Valve has been Linux friendly. It says the new steam frame “is a PC” and will run Steam OS but I feel like there’s an insinuation that, like the steam deck, you can install whatever you like. I am cautiously excited at the premise of really digging in and having a Linux box strapped to my face.
Another friend has already referred to it as the Linux Vision Pro.
Edit: watching Linus tech tips review, it mentions side loading Android APKs as well
insinuation
The website says 🎉:
Steam Machine is optimized for gaming, but it’s still your PC. Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?
OS: SteamOS 3 (Arch-based)
Desktop: KDE Plasma
That is on the steam machine page, not the steam frame.
The frame page says
Quick suspend/resume. Cloud saves. All the features of SteamOS that make for a great user experience are now available in VR. Just like any SteamOS device, install your own apps, open a browser, do what you want: It’s your PC.
Still, very similar… But not quite explicitly stating the OS is replaceable.
I bet it will be. But I’m not sure if there will really be any OSes developed for it.
Some of the early review videos have at least implied that the same applies to the frame, but the frame itself seems to also be ARM based which may limit you a bit.
I’ve had an HTC vive for like the last 7 years. I always loved it and still use it when I can. But its limitations are very obvious and the age is starting to show. I’ve been wanting to upgrade with an index but never found the right moment and my play time has decreased considerably.
Now this one… It looks amazing! So many improvements! And at the same time a bit scary, can the streaming work well enough? I haven’t had great experience with it but have never really needed it either. That dongle looks like a must. Will the tracking be good enough without the external lighthouses? That would be a great improvement in play area for me if so. The battery seems like a risk factor too but I’m far less worried about that.
And finally the one thing that has me raising my eyebrows in confusion, what is it with the controllers? They seem okayish enough for normal gaming in the headset and OK enough for tracking them… But it seems like a regression from the index controllers with finger tracking and no need to constantly hold it grabbing onto it thanks to the straps. I wonder if the index ones would still be the best for proper VR gaming. And with the steam controller also being tracked, I’d rather use that for any other gaming.
Overall I’m excited and I might jump at the opportunity of finally upgrading the vive but quite a few questions remain to be solved. Too important questions for buying it right away when released.
They will sell optional controller straps, and the controllers have 5 finger capacitive tracking.
Take another look at the controller info. They have finger tracking and it looks like you can add accessories that will let you open your hand without dropping them.
I think you probably need to understand the underpinnings of what Valve accomplished over the past few years to understand why the Frame is useful.
Essentially, it’s a Deck strapped to your face. Same OS, same everything, just different hardware platform.
Valve spent the time to revamp SteamOS in order to make it more portable to various devices, which are now launching. Couple that with their efforts on Proton, and you have an entire ecosystem with very little in the way of preventing people from adopting these devices with their ease of use.
Steam Deck was just sort of the appetizer and test launch to gauge interest and build a fully functional hardware development and support vertical in the company, and it was wildly successful. I guarantee (if they can get the price right) that the Frame will sell WAY more units than the awful Vision Pro. I honestly think people might adopt this over buying another version of the Deck if it’s comfortable.
Some things I expect to happen with the Frame launch:
- A more expanded integration of Desktop features. If Valve doesn’t do it, the community will.
- Virtual screen management
- Theater mode for viewing media
- Virtualized VR input (like steam-input but VR)
- Pairing capabilities for multiplayer
- Half-Life 3 release (not joking)
Just realized… We can probably plug the frame into a dock.
ssh face
I am salivating over the Frame. I was blown away by consumer VR when it came to market 10 years ago. I had access to an Oculus Quest (pre-Meta) and an HTC Vive at my job. They were both impressive from a technological standpoint and super fun to use.
A mere two years later, the Oculus Quest 1 arrived and I bought one immediately. Basically the full VR experience but entirely wireless. Again, I was blown away from a sheer technical standpoint. But I loathed the headset being tied to Facebook/Meta and their walled garden. It soured the entire experience for me, and it quickly began collecting dust. Even though I could stream PC games to the Quest with FOSS third party apps like ALVR, there was still the privacy aspect of “six cameras controlled by Mark Zuckerberg are looking wherever I’m looking in my house”. No thanks.
The Steam Frame looks like it could reignite my interest in the VR space. I’m honestly surprised Valve has continued to invest R&D into VR well after the hype died. I’m glad they did, because the Frame looks pretty sweet so far.
