Valve has formally announced the Steam Deck, a portable handheld console with SteamOS

Quoting: damarrinHeh, good point on covid vaccination... I was perhaps to general with the "general public" statement. It's probably more "Windows power users" who are proficient there and don't even consider anything other than Windows is to be used and particularly don't want to learn anything new. These are the people who go around on- and offline telling everyone who'll listen (insert "general public" here) Windows is the way to go. They are sizeable and very vocal and do MS's marketing for them.

Aye. Those people are there, and in absolute numbers there are quite a few of them. But really, an awful lot of computer users don't know what Windows is.
My wife of 25 years is an intelligent person but it was only a few years ago that there was a reason to have a conversation with her and really explain just what "Windows" is, what an operating system is, what the difference is between the operating system and a program running in the operating system, such as a browser . . . didn't help that this was in the context of her new Chromebook doing its best to muddle the distinction . . . The point is, she uses computers but doesn't normally think about them, she just clicks the icon that makes it do what she wants. She's older, but as far as I can tell the younger supposedly all tech-savvy generation is pretty much the same--they're just really comfortable clicking those icons, but they mostly don't look beneath that.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 19 July 2021 at 6:06 pm UTC

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: damarrinTo rain a little on everyone's parade (mine included), people on another gaming website I go to have been saying en masse how it's an instant Windows install for it to be even remotely useful. That's what the "general public" thinks, unfortunately :-(

I think realistically only a very tiny percentage of people are interested in installing OSes at all. And many of those who do, would prefer Linux. Regular user simply isn't interested or not even sure how to install an OS, no matter Linux or Windows. So I wouldn't worry about the above at all.

So if you want to analyze the "general public" - it's a major plus that device is coming with Linux preinstalled, because that's what they'll be using.

Yep. You want figures on roughly how many people will install a new O/S? How does roughly 1% sound?

Looking forward to hearing stories of people bricking their £500 toy trying to install Windows on it. The Win10 kernel is a bit better with some stuff these days, but it still needs drivers for a pretty high number of components. Basically installing Windows is much, much harder than installing Linux, even putting aside the 100Gb+ you need for it to actually work.

No thanks.

Quoting: fleskI would have reserved the medium model day one, but unfortunately it's not available in the EEA countries.

Quoting: slaapliedjeIt has been pointed out that the person driving the car in the image with the kid in the back seat at https://www.steamdeck.com/en/hardware is driving it wrong. That isn't how you drive a Tesla!

How so? I've only been driving a Tesla for a couple of weeks, but I can't tell what's wrong with the image.

EDIT: Assuming it's this image we're talking about: https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamdeck/images/factorio-cover.jpg

That looks perfectly normal to me.

Ha, I don't know a co-worker who owns a Tesla, demanded I post it somewhere. He rattled off something about it does driving correction and you basically only have to have your hands sort of touching the wheel or something. I was too busy reading specs on the steam deck or something else. Did think it was funny.

Quoting: scaine

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: damarrinTo rain a little on everyone's parade (mine included), people on another gaming website I go to have been saying en masse how it's an instant Windows install for it to be even remotely useful. That's what the "general public" thinks, unfortunately :-(

I think realistically only a very tiny percentage of people are interested in installing OSes at all. And many of those who do, would prefer Linux. Regular user simply isn't interested or not even sure how to install an OS, no matter Linux or Windows. So I wouldn't worry about the above at all.

So if you want to analyze the "general public" - it's a major plus that device is coming with Linux preinstalled, because that's what they'll be using.

Yep. You want figures on roughly how many people will install a new O/S? How does roughly 1% sound?

Looking forward to hearing stories of people bricking their £500 toy trying to install Windows on it. The Win10 kernel is a bit better with some stuff these days, but it still needs drivers for a pretty high number of components. Basically installing Windows is much, much harder than installing Linux, even putting aside the 100Gb+ you need for it to actually work.

No thanks.

Would be hilarious if they didn't release drivers for it, and it ends up being how most people still view Linux (the hardware is lacking drivers, hard to use because resolution isn't right, etc).

Really hoping I get mine near my B-Day, that'd be sweet. I truly don't see most people installing Windows on this. There might be a small percentage of people that do. I honestly don't know why you would, unless someone thinks the game pass or whatever is worth it, but from my recollection, wasn't there a way to do that through Linux now anyhow?

Quoting: slaapliedjeWould be hilarious if they didn't release drivers for it, and it ends up being how most people still view Linux (the hardware is lacking drivers, hard to use because resolution isn't right, etc).

Or if Microsoft needed to go get their bootloader signed by Valve so that it would work with Secure Boot.. .

