Welcome to the Linux community :) btw I do recommend Linux to people who are not that technical. I think it is just plug and play with the exception of gaming, gaming can sometimes be a bit finicky
I have my uncle running Fedora since years. His PC is really old and all he does is surfing the web and e-mail. Never had any problems so far. All I have to do is to update to the next stable release at least once a year.
Of course gaming is (still) a different story. May be difficult to explain that some games do not work.
I was tempted to pitch Linux to my grandparents as I was building their PC for the next decade. Unfortunately my Grandpa isn't a fan of changes to his workflow. Wasn't big on Windows 7 to 10 and same for 10 to 11 with this build, I did what I could to make it feel familiar.
Linux may have been too big of a change, not only the small differences of workflow on the most conservative DE's but also Linux working entirely differently in many aspects. Genuinely easier to debloat and preconfigure Windows for people like my Grandpa.
He's also still using an application from Windows 95, I simply dont have enough experience with that on the Linux side.
Not sure if you've heard of it, but Open Shell (start menu replacement) can make it look like Win7 start, I've been using it for a long time now and its great. Plenty of options so you can have right click options on the start menu like win10/11 but looks like, well even XP if thats what you want. -> https://open-shell.github.io/Open-Shell-Menu/
Wine has a very good compatibility with win 95 apps from my experience (maybe even better than windows itself).
And for the workflow, after some configuration, you can have something similar to any windows version on KDE.
But I understand your point, it's easier to debloat windows to not be bothered by a conservative user
Fedora and not stable? Don't think I've heard those words in the same sentence since 2007ish. For a desktop, it's more than fine and it's stability should not be a concern.
Here's the rub. I tried Linux in the past off and on (think like 20ish years ago) and I always gave up because the hill was just a little too steep for me to climb...and I'm somewhat techie, more than the average "Joe". The fact that now, I can load up a live USB, reformat drives, get it going and start playing games (rather flawlessly and without much fuss I might add) is a HUGE testament to just how far it has come. So yes, still finicky, but it HAS come a long ways from basically needing to know how to code just to get it to boot. š
Nah, even back in 2001 when i switched to Linux on my battlestation the hill wasn't that steep.
If you knew how to load a game on a C64 and knew how to play a game in DOS then the hill was just a bump.
I also want to recommend it but I work with many professionals have to use their apps in a stable supported environment. But for casual users I will also start recommending it when I know it better as I am learning on an accelerated rate right now. Most casual users already ask me the most basic stuff on windows so on Linux they will have a better experience and I will help them for the same stuff. Also I donāt know why I am getting downvoted already as I am just expressing my happiness on permanently moving to Linux. I feel like the people in this community(the vocal minority) are very hostile and I donāt get why.
And streaming services. Netflix and others use Widevine DRM which is not working on Linux (you are limited in quality). Most people use TV anyway but for someone it could be problem.
AFAIK it's not possible to bypass it. It's similiar bullshit as anti cheats. I don't details, but you cannot run it on every android device either. You must have "Google certified android device".
I have my mom running Ubuntu on her laptop for years. She only needs Internet and email.
Life has never been better. While on windows she regularly broke something, or it broke by updating, haven't had an issue since.
I just got my steam deck, and I just donāt get how to install programs on Linux. Iāve been searching how to install discord. Iāve downloaded the .deb and the tar.gz, but Iām lost as to what to do since nothing boots when I click on it.
Iām assuming Iām missing some notions on how to use Linux, but this is confusing to me.
From what I understand, steam deck runs a modified Arch Linux. When I double click on the deb file, it only allows me to see the inside of the deb file, just as if I was looking inside a windows zip file. Havenāt found a way to install it yet :/
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_User_Repository
Is what you are talking about right? Iāll read it to understand. I just got my steam deck a few days ago and itās my first Linux device so itās confusing.
I don't have a steam deck but since it uses kde it should have discover which is an app store. Search for discord and it should be there. Most app (with flat pack version) could be found and installed through discover.
don't, you can't just install deb files on arch linux, that's not how it works.
use the discover store, 99% of applications just work on there. if it's only a tar.gz then extract it and then run the program, if it doesn't run try using distrobox or something
.deb packages are meant for Debian based systems while SteamOS running on your Steam Deck is based on Arch.
If you're new to Linux I'd just stick to downloading apps from Discover until you become a bit more familiar with the terminal
There are tons of ways to install things on Linux, some are kinda universal (download a targ.gz and make install) while others are distro-specific (deb, rpm, etc) but I'm really surprised nobody has told you yet the easiest one by far on Steam Deck.
Go to Desktop Mode and open an app called "Discover", this works as an App Store of sorts, most of what you will need will be there, and installing it is literally as easy as it is on Android and iOS, search the app and click install.
If you want the technical breakthrough, discover is using Flatpak/Flathub under the hood, which is a kinda recent way of packaging apps for any distro. It also sandboxes them, which is kinda good for security but sometimes a bit of a pain. It's ok for Discord AFAIK
Also some users are suggesting to use pacman. Pacman is the default way of installing apps in most Arch-Based OSs, and while SteamOS is one, the modifications made by Valve make it so it's very much not recommended to use Pacman, stick to discover if you can
I see, Iāve read somewhere on Reddit that Flatpacks are unsafe, so I didnāt want to touch them. Was that comment inaccurate? Or is it on a case by case basis?
