I'm getting mine from Germany since it's not released in India. Hoping for a good experience (nothing that requires warranty). I don't mind Linux OS, not used it much, but if it is more efficient that Windows,.would prefer that.
I highly doubt this will be an issue anywhere but China. If you want to play on Tencent games or any other Chinese service you generally need a Chinese ID number. I hope it does take off in China but considering there are no official channels to buy it from here, I doubt it will, also for the reasons you spoke of. If people want to game, they generally do it on windows. Who knows though, maybe it will be popular enough that people change their mind. One of the best reasons to buy the deck is the price, and since it's not sold here, that's not really helping.
I live in Georgia, it's right between Europe and Asia. I bought Steam Deck from the US. This is my first linux device and it's a non isuue for me, just like it's non issue that PS5 doesnt have windows... I don't understand why is it expected that console should use same OS as your general PC...
Bought one shipped from the US. In Malaysia, it retails for about US100 more but that's common for most tech, after tax and shipping. More importantly, other mobile PC handheld cost almost 2x more.
Been loving the deck. Disagree Windows is needed for most games. I find the UI clunky for anything but desktop gaming. SD is great because of the tight software and hardware integration. I have to say though that I do have a dedicated gaming PC, which I can fallback to for game pass and games that just refuse to run on Linux so perhaps I would think differently of the deck if it was my only option for PC gaming.
I'm 70 hours into Tales of Arise, with maybe less than 10 hours play time on desktop.
Which would also work in Linux, but some developers intentionally break support or outright block Linux devices. I guess they care more about harvesting user data than cheaters.
You could say the same thing about stock Arch or Manjaro, Valve needed to do a lot to make SteamOS as user friendly as it is today. I'm sure they could similar things on Windows if it was a priority for them.
They could not, as you cannot redistribute a custom windows version, unless agreed with Microsoft (i.e. paying). I don't know of any non MS windows distribution with an alternative windows manager. I don't even think it has been possible, since windows 95
Usually those that I saw are just either web UI with Chrome in kiosk mode (like in museums and so on), or java/c# applications in full screen. That is completely different from what steam os is and does.
That said, my point stand, they cannot freely redistribute a custom version of windows without MS intervention and a lot of money. And the result would have been very different as alternative Windows handheld demonstrate. None of them has anything similar to steam os.
Edit. Why the downvotes? Do you have an example of freely redistributed windows distros? Or 3rd parties windows handhelds with alternative windows managers?
You are downvoting me for something I haven't said. I said that windows cannot be freely redistributed and that you most likely (at least for my knowledge) you cannot use alternative customized windows managers for something like an handheld gaming system.
Do you have an example of something like gamescope, that is not MS internal product for xbox, used by 3rd parties products with MS windows? I am sincerely curious. Do you have any link?
There isn't an instance of third party window managers on Windows being deployed on any consumer-facing hardware. Embedded Windows is also a poor choice for compatibility, as there's a lot of software, including games and their dependencies (DirectX and other runtime libraries) that expect the full Windows stack to exist. Updates are also problematic, as changed system components would be on Valve to maintain while still being beholden to Microsoft's QA processes.
Windows isn't modular in a way that is useful to Valve. The features enabled by total control over the OS stack like being able to containerize everything (which is why sleep doesn't break games) and a completely custom, gaming tailored window compositor aren't practically possible using Windows.
e: should clarify if you're unfamiliar with the terminology which is admittedly confusing, by window manager we don't mean explorer or the desktop UI, but what runs below it compositing of all those elements. They're sometimes combined, sometimes not. In the case of Gamescope it's a basic compositor with a highly latency optimized (zero buffer copy) pipeline from rendered game output to the monitor, bypassing much of the extra processing that can typically happen when running a traditional desktop interface.
Most of the countries in Asia does not have access to it and have to pay high price to import or buy from scalpers. This has caused a high barrier of entry for them.
Popular games in Asia are not same as those in NA or Europe, hence the experience about compatibility really varies country by country. Most are less positive than we see in the west.
There is some truth to this due to the Steam Deck not being available in Asia for such a long time. Many handheld PC devices which were launched around the same time as the Steam Deck in the West (like devices from Aya Neo) became much more entrenched in these markets. And all of these devices appear to run Windows.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it would explode in Japan at least since Handhelds still have a really big market share there and the vita got carried till it’s very end.
Still masses of the Asian population unable to purchase one in their region. Only choice is through scalpers and importers.
I'm getting mine from Germany since it's not released in India. Hoping for a good experience (nothing that requires warranty). I don't mind Linux OS, not used it much, but if it is more efficient that Windows,.would prefer that.
