Background: I've been mostly a console gamer (Playstation played a big role since childhood), and a prominent handheld fan! Dabbled in PC gaming for a year but it never stuck with me (mainly because I feel that the Windows experience makes it a hassle). I really went deep into Steam and built my game library when I got my SteamDeck that I bought on launch. I work in IT but I always gravitate more towards simpler console-like experiences for gaming.
Upgraded my PC with an AMD GPU just for SteamOS (9060xt 16gb)
TLDR; I'm super impressed and satisfied with the living room console experience that SteamOS is able to provide, albeit you'll need some googling skill to remove some obstacles (as of SteamOS 3.8.10)
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Disclaimer: I'll only be talking about the experience of transitioning from Windows to SteamOS from an average gamer standpoint, the overview of using it in a living room setup for the last 1 month compared to a handheld (especially the SteamDeck). And to make things easier, I'll break it down mostly in a list of pros and cons. I won't touch on other Linux distros as I don't have extensive experience using them!
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Okay now I'll try to list out the pros and cons in a chronological manner, here comes the fun part first:
PROS
- The initial setup and installation process literally took only 5mins, maybe 10mins at most.
- Once you sync with your Steam profile, almost everything carries over and is ready (save files in the cloud, even the settings in-game lmao)
- Most of the popular controller options have their own UI in the settings (in my example I was using the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 controller)
- The home button (Steam) and QAM button (...) that we normally have on the SteamDeck now requires a button combo. You can click the home button to get to the left home panel, and home button + A for left QAM panel
- Almost everything you need can be done via a controller
- QAM panel is super useful imo, especially being able to toggle the view on the gamescope readings!
- Playing it on a big screen in the living room does feel like a proper console compared to being on a PC table hooked up to a monitor
- Sleep function works perfectly! You can be in mid-game, go to sleep and later just boot it up again and pick up where you left it before! Same as SteamDeck!
- You can install DeckyLoader and tweak/adjust the UI to your liking (again, same as the SteamDeck!)
- Desktop mode is....well...desktop mode? Lmao it works and I'm currently exploring it as my first time properly diving into Linux
BONUS PROS:
- Recently tried to stream from my PC via the default built in Steam Remote Play and legit it worked like a charm! Minimal lag, smooth connection process. Felt like chiaki connecting to PS5 (though the TDP is 1-2W higher?)
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Okay now comes the not so fun part...
CONS
- I did have to wait for this super long duration at the end of the installation process where I think it's downloading something from Valve which took around 1 hour to finalize
- I personally faced an issue when it was doing the initial network searching during the initial setup (refer to the pics). Had to go into a separate TTY (TeleTYpewriter) to do a network manager reset via sudo line
- There's no fan curve settings in the QAM menu (weird because I remember it was there on the SteamDeck?)
- Tried using some plugin via DeckyLoader to control fan curve, but none worked
- Had to go back into the BIOS menu to tweak the fan curve there
- Although sleep function works, you cannot boot up the system again from a controller. It NEEDS to be triggered from a mouse/keyboard
- Sometimes the keyboard view doesn't come up (happened twice)
- I don't think game recording works? Screenshots are fine but no video recording
BONUS CONS:
- Seems to have issues with my QD OLED tv where really dark scenes would create these rainbow-pixels around them (refer to pic)
UPDATE: It's fixed by updating SteamOS(again, simply by googling)
The root cause and the fix that I found: It's a known bug in SteamOS's HDR direct-scanout path on AMD GPUs where it's specific to Gamescope's "Game Mode" (Big Picture UI), and doesn't happen on Desktop Mode or on any other HDR source (like YouTube on the TV's own apps), because those don't go through Gamescope's direct-flip HDR presentation path at all.
*It's been officially fixed in SteamOS 3.9*