Given many new handhelds coming on the scene and general disinterest of Microsoft to support the market, do you think SteamOS will take place of default OS the same way Android did on phones some time ago?

  • Dark Arc@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is a weird comment to me, SteamOS could have an ARM build, Valve would just need to release a ARM build of their distro (and Steam for Linux).

    There’s definitely ARM for lots Linux software and distros, so assuming Valve hasn’t done anything particularly weird, aside from the build infrastructure, that’s probably not even that big of a job.

    • andrew@radiation.party
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      1 year ago

      They would then also “just” need to develop and ship an x86 to arm translation layer, like Rosetta 2.

      • Dark Arc@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There are several other emulators that already exist for Linux (that they could contribute to/improve).

        Ignoring that for a second though, this is a problem for Windows handhelds as well. If Valve was going to build up the ARM “PC” gaming market though, they’d need to start with making ARM Steam builds available.

        Edit: I’m guessing those ARM handhelds aren’t making Valve money and are probably more for emulation themselves (i.e., for Valve to do this, they’d need things in place to where it would benefit them via sales in Steam).

        • CleanDefinition@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Wine already existed but it took many years to get Proton to where it is now, and it’s still not perfect. I doubt they would want to start all over now that things are finally working.

          • Dark Arc@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m not sure where you’re getting the idea that they’d start over. Wine isn’t an emulator and doesn’t emulate instructions. Something like qemu-user would presumably run Wine (which would itself be running the game).

            In a way, Proton/Wine is a much harder problem because there’s so much in terms of API that needs implemented.