The Linux Thread - The Autist's OS of Choice

[Judge Dredd]

Yeah, I'm never going to accept the viewpoint that Linus wasn't being retarded in that situation.

Maybe he was. But the other guy in the video ran into some weird desktop issues on mint too iirc. And when they tried to play Supreme Commander, they were told they shouldn't play Supreme Commander and should play something else. From what I understand all the issues they ran in to in that video have since been fixed.

But it is (or was) the more general point of running into some edge case. A specific game, a specific tool, some hardware issue that seems like it shouldn't be an issue. I dunno, something.

I think that's more to do with Steam Deck than Steam OS itself.

I never thought of that. Especially since I don't hear of those issues when people use SteamOS on other hardware. Granted, there are issues with it if you dont have specific hardware.

I considered trying Linux again on a SBC recently. Only to run into a strange conundrum more suited to the hardware thread. Basically, I thought of getting a Raspberry Pi. Only to be told don't bother, get a cheap NUC instead. Playing games on it/spending a little more money? Get a Steam Deck, even if it's just used a mini desktop the whole time.

 

[El Goblina]

Imagine using apple anything.

I'm actually planning on upgrading to an iPhone 15 Pro Max when my current venture starts being more profitable. ProDNG + Apple optics + USB C appeal to me, and Android's become nearly as authoritarian in their behaviour as iOS. So my phone is closed. Whoopty shit. I'm not running a custom OS on my phone anyhow. And I say this as someone who is currently posting from an OS where I built everything from source.

 

[YoRHa No. 2 Type B]

Imagine using apple anything. Sad, disgusting, shameful.

I'm using an iPhone (13 mini specifically) and its 100x better then Android. Ever since Android 12 especially Google has been removing a lot of "customisation" stuff. While Apple has been adding a lot of customisation features to iOS. It just works isn't just a meme, its also a reality with Apple products.
I also found it was cheaper to buy one expensive iPhone that lasts for years and is durable vs Androids that fall apart after a year.
Everything else Apple can go burn in a fire though.

 

[Betonhaus]

I'm actually planning on upgrading to an iPhone 15 Pro Max when my current venture starts being more profitable. ProDNG + Apple optics + USB C appeal to me, and Android's become nearly as authoritarian in their behaviour as iOS. So my phone is closed. Whoopty shit. I'm not running a custom OS on my phone anyhow. And I say this as someone who is currently posting from an OS where I built everything from source.

Have you tried a Motorola or are you using the experimental Pixel or the controlling Samsung?

 

[El Goblina]

Have you tried a Motorola or are you using the experimental Pixel or the controlling Samsung?

Yes. Current phone is a rooted MT6835. First smartphone was the Moto Atrix. I used to reliably build Cyanogen for my phones.

 

[prollyanotherlurker]

I also found it was cheaper to buy one expensive iPhone that lasts for years and is durable vs Androids that fall apart after a year.

There is so much choice between android devices, that could be true for some of them. But completely wrong about others. Especially if you want something actually repairable. Iphones have been notoriously bad about that. Even when "complying" with laws to allow their products to be repaired, you are better off just getting a new phone a lot of the time.

Also. for phones especially. the "just works" argument is so dumb. I actually get it if you're talking about a mac vs a linux computer, and saying it just works. I disagree that using something like mint wouldn't work just fine for most people, but I at least get it. But saying ios just works, when android is the other option, is fucking insane. IDK what kind of person you have to be that isn't able to use an android phone. Maybe someone switching from iphone would have to get used to some slight differences, but they're both basically the same.

 

[SphinxItOver]

I considered trying Linux again on a SBC recently.

I like using Pis for gameboys handhelds. It sounds like the Latte Panda Mu is what you're looking for.

 

[El Goblina]

could be true for some of them

I agree with this. My problem with Android was never "it falls apart". To me, a phone is a social tool. I use computers for any heavy lifting. I'm perfectly okay with my phone being a dumb terminal in to a sensible system. I use it to make calls, receive texts, and most saliently for this discussion, take photos.

the "just works" argument is so dumb

This is where we differ. Android does not offer ProDNG functionality, and this is big to me, because with every phone I've had so far, the difference between RAW sensor output and what you see on the Photo app is heavily (and proprietarily) filtered. ProDNG punts the RAW storage to the other side of the equation. I want this. Specifically. Maybe I've been sold on marketing copy, but I don't see that Androids have optics anywhere near in the same class.

