The line between a Linux user and a Linux power user is a bit gray, and a bit wide. Most people who install Linux already have more computer literacy than average, and the platform has long encouraged experimentation and construction in a way macOS and Windows generally aren’t designed for. Traditional Linux distributions often ask more of their users as well, requiring at least a passing familiarity with the terminal and the operating system’s internals especially once something inevitably breaks.
In recent years, however, a different design philosophy has been gaining ground. Immutable Linux distributions like Fedora Silverblue, openSUSE MicroOS, and NixOS dramatically reduce the chances an installation behaves erratically by making direct changes to the underlying system either impossible or irrelevant.
SteamOS fits squarely into this category as well. While it’s best known for its console-like gaming mode it also includes a fully featured Linux desktop, which is a major part of its appeal and the reason I bought a Steam Deck in the first place. For someone coming from Windows or macOS, this desktop provides a familiar, fully functional environment: web browsing, media playback, and other basic tools all work out of the box.
As a Linux power user encountering an immutable desktop for the first time, though, that desktop mode wasn’t quite what I expected. It handles these everyday tasks exceptionally well, but performing the home sysadmin chores that are second nature to me on a Debian system takes a very different mindset and a bit of effort.
Whats wrong with https://bazzite.gg/ it even has dev-mode switch so you run docker and other dev apps
Last I checked, bazzite’s installer is using the broken version of the timezone list that doesn’t even include west coast timezones, nor do they provide a way of manually specifying the timezone, which tells me their attention to detail isn’t great.
Also, having 10 different iso’s with differences that an entry level user has no real need to care about, instead of including it in a bundled installer doesn’t help either.
Not to mention having 8 fully different program installation repos, with 8 different front ends, and an explanation of ‘try installing your program in each of these in the following order, and use the version that works best’, flatpacks being at the top of the list, recommending using an entire VM in the form of distrobox over using appimages, and just in general needing a flowchart to explain how to install things.
These, and other reasons, are why I cannot in good consciousness, recommend bazzite to non-power users, and get annoyed seeing people do so all the time.
You’re not really selling it. Fucking up my gaming system with Docker bloat is that last thing I’d want.
AFAIK, it doesn’t ship with docker. You can install it if you want it, or not if you don’t, just like most distros.
It ships with various drivers and libraries for gaming, because that’s the focus.
Thats the point really, just having the ability to do something doesn’t mean you have to.
But when you do need to, you can.
No, nobody ever needs Docker.
Well, no one ever needs computers either.
Also SteamOS runs Docker containers out of the box just fine because it ships podman.