9 ms·

ROG Xbox Ally runs better on Linux than Windows it ships with

155 points by jrepinc 1y ago

HelloUsername 1y ago
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ambCqcFuexk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ambCqcFuexk Also, why didn't they install SteamOS directly? https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227 https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-42...
- mulmen 1y ago
  Not sure what the specific benefits of SteamOS are. It’s forked from Arch, I don’t know what Valve changes. Maybe slightly better hardware support for Steam Deck? I run Steam on Fedora on my desktop and have no issues.
  - Fergusonb 1y ago
    There's very good steam integration, a controller first UI, it's very performant, sleep works better, fantastic performance monitoring and settings. I love it, but there's probably not a whole bunch of reason to run it on things in other form factors.
    - mynameisvlad 1y ago
      Pretty sure Bazzite offers all those things as well.
      - Yokolos 1y ago
        It does. It provides everything SteamOS does. So if SteamOS doesn't support the Xbox Ally X, why install SteamOS?
  - d3Xt3r 1y ago
    I don't run SteamOS but I run Bazzite on my desktop, the main advantage of running these immutable gaming distros is to have a fuss-free gaming experience - my PC boots straight to Steam, and I never ever have to worry about OS updates or other maintenance tasks. Basically I get to enjoy a console-like gaming experience. I work as a sysadmin during the day, fixing PCs and stuff, and I really don't want to continue doing that after I get home - I just want to pick up my controller, put my feet up and get straight to gaming without having to worry about updates and other PC annoyances. The best part is, if on the rate ocassion an update breaks something,I can easily boot straight to the previous image from the boot menu, without needing to run any commands or do anything special post-boot. And with Bazzite (and other uBlue distros), I can go back upto 90 days worth of images (3 previous local images + older images pulled from the cloud). I can also pin a known "good" image so it'll always be available in the boot menu. Essentially I get a rock solid unbreakable system, which is great because after a hard day's work, I really don't have the patience to deal with any PC issues at home.
    - mulmen 1y ago
      Yeah that does sound nice. It really is the best possible experience if all you want is to play games. I should have clarified that I meant the performance benefit of SteamOS over Bazzite specifically.
  - Gigachad 1y ago
    SteamOS is very different from Arch. There’s almost too much to list here. But it uses an image based read only OS, a fully custom wayland desktop environment/compositor, does not have pakman, software is distributed either through steam or flatpak, OS image updates have their own mechanism. And a whole lot of preinstalled drivers and software for things like controller support which typically don’t come out of the box on Linux distros. The whole OS is made for controllers, no need for a mouse/kb for anything.
- Benanov 1y ago
  AIUI (I don't have any of this hardware) SteamOS is really meant for the Steam Deck; while there's "basic support" for the ROG Ally, it's not their focus. Bazzite seems to be quite happy to support everything, and AIUI it's frighteningly close to SteamOS (the same customizations, etc.) It's not "we have SteamOS at home" - it's more like RedHat vs CentOS
  - pavon 1y ago
    This is changing. Valve is actively working with hardware manufacturers to get SteamOS on a number of systems other than the Steam Deck. You can buy a Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS today[1], and Valve will be supporting SteamOS on the Asus ROG Ally in the future[2], whether Asus partners with them or not. [1]https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/handheld/legion-go-s/len106g0002#models https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/handheld/legion-go-s/len106g0... [2]https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/13/24219469/valve-steamos-asus-rog-ally-steady-progress-dual-boot https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/13/24219469/valve-steamos-as...
- __aru 1y ago
  because official SteamOS doesn't support the Xbox Ally X yet. It's safe to assume that official SteamOS will eventually support the Xbox Ally X, but it's not there yet. Valve moves slowly to add support for more devices, etc, whereas the Bazzite devs can move faster. e.g. Bazzite does a weekly release of a stable OS candidate, whereas Valve often takes months, if not up to a year, for to release a stable-channel OS update. Edit: Also, Valve tends to wait for proper kernel interfaces for functionality like controlling TDP, RGB, fans, etc. Whereas Bazzite devs are fine with using tools in userspace to directly talk to hardware, etc. While I do think Valve's approach is better for long-term maintainability, Bazzite will always have the speed advantage because it can hack together a solution via userspace applications.
