That’s a fair question which I have to cut a little short due to it being a huge topic:
The overhead of a full blown operating system you have to maintain is not a trivial thing. You have to update and maintain os, drivers and applications at least and it’s directed at all purpose use in general. That means all of the above and games might or might not fit well to a handheld device.
Even if it’s maintained by a third party (eg Asus) there are many many moving parts that are all purpose.
This might be a dialog box with unaccessible options you have to work around or games not working with the controls you need to fix and might never (for me steredenn on steam deck).
You can however literally do what you want with it.
Compared to this a console is an optimized experience, golden cage. Things just work. Yes there might be the off chance but in general the producer has a system. 100% under their control and can test and optimize very well, which Nintendo debatably does.
The ROG Crate software is actually pretty good. It’s not perfect but I rarely have to interact with Windows at all and once you get used to the controls when doing so not all that bad. And I dislike Windows a lot, but if I feel that it’s mostly a non issue. I wouldn’t go for a SteamOS version either, as I like Gamepass.
I switched to Linux probably about two years ago. I was annoyed that GamePass didn’t work (because MS specifically handles it in a way to make it not work). Then I just stopped caring. If I want to try a game, there’s other ways to (🏴☠️). MS specifically created their software to not work where I want to be, so they don’t deserve my money. I’m not going to pay my captor to keep me there. I’d happily pay for it again, but they need to meet me where I want to be, and they easily can if they choose to.
Can they though? Isn’t the responsibility of porting games to Linux that of the developer? They could create a Gamepass for Linux but that would probably entail more money spent on licensing that platform, and funding ports which they certainly have no economic incentive to do.
That being said, they seem really committed to their “everything is an Xbox” strategy so it would not surprise me terribly if they ended teaming up with Valve at some point and created some kind of Gamepass on Steam thing, where you can play Gamepass games directly from steam or something, which would presumably also include the MacOS and Linux versions of the game if they are available.
GamePass doesn’t work because it uses a proprietary encryption method for all the games. It’s why you can’t mod them (unless explicitly allowed by MS, which then decrypts the files to be modified). The games almost all work perfectly well on Linux. It’s specifically an issue with the GamePass platform, which was designed by MS to only work on Windows. It’s MS making the choice to not allow it to work anywhere else.
Right? I’ve seen a lot of people on Reddit shitting on it and I for the life of me can’t understand why. The only big issue imo is the lack of a proper sleep mode. Hopefully Microsoft addresses this issue when/if they truly build a handheld windows experience.
And yep, I’ll stick with Gamepass until enshitification runs its course. When it does then I’ll switch to SteamOS. But for now the service is still great for me.
Well Windows is a no for me on that. And while the steam deck is nice and the OS runs on the ally too, it’s still a pc with all it’s pros and cons.
(I use both worlds BTW)
What are the pros and cons you’re considering, and how do they compare to the pros and cons of a Nintendo console?
That’s a fair question which I have to cut a little short due to it being a huge topic:
The overhead of a full blown operating system you have to maintain is not a trivial thing. You have to update and maintain os, drivers and applications at least and it’s directed at all purpose use in general. That means all of the above and games might or might not fit well to a handheld device. Even if it’s maintained by a third party (eg Asus) there are many many moving parts that are all purpose. This might be a dialog box with unaccessible options you have to work around or games not working with the controls you need to fix and might never (for me steredenn on steam deck). You can however literally do what you want with it.
Compared to this a console is an optimized experience, golden cage. Things just work. Yes there might be the off chance but in general the producer has a system. 100% under their control and can test and optimize very well, which Nintendo debatably does.
The ROG Crate software is actually pretty good. It’s not perfect but I rarely have to interact with Windows at all and once you get used to the controls when doing so not all that bad. And I dislike Windows a lot, but if I feel that it’s mostly a non issue. I wouldn’t go for a SteamOS version either, as I like Gamepass.
I switched to Linux probably about two years ago. I was annoyed that GamePass didn’t work (because MS specifically handles it in a way to make it not work). Then I just stopped caring. If I want to try a game, there’s other ways to (🏴☠️). MS specifically created their software to not work where I want to be, so they don’t deserve my money. I’m not going to pay my captor to keep me there. I’d happily pay for it again, but they need to meet me where I want to be, and they easily can if they choose to.
Can they though? Isn’t the responsibility of porting games to Linux that of the developer? They could create a Gamepass for Linux but that would probably entail more money spent on licensing that platform, and funding ports which they certainly have no economic incentive to do.
That being said, they seem really committed to their “everything is an Xbox” strategy so it would not surprise me terribly if they ended teaming up with Valve at some point and created some kind of Gamepass on Steam thing, where you can play Gamepass games directly from steam or something, which would presumably also include the MacOS and Linux versions of the game if they are available.
GamePass doesn’t work because it uses a proprietary encryption method for all the games. It’s why you can’t mod them (unless explicitly allowed by MS, which then decrypts the files to be modified). The games almost all work perfectly well on Linux. It’s specifically an issue with the GamePass platform, which was designed by MS to only work on Windows. It’s MS making the choice to not allow it to work anywhere else.
Gamepass is the one reason I can’t switch. I’m with you on the crate software, pretty damn impressive.
Right? I’ve seen a lot of people on Reddit shitting on it and I for the life of me can’t understand why. The only big issue imo is the lack of a proper sleep mode. Hopefully Microsoft addresses this issue when/if they truly build a handheld windows experience.
And yep, I’ll stick with Gamepass until enshitification runs its course. When it does then I’ll switch to SteamOS. But for now the service is still great for me.