Steam Linux Runtime is based on Debian Stable releases. It’s literally the Why Not Both? meme.
Where does valve use Arch? because i thought steamOS was a fork of Debian , and i am kinda confused by the meme
In a world where Valve controls 90% of what is running on a device with immutable / containerized images, yeah I think Arch makes a lot more sense. A distro focused on rolling release is a lot less likely to hang you up when you choose to update.
Debian is great, but depending on where you are in the release cycle it can be a pain in the ass to stay up to date and, frankly, the last time I ran it, shit like apt/dpkg configuration and so many /etc files and structures just felt like mis-features or too complex for their own good.
Can anyone explain anything in this meme? I don’t know the anime, I don’t know the symbols, all I recognize is the steam logo.
I don’t know the anime either, but the steam logo is walking away from the debian logo and then staring into the eyes of the arch logo. OP is saying that valve made the right choice by ditching debian (I thought they were using ubuntu, but that’s just a debian derivative with a bad UI on top) for arch as the basis for steamOS. For a gaming platform, I agree. You want the latest updates and software versions for gaming purposes (and proton/wine purposes), and they can hire employees to ensure they have tackled arch’s bleeding-edge instabilities before rolling the updates out to the general population.
You know every time I think I understand enough about Linux to consider moving over an innocent post like this sets me back to square one.
Nah you’re overthinking it. Grab a beginner friendly distro like Mint and just start using it. All this is fanboy talk that can be interesting but doesn’t affect 99% of users.
Valve’s use-case for choosing a gnu+linux distro is likely to be different from yours. Therefore, commentary about Valve’s needs and choices may or may not be relevant to your use-case.
If you’re new, I recommend mint. Because of ubuntu’s questionable choices at times vs debian’s steady hand, I recommend the debian edition of mint, LMDE. It’s a rolling distribution that requires fewer total reinstalls. Debian’s low-effort stability and security works for nearly all use-cases. Mint adds user-friendly settings, updates, and package management.
Cinnamon is mint’s desktop environment, what they add on top of ubuntu or debian. Like xfce, it’s lighter-weight and more responsive than plasma or gnome on lower-end or aging hardware, but it’s prettier than xfce without rice. Although if you wanna rice and make it pretty, check out a tiling window manager.
Let Valve handle the complex stuff and hire employees to stress-test the latest packages in Arch and just use what they package for you in proton. Start with a debian derivative. If you start wanting to tinker around because you’re getting comfortable, or for some reason desperately need a newer version of a package, you can try software from other package management schemes like guix or flatpak that run on top of your stable debian system.
When you’re comfortable with using the command line tools and managing the gnu operating system, you can try a more command-line centered and manually assisted distros like arch and gentoo
It’s really not so bad. You would likely be fine with a beginner-friendly distro like Ubuntu or Mint. Personally I use Ubuntu because it tends to be the most supported by application developers and things generally just work, it’s kind of boring stable IMO to the point where I almost want to start distro hopping and trying out something other than Ubuntu.
Though I’d recommend trying it out in a VM first to get a feel for it, and then also trying to live boot it from a USB and see how you like it.
Nothing about what he said would prevent you from using a casual user focused variant like Ubuntu. The biggest challenge you’ll potentially run into is drivers and/or having hardward that just doesn’t play nice with linux. I’d suggest just giving an install a try and see how it goes. The experience has come a long long way in the past decade.
but that’s just a debian derivative with a bad UI on top
What is, Ubuntu, or the pre-Arch based SteamOS? I ask because Ubuntu has so many different variants that you can pick a UI that works for you.
True, but the desktop environment that they develop in-house is what I grade them on. Not the color themes and backgrounds that they put on desktop environments produced by other projects. You can install other desktop environments on any linux distro. Ubuntu only produces Unity.
I don’t understand the purpose of this comment, aside from downvote farming.
SteamOS (the operating system for the Steam Deck) is based on Arch Linux (the blue A), so that’s what’s going on in the bottom panel.
The red swirl is for another Linux operating system, called Debian. I don’t know what OP is referring to by Steam ‘leaving’ Debian in the top panel.
If I had a nickel every time I see meme that is just some anime characters with linux world logos slapped on them…
There are internal talks to go back to Debian, very likely the public release is delayed until then.
I’m afraid it will have to be a “a friend that worked on the deck told me”. 100% understand if nobody believes