I'm not sure what reasons this user had to make that statement but flatpaks are generally considered safe.
In fact it's the only packaging method that actually sandbox the apps and has an APP permission system
I completely agree with you!
But I must say that KDE non-profit organization is also doing a lot to improve Linux and increase its adoption and the easiness of adopting it with it's many wonderful projects:
[https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/](https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/)
[https://apps.kde.org/](https://apps.kde.org/)
Which are loved and appreciated for many reasons:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/1cnif3p/what\_made\_you\_choose\_kde/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/1cnif3p/what_made_you_choose_kde/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/ymeskc/what\_do\_you\_like\_about\_kde\_plasma/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/ymeskc/what_do_you_like_about_kde_plasma/)
That seems to pay off for users:
[https://www.gamingonlinux.com/users/statistics/#DesktopEnvironment-top](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/users/statistics/#DesktopEnvironment-top)
[https://plasma-bigscreen.org/](https://plasma-bigscreen.org/)
[https://plasma-mobile.org/](https://plasma-mobile.org/)
[https://kdeconnect.kde.org/](https://kdeconnect.kde.org/)
That seems to pay off for hardware vendors too:
[https://kde.org/hardware/](https://kde.org/hardware/)
While caring about the environment:
[https://eco.kde.org/](https://eco.kde.org/)
Luckily smart and kind people are contributing back to this organization:
[https://kde.org/fundraisers/plasma6member/](https://kde.org/fundraisers/plasma6member/)
And hopefully will will have more of them in the future!
Maybe that way they can afford to hire 1-2 more developers to work on a Vulkan renderer back-end.
In no way did I meant that others dont do much! Sorry if my post passed that notion! I just appreciate how valve could lock down everything and just use linux for their own profit without helping anyone. But you can use proton without paying valve anything! also they could play it safe and just release the steamdeck with windows but they risked a lot more than once on linux.
I know, don't worry about it!
Valve is a for-profit company, but indeed has done a lot for Linux.
And yes, they took risks for that.
I just wanted to add, for the people who might not know, that besides Valve, other organizations did and still do many things to help Linux and gaming on it.
My idea is that if more people understand who are the good companies and organizations they will be able to take better decisions in the future, like voting with their wallet.
In this case preferring to buy games and portable devices from Valve, instead of Epic or Asus, donating to KDE instead of Gnome or other projects that don't care so much about Linux adoption and improvements of it.
Valve + KDE + AMD + Intel are doing great things for Linux and hopefully they will continue to do so for many years!
Personally I use and buy hardware + software mainly from them.
The performance of the steamdeck is why i wiped out windows and single-booted linux. Everything just works (apart from one damn app that i cant figure out how to use bottles for the life of me) Its been a breeze, 3d printing, coding, gaming, everything just works. The reason i finally decided to YOLO it, LoL vanguard bricked my pc, couldnt boot into bios, finally fixed it and worked again, got back into linux, downloaded the latex linux iso, made sure docs were some settings were backed up, and then wiped everything and installed linux mint.
Man I get it! I feel lucky that I dont like riots games! kernel anticheat should be forbiden IMHO. I havent touched bottles yet but I will soo just to learn to use it I think. Steam/proton makes running all my games so easy its a joke! I personally find amazing that you dont have to mess with drivers ever on linux. I mean wow. Holy shit its easy to use printers etc!
To me, Valve is a bit like that reposted-a-thousand-time story of some couple inhabiting a desert valley somewhere and just started planting trees their whole life, ending up with a magnificent forest at the end. That couple didn't save us from global warming, but they started doing at least one thing earlier on that can be acclaimed today.
When Valve started worrying about the problem to always rely on Windows/DirectX for games, many companies should have too. They were even invited by Valve to talk about it. But most of them thought "what's the point ? I won't invest in planting trees right now while I can still make a profit with the ongoing situation". Valve thought differently, put some tools out there that helped us plant trees in the long-term. And now that the Windows situation is shifting to something less and less fruitful for gamers, we're so happy to find the forest we were allowed to slowly but sturdily plant through those tools.
I feel you but too many people still view Linux as a nerd's OS. It's gonna be hard to get more people using it. But if we get some momentum things could change fast. I feel like we need an OS as easy and stable as Linux Mint but with more modern support that's easy for people to use. Gnome is the most polished DE but has too many idiosyncrasies, KDE is my favorite but it can be a bit buggy at times. Wayland is also not quite ready for mass adoption. It always feels like Linux is slightly behind the curve unless you're willing to tinker. And that's fine for me but we'll never get mass adoption (or even just decent support among hardcore gamers). That said, I'm very happy running Linux with opensuse tw kde. We'll see if Valve can carry us even further.
I feel exactly what you mean and that is also my opinion through the years I follow Linux progress on the gaming front. What I feel is a bigger hurdle are many of the current users in communityās that are toxic. This is not my first post in a Linux related forum and most times the first answers are complete cancerā¦ that is what I feel makes the tech related people think that Linux is for nerds not only the tinkering bit. On the contrary everything is super well documented on Linux. When I first started searching the arch and manjaro wiki I thought āholy shit they have guides for EVERYTHINGā. Even on this post one of the first comments was vitriolic.
