That's an absurd argument. AAA games are 70 bucks on steam and on switch, and indies are generally the same price. Steam might have better sales and a wider selection of indies, but outside of sales the games are priced the same.
That new Tony Hawk game is the same price on Switch, Xbox, Playstation and Steam. The Steam deck also can't play pirated games without some insane fenagling if at all so the "free" aspect of PC gaming isn't really there.
Proton does not support all games ( I often like playing older ones that don't even run on Proton as of yet ) and having to add exe programs to steam just to be able to run it is just silly.
For programs that work, adding them to the steam library is just the easiest way to get them running. You can always install Proton/Wine the old fashion way if you really want.
A VM completely defeats the purpose of having Linux as your main OS, I'm somebody who's earnestly tried Linux multiple times and this is the main piss take with it. Everyone throws that out as a solution but you may as well pick the annoyance free option that you know works rather than have Linux at all.
I can see why many people consider it a more straightforward option to come up with work arounds and break Windows' behaviour than deal with Linux, it's just a fact Linux is nowhere near ready for mass adoption because of this.
I have one. Any windows exe can be added to your library, then Steam automatically uses Proton to run it. I use this for all my non-steam games that aren't native linux.
You do of course realistically need the steam deck dock for it to be any kind of reasonable PC experience but I wouldn't underestimate the power of it. Plus there's the added bonus of windows programs running out of the box without you constantly having to fiddle with stupid settings and set every program up which is something I despise about Linux.
I find SteamOS to be a far superior platform than Windows.
I was shocked at how intuitive, fast, and easy it is to use (especially in Desktop Mode).
I WISH Windows was that simple to use. Any device driver, program, or utility I need, you just type it in the search bar and it pulls up all the available apps. You don't need a ridiculous Windows account, or a Windows Store account, or an Xbox Live account, or any of that other annoying stuff that you need to hop through to get apps to work right on Windows 10/11.
I wish Valve made a desktop version of the SteamOS because for my next gaming rig I would have that in place over Windows. Plus, I love how easy it is to navigate the SteamOS for games/apps using a controller for the tabs.
That's an absurd argument. AAA games are 70 bucks on steam and on switch, and indies are generally the same price. Steam might have better sales and a wider selection of indies, but outside of sales the games are priced the same.
That new Tony Hawk game is the same price on Switch, Xbox, Playstation and Steam. The Steam deck also can't play pirated games without some insane fenagling if at all so the "free" aspect of PC gaming isn't really there.
Insane fenagling?
wow that was hard
Proton does not support all games ( I often like playing older ones that don't even run on Proton as of yet ) and having to add exe programs to steam just to be able to run it is just silly.
For programs that work, adding them to the steam library is just the easiest way to get them running. You can always install Proton/Wine the old fashion way if you really want.
For older windows games, a VM should work.
A VM completely defeats the purpose of having Linux as your main OS, I'm somebody who's earnestly tried Linux multiple times and this is the main piss take with it. Everyone throws that out as a solution but you may as well pick the annoyance free option that you know works rather than have Linux at all.
I can see why many people consider it a more straightforward option to come up with work arounds and break Windows' behaviour than deal with Linux, it's just a fact Linux is nowhere near ready for mass adoption because of this.
That's not how the steam deck works.
I have one. Any windows exe can be added to your library, then Steam automatically uses Proton to run it. I use this for all my non-steam games that aren't native linux.
Er... you realize that it uses SteamOS, and not Windows, right?
Proton. See my other comments
https://www.protondb.com/
This is why you install windows instead of relying on their built in SteamOS, also I don't buy AAA games anymore lol.
Does windows run worth a damn on it? You can always switch over to the Linux distro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhfPfwBgNg8
You do of course realistically need the steam deck dock for it to be any kind of reasonable PC experience but I wouldn't underestimate the power of it. Plus there's the added bonus of windows programs running out of the box without you constantly having to fiddle with stupid settings and set every program up which is something I despise about Linux.
I find SteamOS to be a far superior platform than Windows.
I was shocked at how intuitive, fast, and easy it is to use (especially in Desktop Mode).
I WISH Windows was that simple to use. Any device driver, program, or utility I need, you just type it in the search bar and it pulls up all the available apps. You don't need a ridiculous Windows account, or a Windows Store account, or an Xbox Live account, or any of that other annoying stuff that you need to hop through to get apps to work right on Windows 10/11.
I wish Valve made a desktop version of the SteamOS because for my next gaming rig I would have that in place over Windows. Plus, I love how easy it is to navigate the SteamOS for games/apps using a controller for the tabs.