Comment on Microsoft AI CEO pushes back against critics after recent Windows AI backlash — "the fact that people are unimpressed ... is mindblowing to me"

• echodot@feddit.uk ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I’m still bit confused about steamOS, I thought it was supposed to be a full on operating system for gaming centric PCs but it seems to need Plasma in order to do any traditional computer things.

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  • Localhorst86@feddit.org ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Which aspect of that confuses you? That it uses a Desktop environment to do things, or that they are using KDE Plasma instead of something else (say, gnome)?

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    • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      So steamOS is in fact not an operating system it’s just a program that runs on plasma. Or is steamOS actually an operating system, but just quite a limited one, and you dual boot into plasma.

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      • ChairmanMeow@programming.dev ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        KDE Plasma is just the desktop environment. It’s not an OS. SteamOS is a full OS, built off of Arch Linux. It has both a Gaming mode, which looks a lot like Steam Big Picture does these days, and a desktop mode that uses Plasma as the graphical shell/interface. It doesn’t matter OS-wise which one you “boot” into, as both are SteamOS.

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      • Localhorst86@feddit.org ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        SteamOS is a linux distro, similar to any other. It’s a amalgamation of different pieces of software, including a desktop environment (plasma). But it does not boot into the desktop mode by default, instead it boots into their own graphical environment (gamemode) by default, running their steam client.

        That’s because their main focus is gaming machines, and that’s why they want gamers to be greeted with a consolized, 10-feet UI.

        I think your confused because you think of steamOS being the UI that welcomes you when you boot into it, instead steamOS is the entire package, including the desktop environment (which is KDE Plasma), gamemode, etc.

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      • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        A desktop environment is just a GUI program that your computer boots into by default. SteamOS just boots into Steam Big Screen Mode by default instead, and you can launch into the desktop afterwards. Plasma is the program that Valve chose to use for their desktop environment.

        If you wanted to, you could skip all this entirely and launch your games or programs directly from the terminal without ever loading into your desktop.

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  • vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    you seem to be confusing an operating system for the user interface. An os can (and regularly does) have more than one interface. In this case steamos ships with two of them. One they designed which is targeted for games. And they also ship plasma as a desktop environment for those who need it. The operating system lies under all that, and you can launch any piece of software from either of the interfaces. (or the terminal, that counts as a 3rd way to interact with the computer, I guess)

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  • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Basically SteamOS is just a tweaked version of Arch Linux that boots Steam Big Picture Mode by default and launches games with Proton. It’s not a full blown OS by itself.

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    • kayazere@feddit.nl ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It is a full blown Linux OS. You can switch out of the gaming specific mode/UI to a Linux desktop environment using KDE. There you can install your own software.

      The only limiting factor is that the root file system is read only by default (can be disabled). If you want to install system level packages, you can work around this by using something like distrobox.

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      • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Yes I know I own a Deck. I’m just saying that the Steam layer is not, since the comment I was replying to was asking why you’d still need Plasma and not use the Steam UI to use it as a desktop

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