My initial thought is definitely yes for the Steam Machine, and maybe yes for the Steam Frame.
All devices are Valve made hardware running steamOS, so I would think a lot of the discussions/content would apply to Steam Deck. This also isn’t a super busy community, so I wouldn’t be that worried about Steam Deck specific content getting buried.
The Steam Frame is a bit more iffy than the Steam Machine though, there’s a lot of experience differences between the Deck/Machine and a VR device, so there will be larger differences. Also the Frame has ARM hardware and has to use an additional x86 to ARM compatibility layer for games running on it, so we’ll probably see some unique compatibility bugs for it.
Overall though I just want to hear everyone else’s opinions on it.
I am completely fine with having this community for steam hardware. I don’t think it would be beneficial to have 10 smaller communities instead of one big. Lemmy is not a huge platform at the moment
Absolutely. I would rather have one great community instead of 3 hyper specific communities. It just needs to have flags like [steamdeck] [ steammachine] [steamframe] Or even shorthand sd, sm, sf.
Yes.
We are the niche of a niche. We need more content, as long as it’s relevant.
Yes. Anything to grow communities. The fediverse is not in the restrictive limiting of communities time in its evolution. The fediverse is in the we need more numbers phase. You need a lot more people to be worried about this kind of thing. Right now you just need more people making more post and making more comments.
Definitely yes, they all run Steam OS and all 3 device are very interchangeable in what they offer. Plus there’s not that much people to properly support 3 different communities.
I wouldn’t be opposed. New community name could be SteamHardware. They share an OS and ecosystem and people interested in one would likely be interested in the others.
I like the idea of having a single place where Valve’s hardware can be discussed, but the current name will make discoverability of such a community difficult. If the name cannot be changed, then I’d rec just leaving this one for only steam decks.
I think that there is a somewhat decent chance that there will be an ARM Steam Deck Mini at some point. The Steam Client will probably be released for ARM distributions. I think for the foreseeable future there will be a considerable overlap of topics between thee devices.
I think should there be a flood of posts regarding hardware tinkering of the other devices (people sharing faceplate STLs for Machine or addons for the Frame’s expansion port), they could be directed to dedicated communities but for now IMO it’s fine to be inclusive.
Feels like the more accurate name moving forward would be “SteamOS Hardware”.
Yes I think so, though I think a seperate Linux Handhelds community would be cool to provide an encompassing place for devices like the Steam Deck/other types of linux handhelds.
I vote yes, and change the name so it isn’t just deck
Steam Frame is optionally just a Steam Deck with ‘up to’ a 4k screen that you don’t have to look down at or hold up to your face. It can also be used for VR stuff, but otherwise it’s just a better Steam Deck.
It’s how I use my Quest 3 already 75% of the time, so it’ll be nice to have a headset that had that use case in mind during It’s design. And also one where I don’t have to give meta money anymore.
Of course. Valve hardware is awesome and we need a place to talk about it.
I’d suggest a separate community for each hardware variant and a Steam OS community acting as a broader hardware indifferent Steam gaming community (which I believe exists already)
this is just a forwardlooking estimation that it will be easier for moderation.
One more yes from me. All hail Gaben
