SteamOS massively beats Windows on the Legion Go S

Can we install this on PC yet? Sick of windows and all I do in my desktop is gaming via steam
- I'm hoping they make a desktop version but I've been testing Linux mint on all the games I can download and I'm pretty sure it's running better than my win10 boot.
  So the fact that the other distros are an option that's relatively accessible makes me think there's less value to valve releasing the desktop version any time soon.
- You.... can just install the steam client on just about any Linux distro?
- Just install Bazzite on your PC
  
  I thought that was a porn site... Never mind 😁
- Probably, but this is more likely Windows being shit on lower end hardware, doing a lot of background crap that has no place on a handheld gaming device.
- Isn't it just a stripped down arch variant?
- I've been running a restore image for a few months and it's great!

SteamOS massively beats Windows
- Linux massively beats Windows
  History has been made.

I didn't know you could beat windows, I thought it was a weird open world game.
- Windows is a strange game. It seems the only winning move is not to play.
  
  Much like another game, that we just lost.
  
  The evil of Microsoft is too great to resist. The only way to win is to deny it battle. And something about candles and cooking.

Gasoline massively beats molasses in cars.

Dave’s got a lot of mileage out of that video. Famous overnight essentially! Seeing this type of article everywhere

This quick video from The Phawx seems to show that the battery performance difference isn't actually inherent to Windows, but rather that the GPU drivers don't throttle down the TDP when they should.
https://youtu.be/7gzkKL-axCM
Windows has plenty of other issues but it seems any frustration about this specifically should be pointed at AMD.
- Amd makes the drivers for both Linux and Windows brotha.... So Microsoft wasn't able to fix something the open source community in collab with amd could?...
  
  I don't know the business negotiations of all that. But if you watch the video, Phawx basically uses one single command to lower the wattage on his Windows handheld and instantly triple the expected battery life. The underlying OS clearly supports it. Seems to me like the AMD driver just isn't detecting that the game has light power needs and so isn't throttling like it should.

I mean that'd be neat if I gave a fuck about handhelds in general or the Legion Go S specifically. I don't. How does SteamOS do on my AMD 7950X3D with my 4090? Oh it doesn't support those? Then it can fuck off (for now).
I mean they've done a good thing in general but it requires such special hardware that it doesn't really deserve much praise. The whole attraction of Windows originally wasn't just "it has a GUI" it was, "I can buy a printer that works with Windows and a piece of software that works with Windows, and know that I will be able to print from that software, and so forth. Without that level of hardware support, SteamOS just isn't that exciting. Again, "Yet".
- I mean that'd be neat if I gave a fuck about handhelds in general
  It kinda sounds like this isn't a product for you, then...and that's fine, but like, why comment haha.
  
  But then how would we hear about this person's valuable opinion? Do you want to live in a world where they don't share their ambivalence toward SteamOS and handheld gaming? God knows I don't. Thank goodness for this comment and I hope to hear more of their opinions on products they don't use it have interest in.
  
  Problems communicating an underlying desire to have a faster alternative to windows. Defaulted to anger and frustration
  
  Because it would have gone unnoticed if it was posted in a thread about how good windows is (those exist, right? Eh, right?) and wouldn't have gotten all this attention.
  I will never understand this need for being noticed.
- Funny you say that because printers work on Linux out of the box whereas on windows you need to hunt for drivers...
- How about you pull that 5 foot pole out of your Ass and actually use a Linux Distri made for you usecase?
  Its like if id have installed fucking gentoo and cried about it not being ready to go
- Nobody owes you shit
- Bazzite works great on desktop. Really not that different.
- How does SteamOS do on my AMD 7950X3D with my 4090? Oh it doesn’t support those?
  Hmmm maybe I'm missing something but doesn't Steam work on these? Doesn't Proton work on these? Doesn't KDE Plasma work too? Basically what's missing for you to consider it working if arguably the most important do work on it?
  Asking as I use those 3 daily on my Debian desktop and... it just works. Anyway, back to play Clair Obscur, thanks a lot to Valve.
  
  Installing SteamOS on other devices
  We are continually working to improve compatibility with other devices. Currently, expanded support includes devices with AMD hardware and an NVME drive, targeted toward handheld devices. Please note, support for all devices that is not officially 'Powered by SteamOS' is not final (currently anything that is not a Steam Deck or Legion Go S)
  I'm not sure if it would actually work, but steamOS isn't the same as steam. I'm assuming it's mostly just a matter of what drivers are included by default.
- SteamOS on desktop is not a supported use case. SteamOS is not windows.
- 😄 I actually think that is a fair point you make. I am waiting patiently for a full version that I can install on a living room pc. So for me there is also no immediate benefit, yet, as you put it. I still see the development very positively!
  
  As someone who has seen Linux as "almost there" for about 25 years, I am cautiously optimistic.
- Did you enjoy having to park cores on your 7950x3d when you want to game? That was a very plug and play behavior from windows /s
- 4090
  Mind you that SteamOS doesn't support Nvidia GPUs.

How much better does Linux play Fortnite?
oh
- I know you're just trying to bait folks, but I think you can play it on Linux using Xbox cloud gaming.
  
  It isn't bait, more of a reminder that no matter how many indie games run on Linux, Fortnite, the most popular shooter on earth, doesn't, and it will forever be a band-aid of cope to say "stop playing shit" every time someone brings it up.
  People are basic and dumb, they love shit.
  No shit? Guess I'll stay with Windows.
  Who knew people so used to shit would want to continue enjoying it?
- 99% of games work on Linux, the 1% that don't happen to be all the major multiplayer games people acturally want to play
  
  the 1% that don't happen to be all the major multiplayer games people acturally want to play
  Whats this suppose to mean? That 1% just tells Linux users that the developers & publishers simply don’t care enough about their product.
  
