Monday 17 November 2025
After a week of enjoying the announcement of the New Steam Machine and the Steam Frame, I want to share my thoughts and address some misconceptions that people may not have yet fully grasped.
First off, let's talk about what I remember from the SteamBox a long, long time ago.
Remember the Alienware SteamBox lol...
A low-end type of machine to play games in big picture mode.
I remember it was around 2015-2016 when Steam had some games supported for Linux. Left 4 Dead 2, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Mad-Max. And suddenly, Gary Mod was working for Linux, and then later on, in 2017 onwards, Linux was slowly paving the way for games to be played on Linux, thanks to Valve and the community.
I remember GTA5 running on Linux through Proton on a Windows VM, lol, from Wendell, Level 1 tech.
The reason why Steam OS on Debian 12 "Jessie" kinda failed is because Debian is like a server-type linux os when the update takes every 3-6 months, whereas Arch Linux updates immediately. Plus, you wouldn't need steam os back then since all the Linux distros supported Proton and all these things as well.
Man, good times.
Thanks to Proton " 2018" and the Steam Deck "2022", all sorts of games can work!!! Especially Final Fantasy 14 lol...
From maximum pc holiday magazine 07
Historically, AMD released its first open-source drivers on Linux in 2007. In contrast, Nvidia supported Linux since 1999, sadly, only using proprietary, closed-source software. However, in May 2022, the company began releasing its Linux GPU kernel modules as open source.
That's why Linus Torval gave the famous middle finger towards Nvidia's incompetence in not releasing open source drivers.
The only games that I can think of that were native for Linux were Doom and Quake 3 in the 1990s, but there was a site that a guy had a section called Building a Retro Linux Gaming Computer, interesting stuff. His site is pretty good.
Gabe Newell on linux and gaming at LinuxCon 2013
What are my thoughts on the Steam Deck?
After using the Steam Deck since September 2022, I would say it was such an awesome experience. At first, I was worried about how the controls would be for FFXIV. But I realize the trackpads and the extra 4 back buttons could help me add more abilities. And, thanks to Gamescope, "Valve's Secret Weapon," It has the power to change your framerate to 40-45fps through Gamescope.
Valve "there own hardware survey" based this for the Steam machine
Valve engineer Yazan aldehayyat provided some form of answer found on X that the machine is 6 times more powerful than the Steam Deck and hinted that there will be a game mode like on the Steam Deck. Where u can also go to desktop mode, he also said there won't be 3 different selections to choose from, but only 1 option that fits best for the gamer. Even though he said 4K FSR? it might not work well but idk it might hurt them alittle bit on that wording lol
Gamescope is probably the secret weapon for the Steam Machine.
Just imagine locking the framerate at 45 fps when a game's FPS is juggling up and down. You don't have to wait for the developer to update it to play at 40fps. Upscale the image through "maybe Steam's own FSR" with lower Shadow pixels, and probably change the Speed of the GPU and CPU?
The best thing about it is that you don't need to worry about Windows updates popping up. You don't need to worry about updating the GPU drivers. It all goes together as a one-stop download update. Easier said than done
You can also upgrade the RAM. The ram is Laptop Sodimm"
You can also upgrade the SSD.
You could also, funny enough, install Windows lol
It's basically a PC!!!
So, according to Moore's law, it is dead. Valve got the deal of a lifetime. Valve bought a stock load of unused RX 7600s and a chunk load of 6-core CPUs. Too the point they won a scrapyard wars. He also mentioned there was a rumor that Microsoft nearly used the APU from the Steam Deck on their Surface Pro tablets. However, when Microsoft backed out of that deal, AMD didn't know what to do with it until Valve came in and bought all of it to ship it for the Steam Deck around 2020-2021.
Sadly, some games will not work on Linux thanks to the anti-cheat, U can always try Counter Strike 2 lol
So, in the end, do you need it? Idk tbh lol the specs are basically what I have lol. Having the steam machine would be a fantastic novelty item or for someone's first Computer Unless the machine is priced at 499-600 dollars" They have not said on price yet". If it did it will beat other Windows Based hardware OEMS price range. Will Release sometime early 2026.
Later in the week, I saw this News on the SteamDeck 2 And we are not there yet, maybe sometime around late 2026 or 2027?
Ohhh wait, I forgot about the steamframe VR Headsetlol well it's cool might just save my money until Christmas 2026 lol