justsomehnguy 1y ago
>> up to 32% faster > Average FPS gain (Linux vs Windows) > +6.6 FPS (+13.47%)
- mulmen 1y ago
  The claim is “up to” which appears to be true of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
- dangus 1y ago
  Yes, that’s how averages work. “Up to” is the maximum number. “Average” is the sum of all the data points divided by the quantity of data points.
- debugnik 1y ago
  Relative FPS gain is a meaningless metric anyway. Going from 30 to 36 FPS is -5.5 ms/frame, going from 60 to 66 FPS is -1.5 ms/frame. Taking the average of that is even more meaningless. If they insist in comparing FPS instead of frame times, they should have simply compared the two harmonic means.
- dijit 1y ago
  Oh no? only 13.47% on average for a single title? Thats only 4 generations of improvement for intel CPUs. :(
guidedlight 1y ago
I wonder if this is why Xbox Series X never achieved a noticeable performance advantage over PlayStation 5, despite having more capable hardware.
- teamonkey 1y ago
  The Xbox runs on a custom OS derived from Windows Core. Not the same as a consumer version of Windows. [Edit] The answer you’re probably looking for is I/O. The PS5 is much faster than the Series X in terms of getting stuff off disk and actually using it. That more than compensates for the small speed advantage the Series X has.
  - whalesalad 1y ago
    > derived from Windows Core if you polish a turd, it's still a turd.
    - Rohansi 1y ago
      The kernel is fine, it's all that crap they keep shoving into userspace that's the issue.
    - nick__m 1y ago
      I consider that the core of Windows (the NT kernel and win32 api) is actually a very polished gem but it is encased in layers of upon layers of barely polished turds ( winui, the win11 shell, the over agressive telemetry, forced ms635 integration, etc..)
      - buildbot 1y ago
        Makes sense, given that allegedly Windows NT is very much next gen OpenVMS... https://www.itprotoday.com/server-virtualization/windows-nt-and-vms-the-rest-of-the-story https://www.itprotoday.com/server-virtualization/windows-nt-...
      - AHTERIX5000 1y ago
mulmen 1y ago
This has been my experience. Linux+Steam+Proton delivers a more stable and performant Windows API than Windows. And that was on Windows 10 two years ago. I can only imagine things have gotten worse with Windows 11.
- buyucu 1y ago
  I play a lot of older games from 90s and 2000s. They certainly work better on Linux+Wine+DXVK than on Windows.
  - CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
    Not to mention for the different games that need different environments/configurations/libraries it's much easier to manage a bunch of profiles than a bunch of windows installations/VMs.
  - int_19h 1y ago
    It can get funny sometimes. There a game from 1999 that I had troubles running in Wine on Linux all the way back in 2005, and wrote a patch for it: https://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=1&tn=4694 https://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?actio... And then the same error message started showing up on Win10. Thankfully the same patch still works...
buyucu 1y ago
pretty much everything runs faster on Linux than on Windows.
- YuukiRey 1y ago
  I didn't do any tests myself but based on what I read you still pay a hefty performance penalty when using e.g., a 5090 on Linux.
  - shmerl 1y ago
    That's expected. Always use AMD for Linux gaming. There is some WIP to address it for Nvidia, but it requires new Vulkan features. See: https://indico.freedesktop.org/event/10/contributions/402/attachments/243/327/2025-09-29%20-%20XDC%202025%20-%20Descriptors%20are%20Hard.pdf https://indico.freedesktop.org/event/10/contributions/402/at...
- drnick1 1y ago
  I use Arch pretty much exclusively these days on my desktop, but this isn't quite true. Most of the time, Proton has a small performance impact (around 5% lower FPS), but some games tend to suffer more. For example Helldivers 2 runs around 10fps lower, which is pretty significant since I only got around 60-70 FPS on Windows at 4K (using a 3090). Still, Proton is an amazing tool and these days it just works so well. The only games that don't work are those that are intentionally broken by invasive kernel-level anticheats. I won't be buying Battlefield 6, too bad for EA, there are now thousands of other games to play on Linux.
  - grosswait 1y ago
    You’re comparing a game running on a compatibility layer, running on Linux to a game running directly on Windows. Not quite what the parent comment was stating.
    - drnick1 1y ago
