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As 'Dorian Gray' ages, its relevance only grows

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/11/08/dorian-gray-oscar-wilde-history/
1•apollinaire•44s ago•0 comments

Is your electric bill going up? AI is partly to blame

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/nx-s1-5597971/electricity-bills-utilities-ai
1•ilamont•1m ago•0 comments

Ryanair tries forcing app downloads by eliminating paper boarding passes

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/ryanair-tries-forcing-app-downloads-by-eliminating-paper-...
2•sipofwater•1m ago•0 comments

Train On Your Groupchat: LoRA and in-browser inference to fine-tune your friends

https://www.brimtown.com/train-on-your-groupchat
1•brimtown•1m ago•0 comments

When Builders Became Bullies

https://blog.con.rs/2025/11/12/when-builders-became-bullies.html
1•conrs•1m ago•1 comments

Bark Air FAQ

https://air.bark.co/pages/faq
1•mooreds•4m ago•0 comments

Understanding high-entropy random number generation

http://memosisland.blogspot.com/2025/11/leymosun-high-entropy-randomness.html
1•northlondoner•5m ago•1 comments

How Should Shareholders Vote?

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2025-11-12/how-should-shareholders-vote
1•ioblomov•5m ago•0 comments

Looking for Hidden Gems in Scientific Literature

https://elicit.com/blog/literature-based-discovery
1•ravenical•7m ago•0 comments

I Sued my landlord and maybe you should too

https://medium.com/@brendan.salisbury/i-sued-my-landlord-maybe-you-should-too-af7fc938c530
1•hprotagonist•9m ago•0 comments

You won't believe the excuses lawyers have after getting busted for using AI

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/lawyers-keep-giving-weak-sauce-excuses-for-fake-ai-ci...
1•sipofwater•12m ago•0 comments

Reproachfully Presenting Resilient Recursive Descent Parsing

https://thunderseethe.dev/posts/parser-base/
2•adamch•14m ago•0 comments

From ExoPlayer2 to Media3: Lessons from a Full Playback Rewrite

https://www.patreon.com/posts/from-exoplayer2-to-media3-143429708
1•patreon-eng•14m ago•1 comments

Our first look at the Steam Machine, Valve's ambitious new game console

https://www.theverge.com/tech/818111/valve-steam-machine-hands-on-preview-specs-announcement
1•DavideNL•16m ago•1 comments

Show HN: ShellDash – Browser server dashboard with SSH and globe monitoring

https://shelldash.com
1•mannders•16m ago•0 comments

The Marines and Tet: The Battle That Changed the Vietnam War

https://newseumed.org/tools/artifact/marines-and-tet-battle-changed-vietnam-war
1•gmays•16m ago•0 comments

More Synthetic, Functional Phages

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2523871122
1•ahessel•16m ago•1 comments

GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-1/
56•tedsanders•16m ago•41 comments

Show HN: HumaLab – The Intelligence Validation Platform

https://humalab.ai/
1•juhgiyo•17m ago•0 comments

X goes down with a security 'Yubikey' error affecting Twitter users

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/live/x-goes-down-hard-with-a-security-yubikey-error-...
5•mfiguiere•18m ago•0 comments

A Domain for the Queer Community, by the Queer Community

https://www.dotmeow.org/en/what
1•birdculture•18m ago•0 comments

Soft Exosuit Based on Fabric Muscle to Assist Shoulder Joint Movements

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11177570
2•PaulHoule•20m ago•0 comments

Research on AI Mental Health

https://www.talktoash.com/posts/connection-hope-and-real-progress-findings-from-our-first-real-wo...
1•neilparikh11•20m ago•1 comments

A tiny probabilistic programming language in Gleam

https://a5s.eu/blog/gleam-ppl/
1•crowdhailer•21m ago•0 comments

Infinite scale: The architecture behind the Azure AI superfactory

https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/11/12/infinite-scale-the-architecture-behind-the-azure-ai-s...
1•aprdm•22m ago•0 comments

Windows president says platform is evolving into an agentic OS

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/windows-president-confirms-os-will-become-ai-...
2•ryandrake•23m ago•3 comments

Synthetic Genomics is a BOOM in waiting

https://supernaturalselection.substack.com/p/life-is-a-program-that-continuously
1•ahessel•23m ago•0 comments

Google Workspace Outage Affecting Google Docs, Google Drive, and Google Sheets

https://www.google.com/appsstatus/dashboard/incidents/viWmkGEagnWrqYfb7VpS
2•lamsey•24m ago•1 comments

What Should I Work on Next? A Framework for High-Impact Security Work

https://engseclabs.com/blog/what-should-i-work-on-next/
1•alexsmolen•25m ago•0 comments

Backyard Apt: A Raccoon Story

https://engseclabs.com/blog/raccoon-diaries/
1•alexsmolen•27m ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

Steam Machine

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine
336•davikr•1h ago

Comments

mojoe•1h ago
Steam is the only reason I have a Windows desktop, I'll probably just get one of these next time I want a hardware refresh (which admittedly will probably be many years).

