• The Picard Maneuver@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    Wow, when they were practically giving those away, I figured they were washing their hands of it. It’s amazing that it’s still being supported.

    • Infynis@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Mine was $1! I love it. I just bought a wireless mouse and keyboard for it, because it’s honestly just a great way to stream stuff. Now my computer can be in my living room, and my office at the same time!

      • tyrant@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’ve got one I never hooked up. Can you just control the computer in general or do you only get access to steam? I wanted to jellyfin with it maybe

        • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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          1 year ago

          You can do both. The default is Big Picture mode, but you can back out if it and get a desktop.

          But, you’ll basically have to be a foot or two from the PC to read anything unless you have a desktop environment set up for a large screen (KDE plasma has a TV version)

        • dom@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          You can control the computer but it boots in big picture so you need to escape it to get to the desktop

        • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Can control it in general, but the first few times you’ll have to run over and look at the monitor to do stuff.
          It generally assumes it’s being used “close” to the computer, so instead of complex pairing, it just shows a code on one you type into the other.
          Sometimes windows will get antsy and pop up a dialogue that can only be interacted with locally, but it’s only one or twice ever.

      • Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        I remember that sale and annoyed I didn’t buy one. At the time I thought I’d never use it. Fast forward a few years and I occasionally use Steam Link on a Raspberry Pi, so I would have used it. Oh well.

    • nihth@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Think about it though. Probably some overlap with the deck. And hiring one dev very part time to keep this thing alive is nothing for them. Which makes the steam deck way more lucrative

          • PotatoKat@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Flat structure. If you want to work on something, work on it; if it’s not interesting to you, find something else. If you have an idea find people that also seem passionate for it and start making it, if you can’t find people then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

            It’s why valve rarely makes anything, but when they do it’s super high quality

            • Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Means that there is this one dev who still likes to use his steam link and so he keeps maintaining the project

  • speaker_hat@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    I just read in Wikipedia that Valve is privately helded.

    There must be something magical in the fact that they don’t need to feed their shareholders with mountains of cash every quarter, and actually focus on their customers, as happened in this post.

    • Budd@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Fun fact, they used to be public but Gabe took it back private after realizing how shitty it was having to answer to shareholders.

    • cmhe@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      True, private companies are generally more focused on customer satisfaction, but that can suddenly change, for instance when the owner dies, and the new owners don’t share the same ideals.

      Private companies have a certain single point of failure built-in by having often just one or sometimes a small number of owners.

      Nobody really knows what will happen when Gabe dies.

      I just hope that valve becomes a worker cooperative… That would be the most stable form of company that probaly stays focused on customer satisfaction long term, since workers tend to favor providing long-term profits via good service instead of short term gains, for high frequency traders.

      • Jessvj93@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Gabe-AI, it’s the only one I’d trust to run Valve. We need to preserve his personality starting today!

    • cordlesslamp@lemmy.today
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      1 year ago

      And the fact is they still make a mountain of cash every quarter, just by focusing on their customers.

      • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I don’t know about that. They run one of the most predatory examples of gambling in gaming.

        The new EU ruling really brought to light how big of a problem the CS:GO gambling is.

        • Reddit_Is_Trash@reddthat.com
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          1 year ago

          Is gambling really that bad though? It’s voluntary. Valve isn’t forcing you to buy keys or cases if you don’t want them

          • Liz@midwest.social
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            1 year ago

            It’s addictive. We regulate other addictive things like cigarettes, no reason we shouldn’t put guard rails on gambling. We already do, but I think we’ve got to the end regs in a few areas.

          • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            Same argument could be made for Heroin that is illegal as fuck.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        but what about the latest investment fad like AI or NFTs? Won’t they think of the poor scammers?

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        And the fact is they still make a mountain of cash every quarter, just by focusing on their customers.

        “Win-Win” for the win!

      • olympicyes@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Also to be fair they tried to kill PSN store on the PS3 but the resulting backlash made them realize to do so would kill customer faith in the PS4 and PS5 PSN stores and so they backed off. Nintendo could only get away with it because they already trained us not to trust their online stores and buy physical only. Since Steam doesn’t have a physical option they need to play their cards right.

      • dandu3@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They only do it to make sure the latest Blu Rays work AFAIK. this is also how they get the decryption keys for the latest movies lol

      • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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        1 year ago

        Ofc not, what you need to show is a public company that does not fuck over customers

  • ono@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I bought one during the clearance sale for the price of shipping, assuming that it would be abandoned but maybe still useful as a low-power linux server. I guess I ought to set it up and take advantage of it.

