Bazzite - 'SteamOS' For Windows PC Handhelds - Is It A Game-Changer?

[@Smobing]

Kinda insane that there's a use case where Linux is more suitable for gaming than Windows. Imagine hearing that like 10 years ago

[@HNedel]

Yeah, i got a used ally and could only stand windows 11 for two days… very happy with bazzite so far, despite some bugs. Just looking at the task manager in windows made me roll my eyes so hard 🙄

[@happygofishing]

Once xbox dies, hopefully so will DirectX, then we can enjoy the Vulkan/webgpu future!

[@asdtyuv]

Thanks to Steam/Valve and their work on Proton

[@someusername1872]

​@@happygofishingXbox is already practically a dead platform at this point, but realistically DirectX isn't going anywhere and we're better off with it than without it. More APIs=more choices and more choices is better for consumers

[@Ebalosus]

Tbf it has the advantage of not having the same expectations as a device with a full-fledged Windows operating system on it has. Despite claims to the contrary, on of the justifications from both regular consumers as well as children getting their parents to purchase one is "it also has Windows on it, so it can also act as a Windows computer too!" which we all know isn't the case. With it running Linux, it's a "game machine" for gamers and "a game machine and a cool portable Linux machine" for Linux/OSS freaks like me.

[@BomimoDK]

Bazzite kicks ass on a HTPC livingroom set-up. It's like having a Playstation, but you can play your entire steam library. I missed couch-gaming so much and now it's back in my life.

[@sideeffectdk]

@@BomimoDK Indeed! This is where Bazzite really shines. Grab 4 controllers, a tiny PC or handheld preferably with an AMD APU, plug in the big screen and you're off to the races with couch games with friends and family.

[@pranze3484]

This. Plus with steam cloud saves you pick it up where you left of your SD/desktop/laptop. With WOL and tailscale you can stream to any handheld on the go. It's the best way to play.

[@sugarhigh4242]

Yeah this has pretty much replaced my PS5. No online subscription required.

[@raulgalets]

Damn... I am seriously considering this... how friendly would it be for a younger not tech savvy person like my little sister to get used to this?

[@danieldelillo]

Okay please tell me what's different from Steam's Game UI from Windows and Linux? Also, I can run lossless scaling with a controller button prompt that adds frame generation to any game, including emulation. I know a lot want to say, "Hey look I'm gaming on Linux", but give me a reason to really switch. The goal here is not to compromise as much as possible and I'm still not seeing that. Granted it's closer than it's ever been, but it's not there yet, but maybe I'm wrong.

[@BillFoster-st4hj]

Linux gaming became a thing and we are not thankful enough, especially with Windows getting worse every year.

[@strider029]

Oh trust me mate as soon as Steam 'officially' releases the Steam OS, Windows are gonna see some slump in their statistics.

[@hypno18s]

​@strider029 Wait steams gonna make an os we PC gamers can move to???? 👀👀👀👀

[@deneguil-1618]

@@hypno18s it already exists it's called any linux distro but especially Bazzite and Nobara

[@BillFoster-st4hj]

@@deneguil-1618 This! There are so many distros which work great and easily, I hear gamers tend to like PopOS. With their COSMIC environment coming soon, I am looking forward to try it

[@radry100]

Do Linux drivers support DLSS yet?

[@AlexanTheMan]

Bazzite makes the hacked together launcher UIs on most of these Windows handhelds look like children's crayon drawings.

[@chronossage]

That because Linux can integrate it into the whole OS while launcher UIs have to be a fully separate program running on top of all of windows. The only real solution for Windows is if Microsoft themselves does something.

[@concinnus]

@@chronossage They're a tiny $3T company, we must have patience. Maybe they'll figure it out by the time they can handle shader comp as well as Valve.

[@AlexanTheMan]

@@chronossage They actually did do something, it's called Windows Game Bar. It's on by default but...nobody I know of ever uses it. In fact it only served to cause conflicts with other game overlays such as Steam, Shadowplay and even OBS at points. For me it barely functions to tell me I unlocked achievements on MS games...through Steam. Microsoft should instead just focus on what Windows was best at in the past and minimize its signature so third party software can thrive.

[@LuisPerez-5]

They mean an actual OS for gaming handhelds. An XboxOS would be cool.​@@AlexanTheMan

[@TheRibsta420]

@@LuisPerez-5 Yeah that would be cool or just use the app, u know cause its a pc first before its a handheld!

[@kadupse]

To me the biggest difference between Windows and Linux gaming on a handheld is GameScope (thanks Valve!). You know when games decide to open a menu before the actual game with graphical settings? Or how sometimes your full screen game is just displaying a black screen, and after a few attempts you realize there was some annoying EULA or Windows Defender or elevation prompt in the background? Well, GameScope eliminates that issue completely. Any pop up window gets scaled immediately to the correct size and resolution, and if it's the window requesting user attention, it's the one showing up. You never have to fiddle or get annoyed with pop ups in a touch device.

[@Moskeeto]

Another issue it solves: you know how some games on Windows like to launch in windowed mode at too low or too high of a resolution so now you can't even navigate to the settings to fix it without struggling? Yeah, not an issue at all on SteamOS thanks to gamescope.

[@thexavier666]

@@Moskeeto It's always the little things that end up bothering you the most. Great effort from Valve

[@Moskeeto]

@@thexavier666 Yeah. These issues don't make gaming on Windows unplayable. It's just a bunch of little things that add up and aren't an issue on SteamOS that makes it feel like a breath of fresh air.

[@Kaylakaze]

No, never had these sorts of problems. Sounds like you just don't know what you're doing.

[@MonkeyDLuffy-sv2pt]

​@Moskeeto I never had any problems like that on windows while steam os is great on battery windows has much better compatibility and anticheat games work.

[@blessedred]

I'd love to see a video showcasing Bazzite on a PC in the living room!

[@MKR3238]

PC world has a video about exactly that (it's not much different from this tho)

[@marsin23]

@@MKR3238 ETA Prime channel.

