Valve today (12 November 2025) announced their new Steam Machine (x86 CPU, 6x more powerful than Steam Deck) and Steam Frame (self-contained and PCVR streaming VR headset with ARM CPU & "FEX" translation of x86 to ARM) to be released in early 2026. No prices yet.
I'm trying to speculate what effects this will have on the wider Linux ecosystem. Both devices will be running Steam OS and be open so you can run any OS.
First, I've read many people state that the Steam Deck considerably increased the number of devices running Linux, so it seems to me that these two new devices will accelerate that trend.
Second, it seems to me that the Steam Frame will significantly increase VR use and development for Linux.
Third, I wonder what the implications of Frame's x86 to arm translation layer (based on FEX, an open source project that I only learned about today) as well as Android compatibility (they state it can sideload Android APKs) will be. Could this somehow help either Linux on Apple silicon or Linux phone efforts? I'm very unfamiliar with what's going on with either of these efforts, so I may be way out on a limb here.
What do you think about all this?
Edit: this article may prompt some additional thoughts with its discussion of the openness of the Frame - https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-steam-frame-catalog-whole-compatible/
117 Comments
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 64 pts · 275d
If the Frame is as open as the Deck it will be the perfect device for VR devs to play around with and make awesome stuff with. i think one of the things holding back VR was that almost every headset was super locked down.
If the Quests had been more open we'd have had much more experimental games. Maybe the Metaverse would actually be a thing. But Meta prefers to keep everything under their control not realising that this hampers development and adoption.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 29 pts · 275d
Look at the article that I edited the OP to post. It sounds like Valve is intent on keeping this thing as open as possible. I agree that it could lead to really interesting developments, not to mention when you consider the SD card slot and the high speed accessory interface that will allow external cameras and who knows what else. This thing is going to be crazy.
Interestingly enough, when Quest first released the hand tracking functionality I remember seeing some really interesting developments using that, but I guess the developers never took it all the way to publish games with those concepts.
CatsPajamas@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 275d
It's so weird considering how differently their approach is to like pytorch and LLAMA
DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 275d
LLAMA if I recall correctly was closed source until the source code was leaked online. After that Meta decided to just open source it.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 275d
Hence, Zuckerberg has just recently fired most of the LLAMA staff, the lab's leader is rumored to be leaving for their own startup, and the new lab where all the funding's going is a bunch of tech bro egos that are pro-closed models.
…And I suspect PyTorch is too “utilitarian” for Facebook's leadership to draw enshittification attention.
Llama was an anomaly, and it seems they’re done with that. Which is quite sad. But on the plus side, it could be a death knell for Meta (as all that ego in the new lab will be a catastrophe).
socsa@piefed.social · 1 pts · 274d
Pytorch being the defacto ML R&D language basically means that every ML engineer Facebook recruits is familiar with their workflows. This is an age old strategy in tech which goes back to the early days of Unix.
BigHeadMode@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz · 50 pts · 275d
Huge win for Linux. Steam Deck was the first volley, but this hardware is an all-out assault on Windows' gaming dominance. MS is asleep at the wheel and making worse and worse software. I'm a 20 year Windows user and I'm planning my exit. If I were a gaming executive, I would assume 5 years from now that a smaller percentage of Steam users will be on Windows than there are today. I would want a damn good reason for my company's next game to not have full Linux support.
Microsoft will either:
My money is on #4. Windows will probably be the #1 desktop/laptop OS for the next 20 years, but we could enter a world where Linux and MacOS are each 10% or more of the market. Steam shows 95% Windows but that's for a gaming-focused market.
Valve isn't perfect. They're still a corporation. But if every company was as evil as Valve, we would achieve near world peace. They've contributed amazing things to open source through heavy investment.
https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 19 pts · 275d
How can I help?