      There are few native Linux games, so performance on Proton is the essential benchmark. Besides, even when Linux native versions are available, the Windows version on Proton often offers a better experience (fewer obvious bugs).
shmerl 1y ago
Nice! Linux gaming came a long way.
- DigitallyFidget 1y ago
  It really has. I had always tried to use Linux in the past, but gaming was always a fight, and the OS just never felt like it behaved reliable for daily usage for me, was always some little annoyance or bug or issue I'd run into and inevitably switch back to Windows for the sake of things just working without having to spend hours and days and weeks trying to fix issues. That was 10+ years ago. I finally decided to give it a go again, using an Arch based OS. I figured it's been a while, try something other than debian or SLES that I've been used to. Honestly, I kinda don't notice much difference in overall day to day use between gaming and day to day use on Linux versus previously being on Windows just a month ago. Everything kinda just works. The one thing I do notice is I use significantly less RAM, I seldom exceed 32gb as where I was regularly 40gb+ on Windows, and everything runs much better while I do the same day to day stuff as I always have. It's not a huge performance difference, but if I'm paying attention, yeah, I do notice my games tend to run better, and everything within the OS is far more responsive. As for all the linux a-holes out there, please STFU, I don't wanna hear "winblows sux" or "this distro is better", it's why I didn't specify what specific distro I use. That toxic fanboyism is what keeps people away from seeing it as a viable usable OS. My rambling is really just to say: Yeah, linux has come a long way, especially for gaming and day to day use. The work Valve and others have done to make stuff just run and work is astonishing.
  - eru 1y ago
    I've been using Linux since the late 1990s. Gaming has improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years, but non-gaming desktop use has been solid for ages. What little annoyances and bugs and issues kept you going back to Windows? I found Windows 10 was the first bearable Windows, that I could use without wanting to go back to Linux all the time. Not great, but bearable. I still used Windows for gaming throughout the whole time. (Until about a year ago, when I accidentally nuked my Windows installation, and then never bothered to set it up again..) Depending on the job I had at the time, I also used Windows at work. > As for all the linux a-holes out there, please STFU, I don't wanna hear "winblows sux" or "this distro is better", it's why I didn't specify what specific distro I use. That toxic fanboyism is what keeps people away from seeing it as a viable usable OS. I've mostly heard that until perhaps about 10 years ago. I'm sure these people are still out there, but it seems to be much less common these days. I use Arch Linux for what it's worth, but almost any distro can install almost any program (and they all run the same kernels), so it mostly comes down to what package manager and configuration system you want to use, and whether you like the defaults that come with your distribution. I'm still having some trouble with screen tearing in some games on Linux, alas. I suspect these problems have been ironed out for the more mainstream window manager setups (like whatever you get in Ubuntu by default, instead of me using XMonad), but so far I couldn't be bothered to fix it, yet.
leetharris 1y ago
I have the Xbox Ally, Steam Deck, and original Ally. The original Ally software launch was a disaster. Unbelievable amount of bugs and overall terrible user experience. After 6+ months of updates it was decent. I figured, hey, maybe they figured it out in advance this time? So I pre-ordered an Xbox Ally. It is a complete disaster in terms of software. It took 90 minutes to setup and download initial updates on a Google Fiber connection. Things break constantly. The other day, I got a new error, "Something went wrong and your PIN isn't available." When I try to click anything, it just goes black. After 6 or 7 restarts, it randomly glitches out and takes me right to desktop without any PIN. It is just constant bullshit like this. The entire experience breaks over, and over, and over. I hate it so much. Back to Steam Deck.
- pjmlp 1y ago
  Unfortunately that is what happens when they keep laying off people, and the new interns have hardly done any Windows development. See the mess on Windows development experience since Project Reunion reboot, or how WinRT transition was completely mismanaged. But hey Satya got his bonus.
- rocmcd 1y ago
  I don't mean to be rude, but why would you give them even more money after screwing it up so bad the first time? You're just rewarding bad behavior at this point.
