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Editorial Analysis Opinion

Project JASPER: Jeff’s Adequate Steam-Powered Edutainment Rig

Part 1: The unearned confidence of a mediocre white guy

Jeffrey Parkin

• 8 min read
A badly photoshopped image of a PS5, an Xbox, and a cardboard box with computer-like parts being hammered inside

As I was writing about how Sony is downgrading the storage of the PS5 while keeping the price the same, I found myself returning to the question of what to do about it. There are no simple answers. And there’s honestly not a lot we, as consumers, can do about it. If you want a console, you’re stuck with a PS5, an Xbox, or maybe a Switch.

Or you could become a … PC gamer.

SteamOS, but more

I probably play more games on my gaming laptop than I do on my various consoles. At the same time, I hate my gaming laptop.

But I don’t really hate PC gaming, I think. What I hate is playing Steam games through Windows. Because I also have a Steam Deck — which is basically just a handheld PC — that I adore. It works almost identically to a console, and I don’t have to struggle with settings, drivers, or updates.

A white Steam Deck
The amount of cleaning and organizing I would have to do before I could take a picture of my own Steam Deck in its dock would delay this article by a week. | Image: Valve

I even have a dock for it, so I can play Steam Deck games on my TV, which blurs the line between handheld and console. But what if I wanted more?

The Steam Deck, at its heart, is a handheld Linux computer with a Steam-branded wrapper. It’s even possible to get into the underlying Linux OS and work your Steam Deck just like a computer — with a functioning GUI and everything. But with the SteamOS interface on top, you don’t ever have to think about the underlying software. Which is a dramatically different experience from playing games on a Windows PC.

It turns out, SteamOS is open-source and freely available for installation onto any (compatible) computer. And you can hop over to the Linux desktop whenever you want, where you can install other launchers. With Valve’s Proton compatibility tool, lots of Windows-only games become available outside of SteamOS.

I'm going into this as someone who is relatively tech-literate. I understand upwards of 50% of the words the two r/SteamOS posts I’ve skimmed in preparation for this. And, most importantly, I have the unearned confidence of a mediocre white guy. So, really …

What’s keeping me from just building my own dedicated SteamOS computer that’s as good as (or better than) an off-the-shelf console?