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> You can find many issue threads on GitHub reporting client freezes and crashes. The fact that these are happening does not necessarily mean the client is get

> You can find many issue threads on GitHub reporting client freezes and crashes. The fact that these are happening does not necessarily mean the client is getting worse. For example, it could mean that more people are installing Steam for Linux. There is no baseline to say it's getting worse, because nobody opens an issue saying "all working here." In my experience, the only issue I have on Wayland is this: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/7245 https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/7245 (workaround: disable animated avatars) (edit: all AMD machine) > outside of Steam Deck ofc There is nothing special about the Steam Deck. It's just another Linux machine. > TF2 I don't play any Source games, but I could see TF2 having issues because it's in maintenance mode. If it is bjorked that has nothing to do with Steam.

sosodev 4y ago
True, I don't have enough data to really make that claim. I can say that my own hardware hasn't changed in ~4 years and I've been using Steam for Linux since I built this machine. It's only within the last year or so that I started having major issues with the client. > there is nothing special about the steam deck How is first party support for the hardware and software stack "nothing special"? > If it is bjorked that has nothing to do with Steam. Maybe it's not directly related to the rest of my comment but it's related to the OP. I also think it's indicative of Valve's issues with Linux.
- zamalek 4y ago
  > How is first party support for the hardware and software stack "nothing special"? Because the vast majority of that stack (the kernel, GPU driver, window manager, and so forth) has nothing to do with Valve. They might contribute drivers to the kernel (I'm not sure if they actually do - I would expect AMD to be doing that), but otherwise it's an Arch-based distro with the same Steam client and Proton runtime that everyone else is using.
  - sosodev 4y ago
    Yes, the Steam Deck is using a fairly standard stack and the default client but you're missing the point. Valve directly tests the Steam Deck and prioritizes bug fixes for it. When users report issues with other setups it often takes months for the identified bug to be fixed if it ever is.
mariusor 4y ago
> There is nothing special about the Steam Deck. It's just another Linux machine. That's not true. It's a read-only linux on a fixed hardware platform, which is a vaaastly different beast than the myriad of hardware/software combinations that exist out there in the wild.
- zamalek 4y ago
  > It's a read-only linux on a fixed hardware platform I have heard that argument about macOS a lot, and this is nothing like that. There isn't some "special sauce er... Source" that they apply to their platform. It's just GPL Linux. They may have avoided bad decisions like relying on NVIDIA for Linux gaming, but that's hardly the level of ownership that you see with other vertical integrations. If I use an AMD CPU (or Intel, which would be arguably better) and AMD GPU, there is no reason why my PC couldn't be just as "first-party" as the Steam Deck. Wine/Proton ultimately access the GPU through DRM, that remains the same for Valve hardware or custom-built hardware. Both Steam and Wine/Proton currently render via X11 (via XWayland if necessary), on both my PC and the Steam Deck. I feel like there is a gap of understanding how a HAL works here.
  - admax88qqq 4y ago
    I feel like there is a gap in understanding of how commercial software deployment goes. When you have a platform like Steam Deck, it's the platform that gets tested by QA, and the platform that most of your devs are building for every day.
  - mariusor 4y ago
    Sure, a linux machine is made out of just a CPU and a GPU. Even if that would be the case, what about the software combinations that can exist and that the SteamDeck simplifies? In the gamedev world I heard a lot of people not wanting to support linux because they never know which glibc version to support, which mesa version to support, which hardware GPUs to support, which graphical API to support, etc. Cutting down that matrix (and I just mentioned the most egregious examples) to only one element is invaluable in ensuring your users have a bug free experience.
  - 4y ago

sosodev 4y ago

True, I don't have enough data to really make that claim. I can say that my own hardware hasn't changed in ~4 years and I've been using Steam for Linux since I built this machine. It's only within the last year or so that I started having major issues with the client. > there is nothing special about the steam deck How is first party support for the hardware and software stack "nothing special"? > If it is bjorked that has nothing to do with Steam. Maybe it's not directly related to the rest of my comment but it's related to the OP. I also think it's indicative of Valve's issues with Linux.

zamalek 4y ago
> How is first party support for the hardware and software stack "nothing special"? Because the vast majority of that stack (the kernel, GPU driver, window manager, and so forth) has nothing to do with Valve. They might contribute drivers to the kernel (I'm not sure if they actually do - I would expect AMD to be doing that), but otherwise it's an Arch-based distro with the same Steam client and Proton runtime that everyone else is using.
- sosodev 4y ago
  Yes, the Steam Deck is using a fairly standard stack and the default client but you're missing the point. Valve directly tests the Steam Deck and prioritizes bug fixes for it. When users report issues with other setups it often takes months for the identified bug to be fixed if it ever is.

mariusor 4y ago

> There is nothing special about the Steam Deck. It's just another Linux machine. That's not true. It's a read-only linux on a fixed hardware platform, which is a vaaastly different beast than the myriad of hardware/software combinations that exist out there in the wild.

zamalek 4y ago
> It's a read-only linux on a fixed hardware platform I have heard that argument about macOS a lot, and this is nothing like that. There isn't some "special sauce er... Source" that they apply to their platform. It's just GPL Linux. They may have avoided bad decisions like relying on NVIDIA for Linux gaming, but that's hardly the level of ownership that you see with other vertical integrations. If I use an AMD CPU (or Intel, which would be arguably better) and AMD GPU, there is no reason why my PC couldn't be just as "first-party" as the Steam Deck. Wine/Proton ultimately access the GPU through DRM, that remains the same for Valve hardware or custom-built hardware. Both Steam and Wine/Proton currently render via X11 (via XWayland if necessary), on both my PC and the Steam Deck. I feel like there is a gap of understanding how a HAL works here.
- admax88qqq 4y ago
  I feel like there is a gap in understanding of how commercial software deployment goes. When you have a platform like Steam Deck, it's the platform that gets tested by QA, and the platform that most of your devs are building for every day.
- mariusor 4y ago
  Sure, a linux machine is made out of just a CPU and a GPU. Even if that would be the case, what about the software combinations that can exist and that the SteamDeck simplifies? In the gamedev world I heard a lot of people not wanting to support linux because they never know which glibc version to support, which mesa version to support, which hardware GPUs to support, which graphical API to support, etc. Cutting down that matrix (and I just mentioned the most egregious examples) to only one element is invaluable in ensuring your users have a bug free experience.
- 4y ago