Interesting that it uses KDE Plasma for the desktop

lordleft•1h ago
I like SteamOS a great deal, though it's not my daily driver (yet). I'm curious if people will begin to use it as a daily driver and thus expect Valve to be an OS developer on top of creating software for their gaming hardware. That's a different set of expectations and I wonder how they'll navigate it.
embedding-shape•58m ago
> thus expect Valve to be an OS developer on top of creating software for their gaming hardware. That's a different set of expectations and I wonder how they'll navigate it.

They've been doing it since Steam Deck launched, or even since they started to contribute to Proton/Wine (depending on exactly what you see "OS" to be). They seem to have grips on it more or less already, Deck upgrades are a breeze and the machine and software itself is open enough for a Linux hacker like me to be very comfortable on it, and also closed down enough for my nieces to not be able to brick theirs by just tapping around.

oersted•43m ago
Indeed, even much earlier. With Steam Deck they achieved wider adoption but the first generation of Steam Machines came out in 2015 and they have been committed to the SteamOS linux distro since then.
jvanderbot•57m ago
Linux is my daily driver, and I run steam to play games (though, not on a work linux partition for reasons).

It can run just about everything I want to play, but yes, there are plenty of things that don't work yet. Doom Dark Ages, for example.

TiredOfLife•55m ago
I have been using Steam Deck oled as my main computing device for 2 years. It has been amazing. It's fast and silent.
przmk•57m ago
It doesn't boot into the desktop by default — it uses its own session with the Gamescope compositor. The desktop is easily accessible through the power menu though.
teroshan•1h ago
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe

> Steam Frame is a PC, and runs SteamOS powered by a Snapdragon® 8 Series Processor. With 16GB of RAM, Steam Frame supports stand-alone play on a growing number of both VR and non-VR games without needing to stream from your PC.

So Steam + Proton works on aarch64? Is this something already available/supported, or is this an announcement?

sylens•1h ago
I think this is a form of an announcement but without many details. I'm curious to see how well it works
jsheard•1h ago
Valve has been quietly working on integrating the FEX x86 emulator into Proton for a while, and it's official now.

https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/gaming-headsets/han...

teroshan•57m ago
Valve deciding to support Arm-based gaming is HUGE news
Yokolos•6m ago
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/1493

This is fun, just found this issue from last year which was closed basically without comment.

It's mentioned in this issue https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/8136 (closed Oct 2024) with this comment by kisak-valve:

> Hello @Theleafir1, similar to #1493, this is not a realistic objective for Proton any time in the near future.

jasonjmcghee•58m ago
Wow this looks great. Foveated rendering, great resolution, wireless, 144hz, looks much more comfortable... As much as I want this, I feel like it'll end up being a really cool thing that just sits on the shelf.
erxam•41m ago
Maybe they've cracked the code with the dongle? Usually, you either have to invest both time and money into setting up the perfect streaming network, deal with annoying cables or resign yourself to inferior on-device game versions. The ergonomics matter more than you'd think.

But if it's a very easy plug-n-play type deal to run SteamVR games (and on Linux!), that's a huge ergonomic improvement. Don't have to think too much about whether everything is running correctly or what-have-you.

hnuser123456•34m ago
I recommend preparing a drink or two and loading up VRchat and joining one of the rave club groups. Check out the metaverse zuck wishes he ran.
grepex•12m ago
I could see Steam creating the OASIS
delusional•19m ago
I'm more confused that it's running SteamOS which is supposedly Arch based, but arch doesn't officially support ARM. You have to use the ArchLinuxARM distro for that, which is less maintained. They got to be doing something off label for that.
uncletaco•12m ago
Even if they are, Valve has a long track record of contributing back to open source projects.
stetrain•10m ago
Just to clarify that's for the Steam Frame VR Headset. The Steam Machine PC uses an AMD Zen 4 x86 CPU.
jadbox•8m ago
When's the preorders happening?
Ekaros•1h ago
>RAM 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM

