Oh, I see, you’re essentially saying that the picture should have had the keyboard upside down to complete the joke. Gotcha.

(FWIW I didn’t downvote)

Genuinely can’t tell if you’re missing the joke or you’re just committed to playing the straight man.

I’m actually disappointed this isn’t a real package. https://archlinux.org/packages/?q=btw

Linux newbies shouldn’t use Arch imho

Uhh but it’s clearly not though?

I forgot to mention. Turns out PWAsForFirefox doesn’t work at all with the Flatpak version of Firefox https://github.com/filips123/PWAsForFirefox/issues/142 so the whole question is moot. The project’s dev seems to be actively involved in making that possible though. I guess I’ll live without nice web-apps on the steam deck for now, it’s not a deal breaker.

It’s genuinely funny, I don’t know what more you want. (I don’t consider myself a frontend dev fwiw)

the suspend mode is fantastic and there’s little reason to ever do a full shutdown or reboot in my experience.

Thank you, that’s quite useful to know!

Slightly off-topic but you reminded me. Have you tried using Steam Deck as a “Steam Controller” for PC? I did look up an article on that once and at first glance it seemed to involve a bunch of caveats. Haven’t tried it properly yet.

Precisely! I like to describe it as: a portable external monitor, in the shape of a laptop, with a built-in keyboard and trackpad.

Many Android phones support a desktop mode when connected to an external monitor. Most notably Samsung’s higher-end phones, and they call this feature Samsung DeX. Lapdocks are perfect to make use of this functionality.

NexDock is a more reputable brand that makes high-quality lapdocks. Uperfect is another, but I get the feeling they don’t care as much about making good usable products, and instead just want to maximize their specs for marketability.

ELECROW, I never heard of before and it looks like chinesium, but it’s the only lapdock I found that actually ships to me so that’s what I ordered. Should arrive in a couple of weeks.

I use it on Linux Mint, the biggest issue I have with it is external links:

https://github.com/linuxmint/webapp-manager#how-to-open-links-in-my-main-browser

How to open links in my main browser?

For Firefox, all links are always opened within the WebApp, either directly or using a new tab. To open a link in your main browser, right-click anywhere, select Copy link location and paste the link in your main browser.

Really annoying. PWAs For Firefox fixes it, you just gotta change a setting.

I think a good doctor wouldn’t even say it’s safe. It’s more accurate to say: the potential harm of a single x-ray is small/negligible, and the benefit of being able to correctly diagnose you and create an informed treatment plan is well worth that risk.

Crossing the street isn’t completely safe, but if you need to get to the other side, you take that risk because it’s worth it. But you shouldn’t cross the street willy nilly for no reason, that would be stupidly dangerous. It’s kind of like that.

Very interesting, thank you for this tip!

When docked, the Deck works great as a desktop PC. But not as a laptop. It’s too much to carry (lapdock + deck). The lapdock would be more suitable for your phone.

Thanks for the advice. I’m going to find out for myself either way though.

I have a large backpack and I’m used to carrying a lot of weight. I often carry a laptop + Nintendo Switch + battery pack and a bunch of misc stuff. So size and weight will be fine.

And part of the plan is that on days where I don’t need a full Linux OS, I would only take the lapdock and indeed use it with my phone. Thus my portable computing options are a lot more modular.

Thanks for the advice! I did already figure out the thing about the trackpads. I found the whole environment to be surprisingly usable in handheld mode, but definitely not ideal.

Thankfully that’s not how I’m planning to use it. I ordered a lapdock (specifically this one, which is the only one I’ve found that ships to my godforsaken country) and it should arrive in a couple of weeks and be the main way I use Desktop Mode. Then I don’t need Steam input.

If you’re using a customizer like DeckyLoader holding off on updates for a week or so until there’s confirmation of stability and compatibility is advisable, but that’s more for handheld mode.

Can you tell me more about DeckyLoader and why I might want to use it? Or just link to a page with that info. I never looked into it, and I’m wondering what’s actually missing from vanilla SteamOS.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll consider it long-term, but want to stick with SteamOS for now. I gave a more detailed reply to a different comment if you’re interested in reading it.

Thanks, awesome answers all around!

Regarding another distro, I do use CachyOS on my desktop so that’s definitely an option, but for the time being I want to give SteamOS a fair shot before I go and install a different OS on it. There’s every chance I’ll cave and install CachyOS within a month or two.

Don’t bother messing with the system files if possible. Try to use an AppImage or Flatpak instead, […]

Yes, definitely; I was going to do that anyway. There are only a few corner-cases, like the PWAs For Firefox that I linked in the OP, where this isn’t possible or might require a lot more fiddling than I prefer. But in almost all cases, I can work with Flatpaks, AppImages, or through a web browser.

Thanks for answering, I was honestly not sure I’d get much good info here but you proved me dead wrong :)

Just shot an email about this over to this supposed alliance. It’s clearly led by Google so I expect my email to go directly to trash. But we’ll see.

I have never heard of this Browser Choice Alliance. Let me tell you about my biggest annoyance with a monopolistic browser.

It’s Chrome on Android. If a web-app (PWA) is configured correctly with the appropriate manifest, Chrome allows you to “install” it on your device as if it was an app. This is called WebAPK.

You can’t do it with Firefox. You also can’t do it with Chromium-based browsers like Vivaldi, Brave, Opera, or whatever you like to use. You can only do it with Chrome.

This is where this feature is officially described, listing all the benefits it has over the simple shortcut option that other browsers can use: https://web.dev/articles/webapks

And notice the last question in the FAQ:

I am a developer of another browser on Android, can I have this seamless install process?

We are working on it. We are committed to making this available to all browsers on Android and we will have more details soon.

Last updated in 2017. Committed my ass.

Can’t believe I missed that. Thanks!

I don’t work out and I don’t see any difference whatsoever between the first two