  Pirated are a pain tho, I gave up on my daily drive Linux after trying to install a Fitgirl repack on it, then I just realized installing W11 was faster.
  I still use Linux every day for work tho

Massively?
Yeah there's improvements, battery and performance wise
There's nothing massive here there is a decent bump in specifically the cyberpunk fps
Edit: geez this single comment brought more people out of the woodwork to respond to me than anything else I have commented on lemmy
I'm not even here arguing which one is better like come on now
Massively is the wrong word to use it's that simple
- About 10% fps bump and even bigger battery life improvement at the same time borderline justifies the title in my book
- When it comes to battery life, SteamOS was yet again a very clear winner in this with even demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 having 1 hour 31 minutes on Windows and 2 hours 6 minutes on SteamOS. In less demanding titles like Dead Cells the difference is absolutely insane jumping from 2 hours 47 minutes on Windows to 7 hours 8 minutes on SteamOS.
- Yes. Massively. And I don't know why you're doubling down on being wrong.
  12% faster with anywhere from 34% to 320% better battery life, and $130 cheaper is massively better, especially on the exact same hardware.
  The difference is astonishing, tbh. I'd have expected a negligible difference.
  Massively better was completely correct, and you are wrong to state otherwise. It's that simple.
  
  You care so much about glorifying linux everything else falls away.
  In one specific game the battery life is much much better. In that one specific use case the word "massive" is used aptly.
  All the other minor improvements are just that minor. Bud you saying that I'm wrong doesn't make me wrong.
  And of course the vice versa applies.
  How I KNOW this is not a normal discussion..... Who the hell brought up price? Certainly not me
  Please continue to talk about random shit I never mentioned. I don't care. you do you
- I mean, there is a bit of hyperbole here, the FPS aren't that impressive - but the battery life improvements are I think more in the ballpark of "massively"
  
  Massive is a bit of hyperbole yes but gaining on battery and performance just by putting in the system is a lot remember that Steam OS also more configurable so it has more room to improve.
  If that's not telling anyone with a surface level understanding that windows is shit nothing does.
- I think you just don't understand or have a frame of reference for performance numbers.
  Massive is the right word.
  A simple OS shift and you are looking at a more than generational improvement in performance, and a multi generational improvement in battery life: massive.
  I get that you might not be into these kinds of numbers enough to know what you are talking about about, but maybe refrain from commenting till you develop some context.
- Improved in every category for the games tested, most results in 2 digit improvement while costing $130 less... that's massive by almost any angle you can frame it...
  
  It's insane to me that we're disagreeing about the word massive. Rather than simply using it as the English definition.....
  We're using the hype culture definition of massive. Bro get over yourself. The improvements are NOT massive, fps or battery wise.
  They are better and possibly even TONY THE TIGER GREAT. Massive is the size of your mom's ass, not these gains based on a different OS.
  Also I respect all mothers but I couldn't help but use a dumb joke to make my point.
  And last but not least.... Go make this argument about price and or Linux to anybody that needs convincing. Because it's not me man. I have a Linux rig. I also have a Mac OS and a Windows (gasp) 11 laptop because i code, make music, and play games. Sometimes I just browse the web for fun
  By the way guess which OS is least compatible with the many different softwares I use for these purposes? It's Linux.
- The response here is mild and some people are agreeing with you
  
  To be completely honest, I am a little annoyed about all the people bringing up price.
  .... yo I agree too but we're talking about performance here not price.
  And saying that the price being free adds to the word "massive" being used aptly is just kinda dumb for real.
  Anyway I'm going to turn off notifications for this comment. You're correct that I'm probably being extra here. Well, you implied it but it's true. It's just like people don't want to converse man. Thought we came out here that this part of the internet because we could actually talk about things, not say "no u"
  and I'm definitely frustrated that I've been making comments for quite a while and the most engagement is when I barely say something not even negative about Linux.
  Idk man. Have a nice day
- Which one is cheaper?
  
  Does it being cheaper makes the performance difference bigger?
- I have to agree, it's better but not really massivley so.
  Title Legion Go S - SteamOS Legion Go S - Windows
  
  Cyberpunk 59 FPS 46 FPS
  Helldivers 2 70 FPS 65 FPS
  Doom Eternal 75 FPS 66 FPS
  Spiderman 2 63 FPS 64 FPS
  Witcher 3 76 FPS 66 FPS
  
  12% faster on average, with anywhere from a 30-320% battery life improvement.
  Just from a software change.
  That is massive. You'd usually need a hardware upgrade for an improvement like that.
  
  That's still an average of over 10% FPS gains overall. Similar improvement to a new GPU generation, but on the same hardware. Sounds pretty massive to me.
  
  Title Legion Go S - SteamOS Legion Go S - Windows Difference
  
  Cyberpunk 59 FPS 46 FPS +28%
  Helldivers 2 70 FPS 65 FPS +7%
  Doom Eternal 75 FPS 66 FPS +14%
  Spiderman 2 63 FPS 64 FPS -2%
  Witcher 3 76 FPS 66 FPS +15%
  Anything above 5% is significant, 10% on the same hardware IMHO classifies as massive
  
  10% FPS gain, huge battery savings AND costing $130 less... that is massive

Title	Legion Go S - SteamOS	Legion Go S - Windows
Cyberpunk	59 FPS	46 FPS
Helldivers 2	70 FPS	65 FPS
Doom Eternal	75 FPS	66 FPS
Spiderman 2	63 FPS	64 FPS
Witcher 3	76 FPS	66 FPS