Steam Deck as an computer

[tailspower2023]

Can we use the Steam Deck as an computer as will .You konw email, sefling the web, and streaming media services like the Disney+ buddle with MAX and iHeartRadio.

[Night]

The SteamDeck has a 'DESKTOP MODE' where the device is booted into a regular Linux desktop. The SteamDeck uses SteamOS Linux (https://store.steampowered.com/steamos)

You can even use the Dock (or a third-party one) to connect a mouse and keyboard and use that for your average browsing and desktop usage, OR use it with your installed games too.

Otherwise the SteamDeck's desktop mode can be easily navigated with the built-in controller layout and touch screen.

'Steam Deck - Basic Use & Troubleshooting Guide'
> https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/69E3-14AF-9764-4C28

'Steam Deck Desktop: FAQ'
> https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/671A-4453-E8D2-323C

SteamDeck discussions forum: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/
SteamDeck Frequently Asked Questions: https://www.steamdeck.com/en/faq

I don't know if you can directly install some of those applications, but you can browse the desktop mode GUI package manager (Discover) and see for yourself or find alternatives.

Hopefully this answers your question(s).

[tailspower2023]

Will that takes care on email and the web but what about streaming media services?

[Night]

Originally posted by tailspower2023:

Will that takes care on email and the web but what about streaming media services?

You can use FireFox (comes preinstalled) or install your own browser instead to visit websites for various streaming services. Doubt you could install them locally to the device.

Nothing stops you from bookmarking or making shortcuts to them in your browser.

[Stormer]

Originally posted by tailspower2023:

Will that takes care on email and the web but what about streaming media services?

I highly doubt they will work on it, they put drm protection on all of those sites and they dont bother making it work on linux normally

still a fully functional pc though

[Malahite]

The Steam Deck literally just uses a fork of Arch Linux. Anything you can do on Arch, you can do on the steam deck under desktop mode. I would suggest getting some sort of dock to utilize a mouse + keyboard properly if you intend to use it as a regular computer, I do this with my LED Deck and it works just fine.

If you want to learn a bit, and have issues with streaming services like Stormer mentioned, I would suggest looking into multibooting and installing a Windows partition alongside steamOS, though that falls well outside of what steam support can offer you, there should be plenty of results on how to set this up if you search for it under Arch linux, such as here

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dual_boot_with_Windows

Which you may need to do for those streaming services which lack linux support. The Steam Deck is just a portable PC.

[ReBoot]

A while ago, my gaming battlestation died and I've spent ~2 weeks with the Dekc as my only PC. Aside form the performance being lower, I didn't miss a thing.

Except one, development for Windows. I could've solved that with a VM though so not a real issue.