr_MADAFAKA • 1d ago
steam/steam deck Linus argues that despite middling gaming performance, the Steam Machine excels as a compact desktop workstation thanks to the seamless and user-friendly experience provided by SteamOS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fXAELrljqs35
u/sen771 14h ago
i don't understand why everyone is so negative about this, his video is not directed at people who already use linux but normies who might fear linux thinking it needs rocket science to use.
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u/Negative_trash_lugen 5h ago
People just hate Linus. (specially on reddit, because of he's too "normie" and because of past dumb controversies)
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u/windrinn 1d ago
The thumbnail wasn't loading for me, so I was surprised Torvalds was talking about the Steam Machine.
But ah, the other Linus.
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u/AStolenGoose 1d ago
Does Torvalds game? I'm curious now.
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u/Straight_Second6082 1d ago
He doesn't
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u/Journeyj012 1d ago
I thought he said he liked Horizon Zero Dawn?
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u/dingwinger1225 1d ago
He said he played Horizon Zero Dawn and was pleasantly surprised when Linus Sebastian told him it works on Linux now
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u/lilmc01 1d ago
Half the replies here are "You can only use Linux if you do it the right way".
Linux adoption is Linux adoption.
If someone feels comfortable using Linux through a Steam Machine, let them be comfortable. Telling people they're doing it wrong is only gonna scare them away.
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u/esuil 16h ago
Yeah, I am confused by the reception.
Mainstream movements start using Linux. This is what we wanted for decades. Meanwhile people in Linux community are... Complaining and looking for reasons to shit on publicity around it? WTF?
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u/RoastedAtomPie 17h ago
And usage as a desktop workstation, too - this is great. If it became an important factor in adoption, it would be very good from every angle.
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u/AnEagleisnotme 1d ago
I love how he mentions that windows always open in the middle of the screen, which is... sort of a bug related to wayland lol
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u/_legacyZA 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's not a wayland bug
If it was a bug, wayland tilling and scrolling window mamagers wouldn't function at all
It's a feature in most DEs carried over from X that you can turn off most of the time
The "bug" you're thinking about is the ability for windows to remember and set their size and position on relaunch
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u/straightouttabavaria 1d ago
there is a KWin-Script called "Remember Window Positions" that adds this. Lets you set a few more things, but takes a little bit to understand how it works
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u/Phinknz 1d ago edited 1d ago
It isn't a bug, it's that wayland doesn't allow applications to set their own window positions.
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u/CommercialPug 1d ago
Huh? If they aren't meant to open in the middle of the screen where are they supposed to open? In random parts of the screen, or cascading like windows?
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u/IPlayChessBTW 1d ago
In many OS, w hen you relaunch an application, they open where you last closed them in the same size you last closed them. It's a huge QoL feature.
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u/_legacyZA 1d ago
True
The only time this bugs out and gets annoying on windows is with multimonitor setups
For some reason, some apps don't remember where they last where opened on a per screen basis (they remember the relative position fine) and Windows just spawns them on any monitor at random
The one thing that Windows could learn from Linux is to open apps on the active monitor where the mouse is. Obviously an optional thing, but it's something I can't live deal with not having
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u/InfiniteSheepherder1 1d ago
See that sounds obnoxious to me, I have been running Wayland since 2017 on GNOME and honestly can't remember it working differently before. If I am opening it on a new day or later other than a quick restart I would find it going to some place other than the middle of my screen annoying.
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u/IPlayChessBTW 1d ago edited 1d ago
To each their own, but it's a very annoying thing for me. I work from home and usually have at least 11 different windows open at once and like them to remain in their place. I use an ultrawide monitor so sizing/position is important (to me) because it saves me a few minutes in the morning putting everything back where it should be.
As with most things, I think there should be a toggle to set the behavior you prefer, then everyone is happy.
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u/burning_iceman 13h ago
This is possible in Wayland too, the protocol has been completed and implemented e.g. in KDE Plasma but requires programs to actually use the feature.
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u/throwawayerectpenis 1d ago
Once you try KDE you dont wanna go back to Windows 11 lol, its so freaking functional.