BigHeadMode@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz · 5 pts · 275d
Embarrassingly, make a Windows 10-like OS. (More specifically, a window manager, probably.) Or have an affirmative vision for the future (non-Windows 95-derived) like Niri or (fascist-adjacent) Omarchy. 15+ years ago I booted my first distro. I ran Ubuntu with Unity on a side PC for years. Good for single screen use. I daily drove Debian for 3 months in 2018 but never got it to look more modern than Windows 2000. I never "enjoyed" it. This matches my thoughts. https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/10/deduplicating_the_desktops/
Going to try out https://www.anduinos.com/ and Zorin. Have done distro hop roulette for months and a lot of them are unsatisfying. KDE looks close to how I want but runs slow e.g. https://lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz/post/58790510
I'm big on super+arrow to move windows from one screen to another. I rarely need more than 4 active windows per display. But my big problem with tiling is that I like seeing the windows I have open at the bottom of my screen. (this was for my laptop but similar points https://lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz/post/58681232 )
My side OS on my main PC is Mint with MATE, but I also don't gel with it. Ran it on a family PC for years and it did the job for casual use. Random gripe off the top of my head I think applies in MATE: sorting is in byte order, not in brain order. Many linuxes sort
10, 1, 2instead of1, 2, 10. MATE and Xfce (iirc) have terrible file operation handling compared to Windows or (the gold standard?) Teracopy in Windows.Every default GUI archive/extract program in Linux sucks, that I could find. I prefer Peazip but even 7z-gui (the stock one) is good. Even native windows zip support feels more pleasant. This goes back to a bazzite/omarchy philosophy of shipping software that is good, instead of defaults that suck.
Oddly enough I kind of respect AntiX + IceWM, as well as Lxqt / Lubuntu more than most of the crap modern WMs I've used.
SSH key exchange / setup is a fucking nightmare and I don't know why I'm copy pasting keys into text files or piping multiple commands together for the 50% odds that my OS setup allows it. I still don't really understand the Linux threat model where passwords on a local account make sense. (Is it to prevent local scripts from escalating to admin?)
I've run Linux servers for 5 years and I run WSL, but nothing clicks per se. I'm always more at home in Windows. Niri feels close to what I want, but too high a learning curve. I may make a post about it someday.
https://social.linux.pizza/@BigHeadMode/114843921051139964
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 271d
There is a mix of very precise issues with very detailed examples but also a thread of not being "comfortable" which makes it challenging for me to make practical suggestions.
If that's OK I'd suggest to start with the top 5 problems you have then I, and hopefully others, can give potential paths forward.
One generic advice though the learning curve might feel threateningly high but I'd argue it's if you consider this a short term adventure. If you think about the next year or so, discovering the intricacies of a distribution or shortcuts for a desktop environment look like a bad investment of your time. If now you consider this, especially as you mentioned managing servers for years, relying on WSL, etc a long term investment. If you imagine than in 10 years, heck even 50 years, console, servers, VR headsets, desktop, phones, tablets... all run Linux (which to be clear basically is the case now, even before the Valve recent announcement) then it's a totally different dynamic. I don't mean "behind the scene" kind of things, I mean today you can use
adb shellon your standalone VR HMD, on your video projector, on your phone, etc. You can also have the console on your Mac laptop. It doesn't make learning easier, it's just a lot more motivating IMHO.Also on that topic, my "trick" is to write down notes. It can be actual notes or just my ~/.bashrc or ~/bin in a more pragmatic day to day solutions. They do add up, day after day, years after years. Each challenge once overcome can be composable and a new opportunity to do more.
BuckenBerry@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 275d
Has Microsoft ever innovated?
balance8873@lemmy.myserv.one · 13 pts · 275d
Don't be such a ridiculous fucking hater you blind yourself to reality
Barring literally everything else, this steam box shares its lineage with the Xbox, not Sony or Nintendo's products. Speaking as one who ran xbmc on their classic first-gen it's nice to see things coming full circle to "everything is just a media center pc, bitches".
bradboimler@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 275d
I would call Visual Studio Code a success story for them
brisk@aussie.zone · 0 pts · 274d
notgold@aussie.zone · 5 pts · 275d
They were innovative in hiding their money from the tax man
BigHeadMode@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz · 2 pts · 275d
Windows 95, 2000/XP, and 7 were all very nice OSs. DirectX and whatever other APIs helped PC gaming. Windows Phone 8/10 are an interesting paradigm I wish still existed. The Xbox 360 blades dashboard (and later the NXE) ushered in an era we're arguably still living in. WSL.
https://social.linux.pizza/@BigHeadMode/115402987550130007
barryamelton@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 274d
It's a privately own company, and it shows. Linux and open source just wins, because it allows to set these symbiosis with partners instead of treating everything as competition, my way-or-the-highway-style.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 274d
Hear hear. I'm a 35 year DOS -> Windows user (personally and professionally) and already actively working on my exit.