    Thanks, Valve, for not letting these things become instant e-waste.

    • Jawa@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I thought this too, but unfortunately in terms of modding and general use they are very limited, afaik. When I looked into it, it boiled down to: There’s an sdk to develop stuff for it and you can get root access but good luck trying to replace the os or anything like that. That being said, this is what I remember from ~2 years ago, so if it can be customised more now, please let me know. I kinda bought 2 in hopes of being able to do that :D

      • ono@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I meant that I ought to use it for its intended purpose after all.

        (But yes, I would still like the option of replacing the OS.)

        • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Honestly, I wouldn’t bother replacing the OS. It’ll more than make up for the cost in labor to just buy a raspberry pi and install the steam link software on it. The steam link hardware is not nearly beefy enough to do anything interesting with.

          I just let mine be a little magic box for couch gaming.

          • uis@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Thanks for link. Seems like regular buildroot for crosscompilation. I’m more wondering if it is using X11, wayland or KMS/DRI.

            On the first glance seems to use dri. Basically linux box.

      • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        I thought you could literally install sunlight/moonlight on it and have an even better experience. I never got around to trying after it got recommended to me

    • BigPotato@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Every time I’ve tried to use it, I’ve either had to head downstairs to the PC to fix something or had terrible lag and artifacting making it unusable for even turn based games like Xcom…

      But I still love that little box. I’ve got two of them and I have Steam Controllers to pair with them but I’ve never had luck with them. Wired, wireless, no luck.

      • Zyrxil@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Have you tried Moonlight? It’s an open source streaming alternative software that you can install on Steam Links, streams using Nvidia’s GeForce Experience as the broadcasting part and Moonlight receives it.

        https://moonlight-stream.org/

        • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Unfortunately the NVIDIA part isn’t open-source. With that said, for what they are, products like Moonlight and Parsec actually are really good.

          • ObsidianZed@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Agreed. I prefer Parsec where available but Moonlight gets better performance on my Android TV box.

        • BigPotato@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Moonlight was a better alternative a few years ago when I tried it but I just built more computers. I’ve got three towers in the same room at this point, not to mention the Switch and Steam Deck. If I’m ever far enough away from video games to make me consider streaming them, I’m usually too lazy to bother.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Every time I’ve tried to use it, I’ve either had to head downstairs to the PC to fix something or had terrible lag and artifacting making it unusable for even turn based games like Xcom…

        That’s not normal. While Steam Link is a bit older by now and as a result there are constrains like streamed resolution, your problems look more likely connected to your network than Steam Link itself. Digital Foundry talked about PlayStation Portal recently which also includes a two minutes chapter about best practices that apply to other game streaming devices as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEoo_gbOBYo

  • BmeBenji@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Maybe the Steam Link and Controller weren’t as popular as Valve hoped they would be, but damn everyone who still has them seems to love them. Maybe I’m biased because I still have my controller and love it, and I gave away my Steam link because my Deck can do that too, but my friend who received the link is loving it.

  • dinckel@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I love mine. It does one thing, and it does it well. That’s exactly what I wanted from it

    • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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      1 year ago

      Eh, I’ve had issues with mine being able to stream 1080p@60fps with my pc on wifi without it lagging like crazy, and my desktop had a strong AX connection to the AP (and speed/latency/jitter tests to and from the router were perfectly normal).

      It’s definitely starting to show its age, but it’s great if you’re streaming at 30fps.

  • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    That’s the thing about Valve. They really know and do software as good as anyone else in the business.

    • dlok@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I put mine in the original packaging and donated to one of these gifts for kids collections… in hind sight that product was so niche especially being pc gaming is probably quite rare in low income families I can’t imagine any kid being happy with it so I feel a bit guilty!

      • Wolf_359@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I teach lower income students and they love technology as much as the rest of us. They usually opt for used electronics and a lot of them are getting scammed into buying secondhand enterprise rigs that are converted into shitty gaming PCs, but don’t worry, you made some nerd’s day.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    1 year ago

    Don’t even need the hardware anymore. The Android app is really good on its own. I can even play games while not on my own home network with minimal lag so long as I am on 5G or wifi. I use it to play a few rounds of Civilization when waiting at the doctor.

    • Retrograde@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Kolanak, I’ve seen you comment on so many threads on Lemmy. I thank you for A. Being an active commenter, B: having valuable opinions and instigating discourse and C: having your name in emoji format so people clearly see you.

