I have a 512GB version. The cost for that one was split between me and my brother and we both have our accounts on it. That was soon after the release and took 6 months to arrive. 2 months ago I bought a 256GB version that only I paid for so I can bring it to the dorms since I’m a college student now.
While it is indeed linux, the core file system is locked down and cannot be accessed without running a bunch of commands. That isn’t recommended either, mainly because steam deck updates will lock the file system down again, and you risk breaking your system. Because of that, the only kinds of applications you can run are flatpaks, which are installed in the user’s home directory and are sandboxed. You can install such apps via the discover app.
If the app you want to run doesn’t offer a flatpak version or an appimage (which is essentially the same thing as a portable .exe file on windows), then you are out of luck.
When it comes to android apps, normal linux does not support them natively. First of all, android runs on an entirely different CPU architecture called ARM, so it needs to be translated to x86 first. Second of all, the kind of linux that runs on android is heavily modified and afaik isn’t the same thing as normal linux, so there may be some translation going on as well.
If you want to run android apps on linux, you will need to use an app called waydroid, which does all of this for you (the ARM translation is done by libhoudini, which you will need to install manually, but it shouldn’t be too hard). Unfortunately I don’t think they offer a flatpak version.
Furthermore, waydroid runs on a rendering method called wayland, which I’m not sure is turned on in the steam deck’s desktop by default, so you will need to figure that out. Most people still use the older rendering method called X11 on other linux distros.
The UI you boot into, called gamescope, uses wayland by default so you should be fine there, but I’m not sure about the desktop session.
Tbh I don’t think running android apps is worth it on the steam deck. It was a major pain in the ass for me on Fedora 38 to set up, didn’t work for the game I wanted due to anticheat and who knows how the controllers work there. I couldn’t figure out how to bind keyboard keys to specific screen locations, so I assume controllers are going to be even worse.
I dunno man, seems like the problem is between the keyboard and the chair this time.
Ah I see. That makes sense.
Maybe a little but I doubt it would be noticeable. Most of the latency usually comes from the internet service provider transfering the data over the internet. At least that’s the case for me. I don’t really notice much of a difference with ping when I’m on wi-fi vs wired.
Tbh the protocol for enabling HDR on normal desktop environments on linux isn’t even finished yet. Not sure what valve is using to enable HDR on the steam deck but I’m not surprised it doesn’t work everywhere. I think in 2-3 years there will be plenty of games where this will work out of the box.
Probably not. The main benefit for the steam deck is that it is very portable. For this you sacrifice upgradeability and connectivity. The steam deck only has one usb-c port. Yeah you can expand your ports using a dock but it still isn’t as good as having a desktop computer.
If you don’t plan on making use of the portability that the steam deck provides then there probably aren’t many benefits for getting it compared to just getting a desktop pc or a laptop.