this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2025
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Steam Hardware

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A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.

As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title

The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Deck] - Steam Deck related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.

If your post is only relevant to one hardware device (Deck/Machine/Frame/etc) please specify which one as part of the title or by using a device flair.

These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.

Rules:

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My initial thought is definitely yes for the Steam Machine, and maybe yes for the Steam Frame.

All devices are Valve made hardware running steamOS, so I would think a lot of the discussions/content would apply to Steam Deck. This also isn't a super busy community, so I wouldn't be that worried about Steam Deck specific content getting buried.

The Steam Frame is a bit more iffy than the Steam Machine though, there's a lot of experience differences between the Deck/Machine and a VR device, so there will be larger differences. Also the Frame has ARM hardware and has to use an additional x86 to ARM compatibility layer for games running on it, so we'll probably see some unique compatibility bugs for it.

Overall though I just want to hear everyone else's opinions on it.

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[–] DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.world 36 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I am completely fine with having this community for steam hardware. I don't think it would be beneficial to have 10 smaller communities instead of one big. Lemmy is not a huge platform at the moment

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 150 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I'd say yes. If the volume becomes overwhelming new communities can easily be created.

[–] makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world 52 points 3 days ago

Agreed, the fediverse is small enough now that living aggregate communities are preferable to dead specific ones. Especially because everyone hates posting something, getting their post removed and being told to go post in another very similar community they didn't know existed. As you said, if it becomes a problem you can just spin off

[–] cRazi_man@europe.pub 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Fragmented communities is such an annoying problem in the fediverse.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The problem can also be a positive, so that communities for more specific niches can be created, or to have alternatives for already existing ones with different management philosophies.

[–] AngryMob@lemmy.one 5 points 3 days ago

User numbers are still far too low for this to be a practical positive imo.

[–] termaxima@slrpnk.net 29 points 2 days ago

Yes. We don't need even more fragmentation on the fediverse.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 90 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Personally, I like the idea of becoming more of a "Steam Hardwares" community, as them being all kinda niche but close in scope, they shouldn't conflict with each other nor turn the community into a too generalist one.

[–] SoulSkill@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

But the Gabe Companion Cube..

[–] Lfrith@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago

Yeah, community being split up might just lead to inactivity for certain hardware if it isn't popular enough. There's enough overlap with SteamOS that I think being all in one is the best route. Maybe if lemmy gets way more users in the future then splitting up discussion to dedicated hardware communities might be an option, but for now better to be one.

[–] _Nico198X_@europe.pub 10 points 2 days ago

Yes.

Machine and Deck run on the same OS anyway. they are the same minus the hardware differences.

[–] Nima@leminal.space 69 points 3 days ago

I'd love to see them included, honestly. it seems they're all part of the same family.

[–] HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.world 44 points 3 days ago

Absolutely. I would rather have one great community instead of 3 hyper specific communities. It just needs to have flags like [steamdeck] [ steammachine] [steamframe] Or even shorthand sd, sm, sf.

[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes, Assuming that renaming a community without creating a new one isn't possible.

The best way would be to just rename to "steamhardware", but losing everyone in the process is certainly not worth the rename for clarity.

[–] pirateKaiser@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

Excuse me, did you just blatantly ignore the possibility of 'Steamware'??

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago

Yes. Anything to grow communities. The fediverse is not in the restrictive limiting of communities time in its evolution. The fediverse is in the we need more numbers phase. You need a lot more people to be worried about this kind of thing. Right now you just need more people making more post and making more comments.

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.world 23 points 3 days ago

Yes; it makes no sense to have multiple communities when the Steam Machine and Steam Frame are so similar to the Steam Deck. It may be that in the future it makes sense to split out topics if their isn't overlap, but I'd say the community isn't flooded with content and there is a lot of overlap between these topics that will benefit everyone.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 37 points 3 days ago

Yes.

We are the niche of a niche. We need more content, as long as it's relevant.

[–] asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev 22 points 3 days ago
[–] clot27@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes, altho I wouldve liked the name of this community to then changed to steam hardware (I dont know if thats even possible) but it works like this too...

Yes. If this were a more heavily trafficked sub I'd consider separating out the Frame and GabeCube. But it's not.

[–] mrfriki@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Definitely yes, they all run Steam OS and all 3 device are very interchangeable in what they offer. Plus there's not that much people to properly support 3 different communities.

