The main appeal of consoles is that you can essentially just plug and play without having to worry too much about extra configuration. As much as I like Linux, it’s generally not a good alternative for console folks who just want to relax and play video games.
A lot of Linux works out of the box now. If folks started selling preconfigured Linux machines like you can buy for windows, that’s all most people need. Valve is following a good strategy
Yeah, I have a steam deck and I’ve used the desktop a few times, just to check stuff out, but I very easily could have overlooked it completely. It’s perfectly possible for a linux computer to be as easy to use as a console.
This is what the Gabe Cube and Steam Deck are for. Price rises have been unfortunate and normies aren’t going to consider those anymore. I guess the Nintendo Switch 2 with some game cartridges might be their next choice…although this is obviously a huge mistake if the point was to find a company with consumer friendly practices.
I’ll admit, I don’t play games with intrusive anti-sheet, but frankly, I don’t remember the last time I had to configure a game on Linux because they mostly run out of the box for me
It’s on a case-by-case basis of course so it wouldn’t be the same for everyone. But generally speaking, Linux isn’t user-friendly (though I’m not saying it isn’t at all) in the sense that everything is guaranteed to be compatible with it and work immediately, whether it be certain peripherals that require extra setup to work correctly or software that was never specifically made to work on Linux. I know that from experience, having had some head-scratcher moments when trying to run an obscure/older game or trying to get certain hardware to run on my Linux machine without it having had compatible firmware out of the box. And I wouldn’t even say that I’m all that unknowledgeable with this sort of thing.
I’m not trying to disparage Linux or anything, but it’s definitely not so black-and-white as it easily working well for everyone all the time. It’s never really accommodated for that unfortunately, especially since there’s no one universal Linux distro with all those sore points snuffed out. Until that’s the case I don’t think it would typically appeal to the average person who only games on the side.
People… Windows and Xbox is not an improvement (it can be even worse). Build a Linux Gaming PC, that’s true freedom.
The main appeal of consoles is that you can essentially just plug and play without having to worry too much about extra configuration. As much as I like Linux, it’s generally not a good alternative for console folks who just want to relax and play video games.
A lot of Linux works out of the box now. If folks started selling preconfigured Linux machines like you can buy for windows, that’s all most people need. Valve is following a good strategy
Yeah, I have a steam deck and I’ve used the desktop a few times, just to check stuff out, but I very easily could have overlooked it completely. It’s perfectly possible for a linux computer to be as easy to use as a console.
This is what the Gabe Cube and Steam Deck are for. Price rises have been unfortunate and normies aren’t going to consider those anymore. I guess the Nintendo Switch 2 with some game cartridges might be their next choice…although this is obviously a huge mistake if the point was to find a company with consumer friendly practices.
I’ll admit, I don’t play games with intrusive anti-sheet, but frankly, I don’t remember the last time I had to configure a game on Linux because they mostly run out of the box for me
It’s on a case-by-case basis of course so it wouldn’t be the same for everyone. But generally speaking, Linux isn’t user-friendly (though I’m not saying it isn’t at all) in the sense that everything is guaranteed to be compatible with it and work immediately, whether it be certain peripherals that require extra setup to work correctly or software that was never specifically made to work on Linux. I know that from experience, having had some head-scratcher moments when trying to run an obscure/older game or trying to get certain hardware to run on my Linux machine without it having had compatible firmware out of the box. And I wouldn’t even say that I’m all that unknowledgeable with this sort of thing.
I’m not trying to disparage Linux or anything, but it’s definitely not so black-and-white as it easily working well for everyone all the time. It’s never really accommodated for that unfortunately, especially since there’s no one universal Linux distro with all those sore points snuffed out. Until that’s the case I don’t think it would typically appeal to the average person who only games on the side.
It’s still a mess. Only ready for technical users. Not even in the same ballpark for Xbox.