Especially since one of the best features is basically unmentioned. Turn on your steam deck and before you sign in for the first time, you can boot straight to the desktop. Just wish there was a toggle in Plasma to boot to desktop by default.
For all intents and purposes, you don’t need to log into steam to play games on the steam deck which is honestly shocking where most new hardware basically requires you to agree to sign in to begin using your device.
Looking at you Windows 11
Linux has never required you to sign up with an online account, you can always just make a local account.
SteamDeck is the best Nintendo Switch Online device ever 😉
It is still just another Linux distro which doesn’t seem that locked down. I don’t own a steam deck but I imagine it should be possible to set it boot to desktop with some simple tinkering. In worst case scenario, you might be able to install another distro and get all the tweaks and apps yourself. The toggle can be done with some widgets and script ig.
You can I just wish it was accessible on the GUI.
Just to make sure you noticed, when you’re in “gaming mode”, you can switch to desktop mode easily by going to power menu (either by pressing the power button, or gui power button) and it’ll offer you to switch.
Welcome to Linux. It works great as a media center instead of your ad-ridden smart TV as well.
Wait… Could you put bigscreen on the desktop mode, configure it with all the fixings, plug in a dock to TV and get a USB/bluetooth remote?
… Shit that’s better than a mini ATX HTPC at $600 dollar for dollar since you can run away with it
From what I’ve read, yes.
We both switch years ago on our laptops when Windows 11 became the default windows. Linux Mint ftw
Love Mint, great distro!
Another bonus: Many very good open source games can be added to SteamDeck by:
- Boot to desktop.
- Search the software center.
- Click install.
- Right-click the new game icon, and click “add to Steam”
- Reboot to Steam mode and enjoy.
Some suggestions: Luanti, Empty Epsilon, Free Civ, Tux Racer, most retro emulators.
I might be slightly biased, but I can also recommend OpenMW for Deck.
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
Hotkey the apocalypse game would be interesting on a steam deck. I wonder if anyone has attempted to map keys to the steam deck.
Hotkey the apocalypse game
Heh. CDDA is pretty intense, but I’m a huge fan of how it handles inventory.
The inventory system is great, I tend to find myself going too deep into organizing my stuff, it’s an enjoyable system.
Add anything with sonic in the name. Like SRB2:Persona.
Get a dock and attach it to your TV hours of fun as the family watch you play
I occasionally use it as a streaming device to watch series and movies. Currently going through King of the Hill which is available on archive.org. It’s pretty comfortable with Bluetooth keyboard /mouse.
You can install another distribution on it and make the desktop the default boot option! It’s not how I would use it but it’s a major selling point for me. I’m not stuck with the walled garden, even in the default OS!
It is competent too. I can play DBZ Kakarot and Ace Combat 7 at 1080p.
