Exactly. I’d be more interested in that Lenovo console if it ran Linux or if someone gets it running SteamOS.
This is the smallest obstacle, IMO. You could get rid of (or leave a small dual boot partition of) Windows, and use one of the good Linux distros tailored to a Steam OS-like experience, like Chimera or Bazzite, and just keep ticking along without missing a beat.
I love my Deck, but I’m already researching the process of eventually transitioning off of it simply because the screen is too tiny for my 40s eyes, and I don’t get to use it handheld as much as I’d like. This upcoming wave of Deck-like handhelds with 9 and 10 inch screens will be looking very good in this upcoming year.
If it doesn’t work out of the box, it’s a failure of a device.
Ignoring drivers not being available.
Unfortunately it doesn’t really work that way. Those distros need to be adjusted to work properly with the hardware. For instance, if you got a ROG Ally and slapped Chimera on there you would have no sound, no WiFi, and you have to manually adjust the resolution for each game.
This would be a fairly trivial task for Asus or Lenovo, so I don’t really understand why they don’t do it, but they don’t.
Many of those “Steam Deck killers” market themselves that they use Windows to have better game compatibility though, average casual users don’t notice the different on Windows and on Linux. Also it seems like currently only Valve is the only one being interested on Linux gaming and taking serious, if any measure to improve Linux gaming. Even GOG with their anti-DRM stance (which may align more to Linux users) and Epic Game Store with their anti-monopoly stance (which also align with many Linux users too) haven’t done anything to improve Linux gaming or even port their store/launcher to Linux, and many manufacturers and machines don’t support Linux adequately or maybe even not at all (especially gaming machines). So it wouldn’t be so surprising though
Nobara Linux has a Steam Deck edition (basically with gamescope-session and KDE), and I believe it includes patches for complete compatibility with the ROG Ally.
Have you actually installed chimera on the rog or are you just dredging up old linux problems that aren’t true anymore like how Nvidia fanboys say AMD drivers don’t work on Linux to this day despite AMD having higher compatibility?