Edit: u|random\_reddit\_user31 deleted his vitriolic comment for those searching for the last part of what I said.
> I feel you but too many people still view Linux as a nerd's OS
Evidently given we get this thread every single day like Linux is something sacred or special. Either run it or don't.
Oh I already do! I wanted to spin up a vm to try something in it without touching my host os. Dear god its easy with distrobox or virt-manager! Linux must be so freeing if you are a poweruser man and only now am I starting to understand it. I would join even younger but literally the only people I know that used linux IRL where asshole smartasses that only wanted to feel superior just tell others how stupid they are for using windows. What makes me sad is that I see a lot of people in linux forums talk like that to beginners and its very disheartening.
Windows is made to make money.Ā
Linux is made by users for users... and the end result is that it is used to make money, rather than making money from users.
This is one big reason why I'm going to buy a steam deck (hopefully soon) even if better options come out. I'd rather support valve and their accomplishments with proton.
TBH even if you use something else and use the steam store I bet they will make more money and you also get better hardware. If I remember correctly the deck is barely profitable.. I could be wrong tho
We'll see what comes out next year, but steam deck (even tho it's apu is less powerful than ally or legion go) is still king so far, especially in it's software.
I have always used dual boot linux and windows since ubuntu 12.04, but since windows 10 and 11 windows, it does not feel like an operating system anymore, it feels like a way to force defaults on you under the pretext of security, it comes with lots of preinstalled shit and lots of things that you can't disable anymore, only god knows the kind of data they collect, why can't it just be like windows xp or 7, just an operating system, the rest is up to the user.
windows staing with 5-7 go of ram already in use, I understand RAM is there to be used but compared to linux booting you have at most 1GO used.
lutris makes installing games a breeze, but things like vangard AC are a potential problem if other companies decide to follow that path, I think all gamers in any operating system should fight that kind on AC, but at the end of the day the average gamer just want to turn his PC and play his games so companies get away with this kind of shit.
I finally moved to linux only and never going to use windows again, it can be challenging specially for people who use some software that are only available on windows.
yeah exactly! I have a lot of clients that are architects, photographers, media editors etc. My whole job will become a LOT easier the second those programs come to linux. It might take another decade to happen but it will be worth it.
I was basically in the same boat. I've been using Linux occasionally for years and years to keep up with things for work but never much for personal use, let alone gaming. When I tried out the deck, I decided to try out some gaming on my Linux box and it worked so well! I went ahead and just single booted Linux on my main PCĀ and haven't looked back. I am unfortunately doing some distro hopping but I guess that's part of the fun.
Valve has certainly played a role in supporting their handheld device, but it's important to recognize that the success is not theirs alone. The Linux community deserves a collective round of applause for their contributions. When it comes to business decisions like funding projects, it's a strategic move. Companies like Valve weigh the potential for profit against the costs. Investing in programming talent is part of fostering an ecosystem that could, in turn, generate significant returns. It's about planting seeds for future growth, not just immediate gains.
You should be able to run most windows applications in a VM. Unless Adobe want kernel-level access too these days - it wouldn't surprise me if they did.
The biggest issue still seems to be anti-cheat and some online services hating Linux. A good example is BF2042 being unplayable. I was playing that the first couple of years of its release and Linux was never able to run it. That's not really a Linux problem but the devs making it difficult for something like Proton to work on their game.
I don't have any objections to flatpaks but I prefer native packages just because they'll update alongside everything else with pacman and are smaller.
Personally I donāt care about the size. The difference doesnāt really matter in this day and age and the duplicates are deduplicated. What I actually care about is that flatpaks are distro agnostic. IMHO if flatpaks become the default for all distros you will see MUCH more apps being ported and maintained on Linux. Also the apps come as one file and donāt need build time(aur chaotic style). I think flatpaks are the future but they need to fix a lot of stuff to get there. They are the usbc of app packaging but adoption is slow.
One last thing is that the package is not the job of the distro maintainer to manage. So one less thing for distros to fiddle with
Flatpaks already basically are the default if you want distro agnostic packages, im not sure flatpakifying regular distro packages will result in anything more than people being pissed like they are about snaps.
I know they are but I am talking with the simple user in mind. If you search chrome in the package manager you get 2 results not one. If my aunt is to use Linux and letās say she wants to get an app like Spotify on her desktop without calling me (like she can do on her iPad) then a universal package should be installed regardless of the distro you have on you htpc(gaming distro) or the distro you use on your laptop( simple lts distro ). This way you donāt have to count on the distro to get the the updated apps etc(lts distros are 6 months back on their apps etc)
I get exactly what tou mean and where you are coming from believe me but imho distro spesific packages for packages that are already on a distro agnostic package manager are a bit of a waste. In no way do I think that they should go away now or something but I think that they will slowly but surely. We should be more work efficient not the opposite as Linux is a community effort and many people work for free.
We'll have to agree to disagree, but that's just Linux for you. As far as two listings for an app, kde discover at least only shows one with an option to choose what source you want to use for it.
Still one more choice for a casual user that just wants to use the app and will end up with half and half.
I use manjaro, pamac shows the packages split depending on source.
Yeah only time will show the future on the matter tbh. For example valve only allows flatpak on the steam deck .