Hmm. Not that it is big deal, but I would be somewhat worried about true longevity with the VRAM. Not sure if SteamOS helps there, but on PC some new titles are going over the 8GB VRAM.

keyringlight•43m ago
One of the things I've noted for a while is that PC gaming as a platform seems to be polarizing between high and low spec, especially if you look outside of North America/Western Europe to places like South America or SE Asia. The steam deck and now this seem to be a reference/target platform for the low spec group. It might not be able to play the prestigious high spec titles well if at all, but so long as "your mileage may vary" is messaged well I can't see it being a problem, it hasn't so far.
Mr_Bees69•41m ago
it meets or exceeds the ps5 and xbox series x, so it might not be top tier, but it'll be fine. I have a plenty good time on my series x, cant think of any stutters.
lights0123•30m ago
Both consoles allow more than 8GB to be used for the integrated GPU.
AnotherGoodName•26m ago
It's a very low end Radeon 7000 series. It's absolutely incapable of the highest texture quality and rendering resolutions that need more than 8GB of VRAM. You'll likely never go above 1080p on this card (1440p is going to be rough based on benchmarks of the existing low end 7000 series).

There's absolutely no reasonable way to use more than 8GB of VRAM on this card.

hs86•5m ago
Not sure how heavy SteamOS is, but wouldn't modern games actually prefer a flipped memory configuration? So, 8 GB RAM and 16 GB VRAM would make this a more 'balanced' gaming appliance. But it is advertised as a general purpose PC, so 8 GB RAM wouldn't be enough.
reactordev•1h ago
These links open the Steam app on my phone and crash. :(
teroshan•1h ago
Opening them in a private tab circumvents that behavior (at least for me)
phreack•33m ago
I had to install the app to try and work around a problem with Steam, and then had the same problems just browsing. You can probably disable that behavior, but I ended up just uninstalling the app entirely.

The support experience was so bad that I got really soured on Valve, and can't even get excited for these announcements now.

hyperpl•1h ago
Wonder if there is a good remote with voice input to use for YouTube and Kodi so I can replace my shield TV.
Loughla•59m ago
I haven't had any problems with my shield since the update that killed it about 3 years ago.

Or maybe I've just gotten used to it?

Are you having issues with yours?

fph•1h ago
How much?
babblingfish•1h ago
In 2026 we should be getting Windows on a Xbox console with the Xbox skinned version of windows. This would be a direct competitor to that since most PC gamers have the majority of their game library on steam.
ksynwa•57m ago
> the Xbox skinned version of windows

Isn't that what the ROG Xbox Ally devices have? At least that's what it looked like to me. Something like a SteamOS's gaming mode counterpart for Windows.

babblingfish•46m ago
Yes, the xbox skinned version of windows is in the ROG Xbox Ally
creaturemachine•50m ago
If MS even bothers to make another xbox this is what it will be.
hasperdi•59m ago
Does anyone know the price?
daedrdev•42m ago
they have yet to announce the price
haunter•32m ago
"Steam Machine’s pricing is comparable to a PC with similar specs" [0]

I's say max ~800€ at this point

0, https://www.theverge.com/tech/818111/valve-steam-machine-han...

max-leo•58m ago
> HDMI 2.0

The HDMI Forum yet again rearing it's ugly head by continuing to block GPU manufacturers from implementing HDMI 2.1 in the Open Source drivers

paulatreides•57m ago
"Yes, Steam Machine is optimized for gaming, but it's still your PC. Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?"
perihelions•57m ago
> "SteamOS 3 (Arch-based)"

Holy shit, it's the Year of The Linux Desktop, for real this time. It's happening. It's actually happening.

A standard Arch Linux/KDE[0] PC for every home, in a polished, vendor-supported package. Like Apple, it's a single standard hardware/OS pair, so, FOSS' fatal hardware-support hell might well be made obsolete. The vendor is a household name corporation. There's an incredibly fortuitous (for Linux) market dynamic at this point in time, of "commoditize your complement"—the dynamic that Valve has incentives to invest massively in giving away a nice thing for free, because that does bad things to its competitors. And Steam is... the killer super-app to end all killer apps.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SteamOS

This is real life!

atonse•53m ago
If hype is to be believed, Omarchy is also pushing a lot of devs to Linux.
erxam•49m ago
The only thing that crock of shit is attracting is grifter bucks.
seabrookmx•32m ago
Any devs that find the visuals, keyboard driven workflow, or cult of DHH appealing enough to try Omarchy are likely already Linux users.