I think I remember reading comments indicating that lots of (indie?) developers are taking the strategy of ensuring that their games work well on WINE/Proton instead of specifically developing for Linux. That makes sense economically for a small company at this point. 5 years from now will probably be a different story than now though, like you said.
mesamunefire@piefed.social · 49 pts · 275d
The effort they are putting towards x86 emulation will definitely help the broader Linux community. I saw a bit about 24 min in on gamer nexas video. That would help down the line on all sorts of devices.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 18 pts · 275d
Yeah, pretty sure it was called "Fex" translation layer for emulating x86 binaries on ARM64. To me that was absolutely the biggest takeaway, because that's a massive game-changer for eventually moving the industry away from x86 exclusivity and into wider adoption of other architectures.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 275d
Interesting, thanks!
warmaster@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 275d
Steam Machine
If the Steam Machine really takes off, I see way more people moving to Linux on their main rigs and laptops, and in turn making companies stop ignoring it, if it becomes a massive success I imagine:
Steam Frame
Steam Deck
Other
Tattorack@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 274d
You know, in the trailer they did say "we're not talking about that yet" when referring to the Steam Deck.
So there's probably a Steam Deck 2 in the works, and if it runs on ARM the battery life would be amazing. Though... I wonder if that matters when it still needs to process x86 instructions.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 274d
Very cool, thanks for your comprehensive predictions of effects of these new devices! I hope that a lot of that will come true.
I hope a lot of those things will come true, but the one I am hoping will happen sooner than later is for apps like Affinity (and Vegas editor!) to improve/fix their support via WINE or Proton. Regarding Affinity specifically, I understand that they have made the entire suite free to use now, which I'm afraid may indicate that canva will slow down or stop its development.
artyom@piefed.social · 36 pts · 275d
I thought about this but the biggest problem with Android is lack of adoption from developers of third party app stores and UnifiedPush, and similarly widespread adoption of Play Integrity API. This won't solve those problems.
There's certainly the possibility that Android apps begin being distributed on Steam. But probably only gaming apps.
Botzo@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 275d
For sure.
I am excited to see more arm-based Linux devices for consumers. And the Snapdragon-based VR is exciting on that front.
It definitely won't change anything for tomorrow or next year, but it does make me hopeful that better support is in the relatively near future.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 275d
Good points, thanks.
MirrorGiraffe@piefed.social · 2 pts · 275d
Yeah, there would need to be a major player investing in this route, coupled with strong integrity checks, to force banks and identity apps to make a third version of their apps.
just_another_person@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 275d
I'll drop what I said about this in another thread:
I think you probably need to understand the underpinnings of what Valve accomplished over the past few years to understand why the Frame is useful.
Essentially, it's a Deck strapped to your face. Same OS, same everything, just different hardware platform.
Valve spent the time to revamp SteamOS in order to make it more portable to various devices, which are now launching. Couple that with their efforts on Proton, and you have an entire ecosystem with very little in the way of preventing people from adopting these devices with their ease of use.
Steam Deck was just sort of the appetizer and test launch to gauge interest and build a fully functional hardware development and support vertical in the company, and it was wildly successful. I guarantee (if they can get the price right) that the Frame will sell WAY more units than the awful Vision Pro. I honestly think people might adopt this over buying another version of the Deck if it's comfortable.
Some things I expect to happen with the Frame launch:
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 13 pts · 275d
Interesting comments, thanks!
I fully agree that this will sell way more than Vision Pro. I think this is pretty much guaranteed. The highest price I've seen estimated for the Frame is $1200, so it will much cheaper and much more versatile.
I also think that Theater mode for media is pretty much a guarantee at release, given that they've already demoed playing regular non-VR games in Theater mode.
I've also seen some mentions of Linux desktop on it, but haven't seen any concrete details about it.
just_another_person@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 275d
Desktop is a built-in feature of SteamOS. They'd have to actually work to remove that by default. No reason for it not to be there.
