Ayaneo next handheld is going to use SteamOS
Ayaneo has unveiled the Next Lite, a budget-oriented handheld that comes pre-installed with SteamOS, in a first for the company.
Good to see someone using Linux for their platform on these handhelds. The big reason I don't want to try the Ally or whatever the others are doing is I can't imagine Windows is making the experience better.
I don't really have evidence to support that, but more Linux investment is better overall.
As a long time hand held user, Windows is dog shit (I mean, in general, too)
I stopped buying handhelds because of how many problems they had, until I got a steam deck. Now I'm back to being super interested in the market.
GPD Win's were cool for what they were, but so many trivial issues related to windows.
The Ally has been great in my experience. Windows plus Asus's overlay make everything pretty smooth to navigate.
Then if I feel like having the SteamDeck experience I can just launch Steam in big picture mode.
Then if I want the Xbox experience I can launch that app.
..and can play Switch games, and PS3/4 games...
There's really zero downside too it. People spout hate because it's trendy to dunk on Windows, but I just don't see any issues.
Inb4 "but Windows is spying on you and full of bloat".... No it's not because I took 10 min to get rid of all that shit just like I would on any gaming PC.
Not saying windows is inherently bad, but I personally would rather have a device running SteamOS on first boot up because more people using SteamOS incentivizes Valve to keep working on Proton. If anyone out there feels like windows is better for them, that's fine since that's their choice.
https://ayaneo.com/article/806
Here is from their website which also says "AYANEO NEXT LITE comes pre-installed with the SteamOS gaming system for the first time".
Any word on what the hardware specs are? Someone there used their brain and loaded up SteamOS, but the hardware needs to be worth the jump or it’s just a steam deck clone.
They specifically said "it's not a powerhouse". It's supposed to be a lower power device with a big battery, capable of playing less demanding games for a long time. SteamOS also makes a lot of sense for this goal, since windows handhelds get pretty terrible battery life in low power games. The price is supposed to be low as well, although it's not clear yet if that's just low by Ayaneo's standards or if it will actually be cheaper than the deck.
Sweet. It will be a great opportunity to see what SteamOS can do on non-valve hardware.
Was about time! 😆
Interesting choice to include Aperture Desk Job onscreen in this shot
Why do you say that? It works on PCs. All you need is a controller. The game adapts to the controls you have and the ones you lack.
For example, on my Steam Controller, when it asks you to press the four buttons on the back, pressing the two paddles on the SC emulates the Deck's two on one side and two on the other.
Except it's not. It's been clarified that it's using HoloISO.
Close enough.
Finally a Deck rival I might actually be interested in.
heck yeah
What happens to AyaneoOS then?
From what I heard, they decided to use SteamOS instead. They wanted to avoid "fragmentation", although I'm not sure that would really be a concern for Linux.
I imagine steamOS is going to be a more polished experience than AyaneoOS would have been, and hopefully have better support/updates.
what likely happened is they l9oked at the work they would need to do, then looked at the outcome they would get, compared that against SteamOS and concluded that slightly rebranding it would be the better option (think custom boot splash, maybe more launchers pre-installed)
Great news and I'm sure that more will follow.
Knowing ayaneo they will release it and it'll be obsolete in 10 minutes
Fantastic. One of the weirdest things I've heard from people casually interested in Steam Deck is: can I put Windows on it? Things like this at least suggest to those people that, in fact, not everyone using the Deck is wrong when they say the SteamOS/Linux experience is great, after years of work.
Of course the competition is good too!
Every handheld outside of the Steam Deck, like the ROG Ally, Legion Go, and MSI Claw all use Windows, which can make the experience crippling for non-technically minded users.
Clearly this games journalist has never used Linux because despite the monumental efforts Valve have made to make thousands of games run on SteamOS and improve the UX through Proton, it is still an inferior experience to Windows for anybody that isn't incredibly tech savvy and the kind of person that lives and breathes command lines.
But then again, what did I expect from an industry where people are genuinely paid to talk out of their butts about games.
Speaking as a Steam Deck owner, SteamOS works a lot of the time and that's perfectly acceptable. But there has been the occasional 'Steam Deck Verified' game like Cthulhu Saves The World which soft locks on a black screen after battles.
Also, Linux is ideal for the kind of people that buy budget handheld devices like these. They are phenomenal emulation devices.
it is still an inferior experience to Windows for anybody that isn’t incredibly tech savvy and the kind of person that lives and breathes command lines.
Since when do you have to live and breathe command lines to use SteamOS?
But then again, what did I expect from an industry where people are genuinely paid to talk out of their butts about games.
Yeah, there's only one person talking out of their butt here.
But there has been the occasional ‘Steam Deck Verified’ game like Cthulhu Saves The World which soft locks on a black screen after battles.
Oh well, I guess if you have a problem with one verified game then we should all write off the entire platform then.
I agree, for the lay person the steamos experience in the deck is great and has no issues it installs things it plays things, most people won't need to open the desktop experience at all
My Windows friends and even normie friends are using Steam Deck with SteamOS just fine. You don't have to be a Linux expert to use SteamOS.
I agree that these are phenomenal emulation devices, you are right about that.