[@PeteSlater]

I built a SFF PC running Bazzite for this exact reason. PC gaming in the living room using this machine is great. Not perfect but good enough.

[@sideeffectdk]

I've been using Bazzite on 3 different PCs for a while now. It really is the easiest way into Linux for gamers, that want to explore the whole Linux ecosystem, but don't want the steep learning curve that Linux used to have. Being atomic and always able to boot is a great security net for new users. I highly recommend it for anyone want a breath of fresh air for their gaming PCs.

[@tmifb9926]

Yeah the other Linux distros so confusing. Love Bazzite.

[@DjebbZ]

Same for me, Bazzite only on my ROG Ally and desktop PC. Much better than Windows and overall excellent experience.

[@pranze3484]

I am a linux veteran but use it because VRR/HDR/on the fly fps cap etc.

[@aaroneldreth]

Same- also run Bazzite on both my Steam Deck and MiniPC for gaming.

[@yusky03]

Also run Bazite on HTPC framework laptop and traditional desktop gaming PC. It's really great.

[@tmifb9926]

It's not just for handhelds. Its great for desktop PCs too!

[@madmax2069]

Works best if you have an AMD GPU, steam game mode doesn't work on Nvidia GPUs which would be one of the major reasons I would want to use it

[@XOmniverse]

@@madmax2069 That's not really specific to Bazzite though.

[@bigrob029]

Installing Bazzite? Yeah man, I wanna do it.

[@vinyfiny]

I have a PC connected to my living room TV that I use exclusively for gaming. Definitely going to give Bazzite a try.

[@adriantrusca1245]

Nobody cares.

[@Mr.Chimpazee]

⁠@PiergrulliSfracelletti Nobody ever cares

[@vinyfiny]

@@adriantrusca1245 Thanks for your constructive input😂!

[@HansDerHoden]

Runs great with my 7900xtx, but unfortunately theres no hdmi2.1 support on AMD. So 4K120 is only possible with displayport, which almost no TV has

[@vinyfiny]

@@HansDerHoden Yeah I realized it doesn't work well at all on Nvidia cards so I'm out. Also no 4k 120hz support, no HDR support, and questionable VRR support make Bazzite a non-starter for me even if I had an AMD card. I'll happily stick to clicking on game shortcuts on the Windows desktop to keep GPU compatibility and be able to use all of my TV's features.

[@retrocontext]

This is so insanely timely. I was just considering installing this on a new living room “console” HTPC.

[@mikes-tech-tips]

That was a great video! Bazzite feels like such an upgrade to my Rog Ally and it runs great on my old desktop too.

[@HNedel]

I tested it reusing my old 64GB emmc drive from the original steam deck, was so happy I decided not to bother with dual booting. Just ordered a 2TB drive and will put only bazzite on it. Don’t think I will wait for Valve to release their own generic SteamOS

[@telerobotic]

Moonlight is amazing. Glad that got a shoutout.

[@alpha007org]

I hope Linux becomes one of the main gaming OS. Even with only 5-10% market share, everyone will be expected to make drivers. This would be a dream come true. Windows is just not an OS for gaming. In the last couple of months, we all saw how much did Windows held back AMD CPUs. I wonder how much is Windows holding back big game engines like Unreal.

[@Saif0412]

Unreal engine games have issues on the Consoles, so it isn't Windows holding it back. It's poor implementation by devs.

[@concinnus]

To be fair, either MS or Epic could probably solve shader compilation considering that Valve has. Traversal stutter and single-threadedness is on Epic and devs.

[@InnerFire6213]

@@Saif0412 unreal engine runs smoother on consoles. you won't see any compilation stutter on a ps5

[@alpha007org]

@@InnerFire6213 Shader compilation is because the drivers have to compile shaders for the GPU. PS5 also has SSD decode block for loading game assets, that is way way more efficient than DirectStorage. SteamOS, without the baggage of 30+years of MS back compatibility, can "go around" many Windows kernel architectural constraints, as they can focus on Gaming only. This would force Windows developers to do better. Competition is always good. So that's why I said even 5% market share would be the dream come true. And also because under linux, CPUs perform better in many multithreading scenarios. Why? Because linux runs most servers, and servers are made for parallel servicing.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

PS5 very much stutters like crazy

[@eqjase]

Been running bazzite last month on my rog ally. Completely changed my opinion of the device. Sleep/wake alone was worth it and performance has been fine.

[@Mrmk1gti]

Can you still update AMD drivers?

[@protocetid]

@@Mrmk1gti AMD drivers are open source on Linux, so Linux developers can update them long after they've been abandoned on Windows.

[@edenem]

For anyone wondering, this makes for an INCREDIBLY good steam console OS with a bigger desktop computer, just keep in mind that the steamOS "gamemode" interface IS NOT YET SUPPORTED on Nvidia GPUs due to some driver issues, but we're expecting these to get fixed at some point in the future. A lack of gamemode essentially means you're just booting into a normal desktop (like windows or macOS), so it partially defeats the purpose of running bazziteOS, although you can still get "big picture mode" mode running just fine, you just lose out on some features.

[@xperimental1974]

as always.. Nvidia comes with its problem again..

[@AmeerWorld]

Bazzite has given my Rog Ally another life. SteamOS is much better than windows for handhelds. I'll take the sleep function feature over game-pass and clunky windows experience anytime. Moving forward, one could only hope for an official SteamOS release. For now Bazzite is where it's at. Shoutout to the devs that made this possible.

[@Cakebattered]

Linux for gaming is just a bunch of trade offs. Choice is good and players get to use the system, be it Windows or Linux, with the compromises that best suit their lifestyle and proclivities.

[@rla9889]

I rather be able to play Gamepass games natively and multiplayer games like CoD. I enjoy Steam OS as an operating system, but I don’t like all the compromises.

