I wonder why they’re making a Linux native version?

I know that good Linux ports can have dramatically better performance vs Windows versions, it just usually doesn’t matter because few companies do actually good Linux ports.

Of the ones I’ve played, my favorites are:

• Bug Hunter
• Mortol
• Devilition
• Camouflage
• Warptank
• Progy

A lot of the other games seem really good as well. Just need more time in them. And I still have 24 games I haven’t even tried yet.

The Corvette update is awesome, it got me to reinstall the game. I need to spend some time in creative and figure out what I can really do with the system before I spend too much time on it in the regular modes though.

I recently picked up UFO50, and it’s fantastic. The individual game quality is far higher than it has any right to be for the number of games available.

I’m also trying to finish out some of my unfinished games before all the releases this month. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, Cloverpit, and Sonic Crossworlds all are coming near the end of the month.

Wine is a compatibility layer, it works as a translator to let windows programs run on linux. You can think of it like having a translator who allows two people with different languages to talk to each other and work together.

WinBoat is completely different, this is actually running full windows in the background, and then only displaying the apps you want from it. There will be significantly more system resources used, and you won’t be able to run windows apps until the windows VM has started in the background, adding a startup delay. However the advantage is that it will support more software than wine does, with fewer issues.

Wine will always be the better option when it works, but for stuff that doesn’t work this is a decent option.

Unfortunately I haven’t used it either, so I can’t answer your questions on this. I don’t have a personal need for any windows apps on my machines, outside of steam games.

WinBoat or WinApps might work for you. They’re very similar in function afaik, they both run a windows vm hidden in the background and integrate the windows apps alongside your Linux programs. It’s supposed to be fully compatible with all windows program except kernel anti-cheat.

WinBoat is newer and I think offers a nicer interface and a lot easier setup, WinApps is older so may be easier to find support/documentation on. I’d probably recommend starting with WinBoat first.

As others have said, we have two upcoming steam hardware devices: VR headset and a new Steam Machine. This is probably one of the two.

My personal guess is it’s the new Steam Machine.

Technically android is running on Linux, Google’s even adding an official Linux terminal that can run Linux apps.

They were considering blocking Google from paying Mozilla to be the default search engine, which is almost all of Firefox 's revenue.

It kinda makes sense, chome being the dominant browser gives Google a search advantage, and the other alternatives (like safari and Firefox) both make deals with Google to have it be the default as well.

But removing those deals would be more disastrous for Firefox than for Google.

We avoided the worst outcome, they were considering killing Firefox to prevent a Google internet monopoly.

I think I have it on GOG, hopefully it’ll get the same updates. Right now GOG is showing last update as 27 February 2025.

It’s been officially available in Australia since 2024. I don’t know about NZ though.

The steam deck does benefit from common hardware. Valve will distribute prerendered shaders for the Deck’s GPU over steam game updates, so most of the time deck users don’t have to deal with shader stutter or wait for the game the render them itself during first startup.

Steam may share shaders between linux users with the same GPU, but I’m not sure. A new steam machine will definitely benefit from this though.

Yes, but that was awhile ago that they said it as well.

New steam controller was leaked earlier this year, and leaks for the new steam machine came out a few days ago. So you’ll get your wish pretty soon probably.

With the death of moore’s law, that may never be possible for a handheld.

As previously discussed, it’s confirmed that Valve is in fact working on a x86 to ARM emulator, probably for their upcoming VR headset.

However from what I understand, we’re unlikely to get better battery life from ARM hardware unless the software/games are actually created for ARM hardware. x86 games running through an emulator probably won’t see much benefit from the ARM hardware even if everything works great.

It’s coming, expected to launch alongside the upcoming Steam Machine.

Arguably the switch 2 will be the big indie target going forward, but thankfully it’s performance being so close to the Deck’s should keep the Deck relevant.