And it absolutely worked on me.

Prior to having a Steam Deck, my overall video game time was fairly low since it took time to boot the PC and start everything up. With the SD, it's much easier to grab it and get a small session in, and I've purchased a number of games (and will even buy games on Steam at a higher price than elsewhere) because of the Deck. It's the price of convenience, but well worth it in my opinion.

Nothing managed to get me back into gaming as much as the "on" button on the Steam Deck plopping me right back where I left.

And it's absolutely working! So far I've spent 566€ directly on Steam this year and my willingness to spend money on GOG or EGS has dropped dramatically considering what a seamless experience I get with Steam and the Steam Deck.

Me as well. I've on Linux for years, but there was a time where I was preferring GoG for their DRM-free policy. However, Valve went all in on Linux support while GoG refused to even make a Linux version of their launcher. I still occasionally buy things from them, but Steam gained my business.

Yeah, the cdprojekt/Linux story is a weird one. They even released witcher 2 on Linux. But after all the hate they got , for it being a bad port, using some translation layer, it seems like they dropped the Linux use cases.

At least they don't go out of their way to block heroic games launcher/Linux and I'm happy with that.

It’s much easier and safer for a company to officially not support Linux, but keep an eye on issues and not block it, than to officially release a port.

It's not just about trying to get more people to buy stuff on Steam but also safeguard their own future, while carving out their own experience and a niche.

Back when the whole Steam on Linux started, they saw Windows 8/10 as a real threat to their existence. (Windows S?)

It's just that the way they went about to solve this in an open way is what's nice.

They improved the graphics drivers situation, invested in Wine and other open source projects, put in a lot of effort to create a user experience they wanted on a handheld device.

Ultimately this gave them a real edge over their competitors. Was surprised to see random youtubers making videos on how to install steam OS on their more powerful Rog Ally/Gpd/Home theater PC etc ..

Sure, but it doesn't change the fact that no public traded company would ever do this, or spend this much resources in things such as repairability or Linux layer improvements. It's nice that Valve is still a private company and can decide to focus on things that actually good for the space and consumers, even if it's not the most optimal use of their time.

> Sure, but it doesn't change the fact that no public traded company would ever do this, or spend this much resources in things such as repairability or Linux layer improvements.

Google used to be like this once upon a time, long long ago... (That blocks phone, unlocked bootloader on all their Nexus devices, Linux improvements for Chrome/Android etc...). Not sure if things really changed or it's just in my head, but they no longer seem that way.

Well, Pixel is still with unlocked bootloader and is the only phone on the market with which you can bake in your own signing keys, lock the bootloader and have an actually secure boot chain controlled by yourself.

It's not impossible, and large companies do regularly contribute or create their own FOSS.

But yes, there has always been a big dose of NIH from corporate. Sometimes it is warranted, but many times it's extra work on this hope that they hoard valuable tech to themselves.

Same goes for XBox and PlayStation, but you don't see them using anything other than a closed environment.