• Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Maximum compatibility? Windows is the de-facto gaming OS, whether you personally like it or not.

    It makes sense as a creator of such a device that if you have the knowledge in your team to do it, running Windows on it is a good proposition to buyers. It’s not like they couldn’t install Linux on it if they want to, but to off-the-shelf buyers Windows is much better sales pitch.

    • OtakuAltair@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      The user experience is atrocious though.

      There are a few games I can’t play on my steam deck yet but I’d much rather have its great, functional ui over those few games that I could just play on pc instead.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Oh definitely. I would not say atrocious (seen far worse, like every time I have to interact with the weird stuff SAP or Oracle put out as software), but it’s not good for a semi-controller-semi-touchscreen device.

        Definitely usable OTOH.

        Personally I would still go for a Steam Deck right now if I had to pick one, but more competition is good, and right now I’m personally not looking for a portable gaming PC anyways as my Switch has enough games I still need to play.

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      The off the shelf user experience is so much worse though, it doesn’t feel like a finished user ready product if you’re having to navigate windows UI on a tiny screen with a thumbstick mouse.

      Not to mention that running windows ruins the ability to play low power games at low power draws. A game like Stardew on the steam deck draws 5-7w, while the ROG Ally pulls about 15-17w to run it with the same settings. Disabling everything you can through task manager can reduce that power usage difference by maybe half, but there’s still a lot of unnecessary power draw just from it running windows.