[@mravg79]

@@Cakebatteredthere are compromises in both, as you said. For Windows handhelds setting up win11 which is not small screen and touch screen friendly takes time, also well it is windows. On the other hand compatibility with games (multiplayer, game pass app to play games natively) is way much better than on Linux. For Steam Deck, it is really quick from opening the box to start playing a game. Plug in the device start, when ask perform updates login to Steam account (this took 15minutes for me) download a game press a play button. The UI and additional features in overlay menus are also a plus. But there are downsides as well: the list of supported games is a bit of a mess (many unsupported works fine), anti cheat games, game pass native is a no, no. And if one wants to play games outside Steam it requires tinkering (imo with tons of tutorials it is not that hard, but still not everything works). So as you said at the end of the day it is to choose what suits us best, for one person it might be steam deck, for another a windows handheld pc, and there also will be people who would like to have both (either as in both devices, or having a win11 handheld and install two operating systems on it). To sun up this is the beauty of PC (any pc regardless of form factor) is the freedom of what software do we use. And with some tinkering being able to improve our experience. Having a choice is a good thing.

[@yomamasohot6411]

​@@rla9889you play COD multiplayer on a portable device and call it "no compromises gaming"?😂

[@steveco1800]

I switched my 15 year old PC to Linux and it’s running so well compared to Windows (for basic office and emulators). Love seeing Linux gain support 😊

[@raknikmik]

I love that at 9:12 you talked about local streaming at 120fps with moonlight. It really is amazing and feels very close to local quality. I just ordered the Ayn Odin 2 Portal with it being a android based device battery life will be great when local streaming to the 120hz OLED screen.

[@GraveUypo]

is moonlight better than parsec? i've always loved parsec, i can play games from anyone of my friends from my house and it feels native.

[@TheAbsol7448]

I love my AYN Odin2, but I'm upset that 8 Gen 2 Linux support is terrible. Qualcomm making the upcoming 8 Elite more open to Linux is very exciting, though.

[@alzarpomario889]

Choosing linux based OSes for handhelds also means harware preservation. GPU drivers for examples will keep improving even after Windows counterpart will stop supporting your GPU model. With linux you can also decide to purely use the handheld for emulation, running a native retroarch session, bypassing the loading of any desktop UI. Flexibility is key here. The thing we miss more from Valve is the poor performance of vulkan in Source 2 on both Windows and Linux. In Linux you get better performance translating DX11/12 to Vulkan than running the native Vulkan implementation.

[@cuma212]

Counterpoint: Nvidia

[@esaedvik]

Linux maintainers will definitely delete drivers from the kernel at some point. Might be a bit later than Windows drivers, but still do.

[@DuckMan77]

@@BobDevV Since when has the 5650 ever supported vulcan? the HD 6000 series doesnt even support it outside of some OSS drivers that have been in the works to hack it into working. Also the radeon driver is still actively maintained and updated, its just not the driver used for modern cards which amdgpu never supported the pre GCN cards.

[@DuckMan77]

@@BobDevV on another note if you want to game on a pre GCN card your best bet is to use Wines D3D11 implementation. Its seen some work in recent years and should be performant enough for most games that the 5650 could even attempt to run. Its even the preferred option over DXVK in some instances as some games just dont work without it or have issues.

[@DuckMan77]

@@esaedvik yeah at some point, I think the rage3D was just dropped 20yrs after it was long irrelevant though. You drop things eventually but if there is some schmuck willing to maintain it and you want to use a boiled turd of a GPU till the computer explodes itll probably work on linux till the machine dies.

[@MastaG-v6e]

The only caveat for all Linux-based gaming systems is still the DRM / anticheat systems that some games ship, which nowadays require kernel mode access on Windows OS. But if people keep spreading the word and Valve keeps pushing (I love that they're a privately owned company), then hopefully there can some movement in the future.

[@Farengast]

And it's a surprisingly small number of games affected as well. They are a popular few games, but still few.

[@Patrick-y4d1z]

Most are fine - but for those that are not comatible, then simply don't buy those games. Edit - it's also worth mentioning that there are many older games that Linux works better with as Microsoft no longer may support older software.

[@MindBlowerWTF]

Also seems like there is some moves from microsoft to force devs to move away from kernel access anticheats. They probably dont want to have crowdstrike shitshow on their hands caused by Riot Games (chinese owned, that would make headlines)

[@alphameric]

I've been running Bazzite on my desktop for the last few months and it's been fantastic

[@AbysmalEnd]

Thank you for covering Bazzite!!!! It's make the ROG ally a stellar handheld.

[@ticogis]

Oh man, see Digital foundry talking about Linux is a dream coming true. Bazzite is indeed a amazing project with remarkable results. Really would like to see a home PC Build running bazzite or another similar video showing bazite in other handhelds.

[@happybuggy1582]

It’s not gonna be free for long

[@chrishexx3360]

My Wife uses our 2nd PC as her gaming console for couch gaming on the TV running Steam only. Windows is merely there as the platform to launch Steam. I'd be interested to see how a Bazzite gaming PC would run as an alternative to running in Big Picture Mode.

[@herrmayhem1915]

I recently built a Bazzite specific gaming PC. It's great but you need an AMD GPU to get the full experience.

[@Moskeeto]

It's a great option and long as you have an AMD card. Nvidia just isn't properly supported yet.

[@icyjiub2228]

​@@MoskeetoIts so annoying * Linux is now good* largely because Valve could take open source AMD drivers and tune them for their use, meanwhile Nvidia basically showed up late to the party drunk, 10 years late, and their process is entirely opaque. Meanwhile i can read the engineers arguing about shit in the amdgpu & mesa gitlab.

[@Rauw]

I suggest using things like BigBox as shell replacement for Windows. You still have Windows kernel, but you boot directly into BigBox. I guess it's best of both worlds, since running games natively instead of wrapper layer (Proton, gamescope etc) for sure brings less problems (like frame pacing with VRR mentioned in the video)

[@Farengast]

@@Moskeeto If you install an Nvidia supporting bazzite image it works just fine. The sort of features that don't work well are the same features that AMD doesn't have or do well anyway like frame gen and good RT support.

[@ultraokletsgo]

Using Bazzite on the AYN Loki Max. Absolutely a game changer.. Use the Loki almost daily now, compared to once a month when it was only running Windows.

