Valve’s Steam Deck ships with the Linux-based SteamOS operating system pre-installed, but it can run a lot of Windows games thanks to Valve’s Proton software, which translates many Windows system calls to Linux. The tool is based on the long-running Wine project, but places an emphasis on gaming.
Today Valve released one of the biggest updates to Proton in a while, adding support for a bunch of additional games and bug fixes and performance enhancements for many others. Proton may be a key feature of the Steam Deck, but it’s also open source software that can be used on a wide range of PCs running Linux-based operating systems. The latest version of Proton does require a GPU with support for the Vulkan 1.3 graphics driver though.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
Proton 8.0 release notes [Valve / GitHub]
Valve release Proton 8.0. The latest version of this software for running Windows games on Linux adds support for 18 games, improves multi-touch support, and brings bug fixes and improvements. It’s based on Wine 8.0.
Why is there a smaller Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go on the way? [About Chromebooks]
Samsung has an 11 inch Galaxy Chromebook Go on the way… but given how underwhelming the 14 inch model’s specs are by 2023 standards (and how likely the smaller version is to have similar hardware), it’s not clear why Samsung is bothering.
Sources: Pixel Tablet will have 8GB of RAM, four colors, and this included dock [9to5Google]
More Google Pixel Tablet details have leaked: expect 8GB of RAM, two options for storage, an aluminum body with a “nanoceramic finish akin to porcelain” and four color options. It’s expected to ship with a charging/speaker dock.
postmarketOS v22.12 SP2: The One With The Nice Pull-Down Menu
postmarketOS v22.12 SP2 brings an updated Quick Settings menu, a new camera app, and other improvements and bug fixes to this mobile Linux distribution for smartphones.
Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update [LinMOB]
For more of the latest news about mobile Linux development.
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In regards to the Pixel tablet; I tried an experiment years ago where I used an android tablet as my daily driver, to see if I could do it. I just recently read about this tablet at gsmarena, and frankly, the lack of an sd card slot makes this a non-starter for me.
I’d need a way to be able to back things up, like music purchases for instance. What I’d really like to see is a device that has an sdcard slot, headphone jack, and some kind of attachable keyboard and ability to connect to an external monitor and mouse, and use it like a desktop while at home.
THAT might finally give me an incentive to ditch traditional desktops/laptops all together.
I do like the internal specs of this tablet, however, I’d like to see a little more RAM to help future proof it, like 12GB or 16GB.
So in short, if it had more RAM, an sd card slot and a headphone jack, I very well might have purchased this just to engage in my experiment a second time. But alas, I wont be buying this one.
p.s. I don’t know who is right, but gsmarena says the Pixel tablet will have 6GB RAM, not 8…
You should look into a Samsung Tab S8. It’s very usable as a main machine.
VALve is good.
Thanks Valve!