Back in 2015 or so Lenovo was pre-installing superfish spyware on some systems. Whether this was an accident or intentional is up for interpretation. Whether 8 years is enough to earn back trust is up to you. Personally I re-image anything that’s mine because I don’t need the vendor’s bloat that just does the same things windows already does. I don’t really use windows much anyway these days for my personal machines but I’m probably not going to buy anything from Lenovo any time soon.
Yeah, i remember it being pretty bad and fighting with my boss at the time because they were all in with lenovo. Even after I showed them the articles about the malware they wanted us to push out lenovo’s bloat on all machines (like the stupid battery monitor) because they liked how it looked better. I got a new job shortly after.
Power management on laptop-like devices is a problem for Linux because of lazy manufacturers. ACPI often reports broken values and h/w vendors patch it up using Windows driver overrides, rather than a real fix. Suspend/resume is a delicately choreographed set of steps given to the OS by ACPI so if that’s wrong, you’ll get awful battery life or worse, crashes. Linux devs will emulate the Windows driver patches but that comes later, if at all.
I mean, hopefully it would work but Lenovo would need to not take the easy way out. They’ve been slipping, even with their Thinkpads lately.
Yes, but things like that take time. So yeah: Six months after the device is released there will probably be fantastic Linux support. Until then it’ll be hit or miss from an “annoying fucking bugs” and “where’d my battery life go?” perspective.
This is why it’s always better when a device manufacturer supports Linux right out of the gate. Not only does that give the device vastly more capabilities it also helps Windows by ensuring that the hardware doesn’t require all sorts of wacky ACPI workarounds and custom software be developed in order to do things like check the temperature or battery capacity (things that Lenovo has made absurdly proprietary in the past).
I think most people now when looking at portable gaming devices like these want a seamless experience (like with the Steamdeck)
Windows has proven to be problematic with these devices, where when you use the Steamdeck it’s pretty much pick up and play. The ROG ally uses Windows + it’s own armory crate software and from what I’ve heard it’s been pretty hit or miss
Steam Deck got so much right, straight out of the gate. The suspend-resume is nothing short of amazing. The UI is 100% muscle, 0% fat.
IMO, starting with Windows as a base is an automatic setback. There’s a strong chance that it’ll interrupt your game to ask you if you want to set Edge to be your default browser or some stupid shit.
IMO, starting with Windows as a base is an automatic setback. There’s a strong chance that it’ll interrupt your game to ask you if you want to set Edge to be your default browser or some stupid shit.
Ugh I can imagine that thing rebooting for an update the second you pause a game to go do something
You’ve never had Windows insist on installing updates at an inconvenient time? Come on! You’re obviously not using Windows that much.
Also, it’s not just Windows that does this. Every HP thing (the PC, their printers, accessories, etc) seems to require a bazillion background services and one gigantic background app that just loves to pop up and interrupt everything you’re doing at the worst times. Multiply that by any number of other devices with proprietary management daemons running in the background, managing their own updates (because even to this day Windows doesn’t have a universal package manager that keeps all software up to date).
This is how it’s going to go:
You bring your shiny new Lenovo portable game console with you to the airport so you can game while waiting to board and during the flight.
You wake it from sleep (because nobody is actually going to fully power the thing down and wait for the lengthy Windows boot/login process every time they want to use it).
Since it’s been asleep for a while it’ll immediately check for updates. If there’s no Internet you’re golden! The moment you connect it though…
Updates will be downloaded in the background while you’re gaming. Not a big deal on it’s own but as soon as they’re done they will be auto-installed and Windows will ask you to reboot… Because it can’t actually apply updates without rebooting 95% of the time (depends on what was updated).
You’ll notice that your device isn’t running quite as well as it used to or something isn’t working quite right (e.g. wifi keeps disconnecting because one of the updates applied new firmware but the driver update won’t apply until you reboot) and everyone knows that a quick fix for that is to reboot.
You sit there in the airport waiting for a ton of windows updates to apply on boot. Then when it’s done it might ask you to reboot again because while those updates were applying it applied more (because many updates have to be applied in a certain order).
There goes 10-20% of your battery life and probably 15 minutes of your life you’ll never get back.
Wow, you ok there? Like I said, no, that's never happened to me. I've had the PC self-update during off-peak hours i.e. when I was sleeping, but otherwise it's usually an update initiated by me.
The fact you took this time to initiate this flight of fantasy on something that's never happened to me on any Windows portable means your hate of an OS has taken on some unhealthy levels. Take a chill pill.
Windows continuously harasses me to upgrade to windows 11 with full screen nags (having to find the little “go away” button, why there’s not a single “no fuck off forever” button isn’t shown is beyond me)
I can definitely understand the frustration at windows given how it chooses to act sometimes
I don’t really like the design of those joy-cons clones. From the images it feels they could snap out from the screen if you put too much pressure. Maybe I am wrong though, I should test it.
When I first got used to the steam controller, it was the best I’d ever used. Valve managed to improve upon it with the Index and Deck. I hate gaming at a friend’s house and having to go back to what amounts to a standard controller these days.