Linux has been a great platform for devs for a long time. This is exactly why WSL exists, and why MacOS has a native Linux container[1] tool.. because Linux was eating their lunch in this user segment.

[1]: https://github.com/apple/container

embedding-shape•56m ago
The only thing I'd like to know, if the CPU/GPU will be replaceable? The specs say "Semi-custom AMD Zen 4" and "Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3", but I don't see "soldered" anywhere, so I guess maybe they'll be switchable? If not with off-the-shelves components, maybe Valve will offer their own upgrade kits in the future?
zorked•47m ago
> I don't see "soldered" anywhere, so I guess maybe they'll be switchable

Unfortunately that's quite a logical jump...

embedding-shape•45m ago
Yeah, I mean my comment is all speculation, guesses and opinions. Given the limited information, some jumping is required, if at least in order to ask questions :)
opencl•46m ago
Given the memory configuration it seems extremely unlikely that it's socketed. It's certainly not AM5.
embedding-shape•42m ago
You mean "16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM" or something else? I took it just as they didn't want to put VRAM next to the GPU for some reason, rather than them actually being linked somehow. Maybe I misunderstand.
cflewis•37m ago
RDNA 3 is going to hold this machine back. DLSS is far and away better, but Nvidia's apathy towards Linux has made playing on something like Bazzite a worse experience. Nvidia has little reason to keep investing in Windows gaming drivers given the AI race, so seeing DLSS 4 or something on Linux is a pipe dream.

I think this machine will be decent for most people, but it's no-one with a 3080 is going to be looking at this and thinking "this is worth it", as it's probably coming in at about $750. The question is whether it'll have power parity with whatever the next Xbox is.

keyringlight•35m ago
Unless AMD/Valve pull a rabbit out of a hat it'll also be missing FSR4 which needs RDNA4, and is AMD's pretty-damn-close catch up to DLSS.
hnuser123456•24m ago
Pretty much all (non-Apple) computers in this form factor have a soldered CPU and GPU (and of course soldered VRAM), and slots for DIMMs and M.2.
nalekberov•54m ago
Video games were the only reason for me to use Windows, now that Steam solved this problem no reason to look back anymore. I am also not big fan of multi-player games, so not being able to play games with anti-cheat system buried deep into their binaries isn't an issue.
thadt•52m ago
Pretty much the only reason I boot to Windows anymore is to play games with my kids and family. The direction of this thing is dangerously close to being all I'd care about from a desktop computer.

If Valve pivoted into making a well-supported laptop with good hardware that ran Linux and played games...

quasigod•36m ago
Just wondering, what games are you playing that dont run on Linux yet? I can't think of games I'd play much with family that dont work well
neura•24m ago
I do not believe that _you_ are trolling with this question, but answering this is just asking to be trolled.

That said. Fortnite. Yes, I still play it with friends and cannot play it on Mac or Linux. :(

I'm sure others have similar examples. Also there are just simple things like playing with friends and streaming on Discord. Anybody streaming from Windows always comes across smooth and HD to the other participants while anybody on Linux seems to consistently be received (I don't know where exactly in the chain the problem exists, so just "received", as it may not be a broadcasting or encoding problem, I'm not an expert in this) with a lot of artifacts and lower framerates.

andai•19m ago
A friend of mine, a Linux user, says he installed Windows for gaming. Apparently the main issue isn't actual compatibility for games, but that a lot of games require some kind of kernel level anticheat (rootkit?).
seabrookmx•11m ago
Yes. Valorant and Battlefield 6, for example.
cheald•7m ago
Yes, this is broadly true. Just about everything that does not have Linux-disabling anticheat runs wonderfully on Linux these days. You can check https://protondb.com/ to see how any given game runs.
inexcf•5m ago
Yes and they could just make it(the rootkits) work on linux. It's more about the publishers/devs actively opposing linux.
thadt•10m ago
Fortnite & Call of Duty

If I could travel back in time and prevent my kids and nephews from ever learning about Fortnite, I might do it. Instead I'm out here trying to keep from getting sniped by a Simpson character.

