Asking Valve: why SFL doesn't have a GUI installer?

[rado84]

AFAIK Steam for Linux was first launched in 2013 when there were more than enough frameworks to make a simple GUI installer which gives the user a choice where to install Steam. There were GTK2, GTK3, Qt5, probably other frameworks as well. A simple GUI installer could have been made back then. GTK3 was and still is most widely compatible with different DEs, Qt is also a not bad framework.

Since the corporation that will dictate my Linux life and daily operations hasn't been created yet, I found a way to force Steam to install wherever I want (thus freeing 22 GB from the root partition) - just like on Spyware.

But the $1 mil. question is: "Why, Valve, why Steam for Linux doesn't have a decent GUI installer, just like Spyware has?".

Nowadays with ArcheamOS on Steam Deck (that's what I call SteamOS - bc it's a slightly modified Arch), not to mention the huge Linux gaming community, it doesn't make any sense for SFL not to have a GUI installer with browseable destionation choice.

You censor the name of the OS that starts with "W" and replace it with hearts which clearly indicates you dislike it, if not outright hate it, and yet you give those users a GUI installer, whereas we have to dig deep. I don't mind the digging bc I learn something new with every digging, but that raises the question why you make it easier for the Spyware users...

[tyl0413]

because "you're not supposed to use the .deb from the website" when its one of the best ways of installing Steam on debian. Everyone must use trash like flatpak and snap right.
Would be nice if it could be installed elsewhere and being able to move the whole Steam folder across installs, I do that on Windows, haven't manually installed Steam in a long time just move the folder.

[Zyro]

Because having an installer for each application is not the Linux way, where you have your one installer for all apllications. Valve gets that. )Steam doesn't take up 22 GB BTW, obviously.)

[sandokanski]

Uhm... i don't know. But I never downloaded or installed Steam from their web site. There is a package (or even packages) available for each Linux distro I've used so far.
So that is apt and pacman. But I guess even rpm based distros will have it as a package. And flatpak. Even snap (but I've never used snap, so don't quote me on that).

[grzegorz77]

In Linux, there are no 'drives' c: d: e: etc.
There is a directory structure, and everything is file.


So you need to change your thinking in order to understand it and use it efficiently.


Windows beginner user saves everything on the desktop, but you have already understood that it's a bad idea.
Here you do not change the location of the files, but you allocate space for storage.

How to imagine it.
It's like when you install something on Android, you don't care where it will be saved.


So how to allocate space.

Katherine has her room, this room is in the house.
/home/Katherine
The owner of the house is dad (root).
/
Katherine has four stuffed kittens:
/home/Katherine/kitten black/
/home/Katherine/kitten white/
/home/Katherine/kitten red/
/home/Katherine/kitten with spots/
keeps them in separate drawers
in drawer with kitten red, there is a box for the kitten's balls
but the box is too small, so dad brings a bigger box

For simple things, it does this using symbolic link.
It's something like a shortcut in windows but more advanced.

For things like the steam folder, it's probably better to do it by editing the /etc/fstab file.
So you take any partition or directory. And you place it in /home/Katherine/kitten red/kitten's balls box
Katherine doesn't know where the box came from, but she is happy.


New system installation.
Basically, every Linux distribution asks if you want to create a separate /home partition.
But Linux is not Windows, you don't install it every year, people have systems running for 20 years.

It's really rare to install a new system when you've already chosen your favorite flavor.
Two commands and you seamlessly jump to the newer version.

What to do when you haven't set up a separate /home
And do you want to switch from gradua to mint?
You can leave the home folder (or any folder) and delete all the others, shrink the partition and install / elsewhere.

This is just a sample solution, Linux is very flexible and can basically implement any of your ideas.

So place the symbolic link before installing Steam.
And it will install where the symbolic link leads.

Or place there a folder that will be a mounted partition, or a folder.


edit:
The only recommended method of installing Steam is to use apt or some graphical interface for it, such as Synaptic. It's more convenient in text mode, so not many people use overlays
apt is for debian-based systems, arch has pacman.

Steam OS is not a real full Linux, it's something like the Sony game console system for, but more advanced.
There things work differently than on a normal Linux installed on a PC.

Like every "easy new Linux", it is easy on the first day, and very difficult when you want to change something.

So on the Steam Deck leave Steam OS, and if you want Linux on PC, it's better to install Mint or Pop OS which work well in the long term for beginners.

