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non-gaming stuff that i think could be done in the deck would be: basic video editing in davinci resolve (and probably only effective with 720p res), basic audio recording using either or both Ardour and Audacity (ardour is a pro daw, and can be found free through arch repos), and obviously office stuff with one of the many programs for that; maybe for coding could be useful too.
but, to do all that, you are likely going to need bigger screen to be able to read and interact properly with the programs + your keyboard and mouse, and the few that could work without a monitor or screen, still wont be very useful without a physical keyboard.
maybe someone should create a mini-keyboard that could be attached to the deck (or the other way around), so it could be used for writing stuff more easily, or use it for browsing when not interested in playing a game, or theres a need to check messages, or stuff like that.
As a Linux Admin, as a desktop for personal use (and emergency remote access), it works fine.
For Web Browsing, it's just fine. Valve is working on a way to keep Firefox more current - particularly due to zero-days. (Official & current FF is available as a flatpak.)
For basic productivity and development, it's fine too. Just make sure you keep your stuff backed up.
Knowing how to work around the limitations of the device is important - especially if you have the 64GB model (I've a 256GB).
* Only install GUI apps using Flatpaks. If you need Command Line stuff like me, install 'linuxbrew' (it's still just brew - https://brew.sh). Be aware, Flatpaks & Brew will easily eat 2GB each due to each ensuring their necessary shared libraries (which effectively are duplicates of what's on SteamOS). FYI - If you 'brew', install it using 'sudo' so it's installed under /home/linuxbrew.
But they are a necessary solution. If you make the OS disk read-write and install something, you will lose it on the next SteamOS update.
* put as many of the games as possible on the SD Card
- if you have to reset the device, it saves game restore/download time
- for non-Steam games, you'll want a method to keep them backed up or symlinked to the SD Card. (leave EMU ROMs on the SD Card)
* know/learn about the Deck nuances so you can manage it accordingly (review the forums and some key sites like https://www.gamingonlinux.com/ )
- create simple "restore scripts" to re-install your Desktop stuff (flatpaks, brew.sh, etc.) that live on the SD Card.
- keep select directories in your $HOMEDIR (/home/deck) rsync'd to an SD Card directory. Backup backup backup - especially if using its Desktop like a laptop environment.
- have a script or so to manage clutter (remove leftover proton_dist.tar files, clear caches (shader,web,others), and other tasks)
- be aware that directories /etc , /root , and /var , are Overlays that live in /home/.steamos so they are safe between SteamOS Updates - just like your game/homedir /home/deck/
Myself, I have all the intention of putting my stuff (scripts, etc.) on github/gitlab or so once I shore a few things up IRL & validating my stuff will work for others. At the same time, I don't want to become a 'project' manager taking pull requests from others.
My latest self-centered docs is a HOWTO manage the Deck using Ansible (via virtualenv+pip install or optionally 'brew install ansible'). Some of the challenge will be working up a portable playbook for either method using the community collection for flatpak installs, Arch pacman, and other utils.
I know my post is a little in the deep end, but it demonstrates the Deck can do a whole lot in Desktop mode.
Cheers, retro.
All programs like 3D printing related apps, libreoffice (and set tabbed interface for office365 alike), VLC, Firefox, qBittorrent - flawlessly works for me. Have not encountered situation where I could not find flatpak, really.
When docked with 2 extra monitors I run Konsole with htop in Deck screen only.
Disadvantages: Need to unlock filesystem for Docker containers. Since I don't want to deal with updates resetting Docker, it means basically no docker for me in Deck, which I wanted to use for JupyterNotebooks, PiHole, development, etc. In my use case not sure where else would you need to unlock filesystem.
Also battery lasts forever for watching movies on bed.
Also I'm using Warpinator to send files between PCs, because was too lazy to setup SAMBA yet.
=====================================
Can recommend gamingonlinux.com too, editor really knows the stuff.
Using a USB C hub with HDMI out, wireless mouse and keyboard.
Works absolutely fine. You can find all programs you commonly need as flatpak
You can play the same games as you usually play on the Deck on a 1080 screen with mouse and keyboard
The only big con is that the Steam Deck's screen stays on. It's black but it's on, so that's annoying.
If you don't have experience, you might run into problems you need to search around a lot to fix, if you want to do anything past install Flatpak applications.
I carry my Deck everywhere. With all of the below, I have essentially replaced my Termux environment on my smartphone, any desire for a development or gaming laptop, livingroom game console, and when my desktop finally dies, that thing too. Having everything centralized on one device is really nice.
The biggest hurdle has so far been learning about evdev and why these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ controllers I got are reporting wrong buttons, and what I can do about it. I knew this would be an issue but I assumed I could get it to work quickly, so far it looks like I may need to submit kernel patches or build my own kernel to rebind it, or install xboxdrv and see if that will work. (evdev does not appear to offer any way to rebind controllers, but you can sure rebind keys.)
Edit: Ended up going with xboxdrv, it was way faster to get set up and I really don't want to bother ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around with the kernel.
Here's my Deck carry:
Portable USB-C monitor
I got this obvious Ali Express rebrand 17" USB-C alt mode portable monitor[www.amazon.com]. Despite that it came with a lot of nice accessories and the panel is good, so I can recommend it. Works even without a power source when plugged in to the Deck directly, but you won't get good brightness without an external USB-PD source. Make sure to not turn on the "Save Brightness" feature or you might get stuck with it constantly turning itself off due to a lacking power draw from the Deck. (People complain about it intentionally turning the brightness down when you first turn it on, but it was intentional for just that reason.)
