Unfortunately it doesn’t really work that way. Those distros need to be adjusted to work properly with the hardware. For instance, if you got a ROG Ally and slapped Chimera on there you would have no sound, no WiFi, and you have to manually adjust the resolution for each game.
This would be a fairly trivial task for Asus or Lenovo, so I don’t really understand why they don’t do it, but they don’t.
Many of those “Steam Deck killers” market themselves that they use Windows to have better game compatibility though, average casual users don’t notice the different on Windows and on Linux. Also it seems like currently only Valve is the only one being interested on Linux gaming and taking serious, if any measure to improve Linux gaming. Even GOG with their anti-DRM stance (which may align more to Linux users) and Epic Game Store with their anti-monopoly stance (which also align with many Linux users too) haven’t done anything to improve Linux gaming or even port their store/launcher to Linux, and many manufacturers and machines don’t support Linux adequately or maybe even not at all (especially gaming machines). So it wouldn’t be so surprising though
average casual users don’t notice the different on Windows and on Linux.
If they don’t notice, that’s great. But if you use a Windows handheld and a SteamDeck, they WILL notice a vast difference in usability, because one is simply taken from the desktop and slapped into a handheld, and the other is built from the ground up to deliver an exceptional experience on a single specific piece of hardware.
Nobara Linux has a Steam Deck edition (basically with gamescope-session and KDE), and I believe it includes patches for complete compatibility with the ROG Ally.
Unfortunately it doesn’t really work that way. Those distros need to be adjusted to work properly with the hardware. For instance, if you got a ROG Ally and slapped Chimera on there you would have no sound, no WiFi, and you have to manually adjust the resolution for each game.
This would be a fairly trivial task for Asus or Lenovo, so I don’t really understand why they don’t do it, but they don’t.
Many of those “Steam Deck killers” market themselves that they use Windows to have better game compatibility though, average casual users don’t notice the different on Windows and on Linux. Also it seems like currently only Valve is the only one being interested on Linux gaming and taking serious, if any measure to improve Linux gaming. Even GOG with their anti-DRM stance (which may align more to Linux users) and Epic Game Store with their anti-monopoly stance (which also align with many Linux users too) haven’t done anything to improve Linux gaming or even port their store/launcher to Linux, and many manufacturers and machines don’t support Linux adequately or maybe even not at all (especially gaming machines). So it wouldn’t be so surprising though
If they don’t notice, that’s great. But if you use a Windows handheld and a SteamDeck, they WILL notice a vast difference in usability, because one is simply taken from the desktop and slapped into a handheld, and the other is built from the ground up to deliver an exceptional experience on a single specific piece of hardware.
Nobara Linux has a Steam Deck edition (basically with gamescope-session and KDE), and I believe it includes patches for complete compatibility with the ROG Ally.
They both do.