Steam OS vs Windows 10

[Yew Nough]

Anyone know if Steam OS is worth switching over to from Windows as of 2021?

Does Steam OS have any added benefit 'performance-wise' in comparison?

[Omega]

The latest available version of Steam OS which is 2.0 is not, it is horribly outdated and barely maintained.

SteamOS is intended to deliver a simplified console-like experience. If you want a full desktop and do all your usual stuff go with almost any other GNU/Linux distribution. Manjaro, Solus, Ubuntu and Linux Mint being some good options.

[Mailer]

From https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/

So, what is it not?

"Users should not consider SteamOS as a replacement for their desktop operating system. SteamOS is being designed and optimized for the living room experience."

Why are you comparing the two? Are you asking if Linux is a suitable replacement to Windows 10?

[Electric Cupcake]

Windows:
Pro: They try to make things idiotproof.

Cons: They try to make things idiotproof.
Horrendous bloat.
Spyware.
You have to get the Pro version for even basic user control.

Linux:
Pros: Total control.
Much more lightweight and efficient.
Better security.

Cons: Learning curve.[arstechnica.com]
Not all games are fully compatible (though Valve and other developers are working on that).
Device drivers aren't always reliable (♥♥♥♥ Nvidia Nouveau and Lenovo touchpads)

You don't have to be a full-fledged programmer to use Linux, but you should have a good understanding of system administration and how to text edit config files.

[Omega]

Originally posted by Crosseyed Mie:

Windows:
Pro: They try to make things idiotproof.

Cons: They try to make things idiotproof.
Horrendous bloat.
Spyware.
You have to get the Pro version for even basic user control.

Linux:
Pros: Total control.
Much more lightweight and efficient.
Better security.

Cons: Learning curve.[arstechnica.com]
Not all games are fully compatible (though Valve and other developers are working on that).
Device drivers aren't always reliable (♥♥♥♥ Nvidia Nouveau and Lenovo touchpads)

You don't have to be a full-fledged programmer to use Linux, but you should have a good understanding of system administration and how to text edit config files.

Learning curve really depends on what you want to use the device for and your previous experiences with computers. For someone who just wants to game and browse the internet Linux will be very easy to use. It is just install and go.

Knowing Bash is really not a requirement unless you decide to dive in to more advanced topics. Same as with Windows CMD/Powershell. Main difference here being that out-of-the-box you can do nearly anything on the command line, unlike on Windows. The command line is a very powerful tool and you could live in it.


Nouveau is an attempt at making an open source display driver for Nvidia cards with (Up to recently) no support from Nvidia itself in any form, it is a wonder that people managed to get it as far as it is. It should be used on most Nvidia hardware for nothing more then to get a picture on the screen. There are some exceptions such as the GT 710 which can run fully free, even without extra proprietary on-disk firmware under Nouveau. Just don't try to game on it..

With the touchpad issues you are refering to the latest Ryzen-based Lenovo Ideapad 5 machines such as the 15ARE05? Update the kernel. I ran in to the same issue with some "emergency" work laptops. This issue is Ryzen specific and does not affect their Intel machines.

[Electric Cupcake]

In my case, it's an Ideapad 3 that a family member didn't want. I got the touchpad mostly working (though I don't remember how), but tap-to-click still doesn't work.

[Si]

I think SteamOS will boot straight into the new steam UI. So if you have a system just for gaming it’s probably good but if you want a normal PC you’d be better off looking at a different distro.

Linux is definitely worth it I don’t regret it but you need to do your research. For example the anticheat games don’t work, but I rarely ever play those kind of games anyway so it doesn’t affect me.

[Electric Cupcake]

If you grab a small 16GB or smaller (do they even come in less than 16 anymore?) USB thumbdrive from a dollar store or Target checkout for $5 or so (assuming you don't already have some lying around that aren't in use), you can make a Live Disk and try distros out without writing anything to your permanent hard drive.

Just download an .iso image, make a bootable USB drive with https://www.balena.io/etcher/ and boot from it.

Also, most distro images are downloadable via completely legal bittorrent, so you can use that and tell your ISP to go pound sand if they try to complain about torrent traffic.
https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/20.04.3/release/lubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso.torrent

Although I don't think Etcher allows persistent changes to live disks? Since the Linux Live USB creator isn't maintained anymore, what other bootable USB tools are there?

[Haruspex]

SteamOS? No. It's outdated, and 3.0 isn't yet available. Even if it was, it's not really meant to be a desktop replacement.

Now Linux, which SteamOS is based on? Absolutely. Unless you play a lot of games that utilize Easy Anti Cheat or Battleye, Windows game compatibility has never been better, and even with EAC, Valve is working on making that work by the end of the year. Linux is a fast, secure, capable, excellent OS for your PC. The hardest part is settling on which distro to use. There are hundreds.

[logith]

Originally posted by Crosseyed Mie:

If you grab a small 16GB or smaller (do they even come in less than 16 anymore?) USB thumbdrive from a dollar store or Target checkout for $5 or so (assuming you don't already have some lying around that aren't in use), you can make a Live Disk and try distros out without writing anything to your permanent hard drive.

Just download an .iso image, make a bootable USB drive with https://www.balena.io/etcher/ and boot from it.

Also, most distro images are downloadable via completely legal bittorrent, so you can use that and tell your ISP to go pound sand if they try to complain about torrent traffic.
https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/20.04.3/release/lubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso.torrent

Although I don't think Etcher allows persistent changes to live disks? Since the Linux Live USB creator isn't maintained anymore, what other bootable USB tools are there?

I just use Ventoy myself, why only have one os in a usb stick when I can have many

[Bad 💀 Motha]

No point putting steam OS 2.0 on a PC. Just go install a Linux distro of choice instead.

[Der tüddelige Fußgänger]

As many people already said.
Steam os is not made for daily use. It is a system to just download games and play them on your TV in a console like UI.
Just use any other Linux distro if you want to switch from windows. We are talking about Linux here, there is a distro for everyone.
I recommend AmongOS

[tonimark]

Originally posted by Yew Nough:

Anyone know if Steam OS is worth switching over to from Windows as of 2021?

Does Steam OS have any added benefit 'performance-wise' in comparison?

its just LINUX and the arch one which does fine but modding is out of question , and yes runs most of the games fine using proton aka wine (a placeholder that converts .exe instructions to unix ones) because unlike windiws which is a file based system in apps linux is a module based system which can be modified maintened and upgraded more easily (and sometimes while its running) remeber the app store from androind? its actually a package manager

[tonimark]

Originally posted by 8bitbeard:

SteamOS? No. It's outdated, and 3.0 isn't yet available. Even if it was, it's not really meant to be a desktop replacement.

Now Linux, which SteamOS is based on? Absolutely. Unless you play a lot of games that utilize Easy Anti Cheat or Battleye, Windows game compatibility has never been better, and even with EAC, Valve is working on making that work by the end of the year. Linux is a fast, secure, capable, excellent OS for your PC. The hardest part is settling on which distro to use. There are hundreds.

yes older variant is actually is based on an outdated debian distro