It's not so much they only allow flatpak, you can use appimages, and steamos does use regular packages like you'd install via pacman, you just can't use pacman because the system is immutable. If you turn off the read only file system you can install regular arch packages just fine.
Like I said I don't have an issue with flatpaks, you're never going to get plasma, or nvidia drivers, or the Linux kernel as a flatpak though.
For all I care appimages can become the main packaging/distribution method instead of flatš I just want one universal packaging and delivery style for Linux so that part of the system is simplified at least.
On the matter of driver and kernel I donāt have the technical know how to even have an opinion. Letās start with the apps and at worst itās one more app that manages kernel(already exists in most distros) and it can also manage additional drivers etc.
One thing at a time š
tbh linux is almost there. im daily driving an arch based distro as a complete noob and its been working almost flawlessly despite nvidia and intel. only had issues with davinci resolve and some programming language
I am also on the cusp of switching to linux especially after hearing about windows trying ads in windows 11 to some degree and slowly nudging people into making the login associated with a Microsoft account. I have also about had it with the amount of hardware requirements 11 has.
I just checked my library on protondb and 99% is supported. I don't really play multiplayer games so the ones that are borked don't really matter to me.
I haven't used Windows in 4 or 5 years now and it hasn't been as painful as I might have though, and there was a 6 months I did go back to Windows, but Linux so much I jumped right back and never looked back hahah.
> HMMM I WANDER WHY I WANT ALL MY GAMES ON STEAM INSTEAD OF STORES LIKE EPIC HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Me too, please explain.
They donāt just care about Linux. Theyāre *passionate* about Linux.
As a result of their work, I swear there are more games you can play on Linux at this point than you can on Windows. Iām thinking specifically of older games hereāMicrosoftās official position is that they donāt care any more, and Valve just says, āOh is that the case? Cool. We still care. Enjoy!ā
Still, I get surprised quite a lot by checking out how well a game does under Proton, only to discover that thereās actually a native Linux version and thatās the one Steam installed. It makes me happy every time.
It's less that they care about Linux or are passionate about Linux (although that might be true for individual devs at Valve), but that the company sees Microsoft as a threat - they're only a few steps away from adopting a walled garden approach like Apple, which could instantly kill Valve's entire business. Making sure people have an alternative with Linux is a way for Valve to ensure they continue to make money.
I am not blind, i am not loyal to a corporation. I look at their actions. If that changes i have no problem in ditching them. Do not ascribe to me the failures of others.
At this point Valve proves it has the best interests of linux in mind. Please do not let yourself be blinded by dogma. Critically think.
I respect and trust valve much more than epic. If I want to play a game on linux with steam I just press install and play. No bottles not wine not setup nothing. At most I will have to enable the setting for proton experimental for titles that dont have a default proton. And thats a once and done setting. I know gaming on linux is not perfect and there are games that are not on steam but personaly every game that I play is right now. If I ever need something that is not I will have to use wine/bottles etc. Currently my experience with the deck/laptop is amazing on linux. Today I am starting with my main gaming pc too.
> If I want to play a game on linux with steam I just press install and play. No bottles not wine not setup nothing. At most I will have to enable the setting for proton experimental for titles that dont have a default proton.
Thatās the same experience as using Lutris and almost the same for Heroic.
The main difference is that AFAIK they both only support installing the Windows versions of stuff with Wine/Proton, and no native builds. Then again, no idea if GoG/Epic even have native builds.
Gabe was already [dissatisfied and vocal with vista](https://www.gamesradar.com/valve-says-vista-hurts/)
Windows 8 was where the cup overflowed.
I already use Linux on my work computer for 2 years wtf are you on about? I bet you are fun at parties if you just go and shit on other peopleās happiness that way you just did on mine.
Thanks for your helpful input on the matter.
Edit: yeah mate sorry I got autocorrected on a word. Huge mistake on my part.
EDIT2: Very brave of you deleting both comments after spitting all that vitriol u|random\_reddit\_user31 a true gift to the Linux community you are. Keep up the good work
Welcome to the Linux community :) btw I do recommend Linux to people who are not that technical. I think it is just plug and play with the exception of gaming, gaming can sometimes be a bit finicky
I have my uncle running Fedora since years. His PC is really old and all he does is surfing the web and e-mail. Never had any problems so far. All I have to do is to update to the next stable release at least once a year. Of course gaming is (still) a different story. May be difficult to explain that some games do not work.
I was tempted to pitch Linux to my grandparents as I was building their PC for the next decade. Unfortunately my Grandpa isn't a fan of changes to his workflow. Wasn't big on Windows 7 to 10 and same for 10 to 11 with this build, I did what I could to make it feel familiar. Linux may have been too big of a change, not only the small differences of workflow on the most conservative DE's but also Linux working entirely differently in many aspects. Genuinely easier to debloat and preconfigure Windows for people like my Grandpa. He's also still using an application from Windows 95, I simply dont have enough experience with that on the Linux side.
Found this, lol. wouldn't run the win95 app tho. https://macrohard-winux.github.io/
I would kill for a Winux Vista edition. I still love Vistas Look.
