mimixco (u/mimixco) - Readit News

mimixco commented on Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows pcworld.com/article/36273... · Posted by u/tom7

staticman2 · 4 years ago

I doubt Microsoft would make a handheld that was "open" like the Steam Deck. They'd follow the console business model of only allowing software from the Microsoft store and it would likely not sell very well. It would be Windows Phone all over again.

mimixco · 4 years ago

True. But Nintendo has sold very well from their proprietary handheld device and its store. So they probably think they can. Maybe they can. They already have a great UI in Xbox and a great library of games that will run. They might not need anything else to make it.

mimixco commented on Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows pcworld.com/article/36273... · Posted by u/tom7

staticman2 · 4 years ago

Valve's core audience consists of PC Gamers. Any PC Gamer has to be used to a little tinkering. It comes with using a PC instead of a console.

A Microsoft handheld would run less games that a Steam Deck with Windows because console exclusives like Horizon Zero Dawn are available on Steam but will never be on Xbox. An Xbox device also wouldn't support emulators or someone's existing Steam library.

I don't know to what extent it would be worth it for Microsoft to dabble in that area. PlayStation Vita didn't work out so well for Sony.

mimixco · 4 years ago

Xbox runs Windows so MS could make everything work on a handheld device w/ Windows w/ an Xbox-style UI. Xbox ran Windows from the very beginning. Only the "chrome" is different.

mimixco commented on Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows pcworld.com/article/36273... · Posted by u/tom7

hypertele-Xii · 4 years ago

You're lecturing Valve about top shooters?

mimixco · 4 years ago

Not lecturing anyone. Just citing from the article why that might be a stumbling block. I'm a happy Steam customer. No complaints from me and I have no dog in the fight. I hope Steam Deck is very successful.

mimixco commented on Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows pcworld.com/article/36273... · Posted by u/tom7

staticman2 · 4 years ago

You'd probably dock the Steam Deck if you want to manage files. Though I imagine the touch screen would be usable for simple actions like rebooting to update windows. Putting windows into tablet mode and searching with the on screen keyboard may work better than attempting to click icons or use the desktop in handheld mode.

mimixco · 4 years ago

Yes, all of these workarounds are examples of why it's not a workable solution. Can you imagine if a Nintendo Switch required that much falderal? It wouldn't sell.

The point I'm making is that normal folks will not dock it or goof around with touchscreen compromises in order to run Windows, which they will also have to install themselves! This is the opposite of a smooth, integrated, pick-up-and-play experience.

Since MS makes hardware now, what's to keep them from making a handheld that runs the Xbox version of Windows?

dtagames commented on Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows pcworld.com/article/36273... · Posted by u/tom7

jayd16 · 4 years ago

It has a touchscreen which windows supports. Won't it feel like a surface in tablet mode?

dtagames · 4 years ago

I think you'll be very hard pressed to use a tiny device without a mouse or keyboard effectively in Windows. Even Windows 11 contains numerous small and overlapping dialogs with all kinds of UI affordances. None of this is setup for touch. Yes, theoretically, you could get it to work, but it won't be fun. The pop-up keyboard, for example, will likely cover a big part of whatever dialog box you're typing into. Moving and managing windows with touch is also not fun at all.

Not coincidentally, this is the same reason that MacOS doesn't have touchscreens. Everything about that OS also requires a mouse (or touchpad) and a keyboard. Just adding a touchscreen to a Mac won't do it.

mimixco commented on Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows pcworld.com/article/36273... · Posted by u/tom7

beezischillin · 4 years ago

I don't necessarily know how you could write a smoothly-integrated shell for Windows the same way you can for your own Linux distro and not be constantly occupied with catching up and fixing your stuff from the potential changes from Microsoft just to make all the settings and toggles work properly to change things in the underlying Windows OS and then still potentially get issues from the Windows Update process that's out of your control. Going with Linux, in my opinion, solves having to rely on a platform that is potentially a competitor and therefore could turn hostile if they choose to. Microsoft has the advantage that it controls the whole software stack for the Xbox. It's also a giant uphill battle, but one that potentially benefits everyone due to the open source software behind it.

I'm personally also really happy that this gives incentive for AMD to improve their hardware support on Linux.

mimixco · 4 years ago

For sure! Being tied to MS is probably why they didn't do it. I seem to remember that's why Newell made Steam in the first place, so he wasn't tied to MS.

mimixco commented on Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows pcworld.com/article/36273... · Posted by u/tom7

entropicdrifter · 4 years ago

You can set BPM to launch at boot just by going into Steam -> Settings -> Interface tab -> Enable “Run Steam when my computer starts” and “Start Steam in Big Picture Mode”

mimixco · 4 years ago

Right. I'm talking about the rest of the computer. How will you manage files on a Steam Deck? How will you access Windows Update? Is your "desktop" going to be covered in icons?

Using Windows on Steam Deck (not using Steam on Steam Deck, using the Windows OS) is going to be difficult because the device lacks a mouse and keyboard on which Windows is dependent. Fixing this for Xbox required making an entirely new UI (for the OS, updates, sign-ins, everything) which Steam has not done for the Deck.

mimixco commented on Why Does the Steam Deck Run Linux? Blame Windows pcworld.com/article/36273... · Posted by u/tom7

dharmab · 4 years ago

> Steam managed to create the Windows gaming environment out of whole cloth.

As someone who has been using Steam since the early days, this feels incredibly anachronistic. Steam pioneered digital distribution but Windows as a gaming OS was already well established at that point.

mimixco · 4 years ago

Yes, that's what I meant. Surely home computers have been gaming machines since before Windows and that was also a heavy use case for Windows early on.

What I mean was that Steam simplified the selling, installation, updating, forums, mods, everything else -- the store that Microsoft really wanted to have with Games for Windows that never took off.

mimixco commented on YouTube suspends Rand Paul for seven days mercurynews.com/2021/08/1... · Posted by u/eplanit

dantheman · 4 years ago

You have no right to use someone else's printing press. The government can easily create their own video hosting platform. Just like the NYTimes doesn't need to allow any politician to submit an oped.

mimixco · 4 years ago

We've lost the essence of journalism.

Instead of a venue where multiple options are presented for review by the reader (along with editorial comment, of course), we now have platforms which are nothing but editorial. Not only individual people but individual comments are called out for censorship. This is not how news reporting was done in the past.

It's sad because today, there isn't a single website where a curious individual can review all of the views on a subject (or all of the comments of opposing politicians, for examples) without the platform weighting or simply removing views it doesn't like. This is a loss of objective information and is detrimental to education and intellectual and social advancement.

Instead of journalism, each "platform" now picks and chooses stories and voices that amplify its overlords' goals and nothing more. There is no truth to be delivered, only "my" truth as seen by my platform owners.

It's a sad day.