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: fleskI would have reserved the medium model day one, but unfortunately it's not available in the EEA countries.

Quoting: slaapliedjeIt has been pointed out that the person driving the car in the image with the kid in the back seat at https://www.steamdeck.com/en/hardware is driving it wrong. That isn't how you drive a Tesla!

How so? I've only been driving a Tesla for a couple of weeks, but I can't tell what's wrong with the image.

EDIT: Assuming it's this image we're talking about: https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamdeck/images/factorio-cover.jpg

That looks perfectly normal to me.

Ha, I don't know a co-worker who owns a Tesla, demanded I post it somewhere. He rattled off something about it does driving correction and you basically only have to have your hands sort of touching the wheel or something. I was too busy reading specs on the steam deck or something else. Did think it was funny.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's their so-called FSD features, which is an optional (expensive) extra that I haven't tried. I think that's rubbish too. Nothing wrong with driving a Tesla as a normal car.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyShe's older, but as far as I can tell the younger supposedly all tech-savvy generation is pretty much the same--they're just really comfortable clicking those icons, but they mostly don't look beneath that.

A bit off-topic, but a friend of mine was talking this past week how she was teaching students in high school and had to show them how to do complicated computer things like…creating a folder to put their project photos in (it was an art class), or selecting more than one file at a time. Apparently "digital native generation" doesn't automatically equate to "knows anything about computers beyond surface level"!

Quoting: Philadelphus

Quoting: Purple Library GuyShe's older, but as far as I can tell the younger supposedly all tech-savvy generation is pretty much the same--they're just really comfortable clicking those icons, but they mostly don't look beneath that.

A bit off-topic, but a friend of mine was talking this past week how she was teaching students in high school and had to show them how to do complicated computer things like…creating a folder to put their project photos in (it was an art class), or selecting more than one file at a time. Apparently "digital native generation" doesn't automatically equate to "knows anything about computers beyond surface level"!

I do IT support and I see a regular pattern that above a certain group (around 60) there is a dropoff in IT knowledge, but now also below 25 there is also a similar dropoff. Go close to 20 and below, and it is intense. I regularly have to talk people under 25 through IT basics, even on Windows. How to create and navigate folders, use Outlook, how to use the start menu, what a browser is and the difference between them, and so much more. The Pi Foundation has it right: education in IT is severely lacking these days and everyone should have to use a Pi and learn IT basics on it.

Quoting: F.Ultra

Quoting: Appelsin

Quoting: Tuxee

Quoting: Appelsin

QuoteCurrently it's limited to United States, Canada, European Union, and the United Kingdom with more regions becoming available in 2022.

Nothing for Norway then (or Switzerland, or Iceland or Luxemburg)? Or is this just a ploy to make us join the EU?

Last time I checked Luxembourg was still part of the European Union. Did they leave in silence?

They are? Then you've just corrected a misunderstanding I've had since early school xD I though they were outside, like us. I could have sworn they've always been mentioned in the same breath as the non-EU-member-trade-agreements we have and such things. But that may have been for other reasons then. TIL something basic x)

Luxemburg is not only one of the founding members of the EU, they are also one of the 4 official capitals of EU :-)

That's what I found yesterday, when I had to look it up 😂 Which only makes me thinking they weren't EU even better 🎯 😂 If making an error, make it big.

Quoting: Supay

Quoting: Philadelphus

Quoting: Purple Library GuyShe's older, but as far as I can tell the younger supposedly all tech-savvy generation is pretty much the same--they're just really comfortable clicking those icons, but they mostly don't look beneath that.

A bit off-topic, but a friend of mine was talking this past week how she was teaching students in high school and had to show them how to do complicated computer things like…creating a folder to put their project photos in (it was an art class), or selecting more than one file at a time. Apparently "digital native generation" doesn't automatically equate to "knows anything about computers beyond surface level"!

I do IT support and I see a regular pattern that above a certain group (around 60) there is a dropoff in IT knowledge, but now also below 25 there is also a similar dropoff. Go close to 20 and below, and it is intense. I regularly have to talk people under 25 through IT basics, even on Windows. How to create and navigate folders, use Outlook, how to use the start menu, what a browser is and the difference between them, and so much more. The Pi Foundation has it right: education in IT is severely lacking these days and everyone should have to use a Pi and learn IT basics on it.

I actually think those of us who were using computers before about, well, 1995, have an advantage. If your early computers used DOS, you know in your bones there is something under that slick GUI. You've watched the abstraction layers stack up. The younger set don't really grok that there's anything behind the curtain.