[@josem.garibay5478]

Mine doesn't sleep/resume, when I try to it'll turn off the screen & stay on a black screen when waking it up 😢

[@mbsfaridi]

@@josem.garibay5478 Yeah, started happening to me with intel's clearlinux on a hp laptop but I think the problem went away now.

[@ultraokletsgo]

@@josem.garibay5478 Weird, mine definitely sleeps and resumes as intended. Sometimes the wifi doesn't reconnect after coming out of sleep though, which a restart usually fixes.

[@GhostGamer799]

When steam release steam os for all devices this would be a huge step into gaming

[@XOmniverse]

The focus is always on handhelds with Bazzite, but its actually a great daily driver for normal desktop use too.

[@Fiendir]

Huge thanks, I was scrolling through the comments to see if someone's mentioned this! Currently looking into dual boot (since a lot of my production software still needs windows) and was curious if this could also be a way for me to start moving into doing more general purpose things on Linux overall. So tired of Microsoft lol

[@marshallr.8121]

"windows isnt really fit for purpose" couldnt have said it better myself

[@chitan1362]

Not only is Windows not fit for purpose, but it CAN'T be fit for purpose. Linux is just a kernel and it can be literally anything you want it to be :)

[@lucimon97]

The question is, what purpose is Windows fit for these days? I kind of understand their struggle, but gamebar is half baked, touch usage is terrible, it isn’t particularly light on hardware and with their constant nonsense like screen capping your screen the whole time they aren’t even really suited for businesses that got trade secrets to keep. In an effort to please everyone they’ve made it so nobody is happy. They can probably keep this train going for a while longer but I feel like eventually it will have to come to a stop and it will do so too abruptly to to anything about it at that point.

[@sugarhigh4242]

I use Bazzite in the living room. It is great overall. There are some problems which they probably can't help like lack of support for HDMI-CEC and powering on from Bluetooth. And there are problems with Linux's weak support for modern display technologies like HDR. These are problems where a Valve-designed product could work wonders.

[@TechnoMinarchist]

Not getting any post steamdeck handhelds unless they have the trackpads. There's simply way too many old pc games I play that cannot be played well with just joysticks.

[@Patrick-y4d1z]

I'm thinking of dropping my PC and going for an eGPU and Ally X (or newer) equivalent. So for touchpad games, I'd just dock it to a monitor with a mouse and keyboard like a full-fledged PC. Then just handheld gaming as I please.

[@tejfilms5326]

Oliver as usual coming up with a banger. His videos are the most interesting to me and is easily my favorite df reviewer

[@McCheesy22]

Oliver has an immaculate narration voice as well

[@napperneo4516]

used bazzite on my z1 extreme, installed it day one with my ally x. its worth the quirks and makes for an exponentially better experience.

[@johndavis29209]

@@napperneo4516 same boat as you, haven't used Windows on these devices in ages. An objectively better handheld gaming experience. Boohoo anti-cheat lol those games suck usually anyways

[@Sumire9287]

@@johndavis29209I mean SteamOS does limit you a lot in terms of game compatibility. Games that are important to me like Destiny 2 and Final Fantasy 14 are not really supported, in addition to losing out on Game Pass. But to me also modding is more important these days and Linux still has many issues in that regard. The key is dual booting to allow the best of both worlds

[@HNedel]

I had to disable secure boot despite what the instructions on Bazzite website said, but otherwise it has been a great experience

[@RealPeoplePerson]

I want to see more use of gyro controls to navigate UI, like Steam's "Laser Pointer" gyro mode: "The Cursor is driven up, down, left and right due to an imaginary ray pointing out of the front of the controller/through the Steam Deck Screen. This mode is most appropriate for mouse cursor movement/UI interaction." it would alleviate issues where you have to tap tiny elements on the screen.

[@mythicalentity]

Bazzite (Gnome) has been a joy to daily drive on my main PC :)

[@MegaKiri11]

Bazzite takes ROG Ally from a fiddly prototype to a full fledged amazing device. Curious to compare it with the official SteamOS when it comes out for Ally. But it's hard to imagine what improvements they could bring, Bazzite is already perfect.

[@tiagotiagot]

Probably worth noting that Big Picture was updated with the Steam Deck style interface; it's not that same old clunky blue one they used to have before the Deck. I imagine many people never tried Big Picture since before the change and only know of the old version, if at all.

[@Paranoid_Andr01d]

I’m shocked he just brushed right over that. Showing the desktop view only and acted as if it doesn’t even exist! So dishonest.

[@vullord666]

I don't have any experience with big picture mode pre steam deck. I've only used it more recently when I got my lenovo legion go. Not a full OS swap, but as a UI just to navigate steam it's wonderful.

[@bucklinspring]

@@Paranoid_Andr01d Big Picture isn't really any good without Gamescope (and therefore Linux/SteamOS) anyway. If you have to pull out a mouse to fish through dialogue boxes or manually fix screen res/display mode every time you open a new game, what is even the point.

[@Paranoid_Andr01d]

@@bucklinspring I don't know much about what you're referencing as I don't own a Windows-based handheld and haven't ever had to adjust my desktop resolution each time I want to play a game. If you're just talking about the first time you launch a new game after initial install, can't you just change the resolution in each game's settings menu? I've never known a PC game that didn't require at least a little bit of tinkering after the first launch to get it "just right", but let me know if I'm totally confused here. Either way, aside from making system-side changes, Steam Big Picture does allow a desktop controller profile to be active when a launcher is opened so you can navigate it, and then automatically switches to the game profile after launch. It's a viable solution for those whose systems shipped with Windows installed (and while not ideal, is still necessary for some games). Every solution will have its pros and cons, but opinions aside, all that is irrelevant because my issue with the video was just not mentioning it whatsoever and acting like it didn't exist at all: 0:12

[@DeonvanHeerdenMusic]

Thorough, focused and articulate. Oliver's quickly become my favorite tech video creator on KZbin.

[@DJLeeStreet]

Wow thanks for covering this x awesome

[@BlackAera]

Bazzite will be on my next "living room gaming machine". Looks like I won't have to buy another console ever again to have a console like experience.