  - rjh29 1y ago
    OP explained that. The original was stable after 6 months of patches. The Xbox Ally should in theory have that stability baked in. Everyone deserves a second chance. Not so much a third.
klipklop 1y ago
I know this is extreme, but people buying these Xbox handhelds over a Steam Deck are directly harming the future of gaming on PC. It's time that the PC gaming ecosystem breaks free from its dependency on Windows. Proton and SteamOS, combined with the unpopular mess that is Windows 11 is the perfect opportunity to do so. The long-term end goal for Microsoft is to lock down Windows and force signed code. Once users are locked in, expect service fees to sharply rise just to use Windows. People should not fall for it. Leave Windows for crusty corporations that love their office 365 employee spy platform.
- xzjis 1y ago
  I completely agree. I pre-ordered the Steam Deck without knowing if I would actually use it, telling myself that at least I was supporting gaming on SteamOS by providing financial support. I boycott all Windows-based alternatives, even if they are better, because I refuse to use a product sold with Windows.
- cortesoft 1y ago
  I love my Steam Deck, but it is really frustrating how many of the games i regularly play can't be played on it - Madden, EA FC, PUBG, all won't run even though the hardware is plenty to play them. The limitations of anti cheat on Linux might be insurmountable
  - Gigachad 1y ago
    Competitive online gaming is the least strong part of the steam deck. But on the flip side it’s way better for local multi player. You can pack it in your bag with some controllers and plug it in to a friends TV easily.
    - kjkjadksj 1y ago
      Very few games bother with local multiplayer anymore
      - eru 1y ago
DiabloD3 1y ago
Of course, why buy this disaster when this exists: https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/handheld-gaming/amd-strix-halo-powered-gaming-handheld-reveals-desktop-like-gpu-performance-ryzen-ai-max-395-was-a-hairline-from-the-rtx-4060 https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/handheld-gaming/amd...
- yowmamasita 1y ago
  I dont know... price, maybe?
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - op00to 1y ago
    also the fact that it doesn’t have an internal battery
    - _carbyau_ 1y ago
      I understand weight as an issue on a portable but since when is being able to replace the battery a design fault?
      - Dylan16807 1y ago
        You're mixing things up. Normal replaceable batteries are still internal.
- zamadatix 1y ago
  One disaster for another - why spend thousands on a giant "portable" with a 1-2 hour gaming time before you have to power it off to swap the bulky external battery.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- 1y ago
zozbot234 1y ago
On the other hand, Linux still lacks a gamepad-focused UX out of the box, which is the real selling proposition of this device. These handheld PC's are not inherently "gaming" machines, they could have all sorts of interesting enterprise-focused uses out in the field if we managed to find a nice way of centering the whole UX interaction on those weird chorded buttons and analog controls.
- yowmamasita 1y ago
  What do you mean exactly on this comment? Do you mean a Linux distro like Bazzite or SteamOS which are both using gamepads as its main control?
- Gigachad 1y ago
  This is not true of SteamOS and Bazzite. The entire OS is controller supported. I have my desktop running Bazzite plugged in to the TV with no kb/m. Can do everything from updating the system, changing the screen resolution, formatting sd cards, etc with just a controller.
  - devilsdata 1y ago
    As for the enterprise part of OP's comment, Bazzite is a community-contributed OCI container (similar to a Docker container) running on top of a Fedora bootc spin with GNOME or KDE. It is trivial for a company to add their own RUN instructions to the OCI Containerfile. Here's a working one that I prepared earlier that installs 1Password on Bazzite GNOME and Bluefin: https://github.com/lkdm/Phoenix https://github.com/lkdm/Phoenix
  - Uvix 1y ago
    How do you install non-Steam games (e.g. from GOG)? Last I tried that still required dropping to desktop mode and using mouse/keyboard.
    - Gigachad 1y ago
      I hardly ever do that, but the one time I did (for Minecraft) I did just drop down to desktop mode and used the trackpad and touch screen. This wasn’t really to do with Linux though. Minecraft does not provide any way to install and log in with controller support. After I installed it one time, I added it to Steam and could launch and update it with a controller. In theory GOG could integrate with Bazzite to offer a controller friendly store and UI. But considering they haven’t even bothered with a desktop Linux client, I’m not holding my breath.

