I used Ubuntu briefly years ago but never really dove into the world of Linux. Are there any useful or fun programs for Linux that work well in desktop mode on the deck? Thanks
KDEconnect, it’s amazing
KDEconnect is a must have on every operating system.
On Windows?
Yes. And I didn’t have any issues till now.
Second this. KDEconnect is running on all of my devices. It is really great on the steam deck if you don’t have a keyboard because you can just send the clipboard from your phone. Super handy!
That’s awesome, I don’t own nor have never used steamdeck but I only use Linux on my machines. It’s one of the first installs I ever do during a configuration of a new desktop system.
So I’m actually trying to download it now. I couldn’t find it in the discover app and when I go to download it from the website it opens the discover app and gives me an error that it cannot find the repositories
Edit: apparently kdeconnect is just on steamos now and you don’t need to download anything
A happy surprise!
For games, there’s Heroic Games Launcher or Lutris which allow you to run non-steam games easily.
ProtonUp is pretty neat. It’s a bit of an easier way to keep Proton-GE up to date
- Komikku if you like reading manga this app is amazing.
- Parabolic used to be called tubeconverter and it’s (imo) the best gui app to download youtube videos.
- Mousai is basically Shazam for linux. Can listen to mic or desktop audio.
- Newelle give chatGPT access to a linux terminal, what could go wrong?
- Live Captions listens to words and makes captions in real time.
Annnd that’s all I can think of rn
There are a ton of interesting apps to use on Linux.
The Steam Deck uses Flatpaks from Flathub by default in KDE’s Discover app “store”.
Browse and search https://flathub.org/ to find all sorts of apps.
Are there any types of apps you’re interested in or anything in particular that you’re used to and want to find something similar?
You’ll probably want Flatseal to adjust Flatpak app permissions (like giving apps access to more directories and such). You usually don’t need this, but some apps might not support portals and may need more “holes” poked in the sandbox to access additional directories.
If you want to run VMs, then I’d suggest GNOME Boxes (just searching for “boxes” in Discover should find it. You could install a standard Linux distro inside — or even Windows if you really wanted. It’s simple and straightforward, and even has Linux distro downloads from the UI (so you don’t even have to hunt for an ISO to download).
If you’re looking for command line stuff, then I’d suggest setting up podman and distrobox; this is more advanced, but would let you run almost everything from any distro on your Deck via containers that persist (even across Steam Deck updates): https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox/blob/main/docs/compatibility.md#install-podman-in-a-static-manner & https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/09/distrobox-can-open-up-the-steam-deck-to-a-whole-new-world/
If you’re doing a lot of stuff on your Steam Deck in desktop mode, please remember that it’s not encrypted (so anyone can copy anything you do out of it) and doesn’t even have a password by default. You’d want to set up KDE Plasma’s Vault and use that for sensitive documents and/or use a VM with disk encryption. Sadly, EncFS isn’t included on the Deck, so you cannot use KDE Plasma Vault (without jumping through hoops), so you’d have to set up something similar in Distrobox (although probably a different program), use something similar from Flathub (again, which requires a command line program behind the scenes currently) or use a VM with encryption (which is the easiest thing to do).
If you aren’t doing anything sensitive (including browsing) on desktop mode and don’t want to do anything too advanced (like command line stuff), then all the many thousands of apps available from Flathub are still really astoundingly great and super easy to use. They’re basically just a click away in Discover.
There are lots of useful programs that can be installed through the Discover Software Center as flatpacks. Some of my favourites are Gimp, Kdenlive, Kodi, Blender, LibreOffice, CoreKeyboard, Discord, Flatseal, KDiskMark, MComix, Calibre, and Pidgin.
Some fun ones are Space Cadet Pinball, Prism Launcher (for Minecraft) and Heroic Games Launcher (for GOG, Epic Games and now also Amazon Games).
If I had a Deck I’d probably use it more for Calibre than anything else honestly. The thought of having my entire book and game libraries on one portable device sounds amazing.
Warpinator is really simple for moving files between devices over the local network. I have been using it without any problems between Linux desktop PC, Steam Deck, Windows desktop PC and an Android phone.
One feature in SteamOS 3.5 to be aware of is support for Nix packages. Much much more selection there. I’m looking forward to having Sway or Hyprland launchable in game mode with custom Steam Inputs :)
Syncthing - to synchronize your game saves with local devices Nextcloud sync - same but for cloud Browser based YouTube - have to use chrome because it supports touch scrolling
Onedriver (notice the R at the end) for using OneDrive on Linux (there’s no official client for Linux)
