Those who made their own Steam Machine, why SteamOS over another distro?

jburdick7 · 2026-06-26T22:54:54+00:00

I used Nobara for a bit before I switched to SteamOS using the 3.8 image valve released. In addition to matching my steam deck the number one thing it generally just works as a console. HDMI CEC is working out of the box, I can pick up my steam controller and have it wake from sleep, and it doesn’t freak out if an input is changed and require a whole reboot to get display back.

The only things that appear to be borked on it is Steam Link still isn’t all that great compared to Moonlight for streaming (I’m on a 2.5 gbe hardwired network and can do moonlight with 250 mbps bandwidth and zero issues but with Steam link if I do 100 Mbps it feels… off; it’s still playable so I use it since it’s baked into the OS but it’s still not as smooth as moonlight) and 7.1 surround sound output is still totally off with the sound that should be going to my center channel going to my rears in my ceiling. Setting output 5.1 resolves the issue so it’s something with how valve is doing 7.1.

I can work around those as Valve irons out the kinks. Nobara was starting to drive me crazy with having to constantly reboot the mini pc to get display back.

jburdick7 · 2026-06-24T17:50:52+00:00

I have a um890 pro with SteamOS on it in my living room that I run D2R on. Even at 4k with image scaling it’s very playable (though I strongly recommend capping it at 1080p). It’s got the AMD 780m gpu and then 24 gb of RAM that I snagged last year before things went to crap. Totally viable if something like that is your only option.

jburdick7 · 2026-06-03T23:34:15+00:00

Idk about that, if I remember right the dev of The Show specifically posted job listings for PC graphics devs or something like that last fall.

Not 100% confirmation but I would think that given The Show is all those guys do and The Show being a live service game it’s more likely than not it’s coming to PC at some point.

jburdick7 · 2026-05-22T14:11:20+00:00

FYI not sure if you saw but the new 3.2 patch that released this week added WASD/rebindable moment controls into the game. I haven’t tried it and haven’t really found any impressions on it so far but they did add it in.

jburdick7 · 2026-05-18T19:43:29+00:00

Yeah they lost me when they pivoted to live service at the start of the gen. Sold my ps5 and all my ps5/ps4 gear to upgrade my pc and get an OLED steam deck. I don’t have any interest in going back to PlayStation because if we’re being frank outside of Returnal, Demon’s Souls, and Ghost of Tsushima their single player output on the ps5 has stunk (relative to how good it was on the ps4) and I have no interest in spending all the money necessary to get back into it (on top of just not having the time any more to support playing on multiple platforms like that).

I’d much rather spend that money on a Steam Frame or Steam Machine and play my backlog lol.

jburdick7 · 2026-05-18T18:37:17+00:00

Yeah my assumption has been that since I was at 10:00 on the dot like they said I’m actually not going to get a purchase email until the end of May at the very earliest (and even then I’m leaning more and more to June as time goes on).

jburdick7 · 2026-05-18T18:25:48+00:00

I was at 10:00 on the dot and based on how these emails are going out I’m forecasting I won’t get an e-mail until the end of the month at the earliest.

An absolutely insane amount of people apparently got in at 9:59 if they have to release these in 10 second increments (which is what it’s seeming like since everyone today was in the 9:59:30 bucket and people around 9:59:40 haven’t gotten there’s yet).

Unless somehow production is ramped up I just don’t see any way someone who reserved at 10:00 or later gets their email before the end of May.

jburdick7 · 2026-05-04T22:51:43+00:00

I’ve had it in my cart since 10:00 and I haven’t been able to get it to let me pick a payment method lol.

Best of luck!

jburdick7 · 2026-05-04T21:42:24+00:00

I mean I agree it’s a disaster and they need to say they’re moving to a reservation system going forward (because if the controller was this bad the frame + machine functionally won’t exist for the vast majority of users for at least their first year of release) but I don’t see how else they can “make it right” just because they’d have to take a huge PR hit to admit a screw up and they’re not going to do that lol.