Fortunately, it seems like the rest of the family is getting tired of COD's ceaseless churn, and might be willing to pick up something else.

ugurcant•35m ago
I was in the same shoes, then one day I decided to give a shot to Bazzite. To my surprise the installation was extremely smooth, and everything worked right away. Now I’m playing almost everything on it (Arc Raiders, EU V, HLL and Horizon FW recently). If you want to _try_ all you need is 15 minutes, some HDD space and an empty USB. You don’t have to give up Windows at all, dual booting is also pretty smooth.
gpderetta•27m ago
I have a bazzite box connected behind my TV. Even with a non optimal choice of graphic card (an old Nvidia) it works better than I was expecting.
nicolaslem•34m ago
I used to also have a dedicated Windows machine just for gaming, but two years ago I formatted the Windows drive and put SteamOS (via ChimeraOS) instead. I can legitimately say that it has been more stable than running the same games on Windows. Just flawless.
com2kid•17m ago
I've been using Pop_OS, buggy as hell but steam games work great!

Everything is kinda a dumpster fire, but they nailed steam games.

lenerdenator•52m ago
To the HL3 faithful, this is your reminder that

NOTHING

EVER

HAPPENS

rawling•41m ago
This is the speculated-about gap in the Steam store events, then?
12_throw_away•50m ago
In this big hardware refresh, honestly most excited about finally getting a new steam controller [1], which feels like it might finally give us a better, more extensible standard than the extremely outdated XInput protocol (which still doesn't even support motion controls)

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamcontroller

LelouBil•39m ago
I'm just hoping it has a standalone "pretend it is an xbox/generic controller" mode that doesn't rely on steam, so I can bring it to friends easily.
hnuser123456•37m ago
No mention of dual stage trigger though, which was my cheat code in rocket league to have one button for accelerate and boost
nisegami•33m ago
Hoping it's there just not mentioned.
WXLCKNO•13m ago
Wow lol. I just posted the exact same comment, there are dozens of us! I literally cannot play rocket league without the steam controller for this reason.

Also set rotate left and right to the grip triggers (roll in aviation terms I guess).

12_throw_away•36m ago
In my dream world, hardware enthusiasts would be constantly creating absolutely crazy game controllers with bizarre combinations of inputs that look nothing like an xbox 360 controller. There'd be a universal input protocol that would allow for self-describing gamepads with arbitrary numbers of digital buttons, analog sticks and triggers, touchpads, mouse inputs, haptics, gyro sensors, levers, sliders, wheels, etc. etc.

I realize this may not be practical, but it's kind of weird that PCs have been more or less stuck with a protocol designed for XBox 360 controllers for 2 decades now, while the locked-down console space is seeing much more experimentation and innovation around input. The original steam controller at least hinted at being sort of an open platform for this sort of thing, although it didn't really take off. Fingers crossed for the new verison.

rtkwe•10m ago
It's because the two-thumbstick, 8 face buttons, 2 shoulder and 2 trigger form factor covers so many games there's not been a real reason for super wacky controllers. They kind of hit it out of the park on the 360 design and the only real sticking point left is the exact ergonomics which mostly fall into the PS thumbstick position (both lower) vs XBox position (left high and right low).
ThatPlayer•32m ago
SInput recently released and got supported by SDL, which plenty of games, but also Steam Input uses. So you can already use SInput in Steam Input. Better than XInput for sure.

https://docs.handheldlegend.com/s/sinput/doc/sinput-hid-prot...

I don't think Steam has ever published specs for their protocol. And without Steam, their old controller would fallback to a mouse/keyboard mode. The Linux kernel drivers (that didn't require Steam) were reverse engineered. Hori released a Steam Controller recently. Even that still had an XInput fallback switch.

torginus•29m ago
Isn't the lack of extensibility kind of the point?

It forces everyone to make the same controller, so the developer knows what the user will have.

WXLCKNO•15m ago
I love my OG steam controller still. I can't tell if this new one has the dual stage triggers like the og (like if there's an additional click on full trigger pull).

I used that to set things like boost in rocket League and it felt super intuitive.

clvx•49m ago
Valve, please partner with Framework. I think this could be a great partnership in the future and the whole ecosystem as a whole.
lavela•15m ago
Did Framework ever distance themselves from Omarchy after the whole discussion in October? Otherwise I hope and expect Steam to know better than to align themselves with Framework.
bogwog•8m ago
What would a Framework partnership accomplish? Ship SteamOS as a preinstalled option for their laptops?
SunshineTheCat•48m ago
Being able to play PC-ish games without Windows (all on its own) makes this pretty interesting. Looking forward to seeing its real world performance. The fact that it doesn't take up the space of a household appliance is a plus too.
dmix•14m ago
You can do that today with a Steam Deck + a dock. The performance is surprisingly good and most higher end games you buy on Steam will come with pre-configured steam deck settings to downgrade video settings if needed.

