Good to see someone using Linux for their platform on these handhelds. The big reason I don’t want to try the Ally or whatever the others are doing is I can’t imagine Windows is making the experience better.
I don’t really have evidence to support that, but more Linux investment is better overall.
Its decades of abstraction hell.
In college, we learned about how old certain systems were inside Windows XP. And already, that was getting pretty thick! So when I hear things like Win10 has x feature all that way from Win95, I mentally scream.
To be fair to Microsoft (I can’t believe I actually typed that) it’s not something they can just fix without splitting Windows into a consumer and business SKU that is significantly different from current Windows. Currently the only real difference is the amount of control the end user has over the platform, but the features are pretty much the same. To make a fully “modern” version you would basically have to build Windows from the ground up to eliminate all the cruft. There is no money for Microsoft in that. Better to focus on business and let the consumer complain.
As a long time hand held user, Windows is dog shit (I mean, in general, too)
I stopped buying handhelds because of how many problems they had, until I got a steam deck. Now I’m back to being super interested in the market.
GPD Win’s were cool for what they were, but so many trivial issues related to windows.
The Ally has been great in my experience. Windows plus Asus’s overlay make everything pretty smooth to navigate.
Then if I feel like having the SteamDeck experience I can just launch Steam in big picture mode.
Then if I want the Xbox experience I can launch that app.
…and can play Switch games, and PS3/4 games…
There’s really zero downside too it. People spout hate because it’s trendy to dunk on Windows, but I just don’t see any issues.
Inb4 “but Windows is spying on you and full of bloat”… No it’s not because I took 10 min to get rid of all that shit just like I would on any gaming PC.
Not saying windows is inherently bad, but I personally would rather have a device running SteamOS on first boot up because more people using SteamOS incentivizes Valve to keep working on Proton. If anyone out there feels like windows is better for them, that’s fine since that’s their choice.
Honestly if it runs steamOS, I don’t even think it could be considered competition. They’re on the same team.
Because of how good Proton has become, I’m considering dropping Windows and switching to Arch for gaming at my next upgrade.
Two players developing improvements to Steam OS and Proton can only make things better.
I was thinking of using Bazzite. I use Arch for my work install and have been using Arch for personal use since 2015 with Windows dual boot for gaming. Bazzite/UBlue has really surprised me and if I didn’t have an Nvidia GPU I think I would’ve already migrated completely away from Windows with Bazzite. Container based OSes with immutable root are the future IMO.
Good call :3
Not a PC gamer myself but if you’re new to Linux arch is prolly a bad idea
None of the other handhelds were competition either. Ultimately they’ll all be used to sell games on Steam.
That’s partially true, but Valve’s long term goal with SteamOS is to break their reliance on windows.
Windows previously had plans to require all new software to be installed through their Windows store, which would have destroyed Steam. Thankfully Windows backed off from this plan, but they are instead pushing windows S mode for new computers. If you buy a budget PC it will probably come locked down where it can only install Windows apps. This can be disabled, but requires you to have administrative privileges on the computer (which many kids/etc won’t have). It also requires you to log into the windows store with a Microsoft account to disable it, so they require you to take all the steps to install windows store content before you can choose to not use their store.
It’s not going to happen overnight, but I suspect the long term windows plan is to force more people (especially kids) into getting software and games through the Microsoft store. People like to buy games from the same place, so if you get kids started building their PC gaming library in the Windows store they’ll be more likely to stick with it even once they have other options.
So companies selling windows handhelds will still help valve out short term, but their long term goal (and the reason they invest so much into Linux) is to no longer be dependent on Microsoft windows to sell games. It’s also why they’re pushing for Steam on Chromebooks, to both get young users invested in steam and as another windows alternative.
https://ayaneo.com/article/806
Here is from their website which also says “AYANEO NEXT LITE comes pre-installed with the SteamOS gaming system for the first time”.
It’s interestingly an 800p display also.
Someone is actually paying attention LOL
Of all the things I would upgrade on the deck, resolution isn’t one of them. I have never seen a game look blury on that tiny screen. That said, a lot of them are using higher res panels probably because it is what they can find in bulk.
Text intensive games are hard to read at times on the deck. Magnifier helps, but not ideal. Games like Against the Storm or some digital board games would benefit from higher resolution.
Any word on what the hardware specs are? Someone there used their brain and loaded up SteamOS, but the hardware needs to be worth the jump or it’s just a steam deck clone.
They specifically said “it’s not a powerhouse”. It’s supposed to be a lower power device with a big battery, capable of playing less demanding games for a long time. SteamOS also makes a lot of sense for this goal, since windows handhelds get pretty terrible battery life in low power games. The price is supposed to be low as well, although it’s not clear yet if that’s just low by Ayaneo’s standards or if it will actually be cheaper than the deck.
I love my steamdeck, but I would hardly call it a powerhouse. You have to make pretty serious compromises on your visuals for AAA games with a few notable exceptions. Anything not well optimized can also struggle.
So yeah I’m down for a device that isn’t as powerful but if the gap is too wide it really is only going to strictly be a little indie game machine. Which is cool and but important to note.
That fits the kind of use case I would want from something in addition to the Deck. That said, I don’t know this is the form factor I’d want; what I’d love is something that could actually fit in my pocket like a Gameboy. This seems like it’d be a bit big for that.
Probably they are going to reveal specs tomorrow (subscriptions open at 9:30 PM 1/11/2014 EST) maybe on indiegogo
Sweet. It will be a great opportunity to see what SteamOS can do on non-valve hardware.
Note: There is currently no confirmation that Valve is involved with supplying the SteamOS image to Ayaneo.
Probably running modified Chimera, is my guess.
But honestly, I kind of hope Valve is involved, beating windows at this part of the market is going to do great for Linux and maybe set a precedent for other handheld makers.
They definitely should be cooperating just for the sake of ensuring updates to drivers, etc, are pushed upstream and maintained properly. It makes OS updates much easier for them when they don’t need to recompile and tweak stuff every single time they pull Valve’s most recent kernel updates and whatnot