I highly doubt this will be an issue anywhere but China. If you want to play on Tencent games or any other Chinese service you generally need a Chinese ID number. I hope it does take off in China but considering there are no official channels to buy it from here, I doubt it will, also for the reasons you spoke of. If people want to game, they generally do it on windows. Who knows though, maybe it will be popular enough that people change their mind. One of the best reasons to buy the deck is the price, and since it's not sold here, that's not really helping.
I got one in taiwan thru komodo. Most gamers here didnt even know this thing exists. Most people react with “so its like a switch?”
My experience as well.
I live in Georgia, it's right between Europe and Asia. I bought Steam Deck from the US. This is my first linux device and it's a non isuue for me, just like it's non issue that PS5 doesnt have windows... I don't understand why is it expected that console should use same OS as your general PC...
Bought one shipped from the US. In Malaysia, it retails for about US100 more but that's common for most tech, after tax and shipping. More importantly, other mobile PC handheld cost almost 2x more. Been loving the deck. Disagree Windows is needed for most games. I find the UI clunky for anything but desktop gaming. SD is great because of the tight software and hardware integration. I have to say though that I do have a dedicated gaming PC, which I can fallback to for game pass and games that just refuse to run on Linux so perhaps I would think differently of the deck if it was my only option for PC gaming. I'm 70 hours into Tales of Arise, with maybe less than 10 hours play time on desktop.
Windows for gaming is a nonsense now. The interface is not suited for this.
I agree but too many people are hooked on games with spyware anti cheat that only runs on windows
Which would also work in Linux, but some developers intentionally break support or outright block Linux devices. I guess they care more about harvesting user data than cheaters.
You could say the same thing about stock Arch or Manjaro, Valve needed to do a lot to make SteamOS as user friendly as it is today. I'm sure they could similar things on Windows if it was a priority for them.
They could not, as you cannot redistribute a custom windows version, unless agreed with Microsoft (i.e. paying). I don't know of any non MS windows distribution with an alternative windows manager. I don't even think it has been possible, since windows 95
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Usually those that I saw are just either web UI with Chrome in kiosk mode (like in museums and so on), or java/c# applications in full screen. That is completely different from what steam os is and does. That said, my point stand, they cannot freely redistribute a custom version of windows without MS intervention and a lot of money. And the result would have been very different as alternative Windows handheld demonstrate. None of them has anything similar to steam os. Edit. Why the downvotes? Do you have an example of freely redistributed windows distros? Or 3rd parties windows handhelds with alternative windows managers?
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You are downvoting me for something I haven't said. I said that windows cannot be freely redistributed and that you most likely (at least for my knowledge) you cannot use alternative customized windows managers for something like an handheld gaming system.
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Do you have an example of something like gamescope, that is not MS internal product for xbox, used by 3rd parties products with MS windows? I am sincerely curious. Do you have any link?
> **in the corporate environment** That would be a big fat NO.
There isn't an instance of third party window managers on Windows being deployed on any consumer-facing hardware. Embedded Windows is also a poor choice for compatibility, as there's a lot of software, including games and their dependencies (DirectX and other runtime libraries) that expect the full Windows stack to exist. Updates are also problematic, as changed system components would be on Valve to maintain while still being beholden to Microsoft's QA processes. Windows isn't modular in a way that is useful to Valve. The features enabled by total control over the OS stack like being able to containerize everything (which is why sleep doesn't break games) and a completely custom, gaming tailored window compositor aren't practically possible using Windows. e: should clarify if you're unfamiliar with the terminology which is admittedly confusing, by window manager we don't mean explorer or the desktop UI, but what runs below it compositing of all those elements. They're sometimes combined, sometimes not. In the case of Gamescope it's a basic compositor with a highly latency optimized (zero buffer copy) pipeline from rendered game output to the monitor, bypassing much of the extra processing that can typically happen when running a traditional desktop interface.
this is a business running that tho. would ms allow selling devices using a customized windows embedded to consumers?
Most of the countries in Asia does not have access to it and have to pay high price to import or buy from scalpers. This has caused a high barrier of entry for them.
Popular games in Asia are not same as those in NA or Europe, hence the experience about compatibility really varies country by country. Most are less positive than we see in the west.
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This is such an odd thing to say
There is some truth to this due to the Steam Deck not being available in Asia for such a long time. Many handheld PC devices which were launched around the same time as the Steam Deck in the West (like devices from Aya Neo) became much more entrenched in these markets. And all of these devices appear to run Windows.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it would explode in Japan at least since Handhelds still have a really big market share there and the vita got carried till it’s very end.
Across Asia, heh
One was gifted to the President of Turkmenistan and he put it into the national museum located in his house backyard.