u/Grimpen

Second installing Heroic or Junk Store. Get those Epic freebies, but games in GoG sales as well.

As you are new with the Deck though, using Heroic does involve using desktop mode. If you have Minecraft, you can set up Prism Launcher as well. There's also EmuDeck for emulating older systems.

This is a bit more involved than just buying Deck verified games on the Steam store though. Get comfortable with it first. Watch some YouTube tutorials.

Those PlayStation supercomputers were wild. I don't think it's analogous to the various bits of Steam hardware coming out though, since Valve sells directly through Steam. You can't order anything by the pallet.

The other thing to consider is that the PS3 was used for clustered computing primarily because of the Cell processor. I have no recollection of why the cell processor performed better on certain types of problems. PS3 wasn't being used for Excel spreadsheets, it was used for niche academic use and that one Air Force supercomputer. The Steam hardware though uses pretty standard hardware, AMD processor and Radeon graphics card.

Considering the added friction of buying through Steam, i doubt it will have same draw.

My Steam Deck is a second wave pre-order 256GB modern, and that is exactly my feeling. Between the internal 256GB and the excellent Steam Deck micro SD utilization, it was good enough that I never opened it up just to change the SSD. When I started to get some stick drift, I finally upgraded the SSD at the same time.

The 256GB is "good enough", but 512GB is "enough" and 64GB is tight.

I think somewhere close to $500 is around the zone they should target the base model. It's in the console price zone. At that price, the specs are pretty decent.

Pretty much the default for Steam Deck keyboard+mouse.

Works surprisingly well, just bind some keyboard shortcuts to the various other buttons and such.

Downside is that my right track pad is polished a little smooth in the middle. I blame the Master of Magic remake.

HODL! (For Steam sale or Humble Bundle)

My Steam Deck has largely replaced my laptop, so there is some overlap, but I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. If you are carrying a keyboard & external screen to work on spreadsheets with you Steam Deck, you would be happier with a laptop.

I have a 60% Bluetooth keyboard and a relatively compact mouse that I *can* carry with me, but by that point a compact laptop would be more portable with a larger screen.

Using the on screen keyboard and built-in screen to edit spreadsheets would constitute a crime against humanity. Don't do it, there's so much more to live for.

The reason it's replaced my laptop is that I mostly use my laptop for gaming, and the Steam Deck excels at that. Most places I would use a laptop for something else, I have ready access to surplus keyboards and mice. At my parents there is an old TV with HDMI, and I stashed a basic USB mouse and keyboard there over a decade ago. My Steam Deck and a small hub is all I need.

Because of the need of external devices, I kind of consider the Steam Deck a combination of a handheld and a really portable desktop tower.

Over two years with mine, battery aging isn't noticeable. I'm pretty sure when plugged in and fully charged, the Deck runs off of external power. I don't know if it shunts around the battery or not, but it certainly isn't cycling the battery.

I mostly use my deck in a few fixed locations, so it's mostly plugged in.

I've got some "fancy" $20 headphones right now. I used to use $10 headphones from Miniso, but they only last a year before one ear bud will go dead.

I've had expensive headphones, and have a nice pair of Sennheisers, but really it's cheap in ear headphones most of the time for me.

They are small, and I keep them rolled up in a little pouch with a USB drive that's pretty much always in my pocket. They never need to be charged. The audio quality is good enough that unless I start listening to FLACC files on my SD, I'm never going to notice. Their wired, so no lag or syncing issues ever. If something happens to them, I have another $10 pair tucked in a drawer, plus I can always buy more.

The Steam Deck is portable, can't beat wired earbuds for portability and reliability.

Also, the mic is fine. The mic is on a wire, close to my mouth. It's simple, but it makes the audio about as good as my Sennheisers. Or at least I've never noticed.

Yes, but Valve just evoked a cyberdeck, OP took it the rest of the way.

I've got a 60% mechanical keyboard I use with my SD a lot, some street if combined carry case would be cool.

I've been complaining about printer support. It's pretty much the last piece of the puzzle for a school focused SD.

Thanks to KDE on the SD, I've switched my main DE on my desktop. Still have a soft spot for XFCE, but KDE Plasma on the SD was polished and was very "coherent".

One thing the SD is missing for being a complete "serious" computer is printing support. I'm sure I could it installed, the SD is eminently hackable, but a Flatpak solution or a Steam default solution would really justify using a SD in Desktop mode for school and work.

I think the Windows thing is spot on. You're going to be using a handheld gaming device for gaming mostly (if not entirely). You don't need to run Excel.

I think the justification for Windows on a gaming device though is kernel level anti-cheat. The problem is that you are chasing a pretty select audience. People who *will* play one of those games on a handheld, and will also *only* buy a handheld that can pay those games. Also won't install Windows on a Deck either.

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An aside, I probably use Desktop mode more than average, and I have LibreOffice installed on my deck. Jokes on Microsoft though, I've been using Linux primarily for ages anyways, so I don't even need Windows for that.