I’m very curious what the details are. A Linux Vision Pro sounds very enticing. It could be a lot of fun for inventing new user interaction modalities.
It’s not a Linux Vision Pro. Vision Pro is aimed at productivity and “Spatial Computing” or whatever.
This is a gaming device first and foremost, and you can see that from the black and white passthrough on the Valve machine.
But you’re right that it can definitely be the foundation for AR/VR forward Linux environments. It would be really cool to see a 100% spatial compositor that challenges the conventional flat computing paradigm.
But playing with full color passthrough and hand tracking on Quest 3 does make me a little disappointed in this. I was able to sideload standard Android APKs and interact and move them around with my hands which was mega cool. I could do the dishes with YouTube just floating in front of the sink. I didn’t actually do it more than once but it got me excited about the future of spatial computing.
I know Valve is all about this. They insisted on having a USB port on the Index HMD just so people could attach dodads to it.
A Linux Vision Pro sounds very enticing
The resolution (and price) is substantially lower than an Apple Vision Pro.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Frame
Dual 2160 × 2160 LCD (per eye), 72–144 Hz (144 Hz experimental)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Vision_Pro
Introductory price: US$3,499
Internal: ~3660×3200 per eye[3] dual OLED up to 100 Hz (M2) or 120 Hz (M5) refresh rate,
It’s a good start and has everything necessary for it, I guarantee a nice xr wayland compositor will exist for this in no time, and when they make the frame 2 it will likely be ready for xr as a usecase, all they really need is color passthrough and microoled, maybe higher fov and it’ll be there.
To further give hope: The Quest 3 is basically a PC strapped to your face. The only thing really limiting you from installing and running whatever you want is the software/OS. It looks like the Frame will be running the same OS as the Deck, so I am super excited as a Quest 3 owner because the Meta Horizon OS sucks and they keep making it even shittier (I can’t do anything I was doing with my headset when I got it now other than running normal shit; no custom software can be sideloaded anymore so all my FOSS programs are vaporized 😮💨).
Wait but I have been side loading on my Quest 3? They disabled the ability to sideload Android APKs? Still works for me.
It hasn’t been able to install from other sources since around 1.76. They removed the default Android package installer.
Let’s hope it doesn’t have a price tag to match the “Vision Pro” monicker.
They’ve said that it’s not going to cost more than Valve Index.
This is more of a Meta Quest competitor, so I think it’s fair to assume the price to be around 500-1000.
its more akin to the (retired) meta quest pro than the apple vision pro. but 2026. for one obvious example, the passthrough cameras are only grayscale.
Though, they say it’s ARM. So a lot smaller distro support, no(?) windows support, and only little or emulated game support. Though, I’d guess Valve is smart enough and has built an X86_64 -> Arm Emulator into Proton
Honestly, even if it takes a really long time for a different distro to support the hardware (ARM is a fucking nightmare) just having a Linux environment will give you so much more freedom than Android/HorizonOS on a Quest.
Almost every FOSS app has an ARM version, you could comfortably survive on Flatpaks and even Distrobox for apps not packaged in Flatpak until a different distro comes along.Just about every big distribution has an ARM build. And most open source Linux apps build for ARM as well. In that regard Linux is much better set up than Windows.
The emulator FEX isn’t part of Proton but of course it is integrated with Steam similar to Proton.
So a lot smaller distro support,
If Apple hardware can get Asahi Linux, I bet more open devices can get even better distro support.
no(?) windows support
you’re posting in a Linux community.
and only little or emulated game support. Though, I’d guess Valve is smart enough and has built an X86_64 -> Arm Emulator into Proton
They emulate x86 thanks to a project named FEX
If Apple hardware can get Asahi Linux, I bet more open devices can get even better distro support.
It has a snapdragon SoC. Arm Windows laptops with Snapdragon SoCs have significantly worse Linux support than Macbooks with Asahi Linux (ignoring the newer M3 and M4 chips that aren’t supported by Asahi yet)
Honestly Valve doing an ARM PC is the first time I’ve been excited about the prospect of moving off x64 (previously it has only been dread and angst for me). If it is open and sets a good standard, I’ll start considering it. With how good Proton has been if FEX is close to that, it’ll be a very smooth transition.