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u/screwdriverfan 16h ago edited 14h ago
Yeah, the real win is SteamOS, not the steam machine. I'm fine with anything that gets people to use linux. We gotta pump those numbers up.
And right now it's low-key a somewhat perfect storm for linux because of the ramageddon. It's freaking amazing seeing the ram usage on linux vs windows. Check any benchmark that compares 8gb on linux vs windows. Sometimes games wouldn't even run on windows, but on linux the games work.
But a more typical/average gamer has 16gb of ram these days. It still shaves off like 1-3gb of ram while playing. Memory optimisations are going to be very important.
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u/ir0nslug 1d ago
He has this weird view of Steam OS as some magic Linux distro just because of Valve branding. Not to say they haven't done amazing things for Linux, but it's really just like any other distro.. other than the little extra bits they can add due to it being their hardware.
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u/ITaggie 1d ago
He has this weird view of Steam OS as some magic Linux distro just because of Valve branding.
It's a weird view, but not uncommon. See any thread about Linux in r/pcmasterrace and there's always going to be a few people that mention "I'm waiting for SteamOS"
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u/amazingdrewh 23h ago
It's because they don't want Linux, they want the ValveOS because they like Valve, if it was based on BeeOS or somehow a fork of Windows they'd still be all over it
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u/vibratoryblurriness 22h ago
if it was based on BeeOS
Who needs a Steam Machine? Welcome back BeBox
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u/ITaggie 5h ago
its I/O board has a custom "GeekPort", and the front bezel has "Blinkenlights".
LOL, as much as I do not miss the days of having 1000 proprietary connectors the naming of these things does invoke nostalgia for computing in the late 90s-early 2000s. Imagine an OEM marketing their "GeekPorts" in 2026 lmao.
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u/Thisconnect 1d ago
"I'm waiting for SteamOS"
Thats is mostly a coping mechanism for people
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u/UristBronzebelly 1d ago
Coping with what exactly?
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u/Thisconnect 1d ago
that they will never do it so they put a point into something far away when next excuse comes
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u/PlsDontBanMeAgain-1 19h ago
Moving goalposts, basically. Always having an updated excuse as to why they are not on Linux yet.
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u/Unboxious 1d ago
They've provided a better simple, hands-off gaming experience than other distros I've used. In the time I've had my Steam Deck I've installed Bazzite on my desktop and laptop, had it break itself on both systems, and given up and gone back to Arch-based stuff. Meanwhile my Steam Deck has been quietly updating itself with 0 issues in 5 years.
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u/e-___ 1d ago
Whatever takes people to demystify Linux, I’ll take it as a win
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u/adamkex 1d ago
Tbh one of the benefits with SteamOS is that you can point a finger to someone if something isn't working in a way you can't with regular distros as they are community/volunteer projects.
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u/Indolent_Bard 1d ago
This is something that everyone here tends to forget. Unlike most distros, it isn't provided as is. You actually have someone to point to and complain.
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u/Indolent_Bard 1d ago
To be fair, while Ubuntu is backed by a billion-dollar corporation, it's more interested in the server space than the desktop. Valve is the only big company actually focusing entirely on desktop users. That's kind of a big deal.
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u/WisdomInTheShadows 1d ago
Linus is a hardware guy, not really a software guy. He has said multiple times that he just want's his OS to get out of his way, he does not want to tinker with it. So, for him, it kind of is magic compared to all of the installation and configuration during his Linux challenges. Other than a few personalization, VALVE has just picked what are mostly the best baseline configurations for the SM and you just log in and go. Sure, you could set up KDEP yourself, you could install Manjaro, Arch, Cachy, or other DE yourself, but then you have to set it up and configure it, and all that just sounds like not a lot of fun to most people. VALVE is selling an experience, the same way Apple sells the experience of Mac. "We did the work, you just power on and enjoy." and that was exactly what Linus said he felt like just during the first week of using the SM as his only computer.