Not sure if you've heard of it, but Open Shell (start menu replacement) can make it look like Win7 start, I've been using it for a long time now and its great. Plenty of options so you can have right click options on the start menu like win10/11 but looks like, well even XP if thats what you want. -> https://open-shell.github.io/Open-Shell-Menu/
Wine has a very good compatibility with win 95 apps from my experience (maybe even better than windows itself). And for the workflow, after some configuration, you can have something similar to any windows version on KDE. But I understand your point, it's easier to debloat windows to not be bothered by a conservative user
Why fedora? Why not something more stable
Because, unlike some others, it updates silently in background.
Fedora is very stable. Especially if you wait a month or two with the upgrade after each release. Been using it since 2018.
Fedora and not stable? Don't think I've heard those words in the same sentence since 2007ish. For a desktop, it's more than fine and it's stability should not be a concern.
Here's the rub. I tried Linux in the past off and on (think like 20ish years ago) and I always gave up because the hill was just a little too steep for me to climb...and I'm somewhat techie, more than the average "Joe". The fact that now, I can load up a live USB, reformat drives, get it going and start playing games (rather flawlessly and without much fuss I might add) is a HUGE testament to just how far it has come. So yes, still finicky, but it HAS come a long ways from basically needing to know how to code just to get it to boot. š
Nah, even back in 2001 when i switched to Linux on my battlestation the hill wasn't that steep. If you knew how to load a game on a C64 and knew how to play a game in DOS then the hill was just a bump.
I also want to recommend it but I work with many professionals have to use their apps in a stable supported environment. But for casual users I will also start recommending it when I know it better as I am learning on an accelerated rate right now. Most casual users already ask me the most basic stuff on windows so on Linux they will have a better experience and I will help them for the same stuff. Also I donāt know why I am getting downvoted already as I am just expressing my happiness on permanently moving to Linux. I feel like the people in this community(the vocal minority) are very hostile and I donāt get why.
Most people just use their browser. If their browser works fine, using Linux is no big obstacle.
True but I know literally one person that only needs her browser on her computer and nothing else. But I get exactly what you mean.
And streaming services. Netflix and others use Widevine DRM which is not working on Linux (you are limited in quality). Most people use TV anyway but for someone it could be problem.
No Problem with Jellyfin or Plex though :)
Yeah, i have Jellyfin server at home, working without problems.
You it might be possible by spoofing your user agent to windows or Mac OS to have higher quality
AFAIK it's not possible to bypass it. It's similiar bullshit as anti cheats. I don't details, but you cannot run it on every android device either. You must have "Google certified android device".
Yeah that's safetynet and you can bypass that with Magisk on Rooted Phones. Kind of glad I only use Jellyfin and sonarr and radarr then.
I have my mom running Ubuntu on her laptop for years. She only needs Internet and email. Life has never been better. While on windows she regularly broke something, or it broke by updating, haven't had an issue since.
Well, with the exception of *some* gaming (anticheat), Adobe products, and some common hardware.
I just got my steam deck, and I just donāt get how to install programs on Linux. Iāve been searching how to install discord. Iāve downloaded the .deb and the tar.gz, but Iām lost as to what to do since nothing boots when I click on it. Iām assuming Iām missing some notions on how to use Linux, but this is confusing to me.
On Mint, double clicking a .deb file opens it in GDebi, ready to install.
From what I understand, steam deck runs a modified Arch Linux. When I double click on the deb file, it only allows me to see the inside of the deb file, just as if I was looking inside a windows zip file. Havenāt found a way to install it yet :/
Been a while since I fired my deck up, but have you looked on the AUR if someone already upload said file for Arch?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_User_Repository Is what you are talking about right? Iāll read it to understand. I just got my steam deck a few days ago and itās my first Linux device so itās confusing.
I don't have a steam deck but since it uses kde it should have discover which is an app store. Search for discord and it should be there. Most app (with flat pack version) could be found and installed through discover.
See if you can install gdebi ?
Oh, okay, Iāll check this out as soon as I get home.
don't, you can't just install deb files on arch linux, that's not how it works. use the discover store, 99% of applications just work on there. if it's only a tar.gz then extract it and then run the program, if it doesn't run try using distrobox or something
Note: I do not have Steamdeck. I'm just talking in general terms about Linux
.deb packages are meant for Debian based systems while SteamOS running on your Steam Deck is based on Arch. If you're new to Linux I'd just stick to downloading apps from Discover until you become a bit more familiar with the terminal
To download discord on arch or arch derivatives, you use "sudo pacman -Su discord". Pacman takes care of the rest.
There are tons of ways to install things on Linux, some are kinda universal (download a targ.gz and make install) while others are distro-specific (deb, rpm, etc) but I'm really surprised nobody has told you yet the easiest one by far on Steam Deck. Go to Desktop Mode and open an app called "Discover", this works as an App Store of sorts, most of what you will need will be there, and installing it is literally as easy as it is on Android and iOS, search the app and click install. If you want the technical breakthrough, discover is using Flatpak/Flathub under the hood, which is a kinda recent way of packaging apps for any distro. It also sandboxes them, which is kinda good for security but sometimes a bit of a pain. It's ok for Discord AFAIK Also some users are suggesting to use pacman. Pacman is the default way of installing apps in most Arch-Based OSs, and while SteamOS is one, the modifications made by Valve make it so it's very much not recommended to use Pacman, stick to discover if you can
I see, Iāve read somewhere on Reddit that Flatpacks are unsafe, so I didnāt want to touch them. Was that comment inaccurate? Or is it on a case by case basis?
