this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
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GoG, epic, any other store really. Proton is made by valve but it works in whatever, and there are tools now to use proton (not wine, proton) outside of steam to get all the goodies you got on top. Heroic launcher does that for the games you get from the Amazon store, gog, epic, and any other exe you got.
I even installed battle net, and once you open it everything you install from there works in that bubble and work, I played plenty HOTS games.
I play modded D2 without much issues.
You know why the steam market share in Linux is so high? Because they are the ones that put the work to make windows games work on Linux. Yes, wine existed before but they both adapted it for games and contributed to the overall wine project a ton. Also, iirc, steamdecks make up for 30% of the Linux machines from valve's yearly reports. The market is tremendously tiny yet.
What is their current market share on Linux?
Why is that even relevant? You said people can only get games on Steam and that's just not true
If they have no market share then that competition exists in theory only.
You're not seeing the forest for the trees. Just because other game distribution vectors lack market share does not mean there are no alternatives to Steam. People have options, but they overwhelmingly choose Steam based on the quality of their product and service. If others decide to improve those things or a particular game is better priced or contains more content on another service, the consumer is free to choose that distributor.
Market share is completely irrelevant in this case.
Market share is very much relevant to determining if some company has a dominant position in that market. You people would be arguing that Internet Explorer 6 wasn’t a monopoly because Mozilla and Opera existed.
Homie you're having a completely different argument than the rest of us. It's been explained to you like 3 different ways now. Not sure what else to tell you, so yeah. Believe what you want to believe, big dog.
How do you explain piracy being a perfectly viable option to game on this new console? You never need to buy the first game to use this machine effectively.
How do you feel about Google requiring apps to be notarised by them to run? How do you feel about locked bootloaders? How did Google get to be able to do that in the first place? I outlined steps that are required to get there and where Valve is on that timeline (this HTC Dream, attempt 2).
I feel like you're purposefully ignoring everything that's being said. I understand what you're saying, but it isn't applicable in this case. It's just a PC man. A Linux based PC. There's nothing mandatory about using steams services on the hardware, nor given the announced architecture, could they enforce such a requirement.
Linux ≠ Android. One is open source, the other is not. And to add, it's pointless to discuss what might happen on a theoretical piece of hardware multiple generations away. You might as well argue that Windows will go open source in 2035 based on the fact consumers never pay for it for home use.
You could build entire working Android system, dialer, launcher and other regular stuff included, from source. You had to supply some binary blobs for kernel drivers due to ARM platforms being a bit of a clusterfuck but that’s about it. Did people forget this already?
For PC you can Frankenstein random hardware so you aren't at the mercy of prebuilt OEM options.
Now look at phones and see how easy it is to make your own from scratch with parts. Then look at OEMs and how many will even let you unlock the bootloader.
Then look at how many iOS options there are for phones not from Apple. Mobile hardware freedom was dead from the get go compared to PC. Why? Hardware roadblocks for mobile compared to PC.
Are you sure that’s relevant when every major Android OEM locks their bootloaders now? Illusion of an open system.
When has Android been open? How many people do you know building their own parts to make their own Android phone from random parts? Android has mostly been at the mercy of OEM prebuilts.
There’s been definitely way more people running custom roms 10 years ago. Xiaomi got a start with a custom rom.
You can launch any .exe through Steam using Proton... You don't even need to buy the games if that's your prerogative.
Where the software is from is entirely irrelevant.
Just walk me through what prevents Valve from following Google’s footsteps in commoditising Linux only to lock it down like they are doing currently.
Linux and proton are open source, and their licenses allow literally anyone to fork it. GE-Proton already exists.
How are they currently locking Linux down? The Steam Deck is literally a desktop PC, and can do anything a desktop Linux PC can do (including using it in desktop mode which is KDE Plasma). You can even install a different Linux distro (or Windows if you're a freak) on it if you want. There's literally nothing locked down about it.
Same could be said about Android. Will you be able to install other OS on Steam Machine 3 in 2035? It could have bootloader locked, they could say it’s required for anti-cheat and some even will be happy that they can finally play CoD.
The same cannot be said about Android. I think you need to educate yourself on what Linux and FOSS actually is.
I see AOSP was forgotten very quickly.
You're right, that's why there's countless mature Android distributions to choose from, and they're all free. Oh wait.
I don't really know much about AOSP, but isn't the fact that it doesn't contain any of the proprietary Google stuff mean that the "sideloading" restrictions likely will not apply? How could it?
So you don’t really know the story of Android, much of it very recent, but you’re going to argue that Valve is not following the same path. What a waste of time.
Steam is a game distribution store, Steam machine and deck are console oriented machines.
Linux as a whole has dominance in the server world, valve is touching the gaming side of desktop Linux. Desktop Linux is tiny compared to Windows. You are comparing it to a phone operating system in a world where they were two-ish, to a potential distro in a world where there are 12 or more, several of those widely used in servers.
Be angry if you want but it's not the same.
You did not address anything I’ve said really. I’m going to go with block because I value my time too much.
It's just not even comparable in any way, regardless of how you try to shoehorn it into your analogy. Android was not a mature, stable OS with hundreds of distributions, for several decades, before Android phones came along.
Please stop digging that hole because it’s getting embarrassing.
Oh I'm wrong? Show me even 3 Android "distros" that were mature and stable before Android hardware existed. Let alone hundreds.
The only way Valve even TRIES to ever do what you're suggesting is when Gabe dies and the company goes public. Knowing gamers, I doubt they'd be able to even do it. It would be jail broken the day it was released.
It's just not currently the ethos of the company. Anyone who has used a Steam Deck knows this.
First public release of Android was in 2008 but you’re talking about several decades. No billionaire is your friend. Please sober up.
What exactly do you think my argument is? I think Gabe is a pos for having multiple yachts. It's absurd.
However, I have eyes and a brain, and I have seen how he runs the company.
I'm honestly not sure what you're trying to say with the first part.
They literally cannot lock down the hardware if they wanted. If they decided to do it before the thing is even released, they're guaranteeing that it will bomb, and there will be people who crack it immediately.
Unless they pull a Klon and coat the boards in black goop or some shit. Not happening any time soon from Valve.
Valve being a private company means that they can be even better at playing the long game. The end prize is a platform like Android or iOS so definitely worth it. Valve isn’t exactly a paragon of ethics, they profit heavily from gambling and know perfectly fine with their online casinos serving children. At least Goop targets middle aged women because it’s likely I’m having a conversation with a teenager who now vehemently defeats a multi-billion dollar business.
I wasn't referring to Goop the company, I was referring to this: https://decibelics.com/klon-guide/
The creator of the pedal covered the circuitboard in some type of tar or something to prevent people from copying the circuit (it's pretty trivial to do with analog guitar pedals).
Anyway, I can see that you have no interest in considering that you might be wrong here... If you haven't messed with a Steam Deck, I suggest you check it out. Because it's literally just a Linux PC in a handheld form factor. You can avoid Steam altogether on it if you want.
Lol, for someone who’s been proven to be factually wrong and talking out of ass multiple times already in this single thread you seem incredibly confident that I’m wrong.
You have yet to add a single bit of value to this exchange. Hope you have a good weekend.