5 reasons Linux is better than Windows for Gaming Handhelds - Steam Deck OLED vs ROG Ally？

One of the biggest things that

differentiates all of the different

handheld gaming devices we have right now,

such as the Steam Deck, the ROG Ally, the

Legion Go— although they're all different

in terms of hardware and design, one of

the main things that determines what kind

of experience you're going to have on one

of these devices is the operating system.

I want to talk about 5 reasons why Linux

is actually the superior operating system

for these handheld gaming devices. So as

someone who's had both the Steam Deck and

the ROG Ally, I can say that I chose

Windows 11 my preferred operating system,

but there's many reasons why Linux is

actually the better operating system if

you just want a purely games experience

with one of these handhelds. I would say

deciding on which operating system you

want to use is probably one of the most

important factors when choosing your

handheld gaming device. One of the main

problems that Windows-based handheld

gaming devices have that the Steam Deck

doesn't really have is that it's very

tightly under control from Microsoft.

Microsoft has a very tight grip over it.

So even though it is an amazing operating

system and you can do a lot with it, it's

not exactly a super open piece of software

that lets you customize it in any way you

want to. It's not like a super open

garden. It's actually kind of a closed

garden if you want to talk about gardens.

And it's not open source in the same way

that Linux is. And the problem is Windows

11 wasn't really designed from the ground

up to be used on these tiny handheld

devices. And people were saying, well,

many people are saying that there's

software problems and a lot of glitches

and annoying usage situations when it

comes to Legion Go and ROG Ally because

it's running on Windows 11, an operating

system that wasn't really designed with

these miniature handhelds. And there's a

reason why people are saying that they're

having much better and much smoother and

more user-friendly experiences with the

Steam Deck, and that's because it runs on

SteamOS, an operating system built from

the ground up by Valve's engineers to be

able to run Linux on the Steam Deck

flawlessly and super efficiently. And this

is only possible thanks to Linux being

open source. You wouldn't be able to do

this with Windows. Microsoft would never

allow Valve to fiddle with the source code

of Windows and create their own version of

Windows just so it can run on the Steam

Deck. Microsoft just doesn't let people

have that kind of freedom and is more

controlling over its software. So although

you might be able to say that yes, the

Steam Deck and the Steam Deck OLED's

hardware is kind of lacking in a certain

luster compared to these more powerful

Windows-based handheld devices, but Steam

Deck and the Steam Deck OLED has one thing

that these other Windows-based handhelds

do not have, and that is the SteamOS. The

SteamOS is very good, it's very efficient

and optimized for playing games on the

Steam Deck. There's many games that run

really well on the Steam Deck and don't

run very well on non-Steam Deck gaming

devices, and that's purely because the

operating system is just not optimized to

play those games on the Windows-based

handheld devices in the same way that

SteamOS is built from the ground up to

play games specifically on the Steam

Decks. And it's purely thanks to this

custom-made Linux version of the Linux OS

built from the ground up by Valve's

engineers that the Steam Deck is able to

boast better optimization and battery

efficiency when playing some of these

games. You might be able to have more

graphics and higher graphical fidelity on

the ROG Ally or the Legion Go or the GDP

Win Max 2, but can they play games for

like 4 to 6 hours with very good smooth

frame rates without any crashing or weird

bugs or glitches because of the software?

I don't think they can say that in the

same way that the Steam Deck and the Steam

Deck OLED can say that. You can say as a

counter-argument that the ROG Ally and the

Legion Go have things like Armory Crate

and Legion Space, but they're just like

Band-Aids placed over Windows to make for

a better handheld experience. So there's

been some interesting comparisons. For

example, you can install Windows on the

Steam Deck. There's nothing stopping you

from sidebooting or sideloading Windows

onto the Steam Deck. And people have done

some experiments where they played a game

such as Elden Ring on both Windows and the

SteamOS on the Steam Deck. And actually,

Elden Ring ran way better when it was

playing on the SteamOS on Linux because

Linux just has way less overheads and uses

way less power, and it's just way more

efficient than trying to play on Windows

on a device that's not really built from

the ground up to be able to play games on

Windows. And then we have the desktop

experience. So when you're using the ROG

Ally, you can't really use it without

using the desktop because you're basically

using a laptop or a PC. It is, for all

reasons intended, it is a PC built into

the body of a Game Boy or like a handheld

gaming device. So you're going to have a

desktop computer experience on this

handheld, and a lot of people don't like

that. They don't want to have to manage or

fiddle around with windows and folders and

files and like Windows button and

Ctrl+Alt+Delete. They don't want to have

to deal with that on a tiny 7-inch screen

when all you have to control it is the

touchscreen and the thumbsticks and the

buttons. You might not have a mouse and

keyboard nearby when you're traveling and

out on the go when you're playing on your

ROG Ally. This isn't really a problem with

the Steam Deck because running SteamOS,

although there is a desktop mode hidden

behind all of the fanciness, you don't

actually have to ever use the desktop

mode. People can just comfortably browse

Steam, download Steam games, launch and

close Steam games without ever having to

see the ugly desktop or having to use the

trackpad to fiddle around with desktop

controls. So I guess it kind of depends

what you want it for. If you want a

desktop experience and you don't have a

main computer or laptop and you want to

use ROG Ally as your all-in-one device for

gaming and also computing, then maybe you

prefer the ROG Ally with Windows 11. But

if you already have a computer or a

desktop or other laptop shops and you only

want the Steam Deck for purely gaming,

you're never going to use it as a computer

or even touch things like a web browser or

file management system, you don't have to.

The SteamOS is really a great advantage of

the Steam Deck, and it really creates a

very streamlined user experience if all

you want it for is for playing handheld

games. With SteamOS, you don't have to

worry about drivers. Now, this was

something I actually had a problem with on

the ROG Ally. A lot of my games didn't

work. For example, Starfield wouldn't

work, some other game wouldn't work. I

couldn't even play video files because it

kept saying format not supported even

though it was just MP4. I had to go and

download individually and manually

download all these different drivers just

so I could get this thing to run properly,

and it was kind of annoying and fiddly.

And depending on what kind of device you

have, it might be more fiddly. You might

have to go to different websites, click on

links, download files, upgrade it, and

load it and install all the files and

drivers. And you don't really have this

problem with the Steam Deck. It just kind

of all runs out of the box, and SteamOS

manages any kind of drive updates you need

automatically. And you don't have to go

into the browser and download files and

like do all that fiddly stuff. It just

does it all for you. So you don't really

have to worry about driver updates with

SteamOS, and that's another great thing

about Linux. I think Windows has

introduced a brand new Xbox Gaming Pass

handheld gaming mode. So I think when we

get some software tweaks from Microsoft to

eventually realize that these handheld

devices are here to stay and they're

extremely popular and they're in high

demand. I think when they start realizing

that more and start creating a more

user-friendly experience like the SteamOS

has, then maybe these Windows handheld

devices will be able to match the Steam

Deck in terms of usability as software.

But for now, it seems like Linux does have

a lot of advantages over being used for

handheld gaming over Windows 11. So for

those reasons, I actually still prefer

Windows 11 just because, because I can do

more stuff on it, I guess.