Does Valve have a Linux vision based on popularity rather than reliability?

[Citizen #839X]

Hi everyone,

as a Linux user I'm seriously concerned about Valve Corporation and the vision that have on our community that is still framed on Canonical, Ubuntu LTS and their relative reliability from almost 15 years ago. Linux end user (desktop) is without any doubt Debian based but Valve have two different ways to manage customers and we know that their Ubuntu reference is aging bad, considering their Arch based system (Steam OS) pre-installed on the well known Steam Deck.

Now, ANY Linux based system with a LTS kernel is potentially stable and reliable. Gaming on a Linux based system with a LTS kernel is not only more than possible but perfectly tailored on ProtonQt manager (the real deal when specific games must be tinkered with a Glorius Eggroll version). Valve customer service also stated that they officially support only three desktop environments: Gnome, KDE Plasma and, of course, Unity. Anyway, one distro is valid as another when the system setup is fine and you also have a centralized system control panel that tells you exactly what eventual conflict you may have or not. That's why I love openSUSE, I support them until my death and the SLES branch is professionally good, no matter what kind of distorted perception some people have nowadays about Enterprises model. In fact, RHEL branch and Fedora (and derivates) are also very good and reliable.

Ubuntu doesn't have that, plus, Canonical and snap store s**k a**!

In conclusion, the experience tells me that XFCE is always the best and safest choice when some perennial experimental desktop like KDE Plasma may completely break after an update giving you just the background and a quick CTRL+ALT+T for the command line to logout and change desktop. Gnome is heavy and even fork like Cinnamon and Budgie are better (even if that last one should be called...Buggy) :) so, yeah, KDE is the coolest after all, but be careful.

To Valve Corp: detach your mentality from 15 years ago. Update to a better, upfront communication like: "any Linux based system from Debian branch, Arch, RHEL and SLES are recommended." And we may finally have also a better customer service rather than the usual answer "go to Github forums" if you are not under the Canonical wing. Change for the Sake of IT God, change that! We are mature Linux users since early 2000s. Linux based system are evolved from a long time, even before the Wine Proton improvements thanks to the fantastic Vulkan API. I know you can, because your business wouldn't be possible without the open source revolution.

[eram]

Linux versions based on popularity

Arch Linux - 0.17%
Linux Mint 21.3 - 0.11%
Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS - 0.09%
Manjaro Linux - 0.06%
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - 0.06%
Ubuntu Core 22 - 0.06%

extremely low % imo almost to the point where not much will change in this space for a while.

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

[Yujah]

Steam may have not yet incorporated a modern Linux vision -- but fortunately it's in any case already in preparation starting to attract Linux distro-wars.

[Citizen #839X]

Yujah eredeti hozzászólása:

Steam may have not yet incorporated a modern Linux vision -- but fortunately it's in any case already in preparation starting to attract Linux distro-wars.

We don't need distro wars, but better general knowledge and culture, especially on security matters that involves the hardware level and proper UEFI setup. Actually, no one talks about. I hope the era of "which is better" will end soon.

[Citizen #839X]

eram eredeti hozzászólása:

Linux versions based on popularity

Arch Linux - 0.17%
Linux Mint 21.3 - 0.11%
Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS - 0.09%
Manjaro Linux - 0.06%
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - 0.06%
Ubuntu Core 22 - 0.06%

extremely low % imo almost to the point where not much will change in this space for a while.

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

Their surveis are limited to Steam users. The situation is better followed on distrowatch.com where many newbie can learn the difference between independent distros and derivatives. Also, gaming isn't the only thing a Linux user can do nowadays. There is much much more in the pot ;)

[Yujah]

Citizen #839X eredeti hozzászólása:

I hope the era of "which is better" will end soon.

So rather than posting a thread proclaiming which is better you post one proclaiming which is worse ("Ubuntu doesn't have that, plus, Canonical and snap store s**k a**!").

Anyways; I'll stay out otherwise. My own "vision" of Steam on general Linux is at https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/6982351509010849784/?tscn=1720945665

[Citizen #839X]

Yujah eredeti hozzászólása:

Citizen #839X eredeti hozzászólása:

I hope the era of "which is better" will end soon.

So rather than posting a thread proclaiming which is better you post one proclaiming which is worse ("Ubuntu doesn't have that, plus, Canonical and snap store s**k a**!").

Anyways; I'll stay out otherwise. My own "vision" of Steam on general Linux is at https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/6982351509010849784/?tscn=1720945665

Well, it's your choice if you don't like matter of facts. Canonical is not reliable anymore but the popularity still goes up, just as Microsoft. All of this, however, it doesn't conflict with my interests because I am not a shareholder. I can speak freely ;)

[Citizen #839X]

PS (whispering) the snap store is a security breach itself...

[KalGimpa]

i am happy you have your favorite and all but everyone does

go to any board talking about it and you find people arguing the issue

the deck is based on arch

it is safe to assume that will be used if they ever release another desktop os

as for the desktop itself,

i use cinnamon

but people can pick and choose what they want to use, thank goodness

[Ben Lubar]

Do you understand what the word "supported" means? It doesn't mean your computer will catch fire if you try to run Steam on an xfce desktop.

[Citizen #839X]

Ben Lubar eredeti hozzászólása:

Do you understand what the word "supported" means? It doesn't mean your computer will catch fire if you try to run Steam on an xfce desktop.

You miss a simple point. The Valve customer service and their official assistance on Gnome, Unity and KDE Plasma desktop. That means they might use your preference for XFCE (great desktop by the way, I have it beside KDE just in case the first one blow up after an update) as a weapon against you. Simply, no support for you if you tell them that the X issue happened on Y desktop environment that is not under their assistance. As I said, they have the easy card "go to Github for assistance" always ready to play.

Another suggestion to them: hiring more Linux IT people for customer service. I'm on the flexibility side too, I hope this though doesn't get misunderstood by you and the next commentators.

[Citizen #839X]

And for the record, this is the answer from the customer service that started my concern.
The matter was about a simple game issue that I've described in addition of my specs. Naturally they saw that I'm not a Ubuntu user so, you know the rest of the story.
However, I've decided to post my suggestions here right after another reply from them, but from another operator, named Chris L. that stated the specific group.

"Hello,

I understand your concern and let me clarify this one for you.

Steam for Linux is currently only supported on the latest version of 64-bit Ubuntu LTS with Unity, Gnome, or KDE desktops.

If you are running another distribution of Linux, 32-bit Ubuntu, or an older version of Ubuntu we will not be able to provide support. We recommend you install the latest version of 64-bit Ubuntu for the best Steam experience on Linux.

If you wish to attempt to run Steam on a different distribution or version, it's best that you use Github to discuss them with our developers and other Linux users.

You can create a free Github account.

Once signed up and logged in you can visit our Github and post your questions directly to the Linux Community and our developers.

Steam Support Renai"

[Yujah]

You could've by the very mention of "Unity" understood that this is just a copy/paste; Ubuntu dropped Unity now 7 years ago and it currently lives on only as an obscure enthusiast thing.

SteamOS 3.x while for now unreleased for general hardware is Arch based. I.e., you basically have what you want already: it's just that support's answers will certainly not transition before SteamOS 3.x is even generally available (and although Ubuntu LTS will as the premier desktop Linux base distribution probably remain supported as well).

[ナルゴ]

It's almost as if Valve wants to support popular new games that use new technologies that might not be easily attained in "stable" LTS releases of Linux distros