One of the lesser known Fedora spins under the “Fedora Labs” initiative is the Fedora Games Lab that showcases some open-source games and can serve as an easy demonstrator for Linux gaming. Looking forward to 2026 with Fedora 44, there is a proposal to revitalize Fedora Games Lab to become a better showcase for the modern potential of Linux gaming.

Fedora Games Lab as it is right now just is a showcase of Fedora with the Xfce desktop and installing a few open-source games by default. They include classic titles such as BZFlag and Freeciv to games popular among Linux die-hards like Extreme Tux Racer as well as some more well known open-source game efforts like Battle for Wesnoth and Warzone 2100.

  • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    Because those other distributions aren’t Valve. It’s called brand recognition.

    • Holytimes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      31·
      1 day ago

      No it’s called excessive costs and labor in the form of customer service and a degraded support experience for the end user.

      • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        13 hours ago

        What customer service are you referring to? People can already submit customer service concerns about SteamOS. Valve are not obligated to do anything about them. If anything there would be fewer of them because it would actually work.

        What customer service do you think those other distributions are offering? What customer service do you think MS is offering?

        • Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          31·
          15 hours ago

          Liability and expectations. You can sue Valve. You are unable to sue Bazzite, and they have no liability or warranties for any given release of their operating system.

          Steam Support is held in high regard because they are willing to go above and beyond for customers prior. If something broke inside of a generic SteamOS installation completely outside of Valve’s control, that would reflect badly on the staff and the brand.

          • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
            1·
            13 hours ago

            You can sue Valve. You are unable to sue Bazzite

            You can sue anyone for anything.

            have no liability or warranties for any given release of their operating system.

            SteamOS doesn’t either.

            If something broke inside of a generic SteamOS installation completely outside of Valve’s control, that would reflect badly on the staff and the brand.

            It’s already outside of Valve’s control. They don’t control the Linux kernel, they don’t control KDE, they don’t control any of the software on the device, including ones pre-installed or ones in the store. And they don’t need to.

    • WereCat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      24 hours ago

      So they should do just another distro for the sake of making another distro instead of focusing on something that will put them above rest for gaming?

      The way they do things now benefit all of Linux. The optimisations they do now are focused on very specific HW and with the amount of employees they have now I doubt they can focus on broad support while providing these kinds of specific optimisations. There is basically no need to install Steam OS on your machine… just get Bazzite.

      Also what brand recognition? If you game on PC, you install Steam anyways.

      • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        22 hours ago

        So they should do just another distro for the sake of making another distro

        No one is asking for another distro?

        I doubt they can focus on broad support while providing these kinds of specific optimisations.

        If the handful of volunteers at Bazzite can do it, I’m pretty sure the multi-billion dollar company can figure it out. They obviously don’t want to for some reason.

        Also what brand recognition?

        Steam? The single most recognizable brand in PC gaming?