155 points by jrepinc 1y ago

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ambCqcFuexk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ambCqcFuexk Also, why didn't they install SteamOS directly? https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227 https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-42...

mulmen 1y ago
Not sure what the specific benefits of SteamOS are. It’s forked from Arch, I don’t know what Valve changes. Maybe slightly better hardware support for Steam Deck? I run Steam on Fedora on my desktop and have no issues.
- Fergusonb 1y ago
  There's very good steam integration, a controller first UI, it's very performant, sleep works better, fantastic performance monitoring and settings. I love it, but there's probably not a whole bunch of reason to run it on things in other form factors.
  - mynameisvlad 1y ago
    Pretty sure Bazzite offers all those things as well.
    - Yokolos 1y ago
      It does. It provides everything SteamOS does. So if SteamOS doesn't support the Xbox Ally X, why install SteamOS?
- d3Xt3r 1y ago
  I don't run SteamOS but I run Bazzite on my desktop, the main advantage of running these immutable gaming distros is to have a fuss-free gaming experience - my PC boots straight to Steam, and I never ever have to worry about OS updates or other maintenance tasks. Basically I get to enjoy a console-like gaming experience. I work as a sysadmin during the day, fixing PCs and stuff, and I really don't want to continue doing that after I get home - I just want to pick up my controller, put my feet up and get straight to gaming without having to worry about updates and other PC annoyances. The best part is, if on the rate ocassion an update breaks something,I can easily boot straight to the previous image from the boot menu, without needing to run any commands or do anything special post-boot. And with Bazzite (and other uBlue distros), I can go back upto 90 days worth of images (3 previous local images + older images pulled from the cloud). I can also pin a known "good" image so it'll always be available in the boot menu. Essentially I get a rock solid unbreakable system, which is great because after a hard day's work, I really don't have the patience to deal with any PC issues at home.
  - mulmen 1y ago
    Yeah that does sound nice. It really is the best possible experience if all you want is to play games. I should have clarified that I meant the performance benefit of SteamOS over Bazzite specifically.
- Gigachad 1y ago
  SteamOS is very different from Arch. There’s almost too much to list here. But it uses an image based read only OS, a fully custom wayland desktop environment/compositor, does not have pakman, software is distributed either through steam or flatpak, OS image updates have their own mechanism. And a whole lot of preinstalled drivers and software for things like controller support which typically don’t come out of the box on Linux distros. The whole OS is made for controllers, no need for a mouse/kb for anything.
Benanov 1y ago
AIUI (I don't have any of this hardware) SteamOS is really meant for the Steam Deck; while there's "basic support" for the ROG Ally, it's not their focus. Bazzite seems to be quite happy to support everything, and AIUI it's frighteningly close to SteamOS (the same customizations, etc.) It's not "we have SteamOS at home" - it's more like RedHat vs CentOS
- pavon 1y ago
  This is changing. Valve is actively working with hardware manufacturers to get SteamOS on a number of systems other than the Steam Deck. You can buy a Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS today[1], and Valve will be supporting SteamOS on the Asus ROG Ally in the future[2], whether Asus partners with them or not. [1]https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/handheld/legion-go-s/len106g0002#models https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/handheld/legion-go-s/len106g0... [2]https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/13/24219469/valve-steamos-asus-rog-ally-steady-progress-dual-boot https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/13/24219469/valve-steamos-as...
__aru 1y ago
because official SteamOS doesn't support the Xbox Ally X yet. It's safe to assume that official SteamOS will eventually support the Xbox Ally X, but it's not there yet. Valve moves slowly to add support for more devices, etc, whereas the Bazzite devs can move faster. e.g. Bazzite does a weekly release of a stable OS candidate, whereas Valve often takes months, if not up to a year, for to release a stable-channel OS update. Edit: Also, Valve tends to wait for proper kernel interfaces for functionality like controlling TDP, RGB, fans, etc. Whereas Bazzite devs are fine with using tools in userspace to directly talk to hardware, etc. While I do think Valve's approach is better for long-term maintainability, Bazzite will always have the speed advantage because it can hack together a solution via userspace applications.