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 4 pts · 275d
Yeah, but I don't think KDE has VR capabilities. So it'll be interesting to see how that'll work. They mentioned the ability of opening desktop applications in VR. So I think you'll be able to position those in space.
just_another_person@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 275d
It wouldn't need to. They would just need to include a virtual desktop manager or interface to render the usual compositor in a VR sort of way. That's why I put it in the list. Same thing that would make a theater mode would also allow a desktop to render in a space on a VR compositor.
jaxxed@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 274d
They're releasing an SDK, which most likely will include a linux compatibility. Windowing desktops may not be the right starting point for a VR desktop, but hopefully some of the teams will grab the developers kit and consideration VR centric ways of working with applications.
just_another_person@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 274d
Not sure you're getting it...
SteamOS runs KDE desktop. Frame will also have KDE Desktop, be use it's just running the ARM build of the same SteamOS that will be on all of these devices.
Making a VR-reaey compositor display for this is fairly simple after this point, you just need to hook all the sensors into camera movement for the screen, and that screen can show many composite views...like the desktop, or a media screen, or the Steam Library.
It's a basic function of VDD. It will definitely be in there.
jaxxed@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 273d
I tuink that I understand what steam is selking, but I don't think that a windowed wm is ideal as a desktop with VR. I get that we are takking about a computer strapped to your head.
The karousel guy could take a stab at it, but if Steam releases a dev kit, then any team could try developing a wm with workflows that are designed around a VR interface.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 275d
Yeah, I can understand that. I had heard that Steam Deck had a desktop feature built-in. Some of the videos and articles about the Machine have shown and mentioned desktop apps and KDE, but not regarding the Frame, so I wasn't sure, especially considering that Frame will be using a different hardware architecture.
LiveLM@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 275d
To be fair, I think they're slightly different markets.
The AVP is a "Productivity" device and seems more focused on "Mixed Reality" use with it's super high quality passthrough and what not, vs the Frame which is more focused on gaming, has black and white passthrough and (I'm assuming) no Real World mapping so you can't have floating windows that stay where you put them in your physical space for example.
That being said I think more sales than the AVP is a guarantee, on the price alone.
If anything, the real question is if that "VR Productivity" market that Apple is targeting really exists. (didn't the HoloLens fail?)
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 275d
That's true about them being different markets and also the comparison to HoloLens!
Where have you heard that Frame won't have Real World mapping?
LiveLM@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 275d
That was just an assumption, I should probably make that clearer on my comment.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 275d
Got it, thanks for the clarification. I would be surprised if any VR headset with inside-out tracking wouldn't have real world mapping today, but we'll see!
fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 275d
They also have been tapping Code weavers or just serendipity but there is a lot of movement on the open source x86 to arm translation space too. Which for games on VR headsets is a big deal. https://www.codeweavers.com/blog/mjohnson/2025/11/6/twist-our-arm64-heres-the-latest-crossover-preview
just_another_person@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 275d
They've already said they'll be using FEX: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/vr-hardware/steamos-launching-for-arm-fex-translation-layer/
LiveLM@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 275d
That's already a thing, I saw a video of someone streaming a VR game to a Quest 3 via Steam Link and using it to map hand gestures to regular VR controller actions, allowing him to play games with no hand tracking support controller-free
just_another_person@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 275d
That's slightly different. That is mapping controllers to already existing inputs for a game, which steam-input already does.
Mapping all the sensors of a VR headset for motion and tracking is an entirely different thing, though kinda similar in some sense.
MangoCats@feddit.it · 2 pts · 275d
But, what's the user experience playing the MYST humble bundle on it?
just_another_person@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 275d
Well it's not going to suddenly be all VR'd up or anything 🤣
Part of the reason I would imaging they implementing a new kind of steam-input layer for VR is for things like a theater mode and desktop. I could see them making some sort of a simple hook for view controls in games for your exact scenario, but that would be heavily dependent on the game having something like free look already be possible, and then the developers just write a quick patch of a couple lines to hook the steam-vr-input hook into their code, and BAM.
MangoCats@feddit.it · 1 pts · 275d
I'm just wondering about basic functionality - can it play through without a crash or is it still Windows only for a smooth UX?
just_another_person@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 275d
99% of all Windows games running Proton, and most perform better than on Windows, depending othe game.
For the specific games you mentioned, they all have Platinum rating in Proton, meaning flawless. You can see here in ProtonDB.