Yeah, people focus too much on the power of these things and not the functionality. Steam OS is a killer app compared to trying to squeeze windows onto a handheld. The options it gives you for system level control of performance or control set ups is priceless when dealing with PC titles. The fact that I can load up a 90s DOS shooter designed to be played with a keyboard alone and have it working with a pad within minutes is great.
I’m excited for this new PC/Console hybrid market to start becoming something big. Hardware competition will drive progress up and prices down while openiNg access to games to many. I do really hone the market lands on Linux as their main OS instead of Windows11.
Valve has the resources to hack Proton to make things work, others just want an OS they know will already run Windows games without much fuss. Valve specifically wants to move away from Windows because of fears of anticompetitive behavior from Microsoft. They're not just doing it from the goodness of their hearts. Microsoft would like nothing more than the Steam store crushed and all its games moved to their own walled garden.
A big reason to move away from Microsoft is also lack of licensing fees, which the other companies can definitely get behind. They’d have to make their own store and front end most likely, but proton is basically all done for them and is already in a shippable state that “just works” for users.
It looks sick. I actually have no problem that it’s thicker if that means that the battery life is longer (although weight is a concern over thickness, of course). Lenovo hardware is hit and miss though (and I say this having used a Legion laptop for the past few years).
Also, Steam Deck will still remain king until the other companies can make a good track record of consistent software improvements which are needed on a device like this. I see all of these other clones - the Ally, the 50000 Aya devices - and I still am not tempted until I know that they will be supported long term. I really think that this support sets the tone for these devices - is this market going to be a ‘it’s a year old and already outdated so I’ll just buy a new one’ kind of thing? Or will it be ‘this is good for a quite a few years and I’m happy with my purchase and not immediately getting fomo’? I really hope it’s the latter.
Another thing is that, and maybe I’m misremembering, but didn’t Nintendo patent some part of the detachable controller design that scared companies from doing anything similar for a long time? I could have sworn that was happening for quite a while…
Support, community and quick resume will keep me from straying from my Steam deck for a while. I don’t see any competitors beating Steam deck in anything but hardware for a while.
I am someone who mods every console that I have. I even mod lemmy.world/c/linuxcracksupport here. But fiddling with the Deck can be very tedious and tiring. It’s like modding a game - you’ll spend hours getting it right, only for your will to play the game be gone.
I’ve even taken to not doing beta updates anymore on the Deck because the uncertainy that they cause just gets into my playtime. It somewhat ruins the concept of the Deck, which is ‘pick up for a few minutes and play’ in my mind.
Could some sort of dual boot be an option? Have a clean version of the OS that boots by default for the quick gaming sessions, then a modded version for when you feel like playing with the console itself. When your tweaks are solid, copy them to the gaming version.
I don’t know enough about the Steam Deck or modding to know if it’s plausible though.
I think the even bigger advantage Valve has is the business model.
I don’t know how much the Deck costs Valve to manufacture. And yes, it’s pretty easy to run non-Steam games. But the bottom line is that the Deck does not have to be a profit center for Valve, it just has to drive more sales on Steam without losing too much money. Logitech, Lenovo, Asus, etc have to make money off of the hardware.
Unless drivers are available not really. This is all specialized APU stuff. Valve chose AMD on purpose and had a deal with them to improve drivers AMD was already open sourcing and developing for Linux community. If they chose some Windows only hardware you won’t have much luck with Steam Deck. It might work but then performance will suffer.
The product designer for this needs to be fired. Anyone who’s held a controller for an extended period of time knows these hard corners will kill your hands.
Phones are a slightly different story. Edges do help grip, and ensure product stability (which is essential on a phone). Additionally their smaller form factor means ergonomics don’t come into play as much as a game controller.
My wallet would support Steam if it had any sort of bills in it. Lenovo is a lousy company in the gadgets market. I own a marvelous Yoga Tab 3 Pro with an Intel Atom CPU and a built-in projector. An expensive device that received the one clunky Android upgrade and no source code. I modded the firmware enough to make it still usable, but God, do I hate their “support” service. Good riddance!
Once again the consumer electronics industry proving that it has essentially zero imagination.
Those who want a Steam Deck can probably just buy a Steam Deck. Or a Switch. 13.2% faster processor, 8.3% more colors, 9% faster refresh… all those endless specs don’t speak to me, which is all any company can do if they are just copying some existing design.
How about different form factors? I think the idea of a Steam Deck is great, but I hate how bulky it is. I am willing to sacrifice CPU power and even screen size for something a little more pocketable. Something in a portrait orientation rather landscape, maybe.
Will say it’s an interesting idea to put a scroll wheel on the back of the right grip. On the deck and steam controller I’d sometimes use track pads to just be scroll wheels, but sometimes I wish there was just a physical tactile scroll wheel instead.
Do you remember Lenovo getting into the smartphone business ? I bet they are going for a redo this time again. they are known for having commitment issues
That’s not what happened… Lenovo didn’t have a smartphone business until Google sold the remains of Motorola to them, so Lenovo and Zuk branded phones actually came AFTER Motorola by Lenovo.
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