justsomehnguy 1y ago

>> up to 32% faster > Average FPS gain (Linux vs Windows) > +6.6 FPS (+13.47%)

mulmen 1y ago
The claim is “up to” which appears to be true of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
dangus 1y ago
Yes, that’s how averages work. “Up to” is the maximum number. “Average” is the sum of all the data points divided by the quantity of data points.
debugnik 1y ago
Relative FPS gain is a meaningless metric anyway. Going from 30 to 36 FPS is -5.5 ms/frame, going from 60 to 66 FPS is -1.5 ms/frame. Taking the average of that is even more meaningless. If they insist in comparing FPS instead of frame times, they should have simply compared the two harmonic means.
dijit 1y ago
Oh no? only 13.47% on average for a single title? Thats only 4 generations of improvement for intel CPUs. :(

guidedlight 1y ago

I wonder if this is why Xbox Series X never achieved a noticeable performance advantage over PlayStation 5, despite having more capable hardware.

teamonkey 1y ago
The Xbox runs on a custom OS derived from Windows Core. Not the same as a consumer version of Windows. [Edit] The answer you’re probably looking for is I/O. The PS5 is much faster than the Series X in terms of getting stuff off disk and actually using it. That more than compensates for the small speed advantage the Series X has.
- whalesalad 1y ago
  > derived from Windows Core if you polish a turd, it's still a turd.
  - Rohansi 1y ago
    The kernel is fine, it's all that crap they keep shoving into userspace that's the issue.
  - nick__m 1y ago
    I consider that the core of Windows (the NT kernel and win32 api) is actually a very polished gem but it is encased in layers of upon layers of barely polished turds ( winui, the win11 shell, the over agressive telemetry, forced ms635 integration, etc..)
    - buildbot 1y ago
      Makes sense, given that allegedly Windows NT is very much next gen OpenVMS... https://www.itprotoday.com/server-virtualization/windows-nt-and-vms-the-rest-of-the-story https://www.itprotoday.com/server-virtualization/windows-nt-...
    - AHTERIX5000 1y ago

mulmen 1y ago

This has been my experience. Linux+Steam+Proton delivers a more stable and performant Windows API than Windows. And that was on Windows 10 two years ago. I can only imagine things have gotten worse with Windows 11.

buyucu 1y ago
I play a lot of older games from 90s and 2000s. They certainly work better on Linux+Wine+DXVK than on Windows.
- CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
  Not to mention for the different games that need different environments/configurations/libraries it's much easier to manage a bunch of profiles than a bunch of windows installations/VMs.
- int_19h 1y ago
  It can get funny sometimes. There a game from 1999 that I had troubles running in Wine on Linux all the way back in 2005, and wrote a patch for it: https://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=1&tn=4694 https://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?actio... And then the same error message started showing up on Win10. Thankfully the same patch still works...

buyucu 1y ago

pretty much everything runs faster on Linux than on Windows.

YuukiRey 1y ago
I didn't do any tests myself but based on what I read you still pay a hefty performance penalty when using e.g., a 5090 on Linux.
- shmerl 1y ago
  That's expected. Always use AMD for Linux gaming. There is some WIP to address it for Nvidia, but it requires new Vulkan features. See: https://indico.freedesktop.org/event/10/contributions/402/attachments/243/327/2025-09-29%20-%20XDC%202025%20-%20Descriptors%20are%20Hard.pdf https://indico.freedesktop.org/event/10/contributions/402/at...
drnick1 1y ago
I use Arch pretty much exclusively these days on my desktop, but this isn't quite true. Most of the time, Proton has a small performance impact (around 5% lower FPS), but some games tend to suffer more. For example Helldivers 2 runs around 10fps lower, which is pretty significant since I only got around 60-70 FPS on Windows at 4K (using a 3090). Still, Proton is an amazing tool and these days it just works so well. The only games that don't work are those that are intentionally broken by invasive kernel-level anticheats. I won't be buying Battlefield 6, too bad for EA, there are now thousands of other games to play on Linux.
- grosswait 1y ago
  You’re comparing a game running on a compatibility layer, running on Linux to a game running directly on Windows. Not quite what the parent comment was stating.
  - drnick1 1y ago
    There are few native Linux games, so performance on Proton is the essential benchmark. Besides, even when Linux native versions are available, the Windows version on Proton often offers a better experience (fewer obvious bugs).

shmerl 1y ago

Nice! Linux gaming came a long way.