      Well done.

    • Landless2029@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I sideload the app onto fire sticks. Works fine for the most part. Played games like plateup and RPGs without issue

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Android app is so buggy though.

      Right now for whatever reason it refuses - on two different android TVs - to stream from either Steam Deck or desktop (for Steam Deck I get sound but black screen, for desktop it genuinely crashes). Tried with Steam Link hardware and it’s fine for some reason. But that’s just the latest issue.

  • EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    This post reminded me that it’s supposed to be used for gaming. I’ve had mine since it was first released and have always used it to turn my TV into a PC monitor to watch YouTube and Movies from my bed

      • max_adam@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I was curious about it too and there was a paper about it with the following summary:

        Valve is a “flat” company without a management hierarchy or traditional boss roles: instead of top-down organization and management, Valve employees are free to work on whatever projects they choose and to convince other employees to join collaborative groups. Decision-making is thus “democratized” rather than centralized in key management positions. This peculiar structure, or lack thereof, seems to challenge conventional ideas about organization not only in the video game business but also business in general.

        • greencactus@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Uhhh, that sounds really nice! I think that also explain why I personally dont have the feeling that it is completely derailing, like a lot other companies. In the end, while I’m not the biggest fan of Valve, I’m more than willing to recognise the impact they made, especially for Linux gaming. Without them, we would be in a completely different spot now. I’m sure that these kind of decisions, which oftentimes turn out to be industry-changing, are facilitates by this organisational structure.

          So yeah, thank you Gabe for not making the company accountable to shareholders and actually not completely driving your user base against the wall. It is highly appreciated.

          • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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            1 year ago

            It’s not all nice unfortunately, but definitely one of the better models.

            They have pretty sad problems with being a male dominated cutthroat environment. The workers can fire each other over stupid things and get status from harsh mutual overseeing and that, so it’s not very humane in there

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Thanks for sharing that, but I was already aware of their flat structure.

          What I was asking specifically was for elaboration on the comment of the analysis of the ‘symptom’ of the flat structure, and not the existence of the flat structure.

          Not that the flat structure causes the symptom, but how it causes the symptom.

    • WorseDoughnut 🍩@lemdro.id
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      1 year ago

      Maybe, but it’s far more likely it’s just dependancies and other 3rd party library packages being updated.

      The Steam Link Linux package also still gets the rare update now and then on my old Ras Pi, but mostly these days it’s just the Android app being given bug fixes (even though the last one is from October).

  • falsem@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    If you have proper full continuous deployment infrastructure setup then you can do minor updates of things like dependencies automatically. I’d guess that’s what’s happening here.

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I just wish it worked on modern linux.

    spent an entire weekend trying to get steam link to work only to find out it doesnt work on wayland.

      • BoastfulDaedra@lemmynsfw.com
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        1 year ago

        Well, there’s always the possibility of a Wayland compatibility upgrade. I know it’s a lot, but these guys are nerds hard-core about this, and thank God for that, too.

        • keefshape@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Works great on AMD as well. I moved from a 2800 Super to an AMD 7900xt, and its almost latency free even at 4k on gigabit wired. Reasonable on WiFi, even across the house.

          Wrong reply my bad

    • keefshape@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Give Sunshine (host) and Moonlight (client) a try.

      Haaaaaands down better quality and latency.

      I would love to see Valve embrace these projects and integrate them for streaming in app at least, maybe even run on Links?

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Does Sunshine/Moonlight only work on PCs that have Nvidia cards, or also those with AMD video cards?

        Read further down to this comment that had a link to the product page and what it supported.

        Thank you to those who had already responded.

        • keefshape@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Works great on AMD as well. I moved from a 2800 Super to an AMD 7900xt, and its almost latency free even at 4k on gigabit wired. Reasonable on WiFi, even across the house.

      • Nailbar@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Ooh! I’ve been looking for something like this, but didn’t know the right words to google.

    • bitwolf@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      The Deck uses Wayland so that doesn’t make sense. And I’ve definitely streamed to my laptop to test a few years ago and it worked well enough.

    • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      One of the primary reasons for moving to Wayland is it’s native security when it comes to screen sharing. To properly screen share you need xdg-desktop-portal installed. You should then get a selection window on the server side asking which window you want to share over the steam link session with the client.

      A lot of people just use moonlight/sunshine now though instead of steamlink.