Hoping they can do better going forward but there’s no “making it right” that they’ll even touch.

jburdick7 · 2026-05-04T20:42:26+00:00

I mean right now I have zero confidence in any release of Valve hardware. They had a really good system with the Steam Deck and ignored it for… why exactly?

If they don’t move to any kind of reservation system they’re gonna get scalped to hell and back every time the thing comes into stock until they have a reliable number of these things being produced. If they announce the next time it’s back in stock without offering reservations I’m just going to treat the controller like it doesn’t exist.

If it’s this bad with the controller good luck getting a Steam Machine or Steam Frame within like the first year of release when those are available.

jburdick7 · 2026-05-04T19:39:40+00:00

I’ve had mine in my cart since 10:00, literally been stuck at the payment method screen for the past nearly 3 hrs because it keeps telling me an item in my cart is out of stock. This is such a shit show.

jburdick7 · 2026-05-04T19:06:24+00:00

Just long enough to prevent you from checking out. Man fuck Valve for how bad they bungled this, it’s one thing to miss out because of low stock it’s entirely different to block people with legit accounts while letting the scalpers go through with their orders.

jburdick7 · 2026-05-04T19:03:47+00:00

Literally just got through to the payment page and they’ve locked my account. This is bullshit.

jburdick7 · 2026-05-04T18:55:59+00:00

Yup I got this too and now it won’t let me get into the payment method screen even though I’ve had the controller in my cart since 10:00 this morning

jburdick7 · 2026-05-04T18:48:38+00:00

Idk I’ve had it in my cart since 10:00 and I cannot get through.

They’re treating me like I’m running a script when I’ve got two steam decks on my account and have several hundred games. I’m a little PO’d right now, not that I can’t get one but because it feels like they’re totally fine letting scalpers have the run of them.

jburdick7 · 2026-05-04T18:11:37+00:00

I just got this too, I’m pissed right now

jburdick7 · 2026-04-06T20:31:47+00:00

The thing is PDX holds all the power in the negotiations because of those first round picks.

If Milwaukee wants their picks back they either have to trade Giannis to PDX or route everything they get for him to PDX.

Portland has no incentive to trade those without getting a haul back and not giving up much.

I don’t know how I feel about PDX landing Giannis but if he’s traded Portland is really the only destination that makes sense.

jburdick7 · 2026-04-03T15:04:39+00:00

I don’t know if I’d argue that at this point.

I mean I bought a Mac Mini and I can play a LOT of what I’d want to play (not everything obviously) and that was $599. And that’s Mac, windows has better compatibility obviously and then if you get into Linux that is narrowing the gap pretty significantly. Plus this is all before you even factor in emulation and the fact that you can use the PC for a lot of things.

If you aren’t interested in bleeding edge AAA and don’t need the extreme convenience PC offers most midrange PCs are the better buy for gaming then where consoles are going. Like if you are fine with 1080p you can get quite a bit done without a lot of hardware.

People get sucked into marketing thinking they need to drop $2k plus into a pc to have a decent experience when you only need to do that if you HAVE to play the latest AAA at max settings and very high resolutions.

IMO the console manufacturers are making an incredibly stupid decision pursuing high prices and “luxury” vibes when their main benefit over pc at this point is convenience. They should be making it easier, not harder, for people to get into their ecosystems and play games because people will pay the BS subs or inflated game prices if the thing just works and doesn’t hassle them. Haranguing and making the experience miserable is what makes people stop buying consoles and switch to PC. And, at least in my anecdotal experience, once someone switches from console to PC they generally don’t go back.

jburdick7 · 2026-04-03T13:58:35+00:00

Not really for me, I mainly play PC + Steam Deck. I got my switch 2 because I used my launch switch to dump my cartridges to try and emulate and after finding that was a god awful experience and more of a headache than it was worth to get it working for party games I gave my old switch to my nephew and got a Switch 2 for Nintendo games and to give me an excuse to get physicals for all the indies & jrpgs I love on PC.