DigitallyFidget 1y ago
It really has. I had always tried to use Linux in the past, but gaming was always a fight, and the OS just never felt like it behaved reliable for daily usage for me, was always some little annoyance or bug or issue I'd run into and inevitably switch back to Windows for the sake of things just working without having to spend hours and days and weeks trying to fix issues. That was 10+ years ago. I finally decided to give it a go again, using an Arch based OS. I figured it's been a while, try something other than debian or SLES that I've been used to. Honestly, I kinda don't notice much difference in overall day to day use between gaming and day to day use on Linux versus previously being on Windows just a month ago. Everything kinda just works. The one thing I do notice is I use significantly less RAM, I seldom exceed 32gb as where I was regularly 40gb+ on Windows, and everything runs much better while I do the same day to day stuff as I always have. It's not a huge performance difference, but if I'm paying attention, yeah, I do notice my games tend to run better, and everything within the OS is far more responsive. As for all the linux a-holes out there, please STFU, I don't wanna hear "winblows sux" or "this distro is better", it's why I didn't specify what specific distro I use. That toxic fanboyism is what keeps people away from seeing it as a viable usable OS. My rambling is really just to say: Yeah, linux has come a long way, especially for gaming and day to day use. The work Valve and others have done to make stuff just run and work is astonishing.
- eru 1y ago
  I've been using Linux since the late 1990s. Gaming has improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years, but non-gaming desktop use has been solid for ages. What little annoyances and bugs and issues kept you going back to Windows? I found Windows 10 was the first bearable Windows, that I could use without wanting to go back to Linux all the time. Not great, but bearable. I still used Windows for gaming throughout the whole time. (Until about a year ago, when I accidentally nuked my Windows installation, and then never bothered to set it up again..) Depending on the job I had at the time, I also used Windows at work. > As for all the linux a-holes out there, please STFU, I don't wanna hear "winblows sux" or "this distro is better", it's why I didn't specify what specific distro I use. That toxic fanboyism is what keeps people away from seeing it as a viable usable OS. I've mostly heard that until perhaps about 10 years ago. I'm sure these people are still out there, but it seems to be much less common these days. I use Arch Linux for what it's worth, but almost any distro can install almost any program (and they all run the same kernels), so it mostly comes down to what package manager and configuration system you want to use, and whether you like the defaults that come with your distribution. I'm still having some trouble with screen tearing in some games on Linux, alas. I suspect these problems have been ironed out for the more mainstream window manager setups (like whatever you get in Ubuntu by default, instead of me using XMonad), but so far I couldn't be bothered to fix it, yet.

leetharris 1y ago

I have the Xbox Ally, Steam Deck, and original Ally. The original Ally software launch was a disaster. Unbelievable amount of bugs and overall terrible user experience. After 6+ months of updates it was decent. I figured, hey, maybe they figured it out in advance this time? So I pre-ordered an Xbox Ally. It is a complete disaster in terms of software. It took 90 minutes to setup and download initial updates on a Google Fiber connection. Things break constantly. The other day, I got a new error, "Something went wrong and your PIN isn't available." When I try to click anything, it just goes black. After 6 or 7 restarts, it randomly glitches out and takes me right to desktop without any PIN. It is just constant bullshit like this. The entire experience breaks over, and over, and over. I hate it so much. Back to Steam Deck.

pjmlp 1y ago
Unfortunately that is what happens when they keep laying off people, and the new interns have hardly done any Windows development. See the mess on Windows development experience since Project Reunion reboot, or how WinRT transition was completely mismanaged. But hey Satya got his bonus.
rocmcd 1y ago
I don't mean to be rude, but why would you give them even more money after screwing it up so bad the first time? You're just rewarding bad behavior at this point.
- rjh29 1y ago
  OP explained that. The original was stable after 6 months of patches. The Xbox Ally should in theory have that stability baked in. Everyone deserves a second chance. Not so much a third.

