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?
Got the deck dock on the living room TV and use it to both chill-game and have the kids Skype with grandma and grandpa.
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.
Same here, just for gaming. Have multiple other computers for actual computer needs. Though admittedly, none of them are running Linux as the primary OS yet.
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).
I imagine someone would either connect it to a Monitor/TV or have it held up with a dock or something lol 🤷🏻♀️
I’ve got much better devices for porn, but it’s pretty easy to use one-handed. Sit up with it on your lap. Lay down with your hand under it and the other side in the air, or with your hand on the top side and the other side resting the weight on your couch or bed.
If you couldn’t do that you’d need a 3rd hand to use the touch screen.
Hmmm… I wonder if there’s any porn games that support simultaneous controller and touch screen import.
You can plug it into a monitor or TV. Or you can use a stand.
You don’t have the fleshlight mount for SteamDeck ? Amateur.
They should take include that as standard.
For stremio.
it’s my daily device. I watch youtube and anime in desktop mode. I even have some music on it.
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
If you’re using YouTube then install the FreeTube client - it’s a better experience I find although you need to manually import your watch lists. But avoids advertising and is much more private.
You can also install software like Jellyfin to stream from your own video library. You can also install Kodi to access your own library or streaming services with a nice big screen interface (Kodi is perfectly fine for accessing services you pay for - it’s not a piracy tool unless you make it one. I’m in the UK and use it to login and watch BBC Iplayer).
Honestly, it’s a full PC so with a bit of tinkering you can get it to do what you want in desktop mode and slickly.
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’ve used mine sometimes for watching stuff that doesn’t support Chromecast or any other easy way of playing it on my TV.
I plan to get a second dock for it, and use it in place of a stream deck for when I stream.
Then it will be serve these purposes for me
- TV Media PC (my first dock is connected to my TV)
- Gaming Handheld
- Stream Deck
- A productivity “laptop” in a pinch - I don’t own a real laptop and don’t see a need to get one
(replacing the tired old barely adequate first gen raspberry pi+touchscreen I was using until a few months ago)
I plan to get a second dock for it, and use it in place of a stream deck for when I stream.
Be careful if you have an OLED Steam Deck. Static images will burn in pretty quickly if the software you use does not have burn in protection built in.
Good point, I might have to check that.
I used it a while ago to record audio with a X32 mixing console in our rehearsal room.
What did you use to input a signal?
…mics into the X32, via USB into the deck? Or what did you mean with “input”?
That’s what I meant. I always forget that the USB port can be used for lots of things.
I use a focusrite and a MXL V67G microphone to record audiobooks
Sometimes my wife likes to steamlink my desktop on the tv. In that case I hit my kvm button to switch over to my deck and use it as a backup desktop.
I’ve used it for work during a trip (I do not own a laptop). I’ve also used it to help a few students doing a bioinformatics class, as most of the tools we use are Linux programs accessed via SSH into a cluster server.
That’s mostly it for me. Handheld gaming. I used it for a “retro” LAN party 3 times. I also watched a movie on it with some friends with a very scuffed setup consisting of the Steam Deck + dock + external display + old car radio with speakers, lol.
Sure I used it as a desktop (with monitor, mouse and keyboard) browsing the web and stuff just to see how well it does, but I prefer my full-size PC for desktop use and a notebook for the couch to be honest.
Renoise music tracker DAW.
Thanks for a brilliant idea! Jamming sessions with deck would be awesome !
Same! I’ve been slowly building a pretty solid custom controller setup for it too. Oh, and found a tiny M-Audio USB keyboard from a flea market, also great with the Deck.
Did you ever make the custom mapping available on Steam?
I’d be interested to know if you use any bindings/plugins for Renoise with steamdeck controls.
I use a headless M8 and run https://derkyjadex.github.io/M8WebDisplay/ in Edge (with launch options for game mode). But I didn’t really put in the effort to try and make Renoise work without a keyboard/mouse.
Love a tracker! I saw people running dirtywave M8 headless on a steam deck. Needs a teensy connected and some packages/config, nearly tried it myself but got a preorder for a M8 instead.
With a Dock and my Steam Controller it’s a fantastic media PC.
With a Dock and my Steam Controller it’s a fantastic media PC.
Sadly it sucked last time I tried it to run Jellyfin Media Player :(
Weird, it works flawlessly for me. But I’ve only tried it in desktop mode. I find gamescope mode isn’t great for non games, even Firefox scales wierdly in gamescope mode.