I'm going to be buying the box though for the faster AMD chip, as I wasn't able to play some like Resident Evil 2 remake. While the Silent Hill 2 Remake played decent enough.

dfxm12•11m ago
What exactly do you mean by "pc-ish"? Setting aside steam deck, are you aware that you can already install steam on linux and play many games [0]? Are you aware of Bazzite [1]?

0 - https://www.protondb.com/ 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazzite_(operating_system)

daedrdev•47m ago
A mainstream desktop PC that supports most games without windows is actually a massive deal in the long term as I know plenty of people who don't like windows but didn't have an alternative
thot_experiment•47m ago
> Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

i'm having a hard time describing the feelings this makes me feel. like i've been stressed, bedraggled and worn down, and suddenly there's a moment where i can just rest

it's nice to be excited about something for once instead of the baseline expectation of a horrible adversarial experience, which is the case for most tech in 2025

it is somewhat depressing that it's this novel to expect a piece of hardware to actually exist to make my life nicer vs the default of being an abomination that tries constantly to extract money and information from me like a fucking vampire

(and i guess, not having used this yet, this also speaks to valve being one of the last companies that i have any trust in to be capable of making a business decision that makes them less money in the short run in order to deliver a better product)

keyringlight•36m ago
An ongoing 'background noise' concern I've had for a while is how PC gaming seems to be centralizing around steam. There's reasons why that happened, but it'd be real nice if 'infrastructure' was able to decouple from their store. It feels like practically requiring steam for PC gaming on windows and certainly on linux isn't a mile away from requiring MS windows, is it much freedom to pick which Seattle based company you run software from?
daedrdev•28m ago
There are plenty of competing stores, they just aren't good. I require a game to be on steam because I like the store and features, but many games are also sold elsewhere.
hnuser123456•27m ago
It is a mile away because Valve doesn't answer to shareholders.
thot_experiment•26m ago
I don't think there's NO reason to be concerned, but I think it's pretty different considering the decades of history of how Valve acts vs how M$FT acts. Also, many games available on Steam are DRM free or available from other sources and Proton itself is open source.

Valve is also not publicly traded and they have a succession plan of some sort in the event that gaben kicks it, I can only assume whatever he's come up with is sound, he's done a great job of running the place so far.

engeljohnb•13m ago
Valve earned a lot of goodwill from me when I set up my docked steam deck as my main media player & gaming device. It required me to do a lot of little hacks. I was doing stuff the device wasn't meant to do, but it never put up road blocks just because I wasn't allowed to do it. Not like when I want to do simple things on my wife's macbook.
kreco•43m ago
I just need more RAM. 16GB is unfortunately not enough for me.

With some luck it would be easy to upgrade ourselves.

ark4n•42m ago
One more nail in the coffin of the xbox hardware business. Ouch.
TheCoreh•41m ago
Very weird USB-C port placement choices...

- 2 USB3-A on the front

- 2 USB2-A on the back

- 1 USB-C on the back

If you want to plug an external USB hard drive or SSD at full speed, you'll need to plug it at the front? Or use up the only USB-C port...

I suspect most joysticks sold today come with a USB-C to USB-C cable, so if you want to charge your controller you either need to plug on the back, use an adapter, or get a USB-A to USB-C cable?

Also the single USB-C port isn't Thunderbolt/USB4, and they're only including gigabit ethernet, which is disappointing but perhaps understandable if they're trying to keep it at a low price.

stetrain•21m ago
Most gaming peripherals still seem to use USB-A on the computer end for cables and dongles.

Current Xbox and PS5 controllers charge with a USB-C port on the controller end but a USB-A port where the plug into the console.

ortusdux•20m ago
Could it be a synergy with the Steam Frame's dual band wireless dongle? I'm guessing they would really want users to plug that into the front of the device.
MomsAVoxell•19m ago
I suspect it'll be like the Mac mini situation, and the after-market USB hubs that fit the form factor will expand rapidly ..
dmix•17m ago
most of the usecase is going to be keyboard, mouse, and bluetooth headset dongles. All three of mine attached to my Steam Deck dock are USB-A.

although I own a bunch of those usb-a->c attachments you plug on the end, so it wouldnt make much difference

rtkwe•14m ago
You'd be wrong C to A is still pretty standard for controllers in my experience.