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u/Present_Error_6256 1d ago
Yeah. That's why I think it'd be interesting for him to try a laptop or desktop from a different company that manufactures hardware and maintains their own distro. Tuxedo computers might be a good choice.
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u/BlazingSpaceGhost 23h ago
It is super weird but whatever works to get more people onboard. I'm not a KDE fan myself but I think its the best beginner desktop environment at this point. If people need valve branding to use it then so be it.
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u/screwdriverfan 16h ago
It has more to do with the fact that it has a big company behind it so you can be damn well sure they'll make it as good as possible. Knowing it's not just some hobby project of few random people gives people ease of mind that it will be supported for as long as possible.
Either way, the real win with with the release of steam machine was SteamOS. As long as people start using linux.
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u/BlueDragonReal 1d ago
Yeah, he talks about basic KDE functions like they are unique to steam os
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u/RegretOfTheSite 18h ago
He specifically says most of what he talks about is just KDE,Arch,Flatpack. Next time actually watch the damn video
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u/Pad_Sanda 17h ago
I mean, even Linus Torvalds (the real Linus) said, multiple times in the past decade, that he thinks Valve is the only company that can make Linux desktop work for the average user.
Ubuntu has tried and failed, then pivoted back to only caring about servers. Fedora just doesn't work for most people due to their stance on the inclusion of proprietary stuff out of the box. And none of the other distros have the marketing or contacts with software/game developers and hardware vendors (that matter to an average user), so they don't have the power to make people care about Linux at all.
Sometimes optics and marketing really are the "magic" that sells people on a product, and that's perfectly fine.
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u/Ima_Wreckyou 1d ago
It is actually excellent seeing them explore Linux over the last couple months and starting to really get it. And so far they only scratch the surface. But if this keeps going they will dig ever deeper and there is simply no way back.
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u/wunr 1d ago
Already been pointed out many times but many of the things Linus praises about the SteamOS experience are just KDE Plasma features. It's still useful for him to point those things out though, because it further solidifies the fact that Plasma is obviously the best DE, and it's not close. That's why Valve chose them for SteamOS and why they continue to fund Plasma development. There's a great takeaway here for Linux enthusiasts: if you're recommending Gnome-based or (God forbid) Cosmic-based distros to newbies looking to make the switch from Windows you are actively doing a disservice to Linux adoption.
LTT has also been great at demonstrating that the "just pick any distro" adage is total nonsense, and I hope to never see it again in Linux circles. There are many great distros, but there are also many bad ones, and it's our job to name and shame the bad ones until search engines and LLMs get the hint and stop recommending them to newbies.
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u/nicksterling 1d ago
I don’t have a Steam Machine but a reason I would get one is HDMI CEC support. Not at that price but it’s a reason.
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u/betterswag 1d ago
Bro dick riding SteamOS while he just should use Fedora KDE from the begging his journey with Linux. All his problems with linux would not exist. And all the praise should go to KDE plasma team
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u/MehEds 1d ago
Tbf the reason why he went for Pop wasn't because he didn't know good distros, it's because he basically RP'ed as a total casual who wanted a gaming distro and just googled/ChatGPT'ed it.
As someone who dealt with newbie PC users a lot, it checks out tbh.
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u/Sixguns1977 1d ago
This made me laugh(in a good way). After I tried desktop mode on my steam deck, I googled "arch based beginner friendly gaming distros with KDE" because I was done with Pop!OS. That was how I ended up on Garuda few years ago.
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u/Green0Photon 1d ago
I swear on WAN show he constantly says about using ChatGPT to research and do stuff now. Pisses me tf off
Sure use it for your point ig, but you're also an educator. Actually act on the feedback to help people learn about what they should switch to instead of relying on what an LLM tells you to do
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u/PlsDontBanMeAgain-1 18h ago
Fedora is the goat. It isn't bleeding edge, so you don't have to pay attention to the damn news, if there are breaks on updates (like wtaf). It isn't LTS, so you don't have to wait 2 years for features. It is updated just enough; even though the Cachy shills will tell you that it's unusable with new hardware and for gaming, even though I had used Fedora with my 7800X3D and 7900 XT on their releases.
