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Valve explains more shipping details for the Steam Deck

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Curious to know when exactly you'll get a Steam Deck? A lot of people asked and so Valve has given a little more info. While the Steam Deck has now released, it could still be a little while before you get your hands on a unit even if you're in the Q1 slot.

As a reminder: when Valve send you an email to invite you to actually make the purchase, you have 72 hours to go through with it or you entirely lose your place and it goes to the next person.

Here's what they said:

  • All people who are in the Q1 reservation window on the Steam Deck store page will receive an order email by the end of March. (Q1 is Quarter 1, or January through March).
  • The first batch of emails has already gone out this morning.
  • The next batch of emails will go out on Monday, March 7th. (It turns out the logistics work out better if we don’t try to ship over a weekend.)
  • We’ll continue sending emails to Q1 reservers in the order their reservations were made on a weekly basis through the end of March (March 14th, 21st, 28th)
  • In April, we’ll start going through the Q2 queue in a similar fashion.

For those of you who have a date of sometime after Q2, Valve said to expect more news on that "soon".

My own personal unit of the top-end model is in the Q1 slot, so I'll be able to make some proper comparisons on the screen quality between the models eventually for you. Valve did email out this morning to confirm my review unit is for keeps, so expect a lot more regular Steam Deck content from me.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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mt Feb 26, 2022
>review unit is for keeps


Oh damn and I thought I couldn't become even more envious.
pete910 Feb 26, 2022
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QuoteValve did email out this morning to confirm my review unit is for keeps

Patron only competition prize by the sounds of it
Pendragon Feb 26, 2022
wait so they're only doing weekly emails? oof. .that's going to take a long time.. I thought they would be cycling thru
Philadelphus Feb 26, 2022
QuoteFor those of you who have a date of sometime after Q2, Valve said to expect more news on that "soon".
"After Q2" gang represent! Ah, well, nothing to do but compose my soul in patience. At least it sounds like we'll get a more stable product with more of the bugs ironed out. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose…
Purple Library Guy Feb 26, 2022
Quoting: Pendragonwait so they're only doing weekly emails? oof. .that's going to take a long time.. I thought they would be cycling thru
Depends how many emails they send on that one day of the week, dunnit?
BlackBloodRum Feb 26, 2022
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Quick question about the deck for those lucky enough to have access..

My understanding is that valve have their own Arch repository for the deck, with all their bits they need. However the OS is "just enough" for the deck right?

Do the repos contain other software or utilities?

For example, one thing I would really like to do is enable LUKS support for external storage cards due to international travel... however depending on the level of optimization this may not be there by default. But I wonder could this be done out the box / installed from repos and supported by the kernel/distro? Or will this be a new distro needed?

Apologies if this is a stupid question or has already been asked.
Purple Library Guy Feb 26, 2022
Quoting: BlackBloodRumQuick question about the deck for those lucky enough to have access..

My understanding is that valve have their own Arch repository for the deck, with all their bits they need. However the OS is "just enough" for the deck right?

Do the repos contain other software or utilities?
As I understand it, yes and no, but somewhat more "no" than "yes". By default you can't do normal installs from normal repos (let alone the AUR), the OS is sort of frozen that way. You can install Flatpaks and Appimages; for the Flatpaks there's a GUI thing.
But then there's like a developer mode or something which gets you the ability to screw it up properly.
Pendragon Feb 26, 2022
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Pendragonwait so they're only doing weekly emails? oof. .that's going to take a long time.. I thought they would be cycling thru
Depends how many emails they send on that one day of the week, dunnit?

Indeed, though (in theory) having a rolling email process would be faster imho

.. I suppose if the reservation system is really smooth using this method, it's vastly preferable to Analogue Co's absolute sh!tshow of a pre-order launch, despite it maybe taking longer
BlackBloodRum Feb 26, 2022
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Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: BlackBloodRumQuick question about the deck for those lucky enough to have access..

My understanding is that valve have their own Arch repository for the deck, with all their bits they need. However the OS is "just enough" for the deck right?

Do the repos contain other software or utilities?
As I understand it, yes and no, but somewhat more "no" than "yes". By default you can't do normal installs from normal repos (let alone the AUR), the OS is sort of frozen that way. You can install Flatpaks and Appimages; for the Flatpaks there's a GUI thing.
But then there's like a developer mode or something which gets you the ability to screw it up properly.

That's interesting - in theory - at least, if the deck has access to and / or installed cryptsetup it should be entirely manageable from the userland.

Aside from being a gaming device, I was / am hoping I could use it in a similar fashion to a portable computer - perfect for international travel with encrypted external storage as a place to store SSH & VPN keys so I can work while on holiday :-).

My phone already has that access.. but the screens a bit small for real work and android isn't ideal. Thus, dock + monitor + keyboard = game on (work).

That's one of my hopes for the deck anyway.. aside from the obvious gaming aspect.


Last edited by BlackBloodRum on 26 February 2022 at 7:21 pm UTC
TrainDoc Feb 26, 2022
Curious to see if we can get some data on shipping time. My index took a week and a half from Chicago. I'm guessing they'll be shipping from Steamdeck from Chicago as well.
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