As for gigabit fewer and fewer people have ethernet routed to their office/TV area much less >1gig networking to take advantage of anything better than a 1 gig.

preston4tw•13m ago
Valve / Steam presumably has good data on what controllers and peripherals people are using, so I'd imagine their port choices are based around that. Here's a June 2024 post talking about Steam Input and controller market share: https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail... . At the time of the post they say "59% of sessions are using Xbox controllers, 26% are using PlayStation controllers, 10% are on Steam Decks"
TiredOfLife•10m ago
It's an old semi-custom semi-discontinued laptop soc.
hebejebelus•39m ago
Very interesting! The one killer issue that jumps to mind is anti-cheat. I switched away from gaming on Linux via Proton to gaming on Windows because Battlefield 6's anti-cheat won't work under Proton. Many games are like this, particularly some of the most popular (Rainbow 6 Siege for instance). And BF6 made this decision only recently despite the growing number of Steam Deck players (and other players on linux - in fairness I don't think there would have been that many BF6 players on a handheld).
hananova•35m ago
All Valve has to do is say “Your software cannot deliberately exclude linux support including kernel anti-cheat to be listed on Steam.” And that would be that, the few devs big enough to make it on their own would leave, and everyone else would adapt.
pityJuke•31m ago
Worth noting: Valve’s own first party tournaments for their own game require kernel level anti-cheat (from a third party vendor). Valve themselves have given up on allowing players in their own title play competitively in a Valve sponsored event with a kernel level anti-cheat. I can’t imagine they’d ever be this brash.

There is no adapting without a proper solution for securing game integrity.

Goronmon•31m ago
Is there an feasible alternative to "kernel anti-cheat" available on Linux?
brian-armstrong•30m ago
The games would just leave Steam. The big publishers want their own platforms and launchers anyway.
vkou•17m ago
That's not the trend that we're observing. As much as publishers and developers want to control their sales channels, the current trend is for them to move towards Steam, not away from it.

The more likely outcome is that developers would segment matchmaking into people with kernel-level anti-cheat, and people without it. This seems fair to me.

aDyslecticCrow•32m ago
This is a issue of critical mass. With the continued growth of steamos, steamdeck, and linux as a game platform, eventually it will pull over support.
sodality2•28m ago
I have to wonder if it's possible to ever even guarantee something that can't be trivially bypassed on Linux - Windows, sure, it's possible with DMA, but it's damn hard. On Linux you could just compile a spoofed kernel or a DKMS module or something.
kykat•7m ago
Look at android, locked bootloader, no root, se linux, and voila
kyoji•10m ago
It's worse than that, BF6's anticheat is kernel level and requires the Windows-only version secure boot to be enabled, at least on my motherboard. There is no way I'm going to faff about with my BIOS when rebooting just to play this game.
JBiserkov•38m ago
A bit of topic, but I was wondering how much bigger is the steam machine compared to the mac mini m4, since that's what I have and is my frame of reference. Obviously comparing apples to oranges and only talking about physical volume, not features, compatibility, price, personal preferences, etc.

Mac Mini m4: 127 x 127 x 50 mm = 0.8 L

Steam Machine: 156 x 162 x 152 = 3.8 L

That's 4.76 times more volume.

jsheard•35m ago
I'm sure some of that is just down to Apple Silicon's impressive efficiency, but there might also be different priorities for the thermal design. You can get away with a less beefy cooling solution if the workload is bursty or insensitive to throttling, but gaming is neither, you need to handle the processor running at 100% full tilt for hours on end ideally without throttling at all.
hnuser123456•29m ago
It's also about twice the total TDP and more likely to spend time running at full bore. Bigger heatsinks and fans means quieter operation under load.
Aurornis•14m ago
The Steam device has a 110W GPU and 30W CPU. The M4 Mac Mini's peak power consumption is less than half of that. Even with the Apple Silicon efficiency, it can't keep up with high power GPUs in graphical loads like gaming.

Mac Mini will throttle itself after sustained full load, especially with the GPU engaged.

A Mac Mini will start throttling well before the end of a 30 minute online gaming match.

A larger volume for better cooling was a good choice for a machine designed to run the CPU and GPU at full load for hours.

2OEH8eoCRo0•36m ago
Will it be able to play AAA games with shitty DRM such as Battlefield 6?

