A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
Fedora, specifically KDE version. It will feel like the steamdeck desktop (because it is) will get quick updates and is painless to manage.
The first bug I have seen in two years is the screen lock bug just recently. But I imagine it will get sorted soon and isn't a showstopper.
I used to work with a guy who would wear what liked like a band touring tee shirt, but the "band" was "Grants March to the Sea" and the locations were every town he razed to the ground.
If you haven't looked at Garuda yet, it's the system I switched to after Bazzite. It's Arch based and user friendly.
Fedora Kinoite
I agree, really anything with KDE Plasma will feel basically the same because the Steam Deck's desktop is basically stock kde.
Adobe and Linux isn't a thing unfortunately
Except substance painter and designer, weirdly enough
And not via adobes suite, but via steam
It's the only way to get an official Linux version of those tools
Ehhhhh
No. Absolutely not like Steam OS it's made for gaming, yes, but that's it for the similarities.
Well I'm not aware of any Arch-based immutable distro besides SteamOS so it's kinda hard to give a perfect answer.
It doesn't have to be arch based, really
If it's immutable it practically doesn't matter
The immutability is the key here
Since desktop mode is basically just KDE but without the ability to install software packages you could try Fedora.
They do a version just like desktop mode that has you install everything through the store, or you can get the regular variety to get a bit more flexibility.
Personally I'd steer clear of anything special as your first Linux install. Go with standard Fedora, then you can experiment and branch out if you're interested, but you don't have to if you like what you've got.
Desktop mode on the Steam Deck is using KDE Plasma. You can use that on the vast majority of Linux distros.
Here is a few the spring to mind:
I had seen Bazzite, and yes it does sound exactly like what I asked, but then on their website, every single feature/selling point is about games or performance. I don't see one word about general usability, or applications, support, or anything, and I'm not sure who builds a PC used solely for gaming.
I'm an artist and designer, and play around with Blender and 3D modeling stuff. Adobe support, and GPU Blender support would be fantastic.
Software support is basically identical across any Linux distro. It's not really a concern when choosing a distro to use. Of course some are easier to install stuff on than others.
Adobe support
Jokes aside, Adobe refuses to play nice with Linux. It likely won’t matter which distro you choose, because Adobe refuses to release a native Linux version. You can use Wine as a workaround, at least.
Then get Kinoite, it's like Bazzite minus the gaming presets.
While Bazzite is gaming focused, it will still be a great non-gaming distro. The main things gaming distros do is include some optimizations, prioritize faster software updates, bundle in some programs like Steam, and usually try to be more new user friendly. There's also Fedora Silverblue, which is like the parent of Bazzite. It's more developer focused though, and may not be as new user friendly as Bazzite.
But as others have said, your biggest request is having the same desktop environment as SteamOS, which is the KDE desktop. This is available on nearly every Linux distro, so you can get that experience with any of them. KDE even has it's own official distro in the form of KDE Neon, which could honestly be a good choice for you if that's your main requirement. It's based on Ubuntu, which makes it easy to find help if you have an issue.
The biggest thing left to understand is that SteamOS and Bazzite are immutable distros, which means the system files are locked down. This makes those systems hard to break, and very reliable. However it can make installing some kinds of software harder. More tradition desktops like KDE Neon/Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora(non-silverblue) are not immutable. They will give your more options for installing software/etc, but there's a higher chance of breaking something if you start messing with system files.
If immutable sounds good, I'd recommend going with Bazzite still. If you want more freedom to customize your system and install software from outside of the discover store, I'd recommend KDE Neon.
The same folks who made Bazzite also have Aurora and Bluefin. Those are general purpose distros with the same ideas as Bazzite, just less gaming stuff bundled in. The difference between the two is just the desktop environment (gnome for bluefin, kde for aurora).
But even though Bazzite is focused on gaming, it is still a pretty good distro for general use too. The same stuff that enables windows games to run on it also help run any windows program just as well, so it might be a good pick if you use any software that only runs on windows.
I am trying to dance around Linux distro concepts that are probably not super beginner friendly, so my descriptions might have been obtuse, but yes you can generally do anything on any distro.
