Steam Deck for university?

[Saul]

Hi!

I've been thinking about getting a part-time job to save up for a Steam Deck. I've heard it works really well connected to a monitor/keyboard as a daily powerfull setup. I'm studying Computer Engineering, and understand the Fedora OS, since I run it natively on my laptop. Honestly, just looking for opinions from people who use it for other things than play games, and see how well it handles those things (mainly CompSci/Engineering related).

Many Thanks !

[Lois Griffin]

bro use your computer engineering skills to earn money, part time jobs dont pay squat

[shadowboy813]

It'll be fine. I've used my steam deck for some astrophotography image processing.

[Saul]

Originally posted by Lois Griffin:

bro use your computer engineering skills to earn money, part time jobs dont pay squat

What jobs do you recommend? I'm a second year student...

[Saul]

Originally posted by shadowboy813:

It'll be fine. I've used my steam deck for some astrophotography image processing.

Interesting, thank you!

[Haruspex]

I know you're looking to hear from people who use the Steam Deck like a desktop, and I'm not that person, but I do want to mention a few things regarding the Steam Deck and how you plan to use it.

The Steam Deck is really best used in the manner in which is was designed, and that's as a handheld, portable gaming PC. Yes, you can dock it and use it on an external display, but that's not really it's focus, and you'll find that functionality isn't quite as well developed as it's handheld mode is.

SteamOS 3 is Deck specific. It's based on Arch and uses the KDE Plasma desktop environment for it's "desktop mode". By default, it uses an immutable file system. It's intended that you'll stick to Flatpaks for all your 3rd party software needs.

If you want a system for more general use, you're really better off with a much more general purpose distro. You can get a laptop that massively outperforms the Steam Deck for maybe $100 more than the 512 GB Deck goes for. Sure, it would be awkward to use for games in places that the Steam Deck excels in, like on the toilet, at a bus stop, or anywhere else you lack a proper surface, but considering you're going to university it sounds like you really need a more work-specific machine. Playing games will just be a bonus. The Deck is exactly opposite, being a handheld gaming machine first and foremost, and the ability to use it for productivity is just a bonus.

[Saul]

Originally posted by Harusp3x:

I know you're looking to hear from people who use the Steam Deck like a desktop, and I'm not that person, but I do want to mention a few things regarding the Steam Deck and how you plan to use it.

The Steam Deck is really best used in the manner in which is was designed, and that's as a handheld, portable gaming PC. Yes, you can dock it and use it on an external display, but that's not really it's focus, and you'll find that functionality isn't quite as well developed as it's handheld mode is.

SteamOS 3 is Deck specific. It's based on Arch and uses the KDE Plasma desktop environment for it's "desktop mode". By default, it uses an immutable file system. It's intended that you'll stick to Flatpaks for all your 3rd party software needs.

If you want a system for more general use, you're really better off with a much more general purpose distro. You can get a laptop that massively outperforms the Steam Deck for maybe $100 more than the 512 GB Deck goes for. Sure, it would be awkward to use for games in places that the Steam Deck excels in, like on the toilet, at a bus stop, or anywhere else you lack a proper surface, but considering you're going to university it sounds like you really need a more work-specific machine. Playing games will just be a bonus. The Deck is exactly opposite, being a handheld gaming machine first and foremost, and the ability to use it for productivity is just a bonus.

Yeah sorry about the confusion. I already have a fairly powerful laptop that I use on my day to day for uni and works fine. As for the OS, Arch with KDE would be no issue (already use KDE on Fedora and can work my way trough Arch). I should have explained it further in the post, but the main reason I was thinking about getting the deck is for both gaming and working, not to just use it as a daily computer. I was also thinking of just buying a regular PC, but it would be a really big Hassle to take it back home from Uni, since I live in student housing there and it wouldn't really be possible.

Thank you very much for your in depth comment!

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by Saul:

I should have explained it further in the post, but the main reason I was thinking about getting the deck is for both gaming and working, not to just use it as a daily computer.

Use your laptop for work and use the Deck for gaming.

The Deck is significantly better than a laptop for portable gaming from an ergonomics point of view, and both lose massively to a desktop from a performance point of view (and not wanting the hassle of a desktop when in transient housing is perfectly understandable).

A docked Deck offers no advantage over a docked laptop for work, but has massive downsides - like the read-only filesystem and the lack of a normal software repository. Using the Deck for non-gaming tasks would broadly do in a pinch, but is less good than the solution that you already have.

[Mahjik]

Buy a Deck, keep it at home to use during holidays and between semesters. During the semesters, focus on your courses.

[tfk]

Desktop mode is a full KDE installation. As for applications, if its on flathub, it can be installed. I have it docked and connected to a monitor, mouse and keychron mini keyboard. Works perfectly.