After nearly a decade and a half carrying a smartphone around, I've stopped trying to use it as a portable dev platform. I do all my dev at home at my comfy computer where I have a screen that isn't microscopic.

If I wanna poke about, ish is fine for me as a Termux replacement. Doubly so because it amuses me that ish is just interpreting x86.

 

[YoRHa No. 2 Type B]

But saying ios just works, when android is the other option, is fucking insane. IDK what kind of person you have to be that isn't able to use an android phone.

You sound like the kind of person to last use an iPhone a decade ago and think they haven't changed.
One thing I do agree on is that iPhone and Android are very similar, and both seem to be racing to being the exact same thing.
I do not give 2 shits about customisation and just want a phone that will last. Android market in Australia is a total joke, almost entirely Samsung and Google with the occasional Oppo thrown in the mix. I would kill to get Sony phones back here, I absolutely loved my last one.
The only Android sold here that can get close to my criteria these days is a Pixel, I did enjoy using one. They just don't last compared to iPhone.

 

[DavidS877]

After nearly a decade and a half carrying a smartphone around, I've stopped trying to use it as a portable dev platform.

I feel the exact same way about using a phone as a camera, sure it's handy for a quick photo of a document or something I just need a photo of. But for real photos I use a real camera.

 

[El Goblina]

for real photos I use a real camera

I've got one for these cases too, but I don't keep my camera on me as consistently as my phone. And when I need to use it as a cam, I want quality.

 

[Cool kitties club]

I never thought of that. Especially since I don't hear of those issues when people use SteamOS on other hardware. Granted, there are issues with it if you dont have specific hardware.

Can SteamOS be run on other hardware? It is proprietary and currently locked to the Deck (the Lenovo handheld hasn't shipped with steamOS yet). A lot of clickbait YouTubers call a separate project, Bazzite, SteamOS to get the reddit soy clicks but it's a third party project trying to mimic steamOS. SteamOS runs a very outdated kernel and package set and is atomic so you cant easily install new packages (it doesn't even have an rpm-ostree like system), this means trying to run it on your new fancy gaming rig even if you could would make shit break. Also no HDR support.

SteamOS is good at being a console like experience where you can go deeper (and you will likely need desktop mode to play some guys via some tinkering), but as a desktop experience in its current form it would suck. My fear is valve drops a steamOS iso as is for other handheld PCs and then a bunch of YouTubers with like Nvidia 4090/5090s try using it and find it unusable as the OS doesn't ship Nvidia drivers nor support any way to add them or they'll try and run some HDR monitor with a modern AMD card and find HDR doesn't work cause X11 or GPU doesn't work because old kernel.

To me the obsession with SteamOS just seems to be due to people'e idolization of Valve so they think it will magically be perfect despite the fact that in its current form it just isn't fit for any desktop use and would need some way to layer packages for it to even be usable as a daily driver imo.

 

[Susanna]

Can SteamOS be run on other hardware? It is proprietary and currently locked to the Deck (the Lenovo handheld hasn't shipped with steamOS yet). A lot of clickbait YouTubers call a separate project, Bazzite, SteamOS to get the reddit soy clicks but it's a third party project trying to mimic steamOS. SteamOS runs a very outdated kernel and package set and is atomic so you cant easily install new packages (it doesn't even have an rpm-ostree like system), this means trying to run it on your new fancy gaming rig even if you could would make shit break.

https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

Also no HDR support.

That's up to which desktop you're running. KDE on Wayland has HDR support. In my experience it's still a bit flaky (it's dropped the HDR and gone really desaturated a few times, which I fixed by changing inputs on my monitor), but it's getting there. If you can stand hitting "next input, previous input" on your monitor once every couple hours, you can have HDR today.

The issue is somewhere in software, since I don't think Windows has this issue, so it will probably be fixed sooner rather than later.

 

[Rust Troony]

https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

This is a link to SteamOS 2.0, which is not what the steam deck runs, its old and outdated, forever on debian 8.

Can SteamOS be run on other hardware?

I think now (as in only a few months ago) SteamOS 3.0 can be ran on any device by installing using the recovery iso, but it specifically has to be a device with a NVME drive because the installer is hard coded to install to nvmen1 iirc, and an AMD GPU since SteamOS only has what it needs to run on the steam deck (mesa). Maybe a AMD cpu as well.