Bazzite is a immutable distro, which gives you certian advantages, but makes it harder to accommodate some use cases. In general, if the software you want is on https://flathub.org/ you are golden.
By Adobe, I mean Photoshop, Illustrator, Substance, etc, which on Windows need to be installed with the Adobe Cloud app. Flathub only seems to have Acrobat.
Unless your boss tells you that you NEED to use Adobe, get rid of them and use open source software.
I don’t believe those products have native Linux versions. You would need to run them from a compatibility layer. To be honest nothing on my desktop has needed that so not too familiar with the best way to do that.
The distro's marketing is gaming focused but the truth is there is not anything bad about their overall desktop experience. There is no difference between distros for blender and adobe support.
A lot of people are going to recommend you mint, I honestly think mint is an outdated suggestion for beginners, I think immutability is extremely important for someone who is just starting out, as well as starting on KDE since it’s by far the most developed DE that isn’t gnome and their… design decisions are unfortunate for people coming from windows.
I don’t think we should be recommending mint to beginners anymore, if mint makes an immutable, up to date KDE distro, that’ll change, but until then, I think bazzite is objectively a better starting place for beginners.
The mere fact that bazzite and other immutables generate a new system for you on update and let you switch between and rollback automatically is enough for me to say it’s better, but it also has more up to date software, and tons of guides (fedora is one of the most popular distros, and bazzite is essentially identical except with some QoL upgrades).
How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”? that’s not a good user experience for someone who’s just starting, it’s intimidating, scary, and I just don’t think it’s the best in the modern era. There’s something to be said about learning from these mistakes, but bazzite essentially makes these mistakes impossible.
Furthermore because of the way bazzite works, package management is completely graphical and requires essentially no intervention on the users part, flathub and immutability pair excellently for this reason.
Cinnamon (the default mint environment) doesn’t and won’t support HDR, the security/performance improvements from wayland, mixed refresh rate displays, mixed DPI displays, fractional scaling, and many other things for a very very long time if at all. I don’t understand the usecase for cinnamon tbh, xfce is great if you need performance but don’t want to make major sacrifices, lxqt is great if you need A LOT of performance, cinnamon isn’t particularly performant and just a strictly worse version of kde in my eyes from the perspective of a beginner, anyway.
I have 15 years of linux experience and am willing to infinitely troubleshoot if you add me on matrix.
The problem with using Bazzite as the solution to new users bricking they're Linux installs is I've had Bazzite's update utility break itself 3 times now. I couldn't possibly recommend this distro to someone after that. I literally switched my desktop back to Arch for reliability reasons. Ridiculous.
Same. I gave up on Bazzite (for the time being) the second time it just stopped updating. The first time, I had to rebase it entirely to get it to work for a while again. I wouldn't want to put a new person through that. I'm not sure why everyone has a hard-on for immutable distros "for beginners" suddenly.
Bazzite, I guess.
Alright, y'all, I really appreciate all the feedback, I believe I understand the gist of most of it. Bazzite is sounding really nice, I just have one big concern: Can I put Adobe on it, so I can dropkick Windows out of my life? I did find this.
You can run many Windows applications in Wine, but not everything works well.
Creative Cloud (PhotoShop et al) is one of those that usually doesn't work well.
Here's a list of Photoshop versions on WineDB with how well they work.
I would definitely recommend trying WinApps first, which that guide seems to be for. Never tried to get it running on Bazzite/SilverBlue/Universal Blue though, so can't help you there.
Is this an alternative to Wine?
No. If something runs in Wine, still use that. WinApp is basically a Windows VM combined with some other tools to allow Windows apps on the VM to run more seamlessly and native feeling. It makes picky apps like the Adobe and Microsoft suites happy since it's using full Windows to run them, but this means there's more overhead than running an app through Wine or natively.
Man, this has been the most helpful and informative internet post I've ever made in my entire life, lol. Thank you.
So it is an alternative in that it's a different way towards the same goal, but it's not a replacement, right?
Correct, it's less efficient than Wine, but more compatible. Adobe and Microsoft software still has issues in Wine, so a VM is the best option for them.
To explain some terms in over simplified ways:
VM = Virtual Machine = Making a virtual sandboxed computer that runs full Windows inside it.
