I love my deck because
- it can play Steam games fairly well
- it can play emulated game really well
- but most importantly it’s a linux computer, I can browse the web, watch a movie, even be productive on it, and I sometimes don’t even need to plug in a mouse and keyboard or an external screen !
But I was wondering what kind of uses other people have with it, as a non gaming machine?
You can use the box to collect cats in.
Steam Cat
I travel a lot for work with a not very big weight allowance so it has replaced my laptop as my daily machine.
I game on it, use it for discord and dndbeyond to play dnd at work, have jellyfin on it to stream media to my phone+ar glasses, and use it to access my home server to deal with downloads and my main jellyfin server.
It’s an awesome tool.I have a needlessly complicated but high quality signal path (USB-C to A dongle -> some extension cable -> Edirol UA-1D -> looong Toslink optical cable -> active speakers) to play music off Spotify and MPD on the Deck to entertain the family and guests.
Honestly just for gaming. I have a Framework laptop running Linux that I use for anything else.
I have mine plugged into my TV, with a wireless controller and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I spend most of my time in the desktop mode
I use it to:
- play steam games on the deck directly
- stream games at high settings form my PC to my TV via Steam link and Moonlight (I find Moonlight works better for me)
- browse the Web via Firefox
- stream video from my PC via jellyfin
- watch YouTube via Freetube
- watch streaming services via Web browser
- unhook it to occasionally play games in bed on a lazy Sunday morning
It works great as an all in one device. I don’t really use the smart features on my TV or my Fire stick anymore - I don’t need to see all the shitty advertising or use their compromised UIs that try to sell me shit.
Honestly, the Steam Deck is one of the best devices I’ve bought in years.
