I just plugged the steam deck in to a monitor and while I was transferring some roms and started to wonder if it would be feasible to use as a day to day computer while docked.
I’ve been using my Steam Deck as my primary PC both at work and at home. Very few issues. I have two monitors, power, ethernet, keyboard, and mouse all connected via a USB-C dock. I love that when I’m done with work I can unplug one USB-C cable and take my work with me. I also have an electric car, and I love being able to play my PC games while waiting for my car to charge.
As a web developer one of the biggest hurdles I had to jump through was getting MySQL Workbench running, as there’s no flatpak or working AppImage available. The lack of CUPS for printing support is another nuisance, but I believe that can be overcome without unlocking the root partition by installing it as a systemd extension. I haven’t taken the time to fully prove this theory though. You can also print using netcat.
I installed a 2TB SSD in mine. I have a small 256gb Windows partition that I rarely use for the few things I need Windows for. I also DJ as a side hobby, and I’ve used my Steam Deck for that too.
It really depends on ones use case. For example, using it as a (overpowered) office PC is difficult since SteamOS doesn’t include CUPS.
If you unlock the root partition, you can install CUPS and whatever else you want. Steam would prefer that you use the Discover store though. Also, if there’s an update, the partition will be locked again.
I love to tinker with Linux but I like that the SteamDeck “just works”
Yeah, same. I only needed to install Lutris which for some reason was installed with an old version from the Discover store.
I think that as desktop the Deck could be as good, if not better of any Linux pc. Not sure with Windows OS. As portable pc, technically you can make it work with some cheap Bluetooth keyboard+mouse but that would look a bit too strange and the monitor is quite small x daily works. Still doable.
