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Analyzed from 946 words in the discussion.

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#steam#steamos#desktop#don#distro#without#logging#deck#linux#yes

Discussion (41 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

pidgeon_lover•40 minutes ago
Can it be used without logging in online to Steam?
CodesInChaos•21 minutes ago
From my experience with the steam deck:

If you're already logged in, you can use it online. But if it decides to log you out, and you're offline, then you're out of luck.

Older versions allowed you to switch to desktop mode without logging in (with broken on screen keyboard, since that's only available once you log into steam), but that option is missing in newer versions.

koolala•15 minutes ago
They changed its location and it was bugged for an update. You go to Settings > System and then enable Show Switch to Desktop Mode.
CodesInChaos•10 minutes ago
For me the "Switch to Desktop mode" button only showed up after logging into steam but was hidden while logged out.
koolala•18 minutes ago
Yes. They recently made it extra easy to do too.
nithssh•40 minutes ago
That non-steam-deck section is glorious.
mbmbn•about 1 hour ago
Realistically, what should be expected if I run this in my desktop with AMD 9000x CPU and a NVIDIA RTX 5000x GPU?
gabegm•about 1 hour ago
Use CachyOS or Bazzite instead.
pidgeon_lover•40 minutes ago
Can those be used without logging in online to Steam?
jon-wood•21 minutes ago
Only if you don't want to use Steam. I'm not really sure what point you think you're making here by constantly asking whether you can use SteamOS without logging in to Steam. You can however install literally anything you like on a Steam Deck.
nopcode•24 minutes ago
Yes, they are Arch and Fedora Atomic variants respectively and don't require any accounts or corporate affiliation.
koolala•25 minutes ago
Yes you can use SteamOS without logging into Steam too!
koolala•about 1 hour ago
I don't think it works with NVIDIA.
CodeCompost•about 1 hour ago
I just run CachyOS on my gaming desktop which is also Arch based. Works fine.
koolala•about 1 hour ago
Yeah that works but they asked about SteamOS not CachyOS and SteamOS doesn't work with NVIDIA.
jonathanstrange•about 1 hour ago
Very cool. As a Linux Mint user, I'm starting to get interested in SteamOS. So maybe someone with experience can answer my question:

How good is SteamOS as a general distro for a desktop machine? What are the Pros and Cons?

CodesInChaos•13 minutes ago
I found it very annoying and restricting. Most significantly being restricted to flatpak. For example I failed at installing whonix and couldn't get rust and vscode to work together.

If I didn't plan to get rid of by steam deck, I'd install a different distro in it. I definitely wouldn't install it on a desktop, support for the deck's keyboardless form factor is the only reason I might choose SteamOS over a normal distro.

Though I didn't know about distrobox then, perhaps that works better.

koolala•about 1 hour ago
It's good if you use Distrobox and it comes with it.
jonathanstrange•about 1 hour ago
Thank you so much! For some reason, I didn't even know about Distrobox!
koolala•about 1 hour ago
I installed Antigravity with Codex in Distrobox Ubuntu. The Agents happily use sudo without care that it is a container. It's great when I run random scripts from the web that I don't even know how to uninstall and never worry about gunking up the main system.
jauntywundrkind•about 4 hours ago
A very fine sense of timing to release this one year after KDE 6.4 was released! https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.4.0/ . Here in 2026, KDE 6.7 just dropped.

I'm still super excited for this release. KDE 6.4.3 from 6.2.5 is a nice jump. I'm very excited to get Wayland here, which is my normal baseline.

Maybe this time I'll try to get Niri running on this desktop. This is one of my daily driver systems, with a monitor plugged in. I'm typing on it now. I've been holed up on on 3.7.14, build id 20250701.1, since I don't want to lose the desktop, but this one seems worth losing my desktop for. Nothing but respect for Valve for working on ruac, a very nice A/B system image switcher, that powers all these updates, even if it means I'm about to lose this desktop. https://github.com/rauc/rauc

kombine•about 1 hour ago
I'd kill for KDE 6.4 crying in my work laptop with Ubuntu 24.04 with Plasma 5.27 :)
dessimus•about 1 hour ago
Are you not permitted to bump to current LTS on work laptop?
kombine•about 1 hour ago
Not until it's rolled out by our IT team. It's a managed installation.
TiredOfLife•about 3 hours ago
That line about update arch base means it is shipping only a year old packages and not 1.5 year old ones.
bravetraveler•30 minutes ago
So, depending where you look, more current than $FAVORITE_LTS... with a distribution found on mass-market gaming handhelds intended for precisely three wrappers, not a server or developer sandbox. Why do you, presumably a normal user, even care about the packages? Eesh.

As long as Valve provides more snapshot updates, again, some time in the next six months, I don't see the problem. The ~~TiVo~~ toy is maintaining currency.

I'll concede this might be annoying for the sub-community that chooses to use a Steam Machine as a server or workspace, once the product releases. My condolences to this imaginary group. They'll be shocked about immutability.

toofy•about 2 hours ago
i’d love to see blackmagic jump in with steamos as their main distro. i think they build for rockyos currently but…

if they jump to building davinci resolve (and its new lightroom style photo editing) on steamos rather than rocky.. this would be pretty powerful combine the insane wonders steamos is doing for gaming on linux and add davinci, that would really open up the linux landscape for a ton more people.

i’m currently daily driving linux for work, gaming, and personal pc. unfortunately i’m still pulling out my macbook for video editing and for lightroom.

come on blackmagic, read this and take the leap. valve has done fucking amazing with linux. just choose steamos to build against rather than rocky. its going to have significantly higher number of people already using it for other stuff.

scott01•about 2 hours ago
I believe the tools like Resolve are built around VFX reference platform specs. I doubt anyone will standardise on the basis of a rolling distro where you can’t pin glibc version. https://vfxplatform.com
toofy•37 minutes ago
steamos is not a rolling release. yes, it’s built on arch, but they halt with snapshots and do testing and their own patches before they roll out updates.
charcircuit•41 minutes ago
The flatpak runtime they would choose would have a fixed glibc version.
la_oveja•about 1 hour ago
davinci resolve is available on the aur

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/davinci-resolve

toofy•39 minutes ago
sure, but you have to jump through hoops to make it work. the only distro blackmagic supports is rockyos. they don’t want to build against and support hundreds of distros so they work specifically against rocky. to save developer time.

my point is, since steamos is already supporting their distro and not rolling out bleeding edge, (yes, it’s based on arch, but they freeze it and they test it before they roll out updates) blackmagic would have a vetted foundation to build on and a much larger user base from the jump.

utopiah•about 3 hours ago
I imagine it's for the upcoming hardware.
jay_kyburz•about 3 hours ago
It's the second point in the release notes
utopiah•42 minutes ago
Obviously correct, what I meant is that they don't mention the Steam Frame which is what I'm interested in and had in mind due to the recent "leaks" on Steam getting shipments in the US.
lanycrost•about 1 hour ago
It's always great to hear about linux in gaming.

It's sad that they decide to increase the price for steam deck (even if I have one already). Hope it doesn't mean steam machine will cost 1000+.

tehbeard•about 1 hour ago
"decide" feels like a particularly choice word for a supply chain issue hitting many consumer facing companies.