That may very well be the official stance, only officially supporting SteamOS in much the same way games used to only officially support a single major distro, often Ubuntu. However, I don’t see it actually stopping you from playing on other Linux systems. The functionality is there at that point. It’s just a matter of making sure you have whatever it depends on from the Deck.
I don’t think Valve would help implement something like that. They’ve shown a lot of initiative in trying to push Linux into the mainstream for gaming, and a move like that would be counterproductive to that goal.
Plus, it ignores the fact that the Deck isn’t trying to be the only piece of hardware in the space, just the first to prove it’s commercially viable, and they succeeded in that. Competitive devices are coming to market, and when gamers start buying them, it’s going to seem foolish to whitelist JUST the Deck.
Rockstar’s only semi-viable play of that nature is to attempt to require SteamOS as your Linux distro, but I see no way to do that so you always and only block other Linux distros.
The Deck doing what I was hoping it’d do, light a fire under devs to get on board with Linux platforms
I agree w/ the sentiment but I haven’t heard of a dev that isn’t lit on fire from every direction at most of these companies.
It’s usually non-devs who require the encouragement. Although perhaps you meant developer more generally?
devs should be held accountable too sometimes
I love the deck just for that, im so happy valve is breaking the cycle of not enough pkayers not enough games
Watch it support the Steam Deck and only the steam deck with no other Linux supported
That may very well be the official stance, only officially supporting SteamOS in much the same way games used to only officially support a single major distro, often Ubuntu. However, I don’t see it actually stopping you from playing on other Linux systems. The functionality is there at that point. It’s just a matter of making sure you have whatever it depends on from the Deck.
I mean like valve provides some sort of hardware based attestion so gta v can verify its running on a steam deck.
I don’t think Valve would help implement something like that. They’ve shown a lot of initiative in trying to push Linux into the mainstream for gaming, and a move like that would be counterproductive to that goal.
Plus, it ignores the fact that the Deck isn’t trying to be the only piece of hardware in the space, just the first to prove it’s commercially viable, and they succeeded in that. Competitive devices are coming to market, and when gamers start buying them, it’s going to seem foolish to whitelist JUST the Deck.
Rockstar’s only semi-viable play of that nature is to attempt to require SteamOS as your Linux distro, but I see no way to do that so you always and only block other Linux distros.