If you don't like this model there are literally hundreds more, but a lot of them are crap, so be careful. I was going to go with one of the ASUS ROG portable monitors with better refresh rates, but the Deck won't really be getting a whole lot of use out of those extra frames with its iGPU, and every other portable monitor including the ROG one had tons of reviews of people saying theirs broke quickly. Nothing so far for the one I picked up, and it seems decently sturdy enough.
Portable dock
I use the Cable Matters 3 DP USB-C dock[www.amazon.com]. It works great in almost all respects, but sadly it does not appear to support downstream alt mode, and the DP ports are not DP++. Because of this, the monitor does not work on the dock's port for anything but power, you need an active mini HDMI to DP cable alongside it. I have not been able to find a small, portable dock that has downstream alt mode—if anyone has found one I would love to see it.
Edit: I switched to the Dell WD19TB, which supports downstream alt mode and DP++. It's larger than what I'd really like, but it is small enough that taking it with me is not that much of a problem. It does need a lot more power to function when compared to other portable docks, so if you don't expect to have a good power supply handy, you might want to look for alternatives. I am going to order this cable[www.amazon.com] instead of carrying around that huge brick it comes with.
Video adapters
Carry a HDMI->mini HDMI adapter (a cable comes with the monitor I linked), some HDMI->DP adapters, and if you're really serious a DP->mini DP adapter, and you'll be able to plug in to essentially any digital display device. DP->VGA/DVI can do the rest. If all you have are adapters, it isn't a heavy or cumbersome thing to take with you—in fact I carry all of mine in the little bag the Deck came with.
Portable keyboard and mouse
I put together my own Bluetooth/wired board on a GeekHack 60% case with MX Green switches, but you could easily get one like this[www.amazon.com].
I use the Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro[www.amazon.com] since it has 3 methods of use: wired, 2.5GHz with dongle, and Bluetooth, ordered in descending levels of performance. One of the few mice Razer sells that has both a 2.5GHz dongle and Bluetooth support, so if you don't have the space to rip out the dock for wired/2.5Ghz you can at least use Bluetooth.
Portable controllers
If you've got the space just get some old Xbox controllers. If not, 8BitDo makes some nice small form factor controllers. I got 2x of the Xbox Cloud version of the SN30 Pro[www.amazon.com], they have full analog triggers and are very portable with a good battery life. They work fine with the Deck, but they report button outputs designed for Android (since it is targeted specifically at Android users) so I am looking at using xboxdrv to convert them. Specifically, as with many other Bluetooth controllers targeting Android, the triggers use ABS_GAS/ABS_BRAKE, the face buttons are flipped around, the right stick uses the sliders that the triggers should, and the Xbox button sends BTN_MODE instead of BTN_MENU (so it doesn't bring up the Steam interface, but shortcuts using it still work like bringing up the keyboard with menu+X). If you don't want to ♥♥♥♥ with that, and don't mind digital L2/R2 (I do), then get the normal models[www.amazon.com]. They are more expensive however as they also have gyro controls. I don't know if Steam Input recognizes their gyro controls or not.
Other accessories:
More beefy home dock
At home I have a Hyper Power dock I had sitting around, it sucks but I will be getting the official dock when it comes out, so I won't upgrade yet. I have heard a lot of good things about the CalDigit[www.caldigit.com] dock. The dock I take with me in my bag, the Dell WD19TB, would also work really well for a stationary setup.
Performant SD card
If you are using the Deck for daily driving, it is a good idea to move all your stuff to the SD card so you can reset the Deck easily if you ever need to; if you're on the Beta/Preview builds, they make so many little tweaks to it so often it's not a bad idea to do a regular refresh to keep the cruft down. For this purpose I got the Samsung 512GB microSD card[www.amazon.com] for its excellent performance/price ratio. You can easily max it out with its 150MB/s performance on the Deck, to the point that I have not noticed much by way of performance issues in real-world use compared to the internal drive.
Stand
I originally wanted a stand to hold the Deck, but now that I have the monitor I don't really care as much about that anymore. If you have space you could get some cheap thing like this[www.amazon.com], I got it for $6 and it works fine. If you want to keep things portable I got this GENKI stand designed for the Switch[www.amazon.com], but it's actually kinda ♥♥♥♥ and seems like it will not last. Look for something else in that form factor. Just make sure whatever you get doesn't cover the air intake on the back.
I forgot to mention you can get a Universal Dock with a built in M.2 NVME SSD card slot to give yourself additional 4TB of storage, or you can buy a cheaper one with a lot of USB ports to attach external SSD drives plus have multiple display outputs. here is one example: https://www.amazon.com/Enclosure-iDsonix-Docking-Station-Delivery/dp/B09WVK1G47/ref=sr_1_24?crid=10X1XW87NILF5&keywords=docking+station+nvme+m.2&qid=1657946392&sprefix=docking+station+n%2Caps%2C446&sr=8-24
What would be the best way to turn this into a daily driver? Would it be better to install another distro onto the SD card and work from there? Ideally, I'd like to avoid continually reinstalling stuff every update!
- Battery life for desktop usage is alright, but if you also want to use it for a game in-between desktopping sessions than I hope you have an outlet or power bank nearby. Some games and settings configs can drop you to 0% within an hour or two.
- I don't know if it's been addressed yet, but if you're an avid Linux user, IIRC there are app repos that are excluded from this version of Linux and certain directories are read-only. For casual use it's not really a problem, but using pacman to install/update doesn't work well if at all. Additionally, anything installed through pacman in the terminal (ie. sudo pacman -S neofetch) gets nuked with system updates.
- AFAIK not setting the console to offline mode before leaving the house means you can't play games. Every time I've forgotten to do so, I get infinite loading screens when trying to start games. Kind of annoying.