[@Neon-Grim]

Its great to see Digital Foundry covering linux distros configured for gaming. Bazzite is great for a pure gaming and security, since its an immutable OS, but it can be a bit unhandy for new users, especially if they're looking for a typical desktop experience. Which is why I recommend trying out Nobara. Its the perfect starter distro for a new linux users, since everything is configured for you by the guy who manages proton GE. Linux has come a long way, especially if you're using an AMD gpu for gaming. I would love if you guys did a video about linux desktop, since it would be a great alternative especially now to windows. Its been two years since I move to linux. In that time I've tried different distros but by far my favorite and distro of choice has been nixos. As a programmer and gamer, its been a blessing thanks to how you can regenerate your system through a single config file and rollbacks. Though what makes nixos great, is also what makes it hard to use, its basically arch but actually good but with shitty documentation.

[@HandheldGamePlayz]

Main reason I keep Windows 11 on my Legion Go, ROG Ally X & Ally Z1E: AFMF2 & Lossless scaling frame gen for older games that don’t have native Frame Gen. hopefully Valve can implement a bespoke frame gen solution for Steam OS

[@marcohendricks]

This 💯. Having driver level frame gen available to older games that never shipped with frame gen is why Windows is better than Linux if you care about FPS

[@CJ_Williams]

The fact that this installs alongside Windows and doesn't fully replace it is great in the event of errors. Will be installing this for testing ASAP

[@Jonehoo]

I remember being toxic about Linux gaming. Now I pretty much play just with the Steam Deck 😅

[@dan.94.]

Looking good Oliver! Looking way healthier in this one mate. Keep it up!

[@clementrousseau3571]

SteamOS really is a gem. It’s great to see it coming to other hardware through Bazzite until Valve fulfills their promise to make it readily available to any PC user. Even for Steam Deck users: I am one, and it means I can upgrade my hardware without waiting for a potential Steam Deck 2 down the line, all while keeping the only gaming OS I truly enjoy using.

[@CharredChar]

"Microsoft has abandoned the mass-market Windows Tablet since the days of Windows 8" I'm sorry if this comes off as rude, I don't intend it to be, but you really don't know what you're talking about here. And just after this statement you showed Windows in Tablet mode while you struggle with the start menu. Microsoft did not give up on the tablet market since Windows 8, they just put it in the background instead to not annoy regular desktop users. The version of Windows on their Surface tablets is exactly the same we get for desktop and it automatically switches into Tablet mode when you remove the keyboard. This mode makes many of the buttons larger, spaces out options in menus and enables/changes some touch controls to make navigation without a keyboard and mouse easier. Since gaming handhelds lack a trigger like this you'd need to do so manually. I would agree that this mode is not great for a device with a screen getting down to the size of gaming handhelds but that wasn't was this mode was designed for either. It is also why so many of these companies that release gaming handhelds have their own front-end to deal with it but so many of them are half-baked. This is the thing Valve should be applauded for most when ever people try to talk about the differences between the Deck and everything else out there.

[@DeepteshLovesTECH]

The reason I don't use Bazzite is because I use my Ally as a powerful little laptop instead as a game console. I wish though, that Windows had sleep/wake as good as Linux. I have shifted to no sleep and only hibernate.

[@DunhamLockhart]

Bazzite has a fully featured desktop.

[@GigaWhatt0]

You can switch to a full KDE desktop at any time.

[@HNedel]

You can use Gnome or KDE, but it is still true that windows as a desktop OS offers more options, especially for commercial software you might need for work

[@hollyc5417]

@@GigaWhatt0 we need a real OS with actual software. not cobbled together garbage.

[@hollyc5417]

@@DunhamLockhart wake me up when linux has support from the biggest software vendors.

[@RomainDelmaire]

I've also been using Bazzite on my HTPC. It's really great for gaming but also as a hub for my media apps.

[@onizuka4534]

Im using Bazzite on my desktop with Ryzen 5700x and RTX3070. The experience is decent. Still some minor annoying bugs but i would say its already a competent enough OS to be a Windows substitution in many cases

[@MKR3238]

I still had so many issues with nvidia + Wayland and hdr/vrr.

[@Nightball12]

@@MKR3238 Bazzite isn't for NVIDIA GPUs

[@Void-uj7jd]

@@MKR3238 wayland + linux is no good

[@Hosch87]

@@Nightball12 yeah, thats why there are seperate nvidia builds on the official bazzite page...

[@robergroso]

​@@MKR3238 Wayland is shit, use x11

[@zeeejay]

Retro Game Corps mentioned!!! Love that guy.

[@Ditronus.]

This takes a lot away of the pros of using a windows handheld right? Like native gamepass and such?

[@goob8945]

I thought game pass had steam integration?

[@yomamasohot6411]

Pretty sure GP isn't mainstream enough to be a big of an issue. If it were not supporting steam then that would be an issue.

[@The_Egg_Studio]

this is absolutely a game changer especially considering that you can easily boot into either or OS's for games that are not compatible with steam OS

[@ricepony33]

Ollie’s losing some weight, great job!

[@NeoTechni]

I love this kind of positivity. There was this huge guy on Whose Line is it Anyway? who showed up completely thin one day and I made sure to seek him out and congratulate him for the weight loss.

[@adriantrusca1245]

Maybe he likes the weight.

[@protocetid]

His switch to Linux made him realize how much better things feel without bloat, it gave him the motivation to diet and exercise heh.

[@David-ln8qh]

@@NeoTechni I appreciate the attempt at positivity but this sort of thing seems very judge-y to me. People can lose weight for any number of reasons, possibly gaining it back for any number of reasons, and this sort of thing can make people feel very bad about it.

[@Max-hy6uy]

I have been loving streaming to my handhelds as well. Especially since I have a mesh router setup now I can play game on my Rtx 4080 from anywhere in the house.

[@AtlasLee22]

can we draw attention to the ue5 bug the ally and other amd handhelds have under windows, a good example is silent hill 2, run it under bazzite and the ue5 bugs like the ambient fog being missing work fine.

