Isn’t it pretty easy to get windows on a steam deck? I’m familiar with Linux so I haven’t looked into it but I thought you could just boot it from an SD card.
I think it’s probably much easier to follow a guide to boot windows from an SD card than to learn a new OS, even one as user friendly as modern, major Linux distros can be. Just the years of muscle memory alone will probably make it easier to boot Windows.
For the average person. It’s a a confusing nightmare where nothing has the same name and nothing is in the same place and none of the programs they want to use work.
Spoken as someone who has never worked tech support a day in their life.
Not even saying Linux specifically, but you don’t know users. They have issues with things they should already know how to do, let alone learning new things.
It is relatively easy, and I’ve done it from an SD card too. But it does kinda suck and its even easier to just leave SteamOS (edit: leave SteamOS in place instead of replacing it with Windows). Windows runs terribly slow from the SD card and just generally is not optimized for the form factor.
You can use Steam Big Picture mode to make most games work, untill you want to do anything outside Steam. Then it became a mess of installing compatibility programs, drivers, UWP hooks for Game Pass games, etc… It was a generally unpleasant experience.
I have not ever run into this “mess” you refer to, but maybe we have different metrics for what is considered a “mess”. It also probably helps a great deal that a vast majority of my games are on steam, the next most being all the free games from Epic, and a few on the other major platforms from free games on Prime Gaming.
I play gamepass games via the browser. I understand that this is probably the sticking point for many people who would like to install those games locally instead.
Basic personal computer stuff is no more or less difficult on any modern linux distro than it would be on Windows, except that if a person is used to windows they might need to learn new muscle memory and application names.
I encourage anyone who cares to try to check out Linux. The old “Linux is only free if your time is worthless to you” half-joke isn’t really applicable these days-- most distros marketed widely work out of the box, as do most basic “personal computer” type actions.
Sorry, I might not have been clear above. I’m saying Windows on the Steam Deck is a bad experience and the best thing to do is stick with SteamOS. You’re using SteamOS, too right?
Oh man, yeah I think I totally read your comment backwards. It was the “just leave SteamOS” part. I read it as “leave it for windows”, but it seems you meant “leave it on the deck”. haha
Isn’t it pretty easy to get windows on a steam deck? I’m familiar with Linux so I haven’t looked into it but I thought you could just boot it from an SD card.
and it’s very easy to learn to use linux, so the statement holds.
I think it’s probably much easier to follow a guide to boot windows from an SD card than to learn a new OS, even one as user friendly as modern, major Linux distros can be. Just the years of muscle memory alone will probably make it easier to boot Windows.
For you? Maybe.
For the average person. It’s a a confusing nightmare where nothing has the same name and nothing is in the same place and none of the programs they want to use work.
Spoken as someone who has never worked tech support a day in their life.
Not even saying Linux specifically, but you don’t know users. They have issues with things they should already know how to do, let alone learning new things.
It is relatively easy, and I’ve done it from an SD card too. But it does kinda suck and its even easier to just leave SteamOS (edit: leave SteamOS in place instead of replacing it with Windows). Windows runs terribly slow from the SD card and just generally is not optimized for the form factor.
You can use Steam Big Picture mode to make most games work, untill you want to do anything outside Steam. Then it became a mess of installing compatibility programs, drivers, UWP hooks for Game Pass games, etc… It was a generally unpleasant experience.
I have not ever run into this “mess” you refer to, but maybe we have different metrics for what is considered a “mess”. It also probably helps a great deal that a vast majority of my games are on steam, the next most being all the free games from Epic, and a few on the other major platforms from free games on Prime Gaming.
I play gamepass games via the browser. I understand that this is probably the sticking point for many people who would like to install those games locally instead.
Basic personal computer stuff is no more or less difficult on any modern linux distro than it would be on Windows, except that if a person is used to windows they might need to learn new muscle memory and application names.
I encourage anyone who cares to try to check out Linux. The old “Linux is only free if your time is worthless to you” half-joke isn’t really applicable these days-- most distros marketed widely work out of the box, as do most basic “personal computer” type actions.
Sorry, I might not have been clear above. I’m saying Windows on the Steam Deck is a bad experience and the best thing to do is stick with SteamOS. You’re using SteamOS, too right?
Oh man, yeah I think I totally read your comment backwards. It was the “just leave SteamOS” part. I read it as “leave it for windows”, but it seems you meant “leave it on the deck”. haha
Ah yeah sorry, bad phrasing on my part!
No worries! I didn’t realize “leave/left” was a contronym until today!