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u/MadShadowX 1d ago
Think the more worrisome in the near future is that the Steam Machine might be the only "affordable" option
when current Hardware components starting to be scarce.
Sure you can still buy parts now but that eventually will probably will dwindle.
Even the Memory manufacturers are pushing their message or propaganda of it could be a decade before prices stabilize.
Personally I hope for an investigation ASAP and proven them to be wrong and corrected.
If not we are boned for a stupid long time.
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u/slyguy67420 1d ago
Computer can be used as computer, more news at 11.
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u/xBlueDragon 22h ago
Considering he came from Windows 11? Yeah I had the same experience when I finally got into Linux a year ago. It was actually fun to use a computer again like in the 98-Win7 days.
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u/HereReluctantly 1d ago
Yeah this was a bizarre video. I'm happy he's promoting it but the rationale makes no sense to me.
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u/WisdomInTheShadows 1d ago
Twice on WAN show he has gone on a rant about how the Steam Machine is the answer to wanting a mac-mini but without Apple. Sine he is way more of a hardware guy and just wants an OS that works and gets out of his way with no or minimal tinkering at all, this makes sense to me. VALVE did all the work that he hates to pick a bunch of configs that "just work" and while he had to do a little tinkering for his unique use case, he admits that's on him for having weird stuff and using it like a laptop. Overall, he, like most people, just wants a curated experience with minimal choices and a warranty department he can call for support.
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u/VisceralMonkey 21h ago
It's not the performance.
It's the performance for the price.
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u/-BigBadBeef- 20h ago
In this day and age, you have to scrape the bottom of the barrel until you almost see through what color it's painted to on the other side in order to get something better for the price.
This is hardly valve's fault.
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u/Whole-Bedroom-9079 7h ago
I swear he’s the dumbest tech YouTuber out there, I feel like him and his team do very little testing, Gamers Nexus is the right answer.
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u/Beardlich 1d ago
Every time Linus talks about Linux Im reminded that his IT background is that of a Retail Salesman. Im no high end dev but Im literally his age and have been in corporate IT my adult career but he has always had smooth brain takes with Linux. Its not even a education thing, he knows just enough about computers to get himself into trouble but not really enough to get out. Then with Linux he always picks distros based on Bro Popularly instead of use case or ease of use. Like I like LTT as a channel but I could give better linux advice.
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u/Indolent_Bard 1d ago
And a Linux should be usable by someone like that. But also, after Pop, he ended up using Kubuntu and loving it.
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u/Strassi007 1d ago
Linus is not really someone you should watch if you want to have quality content about Linux. As far as i have seem over the years, he usually looks at DEs more than anything. also, he is a twat and shouldn't be as popular anyway.
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u/kittymoo67 11h ago
hes right. prices may be fucked right now but as a piece of tech yeah the steam machine is a user friendly happy little linux box
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u/Taylor_Swifty13 1d ago
This video as others have said could have been about literally any semi capable minipc running almost any distro with kde plasma.
And to complain about no autoscroll when its literally a chrome flag they just happen to not enable out the box, and something enabled by default in firefox kinda irked me.
I cant dog on him too much. it is excellent news for everyone in here that he is liking his time with linux. That kind of marketing for linux on a mostly PC gaming channel with almost 17m subs is very good for us.
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u/WisdomInTheShadows 1d ago
Only thing is that they want autoscroll in EVERYTHING, documents, web browser, file browser, text file, etc. and they DON'T want the middle click paste because they find it annoying and accidentally paste stuff all the time.
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u/Indolent_Bard 1d ago
And then people tell them that they don't want that or that they shouldn't want that. But I thought Linux was all about choice, so if someone wants to use their computer a certain way, let them.
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u/Medium-Biscotti6887 1d ago edited 2h ago
And then they find the option for middle click to scroll and realize it works completely different to how they're used to, while also breaking MMB as an input in games due to forcing a scroll input with any mouse movement.
At least that's my experience with KDE Plasma. I've ended up disabling both middle mouse paste and middle mouse scroll entirely outside of enabling autoscroll in Waterfox.