[@El.Duder-ino]

Valve should get special video game reward for reinventing and promoting gaming on Linux!👍Steam Deck is one very well optimized piece of HW & SW others tried to copy since it came out. Bazzite OS on the other hand is an excellent and currently best custom version of the Steam OS and great option before official Steam OS hopefully arrives in the near future. It's great to see video games running as good or better as on Windows. Hopefully more devs will give future video games standard option to run natively on Vulkan and Steam OS besides DirectX. Well done Oliver, your narration and articulation has improved as well, great job - awesome show!😉👏

[@johndavis29209]

I personally deleted my Windows partition on both my Ally on Ally X.

[@nutellasandwhich3532]

Man, I accidentally split my partitions half and half when downloading bazzite and now windows won’t let me merge my partitions with bazzite to have more storage. Do you know what to do about this? I don’t wanna have to wipe my ssd and redownload bazzite 😅

[@MKR3238]

​@nutellasandwhich3532 you want to decrease the size of your windows partition and expand bazzite?

[@johndavis29209]

@@nutellasandwhich3532 hmmm I would go into KdeDisk utility and just delete the windows partition (including the recovery lol).

[@craciunator99]

Why do you have an ally and ally x?

[@johndavis29209]

@@craciunator99 I got my original Ally at launch and over time the SD card and Lb stopped working. I actually just bought the Ally x like a week ago but never even setup windows on it. I haven't decided on keeping the older Ally yet but I'm thinking of selling it or keeping it as my emu device.

[@firebreather4192]

Bazzite is a great gaming OS. I'm also using it on my HTPC and recently even on my main rig.

[@ms3862]

Brazzers getting a plug from DF, thanks fam!

[@Qrinity]

Bazzite is great and opens up the ecosystem. Linux is amazing for gaming nowadays

[@Sur_GalaChad2189]

I've had bazzite on my rog ally X and I'll never go back to windows

[@shoego]

Absolutelly worth it. I have friends who dropped the ally for a deck because of the OS. Now with bazzite working this well, I think even I might consider an ally in the future. I love mobile gaming, I use my deck way more than my gaming pc nowadays.

[@kozad86]

Microsoft needs to bring an Xbox OS shell to Windows and support 3rd party stores in it if they don't want to lose marketshare on these to Linux. Little tweaks here and there to Windows just aren't gonna cut it.

[@PlayJasch]

Looking at the Xbox App, any Microsoft solution will suck hard. You can feel how few resources they invest into the development of their PC gaming software. It´s a shame, their Xbox Studios do deliver good ports/ RTS games. But the Xbox App devs are either rookies or underfunded.

[@easymoney480]

I don't understand why the existing xbox app doesn't have a big picture mode that you can add games from other launchers to

[@विचित्रलड़का]

Problem is every division in Microsoft is a sort of its own company. XBOX would never help windows out or vice versa unless the orders come from above i.e. the CEO of MS.

[@yomamasohot6411]

​@@विचित्रलड़का this is so stark not only on PC but also their console side. I mean you have all of Sony's divisions working in tandem to deliver hardware(cosnole,tv, acessories) and entertainment(movies, tv series and games). You have PS studios sharing technology and collaborating to make games. And you have the xbox division that can't even run as a coherent functional division in the gaming.

[@alphacompton]

Awesome video. I've been considering Trying out Bazzite for a while on my Ayaneo 2. I tried HoloOS a year or two ago and it was ok but had missing features like RGB control.

[@ZeitGeist_TV]

Microsoft needs to allow Xbox OS to be used for 3rd party manufacturers to use it vs full blown Windows.

[@HNedel]

This. With the way console sales are going, they might just be better off selling subscriptions and license the software to third parties.

[@pranze3484]

Then you get ads in you4 handheld...

[@ZeitGeist_TV]

@@pranze3484 Ads for game sales, new releases, or other things aren't as intrusive as sluggish performance due to Windows using resources in the background.

[@Mally_02]

Exactly cause windows for handhelds is ass it’s been proven time and time again how awful it is.

[@KnightMD]

Honestly, I think disabling frame cap when VRR is enabled makes a ton of sense. Just have it run the smoothest way possible. Battery life is the only concern but that's the point of having a VRR display.

[@RetroCrisis]

Windows is just way too 'desktop' focused. Linux is doing a great job on handhelds. My Steamdeck has totally taken over my PC and consoles as my primary device.

[@HNedel]

Maybe microsoft will get desperate enough to release a build of the Xbox software for generic PCs? 🤔Seeing how sales of xbox consoles are declining…

[@Cakebattered]

Microsoft released a version of Windows designed specifically for touch screen devices of various sizes, and it wasn't desktop focused. It was called Windows 8, and people cried and complained about it, until Microsoft released a less touch friendly, more desktop focused version (Windows 10) and everyone rejoiced. Just saying.

[@HNedel]

@@Cakebattered yeah, at a time when nobody had a touch screen device.

[@linuxnext]

i love linux and love bazzite! great video :) the vulkan shader cache only improves a little, the big one is GPL which is the graphics pipeline that is able to load shaders in the RADV driver so you dont get stutters, i havent used that vulkan shader loader in 2 years now because gpl being implemented in amd, nvidia, intel gpus

[@MarzMindset]

MORE LINUX!!!

[@mpauls85]

Putting Windows 11 with Steamdeck Tools on the Steamdeck was a gamechanger - fianally I can play ALL the games I own and am subscribed to.

[@MihailSmirnov-dw9qq]

You’re insanely skilled, keep creating stuff like this!

[@rasheeddaley6773]

Eta prime has been making these videos for months

[@1981patx]

@@rasheeddaley6773 Why do you reply to a bot?

[@vinyfiny]

​@@rasheeddaley6773 ETA Prime almost never compares anything. Sure he shows Bazzite, but does no comparison to Windows. He does "feature" videos, no tech deep dives like Digital Foundry.

[@starbez]

3 dot, report, spam/bot

[@habishua]

@@1981patxlol he probably didn’t realize that’s a bot

[@SupreemSPGamer]

I already have big picture mode on my ROG Ally. One of the reasons i switched from Steam deck to the Ally is because i use other launchers. steam deck is smooth unless you have other launchers, otherwise I prefer the ROG. Thats not even including the big performance/visuals gains btw.

