Hello community!

I come to you for advice. Using an m1 macbook air since 2020, I installed popos on my old 2013 macbook pro and I was quite happy with it but… I bought a steamdeck two weeks ago and exploring its desktop mode made me reconsider some choices. Using distros based on different systems, with different commands, desktop environment, etc. gets a little confusing for someone like me, who doesn’t use linux as my main machine. Do you have any advice for me? From what I understand, steamos is debian-based while popos is ubuntu-based: is that the biggest part of how a distribution works, ie commands, etc.? Good ui/ux is important for me so i should maybe use nitrux or deepin, that are debian-based, or is it a bad idea to choose a less common distro for a amateur like me?

Thanks in advance, I’m a bit lost.

  • sorrybookbroke@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Hey! Glad to see you’re interested. To confirm though, steamOS is arch based not debian based. I really wouldn’t suggest arch though, it sometimes takes manual intervention to keep working and you should keep up to date with what’s going on if you use it. Subscribe to the mailing list, keep up with the community on lemmy, etc.

    SteamOS will handle all of that but Arch absolutely will not. If you’re ok with a distro that needs some for babysitting arch is a fine thing to use. It’s not as bad as some say and it’s certainly not “for CS majors or people who know every detail of how a unix like system works” as the other guy states. That’s nonesense, and the rest of their comment was filled with misinformation too

    Sorry to say but there will be no “one to one” option.

    However, the “desktop mode” is something called KDE Plasma and is available on all distributions. Kubuntu is a good option, it’s just ubuntu but it looks different. The underlying tech is the same. Personally I’d suggest looking at the KDE linux mint flavour/spin though.

    Though I’d stick to ubuntu or a ubuntu based distro, Fedora Kinoite is also a great option for gaming, or nobara with the plasma spin. Both will be more up to date and nobara is made specifically for gaming

    Sorry for the info dump, wish you the best

      • sorrybookbroke@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        That’s the old version, steamOS v2. That ran on the failed steam machine. steamOS v3 is arch based. It uses pacman, pacman keyring, has arch packages, etc. Debian uses apt. The steamdeck is using an immutable variant of arch linux with it’s own mirrors of the arch repositories.

        I implore you, try using apt on your steamdeck. It will not work. Try installing a .deb, it will not work. It is not debian based. What you have linked to is the old, steamOS operating system used in their initial console trial, which failed

        • thethirdobject@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          1 year ago

          Understanding that 1. steamos is arch-based and 2. it means it manages packages differently from debian-based distros just cleared up a lot of confusion