klipklop 1y ago

I know this is extreme, but people buying these Xbox handhelds over a Steam Deck are directly harming the future of gaming on PC. It's time that the PC gaming ecosystem breaks free from its dependency on Windows. Proton and SteamOS, combined with the unpopular mess that is Windows 11 is the perfect opportunity to do so. The long-term end goal for Microsoft is to lock down Windows and force signed code. Once users are locked in, expect service fees to sharply rise just to use Windows. People should not fall for it. Leave Windows for crusty corporations that love their office 365 employee spy platform.

xzjis 1y ago
I completely agree. I pre-ordered the Steam Deck without knowing if I would actually use it, telling myself that at least I was supporting gaming on SteamOS by providing financial support. I boycott all Windows-based alternatives, even if they are better, because I refuse to use a product sold with Windows.
cortesoft 1y ago
I love my Steam Deck, but it is really frustrating how many of the games i regularly play can't be played on it - Madden, EA FC, PUBG, all won't run even though the hardware is plenty to play them. The limitations of anti cheat on Linux might be insurmountable
- Gigachad 1y ago
  Competitive online gaming is the least strong part of the steam deck. But on the flip side it’s way better for local multi player. You can pack it in your bag with some controllers and plug it in to a friends TV easily.
  - kjkjadksj 1y ago
    Very few games bother with local multiplayer anymore
    - eru 1y ago

DiabloD3 1y ago

Of course, why buy this disaster when this exists: https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/handheld-gaming/amd-strix-halo-powered-gaming-handheld-reveals-desktop-like-gpu-performance-ryzen-ai-max-395-was-a-hairline-from-the-rtx-4060 https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/handheld-gaming/amd...

yowmamasita 1y ago
I dont know... price, maybe?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- op00to 1y ago
  also the fact that it doesn’t have an internal battery
  - _carbyau_ 1y ago
    I understand weight as an issue on a portable but since when is being able to replace the battery a design fault?
    - Dylan16807 1y ago
      You're mixing things up. Normal replaceable batteries are still internal.
zamadatix 1y ago
One disaster for another - why spend thousands on a giant "portable" with a 1-2 hour gaming time before you have to power it off to swap the bulky external battery.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
1y ago

zozbot234 1y ago

On the other hand, Linux still lacks a gamepad-focused UX out of the box, which is the real selling proposition of this device. These handheld PC's are not inherently "gaming" machines, they could have all sorts of interesting enterprise-focused uses out in the field if we managed to find a nice way of centering the whole UX interaction on those weird chorded buttons and analog controls.

yowmamasita 1y ago
What do you mean exactly on this comment? Do you mean a Linux distro like Bazzite or SteamOS which are both using gamepads as its main control?
Gigachad 1y ago
This is not true of SteamOS and Bazzite. The entire OS is controller supported. I have my desktop running Bazzite plugged in to the TV with no kb/m. Can do everything from updating the system, changing the screen resolution, formatting sd cards, etc with just a controller.
- devilsdata 1y ago
  As for the enterprise part of OP's comment, Bazzite is a community-contributed OCI container (similar to a Docker container) running on top of a Fedora bootc spin with GNOME or KDE. It is trivial for a company to add their own RUN instructions to the OCI Containerfile. Here's a working one that I prepared earlier that installs 1Password on Bazzite GNOME and Bluefin: https://github.com/lkdm/Phoenix https://github.com/lkdm/Phoenix
- Uvix 1y ago
  How do you install non-Steam games (e.g. from GOG)? Last I tried that still required dropping to desktop mode and using mouse/keyboard.
  - Gigachad 1y ago
    I hardly ever do that, but the one time I did (for Minecraft) I did just drop down to desktop mode and used the trackpad and touch screen. This wasn’t really to do with Linux though. Minecraft does not provide any way to install and log in with controller support. After I installed it one time, I added it to Steam and could launch and update it with a controller. In theory GOG could integrate with Bazzite to offer a controller friendly store and UI. But considering they haven’t even bothered with a desktop Linux client, I’m not holding my breath.