Not being able to play these huge titles on Linux really sucks!

constantcrying•19m ago
It is not a DRM problem, you can run many EA games on Linux with no problems, it is an anti cheat problem, which can not be solved by Valve, it has to be done by EA.
2OEH8eoCRo0•8m ago
Correct but the customer doesn't care whose fault it is, they just want to play the latest games.
nake13•36m ago
"Over six times the horsepower of Steam Deck" ≈ RTX 3060 Laptop?
nine_k•35m ago
Arch-based? KDE Plasma? There might happen a real "year of desktop Linux", in a way. That is, a Linux desktop that sneaks in as a side dish, but maybe gains some non-zero traction, and bringing FOSS to more people who are not engineers.
haunter•33m ago
"Steam Machine’s pricing is comparable to a PC with similar specs" [0]

It has to be no more than 800€ then if it also wants to compete against the console market.

Even 800€ is too much imo because looking at the specs it's already not a "future proof" build, more like a previous gen gaming laptop

0, https://www.theverge.com/tech/818111/valve-steam-machine-han...

cheschire•22m ago
thanks for that. The internals photos were what I was really wanting to see!
conorh•32m ago
It is truly amazing how far Proton/Steam OS has come along. I recently installed it on some old AMD hardware I had lying around, hooked it up to my TV and everything just works - zero problems. I look forward to checking out this Steam Machine!
torginus•26m ago
Cool but I wish it had a single big APU chip like the consoles and Strix Halo - and unified memory. PCs are long overdue for adopting this change, and the only reason it makes sense to keep the separate is to make graphics cards swappable.

Considering how big GPU silicon is, when you have both integrated and custom, it'd have made sense to integrate them.

mostly_harmless•25m ago
> you can wake your Steam Machine without leaving your couch. [using the built in steam controller wireless adapter].

This one simple thing is the only thing that makes my SteamDeck+Dock feel like a second class console. So far they only claim it's for the Steam Controller, but I'd be great if it worked with the handful of 8bitdo or Switch controllers I've been using.

neura•23m ago
Same issue with Switch 2. You can only wake it with a Switch 2 controller. Nintendo's own Pro Controller for switch, which used to wake the Switch just fine, cannot wake the Switch 2. Seems like a forced upgrade issue, to me. :(
azdle•17m ago
Waking up the deck works for me with my xbox controller connected via bluetooth. Are you using those controllers via BT or USB?

Edit: Now that I think about it, this might have been a feature added to the OLED model.

bogwog•10m ago
I have a 1st gen Steam Deck (256gb), and it has supported wake from bluetooth peripherals for a while. I've only tested it with a PS5 controller, but it works. [EDIT: btw I use the official dock. Idk if it'll work with others]

I use my SteamDeck as a streaming device too, and since my TV is connected via HDMI, waking the console also wakes the TV. So I can start playing/watching anything by just turning on my PS5 controller (which is not ideal because the PS5 controller has terrible battery life and is often dead when I need it, but that's a different issue)

ymsodev•24m ago
> Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

What a refreshing thing to hear in 2025... :D

didibus•23m ago
Hell ya! A new gaming OS, linux based, getting console and portable hardware that is well built, it's what I've been waiting for, something that gives you a good console UX but lets you play PC games.
dmix•19m ago
I've had my Steam deck plugged into my tv for the last year and I sometimes use the Linux desktop (just a menu option and it reloads into desktop mode) which has a really nice design is already preconfigured for casual linux use.

I'd look up game review youtube videos and search stuff in between games from my couch. No complaints.

The only downside to SteamOS being linux is the lack of easy mod support. It's either a PIA or not supported.

LarsDu88•21m ago
GabeN send me a devkit! I make Rogue Stargun VR (roguestargun.com) which should be able to run on standalone
butz•17m ago
No external power brick. Instant buy.
microsoftedging•14m ago
It's glorious. The year has finally come. It's nice to feel excited about tech sometimes, especially when the company isn't completely horrible, and more competition! Great! Microsoft's move really, Sony and Nintendo are doing pretty okay!

W shadow drop.

simlevesque•13m ago
I bet they decided to crash their skin market in part because too many people were exploiting the Steam Deck loophole to take the skin money out of the system.

Now people will need to give Steam real money to buy their new devices.

flakiness•11m ago
I'm still waiting for Steam Deck 2! Come on!
jadbox•8m ago
When's the preorder?
drcongo•7m ago
I wonder if AMD have bothered finishing the gfx drivers for this before release.
mystifyingpoi•5m ago
Linus Torvalds was right. Valve will save the Linux desktop.