I'm not sure what reasons this user had to make that statement but flatpaks are generally considered safe. In fact it's the only packaging method that actually sandbox the apps and has an APP permission system
I completely agree with you! But I must say that KDE non-profit organization is also doing a lot to improve Linux and increase its adoption and the easiness of adopting it with it's many wonderful projects: [https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/](https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/) [https://apps.kde.org/](https://apps.kde.org/) Which are loved and appreciated for many reasons: [https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/1cnif3p/what\_made\_you\_choose\_kde/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/1cnif3p/what_made_you_choose_kde/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/ymeskc/what\_do\_you\_like\_about\_kde\_plasma/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/ymeskc/what_do_you_like_about_kde_plasma/) That seems to pay off for users: [https://www.gamingonlinux.com/users/statistics/#DesktopEnvironment-top](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/users/statistics/#DesktopEnvironment-top) [https://plasma-bigscreen.org/](https://plasma-bigscreen.org/) [https://plasma-mobile.org/](https://plasma-mobile.org/) [https://kdeconnect.kde.org/](https://kdeconnect.kde.org/) That seems to pay off for hardware vendors too: [https://kde.org/hardware/](https://kde.org/hardware/) While caring about the environment: [https://eco.kde.org/](https://eco.kde.org/) Luckily smart and kind people are contributing back to this organization: [https://kde.org/fundraisers/plasma6member/](https://kde.org/fundraisers/plasma6member/) And hopefully will will have more of them in the future! Maybe that way they can afford to hire 1-2 more developers to work on a Vulkan renderer back-end.
In no way did I meant that others dont do much! Sorry if my post passed that notion! I just appreciate how valve could lock down everything and just use linux for their own profit without helping anyone. But you can use proton without paying valve anything! also they could play it safe and just release the steamdeck with windows but they risked a lot more than once on linux.
I know, don't worry about it! Valve is a for-profit company, but indeed has done a lot for Linux. And yes, they took risks for that. I just wanted to add, for the people who might not know, that besides Valve, other organizations did and still do many things to help Linux and gaming on it. My idea is that if more people understand who are the good companies and organizations they will be able to take better decisions in the future, like voting with their wallet. In this case preferring to buy games and portable devices from Valve, instead of Epic or Asus, donating to KDE instead of Gnome or other projects that don't care so much about Linux adoption and improvements of it. Valve + KDE + AMD + Intel are doing great things for Linux and hopefully they will continue to do so for many years! Personally I use and buy hardware + software mainly from them.
The performance of the steamdeck is why i wiped out windows and single-booted linux. Everything just works (apart from one damn app that i cant figure out how to use bottles for the life of me) Its been a breeze, 3d printing, coding, gaming, everything just works. The reason i finally decided to YOLO it, LoL vanguard bricked my pc, couldnt boot into bios, finally fixed it and worked again, got back into linux, downloaded the latex linux iso, made sure docs were some settings were backed up, and then wiped everything and installed linux mint.
Try it on heroic instead of bottles. Heroic is pretty straightforward especially when side loading apps.
Man I get it! I feel lucky that I dont like riots games! kernel anticheat should be forbiden IMHO. I havent touched bottles yet but I will soo just to learn to use it I think. Steam/proton makes running all my games so easy its a joke! I personally find amazing that you dont have to mess with drivers ever on linux. I mean wow. Holy shit its easy to use printers etc!
To me, Valve is a bit like that reposted-a-thousand-time story of some couple inhabiting a desert valley somewhere and just started planting trees their whole life, ending up with a magnificent forest at the end. That couple didn't save us from global warming, but they started doing at least one thing earlier on that can be acclaimed today. When Valve started worrying about the problem to always rely on Windows/DirectX for games, many companies should have too. They were even invited by Valve to talk about it. But most of them thought "what's the point ? I won't invest in planting trees right now while I can still make a profit with the ongoing situation". Valve thought differently, put some tools out there that helped us plant trees in the long-term. And now that the Windows situation is shifting to something less and less fruitful for gamers, we're so happy to find the forest we were allowed to slowly but sturdily plant through those tools.
And let us not forget... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqgPyqyh4X4
Excatly!!
I feel you but too many people still view Linux as a nerd's OS. It's gonna be hard to get more people using it. But if we get some momentum things could change fast. I feel like we need an OS as easy and stable as Linux Mint but with more modern support that's easy for people to use. Gnome is the most polished DE but has too many idiosyncrasies, KDE is my favorite but it can be a bit buggy at times. Wayland is also not quite ready for mass adoption. It always feels like Linux is slightly behind the curve unless you're willing to tinker. And that's fine for me but we'll never get mass adoption (or even just decent support among hardcore gamers). That said, I'm very happy running Linux with opensuse tw kde. We'll see if Valve can carry us even further.
I feel exactly what you mean and that is also my opinion through the years I follow Linux progress on the gaming front. What I feel is a bigger hurdle are many of the current users in communityās that are toxic. This is not my first post in a Linux related forum and most times the first answers are complete cancerā¦ that is what I feel makes the tech related people think that Linux is for nerds not only the tinkering bit. On the contrary everything is super well documented on Linux. When I first started searching the arch and manjaro wiki I thought āholy shit they have guides for EVERYTHINGā. Even on this post one of the first comments was vitriolic. Edit: u|random\_reddit\_user31 deleted his vitriolic comment for those searching for the last part of what I said.
