A thing that I like is that it has the desktop mode, that is just the Arch Linux-based SteamOS with KDE Plasma. It is mostly useful when downloading things. Another good thing is the configuration menu in games: it is possible to toggle a lot of things in the menu from the brightness to the clock speed of the GPU. SteamOS at launch was riddled with bugs, and when I launched it at first it wasn’t a pleasant experience, but when I installed the updates it got way much better. The most impressive thing for me is that it just works. The Anbernic that I
had before didn’t just work, I had to tweak and configure a lot of things if I wanted to add my own games. This one just works. I think this is a big advantage of the Steam Deck that even the apps I downloaded from the built-in store just work in Steam with the controller. This is partly because the root partition is read-only, thus the system is very hard to brick.
I was very pleasantly surprised when I tried Nintendo Switch emulation. The Linux-based Steam Deck runs Switch games very well. My little brother and sister really like playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on it. Also, a quite surprising thing for me, is how well it could run some more demanding games. On my computer they stutter a lot, but on the Steam Deck they are very playable. There aren’t many things that I don’t like, and even though I bought it used it is a good device.
The Arch Linux-based SteamOS itself is a very interesting thing because the current state of Windows 11 is not that good, so a lot of people might change. For example, a lot of features just stop working after a Windows update. With the release of the SteamOS installer that can run on PC we may see a more widespread adoption of Linux among gamers. Or maybe I’m wrong and this is just another thing that will just go away with time? Do you own a Linux-based Steam Deck or are you planning to buy one? What is your experience with the device and what games are you playing on it? Let me know!
