The only mistake Billy made is giving anything to AdBlock Plus, the people who have sided WITH the ads, instead of uBlock Origin, the true MVPs of the ad blocking world. I guess uBlock doesn’t accept donations unfortunately, but still, ABP is shady and I would not support them.

I just donate by whatever means the project offers. Sometimes it’s paypal, sometimes patreon, sometimes GitHub sponsorship, sometimes something else like OpenCollective. Read the readme or homepage of the project to see what options they take.

Both Huaying and Delta fans are OEM, your Deck could have either fan. Valve has multiple suppliers for some parts.

No, that goes against the spirit of open source and will further hurt Linux gaming outside of the Deck. The Deck has been a huge boon to the Linux gaming community at large because it sticks to a basic Arch Linux core for the most part. Don’t segregate the Linux gaming community, instead force the shitty spyware companies to not embed their shitware deep into the kernel.

I don’t want to move my project to a group, which is the only way to use those minutes. It used to be that any public project with a FOSS license got access to the FOSS minutes but now only the ones they approve do, and as I said, there are restrictions like having to have the project under a group. At least gitlab-runner is self hostable, but it’s a depressing mess compared to what it used to be.

GitLab has gone downhill over the past several years to the point I cannot recommend it anymore. Requiring a credit card is a kick to the face of younger devs wanting to get their feet wet in open source. The CI minutes that free accounts and FOSS projects get is insultingly pathetic. Their open source program that you have to apply for is intentionally annoying, requiring you to manually get re-approved yearly and the benefits only work for FOSS projects under a group, not a personal account. It’s tolerable if you self-host your own runners and forget their shit excuse for a managed CI exists, but I’m also running into this super annoying issue where I get signed out of Gitlab almost daily and have to re-login and enter a verification code from my email. I have my project mirrored to Codeberg and if Codeberg had better CI I’d move completely, even if it were self hosted. Gitlab has gone way downhill since I moved to them after MS bought Github.

I just use the default case for the most part. I have a third party case from Amazon with a larger internal storage compartment I use when traveling as I can fit a battery bank, bluetooth earbuds, and extra cables in it.

I have both, mainly got the Ally as an experiment. The Deck is absolutely the way to go. Windows is a dreadful experience in general, but especially so on a handheld. No touchpads means awful mouse control, but Windows means an OS designed around mouse control. Asus’ software feels like a big hack (because it is) haphazardly glued on top of a stock Windows desktop. Steam Big Picture works OK but the Steam menus are limited in functionality compared to using them on SteamOS and the Deck. Meanwhile, the Deck is an incredibly polished product and the SteamOS interface is controller-first. You can still go to the desktop and use it as a PC, but you won’t wind up there accidentally like you will on the Ally. The SteamOS gaming mode is built around operating with a controller and everything works well.

As for running Linux on the Ally? It is doable, but the experience is nowhere as good as the Deck. No seamless sleep and resume< issues with button mapping, limited tweaking of power limits, and more. Just get a Deck OLED and be happy.

Any dock that lists Steam Deck support and has the ports you want should be fine honestly. USB C docks are very standardized, so as long as it supports 45W charging or more it’ll almost certainly be fine. I have a bunch of different docks and they all work fine with the Deck. The OLED model doesn’t change this either, any dock that works with the original should work with the OLED.

Steam Deck is an open platform because you can run any OS, launcher, etc. on it. It’s just a handheld PC. Steam itself is a closed ecosystem but the Deck is very open.

That’s why I mentioned the “without an OS installed already” though a corrupt OS is another possibility that would need some other system available (whether phone, tablet, another Deck, or PC).

And you can create the bootable USB with the Deck before you swap the SSD. You should never need a second PC to set up the Deck unless you bought your Deck without an OS installed already.

How much is the money worth to you? If you absolutely love the Steam Deck and have the disposable income, I’d say go for it. I bought the OLED Limited Edition though I already had two LCD Decks (512GB and 64GB upgraded to 512GB) because I broke my first one but later fixed it. I love what Valve is doing with the Deck and with Linux and I had the disposable income to buy it. I’m happy. However, I would say it isn’t the wisest financial decision I could’ve made and if money is tight the LCD Deck is still a perfectly fine option. The performance is basically the same.

True, half of 90 is 45 while half of 60 is 30. The LCD Deck benefits from the 70Hz display overclock tweak noticeably so going up to 90 is huge. I hope the OLED can at least operate at any fixed refresh between 30 and 90.

Definitely sounds like a must upgrade. I don’t have a Switch OLED as I barely use my launch model Switch.

But then again I just started dating someone who plays a ton of Switch games…sounds like I might have two upgrades on my hands

Where did it say 90Hz? That sounds like a HUGE upgrade. The OLED image quality will be nice but higher refresh rate is something I’ve really wanted, though unfortunately I haven’t seen anything regarding VRR.

I need that limited edition, it looks EPIC! I already have two Decks but man I need that one. The only complaint I have is they didn’t upgrade to a VRR screen, but OLED will be a nice upgrade in the image quality.

Haven’t used my Deck in a while, but yesterday I played Overwatch on it. New gf plays on console, so she was on Switch and I was on Deck. I’m not good at controller Overwatch but after a few games I felt like I wasn’t a complete drag on our team at least.

PinePhone Pro with keyboard case?

The original Xbox controllers work fine on the Deck as is, just need a USB adapter. The ports are already USB but with a proprietary connector, so adapter cables should be cheap. Only issue is that there is no home/guide button to bring up the Steam overlay.