[@chocapix_BE]

A new wild video of Digital Foundry just appeared !

[@nempk1817]

4:31 Steam deck doesn't have VRR on the display that's why i think they are not "worried" to fix it, since their product doesn't use.

[@Jason_P]

The Legion Go fixes two of the initial issues you raise regarding usability of the OS. The Go has a very functional trackpad and it has readily available quick settings via a dedicated button.

[@crestofhonor2349]

That trackpad isn’t anywhere near as good as the Steam deck nor is it as useful. Ally also has the readily available quick settings via a button. Asus’s software is also significantly better than Lenovo’s software.

[@Saiklohit]

The trackpad on the Legion Go is awful. Probably worse than the ones in those cheap tiny keyboard/trackpad combo bluetooth remotes you use for HTPCs

[@Jason_P]

@@Saiklohit "Probably worse"?? You just proved you don't even own a Legion Go, so why are you commenting on it??

[@crestofhonor2349]

@@Jason_P the way OP words it sounds like they have used it and I agree, it’s not very good. Too low to be all that useful and they should have done dual trackpads where one can potentially act like a scroll wheel like on the deck.

[@matthewfghjkl]

I use Bazzite on both my Ally and an HTPC with an rx 6600 and an i5-10500. It works amazing for both. I have tried an HTPC with steam big picture on windows and it was always a buggy mess or required a keyboard and mouse, but with Bazzite it just works and I'm able to use VRR with a 120hz TV no problem, never touching a keyboard. I highly recommend it to anybody with a windows handheld or htpc.

[@bilawalm1]

I would happily pay for Bazzite.

[@skeetsofrage]

I can't give up AMFM just yet. Uninstall Armoury Crate and use something like Handheld Companion. I mapped my left Armoury Crate button to Handheld Companion and my right Armoury Crate button to the Xbox Guide button. It works very well. I may try Bazzite on my factory 512GB SSD (I also upgraded to 2TB) for test driving purposes but until AMFM comes around, Windows will likely stay my primary OS on my OG Ally.

[@EmblemParade]

"The utility of SteamOS doesn't lie in Linux necessarily." Fair enough, but unfortunately you did not also talk about what Linux means beyond "utility" in the immediate now: open source is our line of defense again corporations controlling our everyday computing experience. For gamers: Microsoft would lock out or pay-throttle non-Microsoft game stores if they could. We gamers can't allow ourselves to be dependent on Windows.

[@DaReapa]

The Battery life is similar you have to change the resolution on the Ally. The Ally will get similar battery life at a slightly higher resolution at 900p. I can say this with certainty because Ive owned both.

[@ColorblindMonk]

It's pretty good - so long as you're married to your Steam library and not too big on popular multiplayer games

[@zomg346]

Not really I pirated plenty of single player games that are not on steam.only some anti cheat games don't work

[@sideeffectdk]

You're right about the big multiplayer titles with kernel level anti-cheat, they won't ever work on Linux. But the included Lutris app makes it a breeze to set up non-steam titles in Bazzite.

[@sheershaw22]

Non-Steam games take a bit more effort but I play games from my GOG and Epic libraries with little issue on Linux.

[@wanderingwobb6300]

Website talks about the availability of GoG and EGS games so I think it works. No gamepass is a huge loss though since there's a ton of recent releases that I'll sub to GP for a month and play rather than paying the $60 or so to play them day 1.

[@thepenguin55]

To be real, I don't get the appeal of playing an online multiplayer game on a handheld. I'm sure some stuff could be fine that way (co-op or PVE stuff in particular) but a handheld like this just seems like the worst possible way to play a game online.

[@jsmurray2]

I would love to see a review of this running on a desktop for use as a home console! Planning to setup a theater PC at some point but I hate the idea of needing Windows, would love to see a more console-like experience as long as performance doesn't suffer much.

[@gbollystube]

I'm even more excited about the snapdragon 8 elite SoC and Linux gaming

[@Alovon]

Honestly the biggest probelm still is other launchers and more particularly Anticheat not wanting to work with Linux. The moment those two can be overcome then yeah, SteamOS/Bazzite woild be the prefered option for handhelds. But until then the extra control and flexibility granted by Windows in regards to what games can run and whatnot And ofc for Bazzite, the problems with VRR are a dealbreaker for me as VRR+LFC being as stable as it is is the big advertisement for ROG Ally and the performance regression on ROG Ally in Bazzite is a big knock

[@sheershaw22]

Other launchers can dealt with--there are programs like Heroic and Bottles that allow you to run non-Steam Windows games. I use Heroic on both my Steam Deck and Nobara Linux desktop for playing my GOG collection, and it mostly works, though I admit the experience of trying to run games from non-Steam sources tends to require more troubleshooting (oddly enough, the games that give me the most problems are those that have native Linux builds) Anticheat has no solution at this point. The only hope for that is that Microsoft is having second thoughts about software that runs willy nilly in the kernel after the Crowdstrike incident. If Microsoft restricts such software, a lot of anti-cheat might stop working. If that does happen, then multiplayer devs will have to find other solutions for anticheat that might be more Linux friendly.

[@Alovon]

@@sheershaw22 yeah, just last I tried heroic was extremely unintuitive vs the rest of SteamOS (Used to have a deck before giving it to my sibling for his Christmas present as his first PC)

[@christianr.5868]

SteamOS does support anti cheat, it’s just up to the devs to support it

[@Alovon]

@@christianr.5868 Doesn't matter when they don't support it and it just can't hook into the Windows hooks for that. So it effectively doesn't because most devs don't .

[@christianr.5868]

@@Alovon that’s on devs not the deck tbh

[@pomps8085]

Were getting ever closer to a windows alternative for gaming. Im looking forward to trying this with a tv pc

[@destroyermaul]

What about non steam games ?