Wine = Wine Is Not an Emulator = A translation layer that converts Windows Program Commands into Linux Program Commands.
Wine has to be crafted for every needed Windows command, in order to translate the command into something Linux can understand. So if a program is using a Windows command Wine hasn't seen before, it'll fail.
VMs instead run an entire OS, in this case Windows, so that we don't have to craft every command, as Windows handles the program like normal, and then the VM provides Windows with virtual hardware to work with instead. Naturally, making pretend hardware and running an entire OS inside another OS eats up more resources, so VMs are worse than Wine in that regard.
If you want to get started with Linux, I'd recommended Mint. It's very easy to install and will run on just about anything. The Cinnamon desktop is pretty similar to Windows and you'll feel right at home. Install Steam and start playing your games, it's that simple. There are of course plenty of other excellent options but for ease of getting started, I don't think anything beats Mint.
A lot of people are going to recommend you mint, I honestly think mint is an outdated suggestion for beginners, I think immutability is extremely important for someone who is just starting out, as well as starting on KDE since it’s by far the most developed DE that isn’t gnome and their… design decisions are unfortunate for people coming from windows.
I don’t think we should be recommending mint to beginners anymore, if mint makes an immutable, up to date KDE distro, that’ll change, but until then, I think bazzite is objectively a better starting place for beginners.
The mere fact that bazzite and other immutables generate a new system for you on update and let you switch between and rollback automatically is enough for me to say it’s better, but it also has more up to date software, and tons of guides (fedora is one of the most popular distros, and bazzite is essentially identical except with some QoL upgrades).
How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”? that’s not a good user experience for someone who’s just starting, it’s intimidating, scary, and I just don’t think it’s the best in the modern era. There’s something to be said about learning from these mistakes, but bazzite essentially makes these mistakes impossible.
Furthermore because of the way bazzite works, package management is completely graphical and requires essentially no intervention on the users part, flathub and immutability pair excellently for this reason.
Cinnamon (the default mint environment) doesn’t and won’t support HDR, the security/performance improvements from wayland, mixed refresh rate displays, mixed DPI displays, fractional scaling, and many other things for a very very long time if at all. I don’t understand the usecase for cinnamon tbh, xfce is great if you need performance but don’t want to make major sacrifices, lxqt is great if you need A LOT of performance, cinnamon isn’t particularly performant and just a strictly worse version of kde in my eyes from the perspective of a beginner, anyway.
there is not one thing that is easier about the setup process on mint and since bazzite offers a nvidia image it's actually easier.
I have 15 years of linux experience and am willing to infinitely troubleshoot if you add me on matrix.
Well i haven't tried Bazzite, but you're selling it really well. I agree that Mint is a bit behind in Wayland support and they should get on with it. On the other hand, none if those things are really very relevant for day to day use. As long as you stick to the software center and update manager in Mint, you won't have any trouble installing software or applying updates.
sure, day to day it might not matter if you don't do anything weird, but when it does matter... it matters a lot
and you're not gaining anything by sacrificing these additions.
Welcome to the world of Linux. Check out Fedora Kinoite. Here's how they're similar:
✅ It's immutable -- core OS files are read only. Just like the SteamDeck, this is more stable and secure. Updates happen all at once and the entire system can be rolled back to a working configuration ("snapshot") if it all goes south.
✅ Applications are containerized and installed via a software store. Flatpak via Flathub is my personal preference, here.
✅ It uses the KDE Plasma desktop environment. In Linux there are a handful of DEs to choose from. The SD uses KDE and so does Kinoite. This is probably where you'll see most similarities (that Windows '95 feel).
✅ Fedora's community, like the SD, is large. Got a problem? There's probably someone on the forums who had the same issue and can provide a solution.
I've been running it exclusively for two years now. As a self proclaimed distro-hopper, that's really remarkable.
No reason to choose fedora kinoite when aurora and bazzite exist, they just add some nice qol, for example, on stock kinoite ffmpeg has the shit patents that make twitch not work.
I realize I sound AI AF.
At least you didn't use the em dash (—)
I like the em dash and am very upset that AI has stolen it.