I love my deck because
- it can play Steam games fairly well
- it can play emulated game really well
- but most importantly it’s a linux computer, I can browse the web, watch a movie, even be productive on it, and I sometimes don’t even need to plug in a mouse and keyboard or an external screen !
But I was wondering what kind of uses other people have with it, as a non gaming machine?
You can use the box to collect cats in.
Steam Cat
I have mine plugged into my TV, with a wireless controller and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I spend most of my time in the desktop mode
I use it to:
- play steam games on the deck directly
- stream games at high settings form my PC to my TV via Steam link and Moonlight (I find Moonlight works better for me)
- browse the Web via Firefox
- stream video from my PC via jellyfin
- watch YouTube via Freetube
- watch streaming services via Web browser
- unhook it to occasionally play games in bed on a lazy Sunday morning
It works great as an all in one device. I don’t really use the smart features on my TV or my Fire stick anymore - I don’t need to see all the shitty advertising or use their compromised UIs that try to sell me shit.
Honestly, the Steam Deck is one of the best devices I’ve bought in years.
Which makes it all the more sad that 4% is the current peak of Linux Desktop usage. Now with Proton we could all be living so much better digital lives. I recently set up Nobara and it’s an absolute marvel. I was never a Fedora guy, but I think I’ll come around to this out-of-the-box fully gaming-capable experience.
Honestly just for gaming. I have a Framework laptop running Linux that I use for anything else.
Hoping to get one soon.
I have the AMD 13 and it’s fantastic. It’s even solid for gaming as well and can handle some things the Deck can’t.
Is that the AMD dedicated graphics card? I’m getting the graphics card. Hoping to be able to run ML stuff on there such as Stable Diffusion.
How long does it take to arrive usually? Is there a calendar or timeline for each batch?
No, my Framework 13 is integrated only but it is still significantly more powerful than the Steam Deck. I haven’t really done any ML stuff so couldn’t tell you.
Mine was quoted as Q4 2023 when I ordered it and shipped by the end of November.
I travel a lot for work with a not very big weight allowance so it has replaced my laptop as my daily machine.
I game on it, use it for discord and dndbeyond to play dnd at work, have jellyfin on it to stream media to my phone+ar glasses, and use it to access my home server to deal with downloads and my main jellyfin server.
It’s an awesome tool.I once saw a video of soldiers in Ukraine using it to control some drones. Truly a versatile machine.
I have a needlessly complicated but high quality signal path (USB-C to A dongle -> some extension cable -> Edirol UA-1D -> looong Toslink optical cable -> active speakers) to play music off Spotify and MPD on the Deck to entertain the family and guests.
I have it plugged into my TV via dock and use it to watch illegal video streams from sketchy websites that don’t have apps. Most often they are live sports streams.
I recently started trying run stable diffusion on my deck CPU. It’s slow, but probably my fastest option as I’m very new to PC gaming and the deck is probably my most powerful computer for now.
Check my recent post history lol.
That’s actually kinda amazing…
It’s actually my main travel computer. I bring it to work with a Bluetooth keyboard and a little nreal glasses display if I need it. I find that the form factor reduces back and neck strain by allowing me to use different muscle groups. I changed the desktopofe controls to map to a bunch of keyboard shortcuts to make it so that I rarely need the keyboard. I mostly do coding and research on it.
At home, I continue my work on my hammock.
It’s amazing for traveling with. I’ve found that streaming devices like a Chromecast or Roku are hit or miss at most hotels/motels, but the Steam Deck in desktop mode with a USB hub and HDMI cable works basically anywhere.
I also keep some movies and shows downloaded just in case the Wi-Fi particularly sucks wherever I am.
I use my Steam Deck for producing audiobooks, set up a little closet space and soundtreated it, set up a mic with a Focusrite and I use Reaper on the Steam Deck.
Works great, bit small but I’m not doing music production so I don’t need a larger screen for the moment.
Best part is, it’s all via USB-C Anker Dock, so I just unplug it and the whole set up is perfectly in place still. Sans Deck :D
I sold my laptop and used my Steam Deck as my main PC for a couple of months (till the parts for my new PC arrived). Worked out great. Convinced me to install Arch Linux on my new PC.
The Deck works well as an HTPC too. Works great with Plex, etc.
I’ve dual run Linux and Windows for ages on my main PC but the Steam Deck is what moved me over to Linux as my daily driver and started me using KDE. Since switching from Mint to OpenSuSE on my PC I now very rarely use windows - I basically use it for occasional games that don’t run on Proton well yet.
And agree on the HTPC use - I use my deck mostly plugged into my TV.
I use it as a tablet to watch F1 on my couch / armchair. It has better sound, screen and battery life than my laptop, while not burning my laps.
Other than that I mostly play games on my Deck.
I’ve recently started to find its really nice to use kde connect on the desktop to watch videos on my TV though the browser. It’s not the most amazing experience but nice in pinch and better than hooking up my Chromebooks to the TV
Someone is going to say porn, and for that person I want to know how the hell you hold that thing one handed (for long enough).
You don’t have the fleshlight mount for SteamDeck ? Amateur.