[–] voytrekk@sopuli.xyz 15 points 3 days ago

I wouldn't be opposed. New community name could be SteamHardware. They share an OS and ecosystem and people interested in one would likely be interested in the others.

[–] Yamanashi@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 days ago

I think a name change would have to match. Steam hardware seems pretty straight forward to me.

[–] Diurnambule@jlai.lu 6 points 3 days ago

I can't wait for the steam frame. I own a second hand meta quest 2 but never installed the software on PC and I never bought a gape on it since it is facebook. But a Linux VR headset, that amazing !

[–] Igilq@szmer.info 5 points 3 days ago

I think yes since biggest steam deck discord has channels for other steam hardware

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think that there is a somewhat decent chance that there will be an ARM Steam Deck Mini at some point. The Steam Client will probably be released for ARM distributions. I think for the foreseeable future there will be a considerable overlap of topics between thee devices.

I think should there be a flood of posts regarding hardware tinkering of the other devices (people sharing faceplate STLs for Machine or addons for the Frame's expansion port), they could be directed to dedicated communities but for now IMO it's fine to be inclusive.

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[–] monkeyman512@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

Feels like the more accurate name moving forward would be "SteamOS Hardware".

[–] twistypencil@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

I vote yes, and change the name so it isn't just deck

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yes, it makes sense to expand the community to be steam devices as a whole.

Community displayed name should probably change to Steam Devices or something like that.

[–] Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 3 days ago

Since they're all designed to work together as a trio, surely it makes sense to include them all? And it's not a forever decision, they can always branch off later if it becomes clear enough people are interested in one or the other to support their own communities.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Is... is it even possible to rename a community?

Valve Ecosystem Nerds?

Or do you just have to make a new one, and tell everyone to migrate?

Anyway, yes, I think that untill or unless it becomes truly problematic in some way, yeah, this basically already is a comm of general Valve/Steam related both hardware and software nerd#, why be too picky?

If a flood or trickle of noobies ever show up, easier for them to ask questions and get news in one place.

But I also do see a potential problem of people having no idea this comm would cover more than just the Deck, not finding it in searches.

... Not sure what to do about that?

EDIT

Aha!

New comm name: Steam Dorks.

Yep.

Nailed it.

i feel like most steam deck and steam machines discussions will have so much overlap, that it won't matter.

Steam Frame might be more specialised and a dedicated community could be helpful, but i doubt it will produce thaaat much noise and a seperate community might be pretty barren, just because VR is afterall still very niche.

tl;dr: dont see why we should split communities, if something is specific to frame/machine/deck we can specify that in a posts title.

[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 days ago

I'd appreciate one place to discuss the whole steam hardware ecosystem, so yes.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't think so. Because they are different systems with different goals and different needs. If the community was named "Steam OS", then it would make sense. But this community is not about the operating system, but the device itself.

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 11 points 3 days ago

I can definitely get that for Steam Frame, but I feel like docked Steam Deck and Steam Machine are basically the same experience, just with different performance levels.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

No, I think they should have their own communities, and someone should add a steam hardware community, for those interested in all of it, as well as the general trajectory of Steam hardware and ecosystem (if you can call it that).

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 14 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Spreading converstion to many different communities only makes sense if one community is oversaturated with content.

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[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 days ago

I don't know why you would, except in relation to how they work with the steam deck.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Yes I think so, though I think a seperate Linux Handhelds community would be cool to provide an encompassing place for devices like the Steam Deck/other types of linux handhelds.

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[–] deacon@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

I’d suggest a separate community for each hardware variant and a Steam OS community acting as a broader hardware indifferent Steam gaming community (which I believe exists already)

this is just a forwardlooking estimation that it will be easier for moderation.

[–] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Steam Frame is optionally just a Steam Deck with 'up to' a 4k screen that you don't have to look down at or hold up to your face. It can also be used for VR stuff, but otherwise it's just a better Steam Deck.

It's how I use my Quest 3 already 75% of the time, so it'll be nice to have a headset that had that use case in mind during It's design. And also one where I don't have to give meta money anymore.

[–] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 3 points 3 days ago

Sure! The only thing I'm worried about taking over the community is the Steam Frame. There's a chance it becomes super popular. But if that happens, we can just make a new community for it. No biggie.

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 2 points 3 days ago

Maybe make another community so that people who don’t own the other devices can just subscribe to this one and not be bothered by desktop linux gaming and VR ?

[–] piyuv@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

One more yes from me. All hail Gaben

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