I'm not sure what your experience was in the past, but I write tons of Proton patches for games, and the only ones I've seen that don't play well are the pre-DirectX9 games, which can't plan on Windows XP or later anyway. Proton will soon be able to play these games without issue thanks to some Vulkan patches coming up.
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 275d
Sadly not, at least not VR first, cf https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-isnt-currently-working-on-a-new-vr-game/
LeFantome@programming.dev · 1 pts · 275d
I agree that the opportunity for Frame is to be “big screen” portable gaming.
Desktop stuff will just come along for the ride.
And yes, the ecosystem is in place. Steam is already the de facto distribution channel for games, proton makes most of them work great on Linux, and FEX should make most of those work on Frame.
I am not sure how well FEX works today but it is obviously going to get a lot more love. And the CPU is not the bottleneck for games anyway as the GPU is doing all the heavy lifting.
socsa@piefed.social · 1 pts · 274d
It will definitely be called Half Life Part 4, and it will break the Internet.
etchinghillside@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 275d
…. and all your credibility is gone.
just_another_person@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 275d
You don't read much, eh? Valve has confirmed it, people have seen it, and multiple artists and devs have confirmed working on the finishing touches in the past year.
They released Alyx with the Valve Index, which also confirmed to be a drop-in VR engine for the Half-Life games. Valve likes releasing their IP games as surprises, and no better way to sell out millions of units than releasing HL3 along with this new hardware.
Seems like a pretty safe bet.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 275d
That makes a lot of sense to me. I didn't realize that there was already evidence for a new Half-Life existing out there.
olafurp@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 275d
I thought it was obvious, 2026 is going to be the year of the Linux desktop.
marcie@lemmy.ml · 14 pts · 275d
year of the linux goggle headwear apparatus
ZephyrXero@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 275d
Having a Linux machine, with decent hardware as a common target for developers will have huge implications for gaming in Linux. The SteamDeck has already inspired more devs to make native Linux versions of their games, rather than relying on Proton. This should expand the appeal for devs even more so
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 275d
Interesting points, thanks!
Euphoma@lemmy.ml · 21 pts · 275d
Steam frame could be big for vr on linux. Before steam deck came out I dualbooted windows for gaming because gaming didn't work well on linux. Nowadays its great. Steam vr is super buggy on linux right now and doesn't even have feature parity with steam vr on windows. Hopefully steam vr becomes good on linux because I would imagine the steam frame needs it to be good
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 274d
This is what I'm hoping for too. Thanks for providing your perspective from first-hand experience because I wasn't sure about any of this VR on Linux stuff.
VoxAliorum@lemmy.ml · 19 pts · 275d
The frames might be the first VR I buy.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 274d
Same here!
Tattorack@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 274d
Depending on price, likewise.
ApertureUA@lemmy.today · 9 pts · 275d
Maybe the Arch Linux "ports" RFC will finally be of use...
Also, box64 works better in my experience when all of the depending libraries are installed properly, and they are guaranteed to be there in this scenario given that there's the Steam runtime.
First_Thunder@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 275d
It will help with linux on macs for the few (including me) blokes running it
SMillerNL@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 275d
Wasn’t the issue there that there are no drivers for the specific Apple silicon hardware, so someone needs to invent them? Because we’ve had raspberry pi for ages. Software for ARM is a solved problem AFAIK.
trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 275d
I'm replying to you from Asahi Linux on an Apple Silicon Macbook. The drivers are definitely there!
FEX emulation of x86 on ARM CPUs has made many x86 games playable on my Macbook.
SMillerNL@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 275d
Ah, you mean it will help with games on Asahi Linux. Thought you meant it would help get Linux on more MacBooks.
trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 275d
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 275d
Hmmm, good points that I hadn't thought about or just wasn't aware, thanks!
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 275d
Good to know, thanks!
MrKoyun@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 275d
Fınally, year of the Linux desktop is here!
All 3 of the new hardware seems really cool. I'm very excited. These probably won't be sold where I am, but I'm considering getting a steam controller from a 3rd party seller if it turns out to be cheap enough for me.
I'm surprised that they kept the "Steam Machine" name. I thought they would choose a different name to avoid any negative connotations. It is a very cool name though.
