They’re probably building off Windows RT (the locked down variant designed for ARM tablets).
If they were smart they’d imitate some of how SteamOS runs games in a modified WinRT environment - TLDR do NOT start up the entire Win32 runtime and desktop environment by default, don’t run stuff like printer services and whatnot, just run a simplified sandbox and window manager with just the APIs needed to run the games similar to Proton. Then let the user switch to desktop mode as needed, but don’t run it when gaming.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 5 days ago
They already have the Xbox framework. I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to just use that for gaming and give the handle the ability to launch a lightweight version of Windows similar to the easy Steam OS will let you exit to Linux desktop.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 5 days ago
There are a lot of edge cases. You have to handle external launchers, external error prompts; basically anything that requires you to Alt+Tab. One of the things Valve did a decade ago was the stuff that got rolled into GameScope that ensures that they never lose focus of the game window. Even with the resources to transform Windows this way, it will still take time.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Will I agree that the actual code base needs to be designed and augmented (backend to make this work), that’s not really what I’m saying. I’m pointing out that they already have the visual design and working template for a handheld based OS ( navigation and so on). Just that couple with something like what they had with Windows 10 (the tablet interface for 10 was better than 11) would be fine. It could literally be an Xbox version of steam’ big picture mode (because you can launch directly into it from Windows on 10). There even already exists a slimmed down version of Windows 11 to save on resource hogging.
The steam deck has been out long enough for them to have implemented this kind of thing. They’ve had time to design it. They’ve just been using that time to deliberately figure out how to shoehorn AI and telemetry and the rest into it because at the end of the day they still want to siphon up all that data.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I agree. They’ve had time if they cared about making this product before the Steam Deck was a success, but much like with cloud infrastructure, or search engines, or MP3 players, or mobile, or game consoles in general, they only really cared about it after someone else made a great version of what they could have been doing themselves.