Dual boot is still on the menu, too.

Recent patch notes sounded like they might be hinting at upcoming ROG Ally support, but it’s now confirmed.

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
    21·
    3 months ago

    This is so exciting, very happy for Ally owners. Choice is a strength of PC ecosystem, and I’m confident SteamOS experience is going to win over many users. It’s a great upgrade.

    Edit-

    “And it’s not like Valve is suggesting it’ll offer SteamOS for rival handhelds anytime soon, either”

    Oh :( I thought this was further along than it is… got excited.

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzOPMEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      The lower storage Deck models have been sold at a loss, with the plan of recovering that through game sales. So rival hardware running SteamOS could make valve more money than the deck does.

      It’s possible that the deck’s are no longer sold at a loss, both due to components getting cheaper over time and higher sale numbers leading to lower cost per unit. But either way the money comes mostly from game sales, not hardware sales.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.netEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    I saw an ad for this thing on TV the other day. IDK why, but seeing things like this on TV always makes me giddy ever since I first saw Secret of Mana advertised on TV. Seeing new tech (and video games before a certain time) having commercials on television is like seeing a unicorn.

  • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
    3·
    3 months ago

    I’m actually a bit surprised this takes so long for Valve. Because I think Valve wants to be in a position what they envisioned with Steam Machines, where many systems are created by different manufacturers. Only with a reference model that everybody can fallback to as the base model, the Deck. Guess creating an operating system that can be installed on arbitrary handhelds is not easy (go figure).

    BTW this is not a unique concept either, because we had similar strategies before with home computer systems and console like systems in the 80s and 90s: MSX (actually from Microsoft) and 3DO are “popular” examples.

  • Santo@lemmy.world
    2·
    3 months ago

    I really hope Valve takes up this market with strong software. I believe Microsoft is lagging behind just using regular Windows for that.

    • smoothbrain coldtakes@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Bazzite is fine. It’s serviceable enough to get the job done. The hardware is supported through a bunch of different emulation tools and bespoke applications like HandHeld Daemon for hooking into power draw and managing extra buttons.

      Bazzite is based on the Holographic base that SteamOS uses, but opts for a Fedora-based immutable back-end over Arch. Running SteamOS itself is going to be better once Valve implements native support for all of these things that are covered by HandHeld Daemon, at least in theory.

      Due to the non-optimal nature of both Windows and Linux at this stage, they tend to perform about equally.

      I get that the Fediverse is disproportionately made up of Linux users, but the reality right now is just that no operating system is fine-tuned for the hardware its running on besides SteamOS and the Deck itself. It’s not better yet, but it’s getting better at a massive clip - which is above and beyond whatever Microsoft is doing (looks like nothing) to improve their software for the form factor.

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzOPMEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      The original Ally was pretty debatable hardware wise when compared to the deck. It was more powerful, but had worse battery life (especially in low power games), worse controls, poorly designed heat routing that burned up SD cards, etc. There was also stuff like how the higher resolution screen wasnt really necessary for the screen size, and the performance hit was very significant unless you capped at 720p.

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
        31·
        3 months ago

        Right on. I’m just excited that this form factor is going to “be a thing” for a while, because god damn, I love my deck.

        But realistically, it could be a drop in replacement for my mobile computing solutions if it was just a bit beefier.

  • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
    1·
    3 months ago

    It would make the Ally usable. Windows holds it back a ton because it’s a trash OS.

    There’s still some hardware issues to contend with. Like the fact that it fries SD cards due to poor card slot placement… and the control stick bug…

    Let’s just say my wife has one and we recently got her a Steam Deck instead. I had to replace one of the sticks on the Ally and still had problems. She also can’t use the SD card slot at all. It’s flawed hardware with potential (after a couple revisions).