OK, but you didn’t say that. You said worth the $/h, which is a common metric people use but is less than worthless.
$/h is useful because it isa universally transferable measure. Enjoyment is not, but is actually what we care about.
I’m just trying to work to remove $/h as something people discuss, because it’s ruined so many games.
Sure, that is an advantage. There’s a lot of advantages. I just don’t think it’s good for users willing to learn. It’s good to make sure the user can’t fuck up, but then it also limits what they can do. I think if you’ve made it here and can use a full OS currently, you should try a non-immutable distro. If it turns out you fuck it up then you can swap to something that’ll hold your hand.
There’s pros and cons. I personally don’t want an immutable distro, but there are reasons for it. It’s especially good for what the Deck is with a large portion of people who probably don’t know what they’re doing.
$/h is a shitty metric. Some hours are more enjoyable than others, and also time is a resource we spend, just like money, not something we’re gaining, so it taking time is a negative. Enjoyment/$ is the metric to use, or maybe (enjoyment/h)/$.
$/h is a marketing term. It isn’t a term consumers should bother with. It’s what has lead to boring over-inflated games that waste your time doing things that don’t matter and aren’t fun.
Why not ask them for something else, unless they really want you to have that device in particular for some reason.
SteamOS will not be your best option for desktop. Stop waiting for it. It’s made for the Deck and console like experiences, not desktop. It’s immutable too, which is great for a console experience, but probably not ideal for a desktop user.
Just go download Linux now. There’s nothing special in SteamOS that you need. I use Garuda, which is Arch based (which SteamOS is also, if that matters), and has a version specifically designed for gaming. It comes with most of what you could need set up, and a tool to quickly install any packages you may want for additional things like controllers or whatever.
Yeah, the issues with Windows are mostly a ton of really small things. There aren’t too many major issues that will force you to switch instantly, and no one of the small things will make you switch because it’s easier to just deal with it and move in in that moment.
I can’t even remember what it was that made me switch about two years ago. It was Windows ignoring a setting I changed before when it updated. It just got really frustrating how little they care about what I want my system to do/look like. They only care about what they want, but it’s my machine! It all eventually pushed me over the edge, but most users aren’t tracking that.
I’m pretty convinced that most users would have a better time with Linux now though. In particular, the package manager makes not dealing with individual application updates and running random executable you find online such a better experience. As long as people are using a distro that suits their requirements, and not one that requires a lot of manual effort, it functions better than Windows. It isn’t Windows though, so they get annoyed that it doesn’t function identically to that shitty system they’re used to.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but is it actually more fiddly or are you just used to it working the other way? I hear people often complain about Linux not working exactly how their Windows install worked, but it being them just not used to the work flow. People get so used to dealing with Windows garbage that they forget it exists, but they notice everything when switching to something new so it feels worse even if it’s technically better.
Just a word of warning, SteamOS is designed for the Deck (and Deck-like experiences). It’s immutable, which creates some limitations. It’ll also be set up for the controls on the device, not mouse and keyboard. These probably aren’t total deal breakers, but it’s worth considering. It’s designed to be a fairly locked down console-like experience. If you want a desktop experience, you’re better of elsewhere. I recommend Garuda, which has a great preset for gaming and tools to get everything running easily right after the install.
Most do work. Anything with EAC or Battleye (the huge majority) work as long as the devs have updated it recently really.
EfT runs (with some effort last I tried, most of the issues coming from the launcher I needed to run to install the game, not the game itself) but I think multiplayer probably doesn’t work. I was trying to play the Single Player Tarkov mod last I played, and it was able to work.
Garuda is great because it comes with a tool where you can select a bunch of packages you may need (but also most won’t, so it’s not built in), then it’ll install them for you. You don’t need to search for what you’ll need because they’re listed with a description for you right on the first boot. It makes it very quick and easy to get set up, while still being Arch underneath.
I’m using Garuda and it has a setup specifically for gaming. The gamer look it comes with out of the box is ugly in my opinion, but that’s easy to change.I highly recommend it. It’s Arch based, so the AUR and Arch wiki work great with it. It’s really great and (in my opinion) user friendly.
It’ll let you upgrade to Linux. It doesn’t play those stupid games with you like MS does.
Do you play many indie games? I feel like they’ve taken most of these formulas and really expanded on them, way more than Nintendo will do.