[@DunhamLockhart]

Non steam games run fine on steamOS, linux, bazzite, etc

[@grgmn]

Lutris

[@mckidney1]

Heroic Launcher is my first step for GoG and Epic on the deck.

[@originallyyours3123]

You can easily launch games on ROG and you can also use Steam Big Picture which mirrors Steam OS. Also you can suspend games by changing your Power Button to Hibernate in Power Options.

[@HighAcuity]

I'm using my ROG Ally right now... I can play games while also having discord, youtube and countless other productivity apps on in the background. Why on earth would I limit this device by installing Steam on it?!

[@jasjaswal4649]

You can do that on bazzite as well.

[@mza2001]

Not to mention, FSR 3 in latest AAA games is super sweet

[@hollyc5417]

yeah, windows is why most people buy an ally. gimping it with steamos or wtv is dumb. the ally has replaced my laptop and it fits on my pocket.

[@Invid72]

You can run discord on Bazzite too. I've also added a card to launch KZbin (and Plex, Amazon Prime streaming, Netfix etc) on the Big Picture launcher. There's only a single screen so I don't need KZbin running in the background but you can do that if you want for whatever reason. If I really need to do productivity stuff I drop down to desktop mode and do it there with a folding bluetooth keyboard/trackpad combo. I don't even have a Windows install on my Legion Go anymore. Why waste the space when all my games work on Bazzite?

[@matthewfghjkl]

​@@hollyc5417 you must be wearing jnco jeans

[@Bushidounohana]

Excellent coverage-Bazzite has replaced Windows on all but my primary gaming rig connected to the TV (NVIDIA GPU), including my most recent indulgence of the GPD Win 2024. It makes ditching Microsoft easy (and enjoyable!).

[@tupelo1975]

Bazzite fucking rocks. I use it on my primary desktop. I started with slackware in 96, I have been there. This just works.

[@Seb00lean]

Good analysis and comparison. Which game are we seeing at 15:00?

[@martinantelo7086]

Why doesnt Windows have such software for compiling shaders?

[@Moskeeto]

Steam has the same feature on Windows but only for games that use Vulkan instead of DirectX. Unfortunately, that's only very few games.

[@DunhamLockhart]

Because microsoft largely doesn't care about gaming beyond maybe Xbox. As such directX is designed for Xbox, a single predictable hardware sku first and foremost.

[@mckidney1]

A lot of misinformation around. Simple answer is logistics. Shaders have to be compiled based HW, kernel, drivers and game build. Sharing such binaries would not be worth it even on Vulkan. Let alone introducing translations for DirectX. Bazzite has the feature because the system already supports skipping big part of it and shares userbase. For Windows it would require different approach and it is not as easy to override existing solutions. In simple words - Linux has this because of the "new" SteamDeck "userbase" and not because it was the universal solution. If handhelds existed in paralel to desktop evolution - it would likely suck just as much and never existed. Ally does not move the needle on Windows Gaming.

[@Moskeeto]

@@mckidney1 You're misunderstanding. This isn't the same feature as the precompiled shaders that the Steam Deck users get to enjoy. Steam on Linux also has a feature known as "fossilize," as referenced in the video, that downloads the necessary data needed to compile the shaders with the hardware before launching a game. So even if a game doesn't compile shaders on startup, you can still benefit from that sort of feature as long as you're on Linux.

[@mckidney1]

​​​​​@@MoskeetoI get that, but the question is whether you can port it to Windows and expect it to work as well there. I was trying to ilustrate that linux or windows is not the reason and rather resources coming from siddenly creating a large Linux userbase. It is hard to explain why linux yes and windows no. There is no simple reason like Steam has the feature - because there is enough users in Windows for longer thay would also benefit - so it legitimate question why is it not simply ported . Any good answer cannot just be Linux. It has to answer why the larger, longer and stronger platform failed to implemented to even smaller degree. Why linux did not use this for native games before Valve invested time into the ecosystem.

[@budge1972]

I threw Bazzite onto an old HP Prodesk 405 gf ryzen 2200g 8gb and its a decent little performer for my old Steam titles, really easy to setup aswell.

[@DaveVoyles]

I don’t understand why somebody would use this I’ve been using windows on a handheld for years and it works phenomenally well for games

[@SINfromPL]

its for people who love linux more than then enjoy gaming. you know, the nerds, and terminally online people.

[@Mally_02]

@@SINfromPLor it’s for people wtih handhelds that prefer a experience that isn’t sloppy which windows gives when it comes to using handheld devices.

[@LLJVBass]

1:32 This is why I'm skeptical of anything that removes the advantages of having Windows. I can easily just flip on Big Picture mode if the navigation hang ups actually bothered me. At the end of the day, I still pick up my Ally far more than my Steam Deck

[@desertfish74]

Gaming is getting better on Linux than on Windows nowadays. How the turns tabled.

[@The92Waffles]

Well, the games that are compatible with Linux may run better, at least. It's still a crapshoot what will and won't work on Linux... speaking from someone whose owned a Steam Deck for years

[@Zilla117]

Try playing multiplayer games with any kind of anti cheat on Linux and see how far you get

[@wamba2097]

It's largely the same give or take some minor performance differences.

[@desertfish74]

@@wamba2097 you missed the part about not having to deal with shader compilations on linux?

[@wamba2097]

"Processing Vulkan Shaders" right there on the screen

[@digitalXP13]

Very thankful for clean OS on consoles!! Never have to worry

[@ahmedp8009]

I had Bazzite for a while on my Rog Ally but reverted back to Windows recently. Reason is, I'm getting better performance, better stability and most importantly, better game compatibility! What I also noticed in bazzite, is that gaming performance in desktop mode was better than Steam big picture for some reason. Specially playing for extended periods, there was a performance degradation (memory leak maybe?). It was extremely frustrating, I'm happier now on Windows, and besides, you could always boot up directly to Steam big picture on Windows.

[@Sp3cu]

Shitter compilation is a game-changer ;) Great video Oli. I was really tempted to install bazzite, but lack of AFMF/LS support is the only thing that's keeping me from it. Can't wait to see what Valve's SteamOS will bring to the table once it's released for other handhelds