this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2025
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I don't think hardware vendors will use chips or parts that lack decent working linux drivers, which would make the "too many hardware variants" point moot.
Then again, higher ups are known for taking stupid decisions.
I'm not even talking linux incompatibility... but lets just say they use a super underpowered graphics card. or very little ram, or hard drives too small to install most games on etc...
Fact is manufacturers have made comperably stupid decisions. I've seen a lot of laptops for sale with windows 10, and 32 GB hard drives that can't even be updated simply because even with nothing on them windows can't fit both itself and an update. Generally speaking... when allowed to, manufacturers can release some pretty damn stupid builds that often aren't designed to run what they are marketed to run.
That's why PC games have always had minimum hardware specs listed. Potential buyers will have to keep that in mind if the device they're getting happens to be too weak to run something like CP2077 or Horizon Zero Dawn.
While I find it unlikely to happen, I can totally see an OEM doing that, the "absolute bare minimum SteamOS" (AMD A6-7000, 2GB RAM, 16GB HD), but the bang for the buck might make it a total sales failure, because unlike a general use computer (such as those walmart cheapo win10 with no usable disk space), buyers of any steamdeck-like devices have a very focused use case of games, so the minimum acceptable specs will probably always be halfway decent
Right though that's my point.
Minimum specs etc... is something PC gamers are more than used to... but also why there's a large console market that doesn't game on PCs.
My fear is bad acting OEMs... playing on user ignorance to assume automatically that the steamOS logo means it can run most games, and shipping out hardware that utterly fails at that use purpose, and as uneducated consumers may think the "runs steamOS", logo could be some form of endorsement from valve to imply it in fact is suitable for gaming.