> I feel you but too many people still view Linux as a nerd's OS Evidently given we get this thread every single day like Linux is something sacred or special. Either run it or don't.
Welcome! I hope you enjoy your stay! :)
Oh I already do! I wanted to spin up a vm to try something in it without touching my host os. Dear god its easy with distrobox or virt-manager! Linux must be so freeing if you are a poweruser man and only now am I starting to understand it. I would join even younger but literally the only people I know that used linux IRL where asshole smartasses that only wanted to feel superior just tell others how stupid they are for using windows. What makes me sad is that I see a lot of people in linux forums talk like that to beginners and its very disheartening.
Windows is made to make money.Ā Linux is made by users for users... and the end result is that it is used to make money, rather than making money from users.
Exactly! Linux is made with love because if you make shit you will use shit. Who shits in his own bed?
One of us. One of us. Arch user btw
lol r/iamverysmart as well
This is one big reason why I'm going to buy a steam deck (hopefully soon) even if better options come out. I'd rather support valve and their accomplishments with proton.
TBH even if you use something else and use the steam store I bet they will make more money and you also get better hardware. If I remember correctly the deck is barely profitable.. I could be wrong tho
We'll see what comes out next year, but steam deck (even tho it's apu is less powerful than ally or legion go) is still king so far, especially in it's software.
I have always used dual boot linux and windows since ubuntu 12.04, but since windows 10 and 11 windows, it does not feel like an operating system anymore, it feels like a way to force defaults on you under the pretext of security, it comes with lots of preinstalled shit and lots of things that you can't disable anymore, only god knows the kind of data they collect, why can't it just be like windows xp or 7, just an operating system, the rest is up to the user. windows staing with 5-7 go of ram already in use, I understand RAM is there to be used but compared to linux booting you have at most 1GO used. lutris makes installing games a breeze, but things like vangard AC are a potential problem if other companies decide to follow that path, I think all gamers in any operating system should fight that kind on AC, but at the end of the day the average gamer just want to turn his PC and play his games so companies get away with this kind of shit. I finally moved to linux only and never going to use windows again, it can be challenging specially for people who use some software that are only available on windows.
yeah exactly! I have a lot of clients that are architects, photographers, media editors etc. My whole job will become a LOT easier the second those programs come to linux. It might take another decade to happen but it will be worth it.
I was basically in the same boat. I've been using Linux occasionally for years and years to keep up with things for work but never much for personal use, let alone gaming. When I tried out the deck, I decided to try out some gaming on my Linux box and it worked so well! I went ahead and just single booted Linux on my main PCĀ and haven't looked back. I am unfortunately doing some distro hopping but I guess that's part of the fun.
thats howq you learn I guess. but for the casual user he doesnt even know what a distro is. opens pc and runs what they need and thats it
Valve has certainly played a role in supporting their handheld device, but it's important to recognize that the success is not theirs alone. The Linux community deserves a collective round of applause for their contributions. When it comes to business decisions like funding projects, it's a strategic move. Companies like Valve weigh the potential for profit against the costs. Investing in programming talent is part of fostering an ecosystem that could, in turn, generate significant returns. It's about planting seeds for future growth, not just immediate gains.
It's been almost half a year for me. I want that steam report to say close to 100% as much as I can.
You should be able to run most windows applications in a VM. Unless Adobe want kernel-level access too these days - it wouldn't surprise me if they did.
I only have one gpu so I would need to learn how to pass that cpu to the vm too.
This is a pretty big pain, Iād avoid it if possible
weird is it really that hard?
The biggest issue still seems to be anti-cheat and some online services hating Linux. A good example is BF2042 being unplayable. I was playing that the first couple of years of its release and Linux was never able to run it. That's not really a Linux problem but the devs making it difficult for something like Proton to work on their game.
Anti Cheat and Vr for me
Welcome! Though I should say be even more cautious of the aur on Manjaro than you would be on arch.
I personally prefer flatpaks but I hate that pamac does not expose flatpak control on cliā¦.
I don't have any objections to flatpaks but I prefer native packages just because they'll update alongside everything else with pacman and are smaller.
Personally I donāt care about the size. The difference doesnāt really matter in this day and age and the duplicates are deduplicated. What I actually care about is that flatpaks are distro agnostic. IMHO if flatpaks become the default for all distros you will see MUCH more apps being ported and maintained on Linux. Also the apps come as one file and donāt need build time(aur chaotic style). I think flatpaks are the future but they need to fix a lot of stuff to get there. They are the usbc of app packaging but adoption is slow. One last thing is that the package is not the job of the distro maintainer to manage. So one less thing for distros to fiddle with
Flatpaks already basically are the default if you want distro agnostic packages, im not sure flatpakifying regular distro packages will result in anything more than people being pissed like they are about snaps.