Also this goes to prove again that Steam/Valve is not a monopoly. If this "small" team of 350~ people in a private company can casually beat Microsoft's market domination, Every other game launcher/storefront + The 17 Billion dollars Meta burned into their VR Hardware and "The Metaverse", this is nothing but a case of crippling incompetence from their competitors.
Ferrous@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 275d
How does a company announcing a new item for later release disprove its status as a monopoly? How does a game company designing a better product than a bumbling social media company disprove its status as a monopoly? Can you explain?
Some 73% of developers see Steam as a monopoly
Steam satisfies the FTC's definition of a monopolist
I'm not taking a stance on whether or not valve is a monopoly, but claiming that a press release for upcoming items (that have yet to even hit the market) disproves its monopoly status seems wrong.
The fact that customers enjoy the products that a monopoly makes doesn't disprove its monopoly status. It just proves there is still some ounce of good engineering winning over shortsighted financial decisions in Valve's leadership.
eldavi@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 275d
what negative connotations exsit for "steam machine"
Vupware@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 275d
They released a swath of “Steam Machine” devices about a decade ago through partnerships with companies like Alienware. I think the software implementation was poor, and I think the prices were exorbitant.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 274d
I don't think there are any negative connotations to the original Steam Machine. They weren't successful, but in a way that was okay. They weren't widely sold, and what most of the gaming public got out of the Steam Machine project was the Steam Controller, Big Picture Mode, and the Proton compatibility layer. Most Windows gamers didn't notice, it was a major boon to Linux gamers, and then they came out with the Steam Deck which has been a genuine success.
DarkAri@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 275d
The biggest issue with Linux phones, is that basically every hardware manufacturer refuses to support Linux in any kind of way. Chipsets, and radios in particular. Linux itself needs a little optimization for mobile but it's mostly hardware.
It's really difficult to port Linux to any android device, despite being perfectly compatible in every way outside of drivers.
The x86 to arm is very cool. I do some stuff like this on my phone by running winlator. It works better on snapdragon because it has a better video translation layer.
Tattorack@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 274d
Yeah, like you said, significant development of VR on Linux. But that also depends on the price tag.
VR on Linux is functional, at can work. But it requires a bunch of set up and can also just break down very easily too. VR on Linux is almost like what gaming on Linux was before Proton. If Valve can do to VR what they did with Proton then I'm sure I can convince a whole bunch of people to switch to Linux.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 274d
Good to hear, thanks for your first-hand impression of the current state of VR on Linux!
HubertManne@piefed.social · 5 pts · 275d
If there is an easy way to extend the desktop to the virtual big screen it will put it higher on my list.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 275d
I would imagine that that's the only way that they would be able to make a desktop work on Frame, no?
HubertManne@piefed.social · 3 pts · 275d
Im just not sure how much steamos specific or hardware specific stuff are a part of it.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 275d
Got it. We will find out soon.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 2 pts · 275d
yeah. I mean I will not be buying pre sales or anything. I will let it come out. See some people who bought it give a rundown and like the steamdeck pick it up down the line after a price decrease. If I do pick it up. Sorta need to be working before I can be buying toys.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 275d
Definitely a good idea with brand new technology.
IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org · 4 pts · 275d
I know what you asked about is the Machine and Frame, but I'm super excited about the controller. I love my old steam controller I got on fire sale, but its an extremely flawed device. If they can polish that to the standard of the Deck, I'm so in, especially since you know it'll work well on Linux with no firmware BS.
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 275d
Yes but ...
Still, it's good obviously, not having to rely on BigTech. This was also possible before though as I pointed out in https://lemmy.ml/post/38899489/22202786 with e.g. Lynx XR1, as a rooted Android standalone HMD with no account required.
Anyway IMHO the big questions for VR on Linux more broadly is what changes upstream on KDE in terms of immersive UX? Is KDE Plasma becoming a VR graphical shell? Does it have 3D widgets? Does it impact freedesktop in any way?
Edit : I have a SteamDeck since its out, Lynx XR1, etc so I absolutely want Linux VR and FLOSS XR to succeed. In fact I even gave a talk at FOSSXR years ago about that, fact did it twice. Still it doesn't mean I can't be disappointed by those points. I like Valve, I want to give them money, that doesn't mean I can't be objective. You might have different requirements, that doesn't mean you shouldn't compare to alternatives which have existed for years.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 275d
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 275d
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 275d
Just cause apps exist that they to use it doesn't mean anyone uses it. Google Cardboard apps are still on the android app store, do you use that?