Obviously this isn't really official support, anything but that, but some people got it to work.

There was a unofficial version of SteamOS maintained by some weird russian(?) furry that swapped out some packages to make it work with a lot more hardware and gave it an actual installer. Its was lot closer to SteamOS 3 than Bazzite, but looking now it hasn't been update in almost a year.

 

[Judge Dredd]

(Ninja'd)

https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

That's an old, outdated link from when Valve was making Steam machines about a decade ago.

Can SteamOS be run on other hardware?

Yes. Going purely from YouTubers I watch. There's some trick to using the recovery image on other devices. There are a couple of issues. The main monitor keeps trying to default to the steamdecks native res. You occasionally get it nagging you that the battery is low, etc. The main issue is of course graphics, where I think it expects an AMD CPU and GPU running RDNA 2/3? Basically, it expects Steam Deck hardware and has a bit of tism if you don't have it.

 

[GNU Abyss]

This is a link to SteamOS 2.0, which is not what the steam deck runs, its old and outdated, forever on debian 8.

No, that's just classic Valve. The page talks about all of that, but go to the Download link and suddenly the Steam Deck is mentioned. The button there sends you to the recovery image for the Deck.

 

[Cool kitties club]

https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

That's up to which desktop you're running. KDE on Wayland has HDR support. In my experience it's still a bit flaky (it's dropped the HDR and gone really desaturated a few times, which I fixed by changing inputs on my monitor), but it's getting there. If you can stand hitting "next input, previous input" on your monitor once every couple hours, you can have HDR today.

The issue is somewhere in software, since I don't think Windows has this issue, so it will probably be fixed sooner rather than later.

That is just a general problem with HDR. Windows has the same thing where when you initially enable HDR it looks like shit until you raise the SDR saturation. Did the same on my single monitor KDE setup and it worked fine.

Yes. Going purely from YouTubers I watch. There's some trick to using the recovery image on other devices. There are a couple of issues. The main monitor keeps trying to default to the steamdecks native res. You occasionally get it nagging you that the battery is low, etc. The main issue is of course graphics, where I think it expects an AMD CPU and GPU running RDNA 2/3? Basically, it expects Steam Deck hardware and has a bit of tism if you don't have it.

This is the exact issue I am talking about. It's built exclusively for the steam deck. It will be a while until Valve generalizes it well enough to be a daily driver if ever.

Anyway once I get time for gaming again I will check and see how well proton 10 works with HDR using the steam flatpak.

 

[prollyanotherlurker]

This is where we differ. Android does not offer ProDNG functionality, and this is big to me, because with every phone I've had so far, the difference between RAW sensor output and what you see on the Photo app is heavily (and proprietarily) filtered.

If that's important to you then use the iPhone. I don't think most people care that much about that though. It seems like a highly specific thing. And outside of what I meant with that part.

You sound like the kind of person to last use an iPhone a decade ago and think they haven't changed.

I'm saying. Android "just works" in the same way iOS days. I also don't know if anyone here has talked about customizing or ricing their android. Most people don't really care about that.

If someone wanted to though, there are a lot of android app launchers and home screens. But that isn't what I'm talking about and most people don't even think about it. They just have the phone. Use it and it works. the average person doesn't need to do anything when they get an android beside turn it on and follow the set up instructions. Then install whatever apps they need. And probably never even think about it, which is what people want. To never have to think about it.

If you prefer apple. You can say you prefer apple. But like I said. I really don't buy the it just works when the comparison is android.

 

[Miller]

>makes you think
For reference

of course there's the IKEA shark...

 

[Vesperus]

Do any of you guys use Manjaro? Back in like 2018 it was all the rage on the G board of 4chan. I'm considering trying it. Is it worth it in 2025? I am using Pop OS currently. I want something that is good for professional use cases but I also want to try the arch package manager. I'm not too into ricing or anything that's why I think Manjaro over Arch.

I'm running it, but at this point that's only because I haven't got round to replacing it yet. As @Aljam mentioned, they have a habit of breaking shit for retarded reasons (which I could sort of live with, that's partly the price of a rolling distro) but they combine that with the archetypal "That question was answered in 2022, noob" non-support forums.
Honestly, I've finally had enough: I'm just pondering what to try next. I'll probably take Endeavour for a test drive, and/or Devuan if my systemd autism kicks in, but honestly OG Arch is going to be less work and grief than Manjaro.