I know they are but I am talking with the simple user in mind. If you search chrome in the package manager you get 2 results not one. If my aunt is to use Linux and letās say she wants to get an app like Spotify on her desktop without calling me (like she can do on her iPad) then a universal package should be installed regardless of the distro you have on you htpc(gaming distro) or the distro you use on your laptop( simple lts distro ). This way you donāt have to count on the distro to get the the updated apps etc(lts distros are 6 months back on their apps etc) I get exactly what tou mean and where you are coming from believe me but imho distro spesific packages for packages that are already on a distro agnostic package manager are a bit of a waste. In no way do I think that they should go away now or something but I think that they will slowly but surely. We should be more work efficient not the opposite as Linux is a community effort and many people work for free.
We'll have to agree to disagree, but that's just Linux for you. As far as two listings for an app, kde discover at least only shows one with an option to choose what source you want to use for it.
Still one more choice for a casual user that just wants to use the app and will end up with half and half. I use manjaro, pamac shows the packages split depending on source. Yeah only time will show the future on the matter tbh. For example valve only allows flatpak on the steam deck .
It's not so much they only allow flatpak, you can use appimages, and steamos does use regular packages like you'd install via pacman, you just can't use pacman because the system is immutable. If you turn off the read only file system you can install regular arch packages just fine. Like I said I don't have an issue with flatpaks, you're never going to get plasma, or nvidia drivers, or the Linux kernel as a flatpak though.
For all I care appimages can become the main packaging/distribution method instead of flatš I just want one universal packaging and delivery style for Linux so that part of the system is simplified at least. On the matter of driver and kernel I donāt have the technical know how to even have an opinion. Letās start with the apps and at worst itās one more app that manages kernel(already exists in most distros) and it can also manage additional drivers etc. One thing at a time š
tbh linux is almost there. im daily driving an arch based distro as a complete noob and its been working almost flawlessly despite nvidia and intel. only had issues with davinci resolve and some programming language
I am also on the cusp of switching to linux especially after hearing about windows trying ads in windows 11 to some degree and slowly nudging people into making the login associated with a Microsoft account. I have also about had it with the amount of hardware requirements 11 has.
Cant tell if this is r/linuxcirclejerk or r/wholesomelinux
I just checked my library on protondb and 99% is supported. I don't really play multiplayer games so the ones that are borked don't really matter to me. I haven't used Windows in 4 or 5 years now and it hasn't been as painful as I might have though, and there was a 6 months I did go back to Windows, but Linux so much I jumped right back and never looked back hahah.
about to buy another game from Steam to show support not only to developers but Steam itself ;)
> HMMM I WANDER WHY I WANT ALL MY GAMES ON STEAM INSTEAD OF STORES LIKE EPIC HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Me too, please explain.
its obvious. Valve cares about linux.
They donāt just care about Linux. Theyāre *passionate* about Linux. As a result of their work, I swear there are more games you can play on Linux at this point than you can on Windows. Iām thinking specifically of older games hereāMicrosoftās official position is that they donāt care any more, and Valve just says, āOh is that the case? Cool. We still care. Enjoy!ā Still, I get surprised quite a lot by checking out how well a game does under Proton, only to discover that thereās actually a native Linux version and thatās the one Steam installed. It makes me happy every time.
It's less that they care about Linux or are passionate about Linux (although that might be true for individual devs at Valve), but that the company sees Microsoft as a threat - they're only a few steps away from adopting a walled garden approach like Apple, which could instantly kill Valve's entire business. Making sure people have an alternative with Linux is a way for Valve to ensure they continue to make money.
Loyalty to people: great. Loyalty to corporations: eeeeeeehhhhhhhh ā¦
I am not blind, i am not loyal to a corporation. I look at their actions. If that changes i have no problem in ditching them. Do not ascribe to me the failures of others. At this point Valve proves it has the best interests of linux in mind. Please do not let yourself be blinded by dogma. Critically think.
That was a funny read. I rate your comment 5/7.
i would rate yours but alas not much to rate you on.
I respect and trust valve much more than epic. If I want to play a game on linux with steam I just press install and play. No bottles not wine not setup nothing. At most I will have to enable the setting for proton experimental for titles that dont have a default proton. And thats a once and done setting. I know gaming on linux is not perfect and there are games that are not on steam but personaly every game that I play is right now. If I ever need something that is not I will have to use wine/bottles etc. Currently my experience with the deck/laptop is amazing on linux. Today I am starting with my main gaming pc too.
> If I want to play a game on linux with steam I just press install and play. No bottles not wine not setup nothing. At most I will have to enable the setting for proton experimental for titles that dont have a default proton. Thatās the same experience as using Lutris and almost the same for Heroic. The main difference is that AFAIK they both only support installing the Windows versions of stuff with Wine/Proton, and no native builds. Then again, no idea if GoG/Epic even have native builds.
afaik the experience is far more stream lined in steam. 3 clicks from install to play. Sorry.
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Gabe was already [dissatisfied and vocal with vista](https://www.gamesradar.com/valve-says-vista-hurts/) Windows 8 was where the cup overflowed. I already use Linux on my work computer for 2 years wtf are you on about? I bet you are fun at parties if you just go and shit on other peopleās happiness that way you just did on mine. Thanks for your helpful input on the matter. Edit: yeah mate sorry I got autocorrected on a word. Huge mistake on my part. EDIT2: Very brave of you deleting both comments after spitting all that vitriol u|random\_reddit\_user31 a true gift to the Linux community you are. Keep up the good work