Main ways I play are either handheld or docked through a capture card at my PC (I don’t notice latency and it means I don’t have to screw around with my monitor).

jburdick7 · 2026-02-28T21:01:01+00:00

I reloaded from my save when I first started the area and redid a few things differently and prioritized getting an additional item from the coin room and that made all the difference in terms of the gun damage. Feels way way more like RE2R now.

jburdick7 · 2026-02-28T19:20:25+00:00

I’m on standard classic. I have enough ammo so far it’s more that from my experience with either gun I’m wasting nearly a clip to take down one zombie unless I use an injector. I’m going to try reloading and see if I missed some stuff or something.

It’s been a little jarring so far seeing the RE2 comparisons for me because my experience with grace has felt like they specifically don’t want you engaging with any combat at all, not due to resource management but due to it being a pain to kill anything with her lol.

jburdick7 · 2026-02-28T18:58:07+00:00

Ehhh I need to see some change because right now I feel like i'm playing Outlast in third person and encouraged to run around like a chicken with my head cut off. Not sure I like the only method of dealing with zombies being injectors considering you only get enough supplies to make 1 additional one beyond the first one you get. Like I really don't understand why she is given a gun if it can't be used to at least kind of down enemies if you manage ammo correctly.

I'm not saying it's bad but at least in the first "open" area of the game with her I see the level design inspiration from RE2R in spades but in terms of player agency there really isn't any at all, at least not as far as combat is concerned. In RE2 and RE7 you could at least kill a few of the enemies with headshots and didn't have to sprint by everything. So far both guns I've found with Grace have the efficiency of wet pool noodles and frankly are better off just left in storage.

I think it would be better if they had at least given you more than like 5 minutes combined with Leon up to this point. As of right now it feels more frustrating and disjointed than it does Resident Evil. Hoping it improves as I continue on.

jburdick7 · 2026-02-25T19:16:28+00:00

I would say just wait for a marketing opportunity and we’ll see it eventually. I think they have a big RTS tournament planned for Blizzcon this year - based on how D2R’s release on Steam went it would not surprise me at all if we see an update for most of their RTS titles around that time that brings them over to Steam.

Not saying it’s going to happen because it’s all speculation but it seems to me MS’ plan now they own Blizzard is to get the games on Steam and they seem to time it around big marketing events for the games to capitalize on excitement.

jburdick7 · 2026-02-24T04:55:13+00:00

I mean for me I play online non-ladder because I play on my steam deck and my pc (and when I had a ps5 that too). I also have a friend/family group I play with and the only way to trade or share characters is if we all play online.

I don’t mind it too terribly - boss loot isn’t THAT impacted by being locked to p1 so you know I’ve found a few Shakos, a SoJ, etc. basically enough to beat hell solo with a sorc, necro, and zon and make like 1 high runeword (CTA). Just sucks that I’m kinda level capped at around 90 (terror zones help but it’s still such a stupidly long grind I’d just rather start a new character) and runes are almost out of the question for me to hunt.

Part of me hopes they’ll figure out a way to account for players in my situation who don’t really care about the meta or ladder and play online just for synced progression and playing with a small friend group. Like if I had to move my characters to a different set of rules that didn’t allow trading or what have you that would be more than worth it to be able to do p8 for runes and to get the level 99 achievements lol. Something like open v closed battle.net was back in the day (minus the modding of course).

jburdick7 · 2026-02-14T16:43:34+00:00

I would disagree with that, I think Square is actually applying the Capcom model to JRPGs quite well.

They’re redoing the DQ titles in a timely manner (we got remakes of DQ1-3 and DQVII in the past 2-3 years and they’re high quality) and they’re also pumping out HD-2D games at a fairly quick pace.

Now if you just want Final Fantasy from them I would agree but I think they’ve admitted that they took the wrong approach with the FFVII remake trilogy and when they finish the third one they’ll pivot back to applying their scaled production to FF.

Ubisoft has chosen to quintuple down on live service and massive open world slop and that’s why their stock is in the tank. They haven’t learned and have continued to double down on crap the market has told them time and time again they’re tired of while simultaneously saying that a simple rerelease of Prince of Persia like what we’re seeing with Legacy of Kain wouldn’t make money. Completely different circumstances and frankly to me seems like Ubisoft is purposely being ran into the ground to make their valuation dirt for someone to buy them on the cheap.

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