Caveat: I am not a gamer, or at least the games I play are decades old and run fine on any Linux system. So I've never had a need for bleeding edge hardware or the OS to run on it. I'm starting work on a class for TPL called "What is Linux," which may or may not actually be completed or taught. I know SteamOS is used on Valve's hardware (I can read Wikipedia) ... but what about people who want to run recent games but also want to move to Linux? Do they install SteamOS straight onto their hardware? Can it support LibreOffice and other "normal" stuff? Or do they add some large bundle of Steam software on top of their existing OS like Debian or Cachy? Because let's face it, gaming is the critical reason for not leaving Windows for some people. I'd like to be able to at least partially address that issue. As well as I know Linux, I'm pretty clueless about gaming. If I start to get traction on this presentation, I may ask for more advice and/or reviewers. The idea of crowd-sourcing the presentation itself appeals. :-) -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
Not a gamer here but there's loads of YouTube clips on this very same topic. Bazzite, CatchyOS, Steam etc that you can start to consume and get an idea on pros/cons as well as if it can run the usual productivity apps. One of my kids just started on this path but with school work has stalled. Otherwise I would have something more insightful to say. Sam On Jan 20, 2026, 8:05 a.m., at 8:05 a.m., Giles Orr via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Caveat: I am not a gamer, or at least the games I play are decades old and run fine on any Linux system. So I've never had a need for bleeding edge hardware or the OS to run on it.
I'm starting work on a class for TPL called "What is Linux," which may or may not actually be completed or taught. I know SteamOS is used on Valve's hardware (I can read Wikipedia) ... but what about people who want to run recent games but also want to move to Linux? Do they install SteamOS straight onto their hardware? Can it support LibreOffice and other "normal" stuff? Or do they add some large bundle of Steam software on top of their existing OS like Debian or Cachy?
Because let's face it, gaming is the critical reason for not leaving Windows for some people. I'd like to be able to at least partially address that issue. As well as I know Linux, I'm pretty clueless about gaming.
If I start to get traction on this presentation, I may ask for more advice and/or reviewers. The idea of crowd-sourcing the presentation itself appeals. :-)
-- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com ------------------------------------ Description: GTALUG Talk Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe@lists.gtalug.org Start a new thread: talk@lists.gtalug.org This message archived at https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/4LO2RAU...
On Tue, 20 Jan 2026 08:04:59 -0500 Giles Orr via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
I'm starting work on a class for TPL called "What is Linux," which may or may not actually be completed or taught. I know SteamOS is used on Valve's hardware (I can read Wikipedia) ... but what about people who want to run recent games but also want to move to Linux? Do they install SteamOS straight onto their hardware? Can it support LibreOffice and other "normal" stuff? Or do they add some large bundle of Steam software on top of their existing OS like Debian or Cachy?
Because let's face it, gaming is the critical reason for not leaving Windows for some people. I'd like to be able to at least partially address that issue. As well as I know Linux, I'm pretty clueless about gaming.
I have installed War Thunder on my Fedora desktop. It runs fine, and I have fun with it. It does not work on my rather old Thinkpad laptop, or on the cheap computer I have attached to my TV, both of which run YouTube and Netflix nicely. If someone's computer cannot handle Windows_11, it may not be able to handle War Thunder, and other Steam products. -- Howard Gibson hgibson@eol.ca http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson
On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 8:05 AM Giles Orr via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
I'm starting work on a class for TPL called "What is Linux," which may or may not actually be completed or taught.
I did Linux classes a couple of years ago for TPL pre-COVID, and I'm delighted to see them even considering bringing it back.
I know SteamOS is used on Valve's hardware (I can read Wikipedia) ... but what about people who want to run recent games but also want to move to Linux? Do they install SteamOS straight onto their hardware? Can it support LibreOffice and other "normal" stuff? Or do they add some large bundle of Steam software on top of their existing OS like Debian or something like that Cachy?
There are both software and hardware components of Steam offerings, and it's easy to get confused because of them. SteamOS was created originally for the Steam Deck handheld gaming system that's available now. Suitability for general-purpose PCs is iffy because it's specifically designed for Steam hardware and support for non-standard peripherals may be spotty. Bazzite was created (IMO) as a more-conventional Linux distribution that maintained many of the features of SteamOS. Based on the reviews I saw, SteamOS has a gaming mode as default but also a desktop mode that looks like bog-standard KDE. Keep in mind that Steam itself is just an app, or rather a mini-ecosystem of apps, that should technically be installable on most modern Linux distributions if the PC hardware has enough strength to run it. I ran it on Fedora semi-successfully; most of the apps in my Steam library worked well, but one of my games is documented not to run and another was claimed to work but didn't. Underlying all this is Proton, the layer that replaced Wine that is installed with Steam, which allows Windows games to run under Linux without requiring (much) involvement of the game developer. The ProtonDB website <https://www.protondb.com/> carries a fairly comprehensive list of Steam games and lists their compatibility with the Steam Deck (and thus Linux in general). An impressively high number of Steam-offered games will work, but notably. multiplayer games that include some form of anti-cheat mechanism are almost guaranteed NOT to work. I am told that non-Steam catalogs are supported but can't verify. The Steam footprint in this world is going to get even bigger because of the November announcement of the Steam Frame and Steam Machine to be released early in 2026. A good reception for these products will be good news for Linux and for Linux gamers, even those not using Steam hardware. HTH. - Evan
Yeah, no games for me, too. Certainly, not with my hardwares. Let us know how the class goes. I'm thinking of something similar. I want to use embedded boards (eg. Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, BeagleBone Black) as a way to teach "Linux skills". Reason: "Robotics" and "Automation" are all the news, now. Eventually, though, we need workforce who are trained in Robotics and Automation. When you drill down these subjects, you are actually applying Linux skills. All the troubleshooting, edit this config, enable that script, bring up services, etc. On 2026-01-20 08:04, Giles Orr via Talk wrote:
I'm starting work on a class for TPL called "What is Linux," which may or may not actually be completed or taught.
If I start to get traction on this presentation, I may ask for more advice and/or reviewers. The idea of crowd-sourcing the presentation itself appeals. :-)
participants (5)
-
Evan Leibovitch -
Giles Orr -
Howard Gibson -
Samuel Kaharabata -
William Park