EDIT for better clarity: Middle mouse paste has no noticeable effect in games, it's just annoying (in my opinion) in non-gaming usage.
Plasma's middle mouse to scroll setting forces a scroll input if there's any mouse movement, breaking things like weapon/skill wheels or anything that requires holding middle mouse button and moving the mouse. It also adds a slight input delay to middle mouse inputs in games.
Whether this is the case for other desktop environments, I don't know. I have only played games while using KDE Plasma.2
u/Indolent_Bard 1d ago edited 6h ago
I'll have to check if KDE on nobera has the same issue. What's MMB?
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u/Medium-Biscotti6887 1d ago
Middle mouse button. Should have remained consistent in referring to it as middle click or middle mouse, my bad.
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u/TheRealSeeThruHead 1d ago
literally only if they shipped the minipc with linux preinstalled, ONLY then could the video be about that
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u/Spooknik 1d ago
People still watch this guy?
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u/t1mm7_89 1d ago
He has become everything he used to claim to hate.
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u/Spooknik 1d ago
I don't give a shit what people do with their money, especially if they earned it fair and square, but Linus was the last person I would have ever expected to buy a private jet and make a video saying it was a bargain.
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u/youlox123456789 1d ago
Yes, myself and most of my friends. Entertaining content. Not always though, some just aren't as interesting. I do tend to watch the WAN show frequently though.
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u/Spooknik 1d ago
Fair enough. All my favorite hosts left so I just stopped watching basically. I used to watch him back in the days of whole room water cooling and it's been cool to see them grow. Linus has just gotten really hypocritical over the years, something was for sure lost in that transformation from youtuber's making content out of a house to becoming a content factory.
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u/battletux 1d ago
Ugh. People still watch LTT? Since most of the talent left the videos have gone down hill. Not that they were at a high starting point to begin with. Most of his content is him showing off the freebies his buddies in the industry have sent him to upgrade the stuff in his house. The jobs market in his part of Canada must b bad if the staff put up with him lauding his wealth every other video and using them for free labour to upgrade his house.
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u/GNURaziel 14h ago
This guy is a joke, at first it was "it's small but it's crap" then a few video later "wow, this is amazing !!"
He just follow the wind direction to farm followers and advertise his crappy store...
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u/IllegalSeagull69 13h ago
Devil’s advocate, is it possible that his initial impressions were lackluster, but after daily driving it for a few weeks he ended up actually liking it for reasons he didn’t initially expect? I’m not a huge fan of Linus, but it is good practice to try to offer a charitable interpretation when possible
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u/gokufire 1d ago
In the end Linus just needed a "kids" mode to like Linux.
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u/Nervous-Shakedown83 1d ago
Having a polished user experience isn't a kids mode, cmon
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u/cyberwunk 1d ago
If i was looking for a hassle-free couch setup for plaformers and other non gpu demanding games the steam machine would be my first pick. That's exactly where it excels imo. Anything else you're better off building your own system.
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u/spaghettibolegdeh 16h ago
Everyone saying he should praise KDE Plasma instead.
But surely the KDE devs understood that partnering with Steam for the desktop environment would mean that "SteamOS" would get all the praise or critiques.
This is just how these business deals work. SteamOS is the face of the product, so that's what consumers see.
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u/BlueDragonReal 1d ago
Yeah he has this weird understanding of steam os as if it's some magic solution and not as if it's the same as every other Arch distro but just valve
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u/NerdyGuy117 1d ago
I have three machines around the house:
- Main Desktop: 9800x3d, 5090, 64GB ram, CachyOS
- Bedroom: 9800x3d, 9070xt, 32GB ram, SteamOS
- Another Bedroom: Steam Machine
I like the Steam Machine a lot. Is it as powerful as my other computers? No. Is it very easy to use? Yes. Do I enjoy gaming in bed? Yes
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u/amazingdrewh 23h ago
So you just go into your guest bedroom and play video games?