[[GNU] Debian ☭]

Originally posted by grzegorz77:

In Linux, there are no 'drives' c: d: e: etc.
There is a directory structure, and everything is file.


So you need to change your thinking in order to understand it and use it efficiently.


Windows beginner user saves everything on the desktop, but you have already understood that it's a bad idea.
Here you do not change the location of the files, but you allocate space for storage.

How to imagine it.
It's like when you install something on Android, you don't care where it will be saved.


So how to allocate space.

Katherine has her room, this room is in the house.
/home/Katherine
The owner of the house is dad (root).
/
Katherine has four stuffed kittens:
/home/Katherine/kitten black/
/home/Katherine/kitten white/
/home/Katherine/kitten red/
/home/Katherine/kitten with spots/
keeps them in separate drawers
in drawer with kitten red, there is a box for the kitten's balls
but the box is too small, so dad brings a bigger box

For simple things, it does this using symbolic link.
It's something like a shortcut in windows but more advanced.

For things like the steam folder, it's probably better to do it by editing the /etc/fstab file.
So you take any partition or directory. And you place it in /home/Katherine/kitten red/kitten's balls box
Katherine doesn't know where the box came from, but she is happy.


New system installation.
Basically, every Linux distribution asks if you want to create a separate /home partition.
But Linux is not Windows, you don't install it every year, people have systems running for 20 years.

It's really rare to install a new system when you've already chosen your favorite flavor.
Two commands and you seamlessly jump to the newer version.

What to do when you haven't set up a separate /home
And do you want to switch from gradua to mint?
You can leave the home folder (or any folder) and delete all the others, shrink the partition and install / elsewhere.

This is just a sample solution, Linux is very flexible and can basically implement any of your ideas.

So place the symbolic link before installing Steam.
And it will install where the symbolic link leads.

Or place there a folder that will be a mounted partition, or a folder.

<3

People love to bash things they don't understand well!! Nice job you did there, educating the guy(s)!!!

<3

[grzegorz77]

Thank you.

Since childhood, Microsoft gets us used to Windows in public schools, it is very hard to understand that there is something else, better, that works differently.

When you give a computer with Windows to someone who has never used a computer (an older person), they do not know how to use it.
When you give this person Linux or Mac, they somehow know how to use it.

But getting rid of bad habits learned on Windows is very difficult.

Just like these windows installers, everything has its installer, and create disorder and litter on all disks. And when everything is cluttered with trash that cannot be cleaned - install a new windows. And preferably, you should buy a new pc.

[DaMu]

There's a lot of internal resentment and confusion in OP

[sandokanski]

Originally posted by grzegorz77:

And preferably, you should buy a new pc. :p2chell:

Literally the reason why I am on Linux. And my wife decided to join me after BSOD started happening 2 times a day.

[Zyro]

Originally posted by sandokanski:

Originally posted by grzegorz77:

And preferably, you should buy a new pc. :p2chell:

Literally the reason why I am on Linux. And my wife decided to join me after BSOD started happening 2 times a day.

That's a thing I need to give Windows: Blue screen happened so much more often like 10 years ago or so. It's better nowadays than it used to be. (I have used Windows on a daily basis at work since '98. Until March.)

[sandokanski]

Originally posted by Zyro:

Originally posted by sandokanski:

Literally the reason why I am on Linux. And my wife decided to join me after BSOD started happening 2 times a day.

That's a thing I need to give Windows: Blue screen happened so much more often like 10 years ago or so. It's better nowadays than it used to be. (I have used Windows on a daily basis at work since '98. Until March.)

Well, its a problem with her computer I guess. My machine gave me only about 5 BSOD in 5 years.
However for some reason with Linux her computer freezes only once per month or less.. So she's very happy about it.

[grzegorz77]

If a stable Linux distribution hangs, it is almost certainly a hardware problem.
Overheating of some element of the graphics card, or motherboard, overheating ram, ...or a dying keyboard PS2 type cable. Ventilation extremely clogged with dust.


I understand yours dilemmas with Windows. I have one computer with an Intel Core2 Duo E8500 (2008) windows 81. And strangely, it can be used normally.

But I also have an Intel Xeon E5-2643 v2 about 10 times more powerful, which has more than 15 times more RAM, faster disks etc, and windows 10. And here everything, before it starts, takes centuries in comparison.

None of these computers has ever crashed. But both are workstations, I have no experience with home pcs.