I prefer a working Proton build over a untested broken native build. If you can't afford the time to test the Linux builds, go ahead and just rely on Proton.
Testing on Steam Deck so it can be verified probably does make sense from a marketing standpoint though. Mostly checking that controls work, graphic settings are not too demanding by default and font scaling works properly.
Limiting the TDP of the chip is not really a problem considering the ARM chips are not more powerful either. If they can run Beat Saber and other slimmed down PCVR games, it's sufficient.
Looking at how many revisions they went through it seems like they came to the conclusion that running x86 on ARM is better than running x86 directly with a TDP limited chip.
Hopefully we will find out later this year.
(grateful for flatpaks for once!)
That's how I run my system right now. Fedora KDE + pretty much everything as Flatpak.
Gives me a recent enough kernel and KDE version so I don't have to worry when I get new hardware or new features drop but also restricts major updates to new Fedora versions so I can hold those back for a few weeks.
I made a similar switch as you but from Ubuntu to Fedora because of outdated firmware and kernel.
Good to hear that they are still working on getting x86 games running on the Deckard.
I'm aware. The Deckard was originally rumored to be based on an AMD chip.
It's a shame that they seem to have moved to ARM instead of the earlier rumors of using an AMD APU like the Steam Deck. But then again, maybe they integrated Box86 since there were rumors about that as well.
Hardware MIGHT be controlled by signal RGB
OpenRGB to the rescue: https://flathub.org/apps/org.openrgb.OpenRGB
controlling the pump in my AIO?
What do you need to control about your pump? I sure hope it works without OS support.
Or the sound levels on ny headset?
Move the volume slider up or down?
Or the DPI in my mouse?
Save them to the mouse as profile if it can or use Piper: https://flathub.org/apps/org.freedesktop.Piper
in AMD you lose access to certain features like AMFM2
FSR Frame Gen works just fine, not sure why you need fake frames in more games.
the FOSS solutions are not industry standard, so sure, I can learn to use LibreOffice, but that's worth absolutely nothing when you apply for a corporate job and they expect you to know how to use outlook as a bare minimum
There is also OnlyOffice and online MS Office. Not sure what you need to know about Outlook to open it and use your eyes to read the mails.
even the Google office suite is being adopted faster
Good news, it runs in a browser and works on every OS!
Ah, but if the software is available there's still a chance it doesn't work because it's missing a dependency or something and you have to ask people to use the terminal and... Sigh
I have not fixed dependencies issue on Linux since the early 2000s. Flatpaks are your friend https://flathub.org/ .
All in all, it's just behind in many ways, sure, for some people it's ok, and for laptops I'd think is mostly ok, great even.
I run it on my high end PC and I disagree. It's ahead in many ways.
That list could go on for a while and it's only for gaming.
I haven't even gone into installation and not having to run ShutUp10 every time just to make the OS usable. Or how KDE is so much cleaner than Windows. Or how I don't have any ads in my start menu, don't have to force download Candy Crush on first boot, don't have pre-installed apps I can't remove, don't have to block my own OS in its firewall to get rid of telemetry, don't have to be told that I need to upgrade to Windows 11 constantly.
For work: Docker just works, complex networking setups are not a pain to setup, creating VMs is so much easier and has so many more features. VPN is so seamlessly setup. I can read almost every file system on the planet and use ROCm without jumping through hoops. Not to mention I don't get Copilot and Recall shoved down my throat.
Are there issues on Linux? Sure, lots of them. But if I find them I can tell somebody about it and don't have to deal with them for centuries.
I'm rooting for Steam OS to release to desktops because my living room PC is LITERALLY just for gaming, so that "could" work nicely.
SteamOS is just a modern Linux distro with Steam pre-installed and in autostart. If stuff works there, it works on regular Linux just as well.
Bazzite achieves the same thing right now: https://bazzite.gg/
Why not install Linux for them once Windows 10 is dead?
They are a prime candidate for a dead simple Linux distro with the "Web", "Mail" and "Documents" shortcuts on the desktop and nothing else. Can't get a virus, can't get scammed by fake Microsoft support and most won't even notice.
I have installed Fedora Kinoite for my mom and have had zero complaints.
Your best shot is with Monado, which supports the Rift S: https://monado.freedesktop.org/
I only have an Index, so I can't speak for how well it works or how easy it is to setup.
MQA was so weird, replacing a perfectly fine lossless open codec that plays on everything with a proprietary lossy codec that plays on barely anything. Also, so many people suddenly telling you that MQA sounds better than FLAC.
I once wrote a downloader for Tidal and always "downgraded" to 16-bit FLAC when I detected the "high quality" version is in MQA format.
You can install repacks pretty seamlessly in Bottles.
https://flathub.org/apps/com.usebottles.bottles
Create a gaming prefix, move all installers into the prefix and hit "Run executable" one by one for each installer.
Although if you can afford it, Baldur's Gate 3 devs deserve the money. Great game and available DRM free on GOG and Steam.
Can you try installing it through Heroic? https://heroicgameslauncher.com/
I don't have F.E.A.R. 2 on GOG but I played it on Steam back when Proton was new and I didn't have any problems with mouse buttons. I did install the Mousefix mod though to remove mouse acceleration.