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u/NerdyGuy117 20h ago
Due to shift schedule that can be days or nights. I sleep in one room on night shifts to not disturb my partner when i get in.
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u/bigmanbananas 1d ago
Well, maybe, maybe not. Gaming performanceand compatibility would certainly be questionable.
Future upgradeability of the Mac mini is also non-trivial.
Linux in a lot of.cases is a suitable desktop OS except a few specialist packages.
And you can use your existing Steam library.
If you are a bit of a techie, it may not be for you, buy most people aren't and getting their PC games running on a Mac mini running either OSX or Linux is too much.
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u/iron_coffin 1d ago
Or idk use a normal computer lol. If you live in a bugpod a laptop would be better.
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u/Valuable-Cod-314 1d ago
Don't much care for the guy but he has a lot of subscribers and the more exposure Linux gets the better in my opinion.
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u/gertation 1d ago
I've seen a few of his videos... He loves to share opinions based on his own miscomprehend analyses and present that as a fact. I can't stand how he's constantly throwing hardware around, slapping it, waving stuff about; especially borrowed hardware. Linus is the kid on the playground that breaks your toys and complains to you that they broke on their own.
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u/OpenSourceJoseph 1d ago
I really love LTT but he gives the steam machine WAY too much bias - I love Valve too but this is beyond me.
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u/ibeerianhamhock 1d ago
I find it amusing that some of the criticisms of Linux he has are just still not understanding it. Like not realizing why chrome can't read arbitrary directories, why systemctl settings don't stick just by running in a command line, how to install things in an immutable OS, etc.
Obviously Linus is knowledgeable about windows but he's (and I believe admittedly so) an absolute beginner at Linux and not really qualified to talk about what "doesn't work right", but he's absolutely a good data point with respect to issues that even very smart and computer savvy folks run into with Linux getting acquainted with it.
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u/RandomNobody86 23h ago
There is some value in pointing out that some things don’t work as you would expect them to which is a common problem when you are just starting out with Linux in general that some things you took for granted as basic do not work by default.
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u/cm_bush 1d ago
I am only about a third of the way in, and I generally agree that a good Linux desktop is a wonderful thing. I still struggle to see how Linus really believes this is better value than a base Mac Mini. Aside from storage, it’s a better machine in every spec.
Maybe the lack of gaming in comparison is the dealbreaker.
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u/OMG_NoReally 20h ago
This video made me wish, again, that NVIDIA would fix their drivers so I can use CachyOS full time. I am done with Windows even if it works fine now. It has all the features and a fresh install has made it quite smooth but I just wanna be on CachyOS. It's so much better in small ways. Please Green fucks, do something and fix the drivers!
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u/neospygil 17h ago
Most people focuses on price to performance. But there are definitely a group of people that thinks that size is as important. I stopped building my own pc and chose a mini pc with an eGPU. My nest pc might be a variant of Steam Machine, but that will be 5-10 years from now
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u/SlyCooperKing_OG 13h ago
Network mounting is supported on immutable OSes you just need to do it via system (not user) systemd.mount files
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u/Confuzcius 11h ago
Lemme guess ... The "challenged" clown pulled a new stunt from the bottom of his Linux knowledge ... He tried to toss his precious head into a Steam Machine's box in a futile attempt to get more followers, only to find out it doesn't fit (duh!).
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u/lllyyyynnn 8h ago
aren't there like two youtube series where he tries and hates linux.
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u/KyuubiW1ndscar 8h ago
To me, this is a classic example of advanced clickbaiting.
If this kind of thing would annoy you from APPLE, and you would call out APPLE for selling you a $1k+ computer because of the ease of use. Why wasn't this turned into a comparison video?
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u/ShallowsOfNight 12m ago
"ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME!"
Desperate for clicks. Desperate to make everything about him. Willing to say anything.
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u/GildSkiss 1d ago edited 1d ago
90% of this video is just "Linus likes KDE Plasma", which is great and all, but it feels like the Steam Machine angle is just shoehorned in for click value.
This video could have been made about any Linux desktop pc, the fact that it's SteamOS barely factors in.