Because they don't need to? Steam VR has way more VR apps than the other platforms
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 275d
I genuinely don't get your point. Popularity is not a criteria that is relevant for my needs. Your preferences are not relevant to my needs. We are different people and that's OK.
non_burglar@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 275d
Steam doesn't win users and marketshare because of your needs. Or even hardware. It wins users because the steam library is already on the device.
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 275d
Agreed but I'm not really talking about Steam here.
non_burglar@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 275d
Are you not discussing factors to a successful foray by steam into VR?
Ferk@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 275d
Everyone can say the same thing... your needs are not relevant either then.
Popularity is ultimately what moves the needle, this post was asking in which direction will the needle move... so in this context your personal needs are only relevant in relation to how popular they are.
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 275d
Shocking to read in a Linux thread. The entire point of free software and open source is that the need of 1, not even a market but a need, without any budget, might still be relevant and important.
Linux itself is the result of that.
Ferk@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 275d
The only reason Linux became a thing is because Torvalds managed to get engagement and popularity amongst a niche community of hackers that happened to share the same needs/goals.
Because what gives it importance is the needs we share. "The need of 1" is measured in relation to "the need of many". Community is a huge piece in the "open source" puzzle. A community of 1 is not a community.. it's a personal space. If you don't share your software with a community then declaring it "open" is pointless.
Also.. when I said "relevant" I specifically meant for the questions raised by OP. I'm not talking about "relevancy" in some weird transcendental way.. I don't believe such a thing exists.. everything has a viewpoint from which something can be said to be "relevant".. however, as you yourself said: "your preferences are not relevant to my needs".
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 274d
I think your list is a bit too negative. Here are my comments:
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 271d
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 270d
Thanks for your answers. I figure that Valve is highly motivated to get the software sorted out, but we will have to see how quickly they can overcome these issues with hand tracking and WebXR.
About the CPU/GPU, I guess they decided to be practical with all this hardware to keep it relatively affordable. As far as a new VR game, you never know. Didn't I hear that Alyx was a surprise release with the Index headset?
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 270d
One should hope, and the tinkerer community, me included, is eager for both of these features.
Regarding new content I posted https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-isnt-currently-working-on-a-new-vr-game/ countless times because to me that's maybe the biggest bummer. I have several headsets so I don't need "yet another one" that is roughly equivalent. I need something genuinely different. A flat SeamOS (no immersive features to KDE Plasma) is boring but understandable, no new content from the quality only Valve (unfortunately) seems to be able to produce makes me think I'm not in rush. Just like hand tracking or WebXR we can hope for surprises but it mostly shows it's considered a thin terminal for Steam, nothing more, and I have already few of these (thanks to Alvr, Wivr, CloudXR, but also just Steam streaming).
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 270d
I'm anxious for those features too. I still have to get started in VR, but I've been following the scene relatively closely for the last few years after trying it out.
Thanks for the link, that's too bad to hear. I hear you that you don't need this one if you already have other headsets. I'm in the opposite position. I have yet to get my first. I had been considering the Meta Quest 3, but Meta. The Valve Frame will very likely be my first. For someone like me, it's nearly perfect.
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 269d
Perfect then
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 269d
Absolutely!
rsolva@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 272d
Valves choices the last few years are making me more optimistic that a Linux phone ecosystem could grow and improve. Sideloading APKs on an ARM-based easy-to-use linux system? Nice! It is possible using Waydroid etc today, but it is not very polished.
Cricket@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 272d
I'm crossing my fingers too!
geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 274d
I'm a bit surprised that Quallcom doesn't have a custom XR3 chip yet and Valve used the Snapgdragon8 Gen3
jaxxed@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 275d
are there any linux WMs that provide a good desktop experience with VR headsets yet? I'd love to get a niri like scrolling experience with goggles - although it would make meetings weird.
Dettweiler42@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 275d
I still love my Index, but I'm 100% buying the Frame when it comes out. I haven't tried the Index on Desktop SteamOS yet. I should do that. The groundwork for Linux and VR has likely already been laid out.
Catalyst_A@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 275d
Awesome!