The Steam Deck kicked off great however, I see people flocking to the Windows alternatives like the ASUS ROG Ally because they don’t want to deal with Linux or the Bash shell.
Edit; I don’t know why this is being downvoted, I haven’t touched SteamOS so I’m comparing it to Debian 12 where BASH knowledge is essential.
I’m not sure this is true. From a non-technical user perspective Linux is as visible on the steam deck as FreeBSD is on the PS5. Yah it’s there, but you don’t see it unless you try.
Because they might think they need to use the terminal a bunch when in reality they don't. They might have the wrong impression about how much terminal work they need to do and use that incorrect information to make a decision. I'm saying they could have wrong information to make a decision which would be an uninformed decision.
Last time I checked Windows still dominates the market on personal desktop/laptop computers, most people don’t want to sit and read documentation on how to get specific software to work with their device, they just want it to work without hassle.
Multiple people have told you why what you're saying is ridiculous.
How is what I said ridiculous? Is the market all of a sudden no longer Windows dominated?
I get it, SteamOS is essentially Steams Big Picture mode locked down however, the minute someone wants to mod one of their games using software made for Windows that they find on Nexus mods or Se7enSins they’ll run into issues or a novel of documentation for a workaround.
The vast majority of people don’t want to sit and troubleshoot for hours on end for a single mod, they want it to work out of the gate and that’s where SteamOS/Linux currently falls flat.
As someone else pointed out, you're basically calling a PS5 difficult because it runs BSD and that must mean people need to tinker and use the terminal to make things work.
People still use Google all the time to help them get specific software to work with their device. There are tons of wiki's, forums, reddits, lemmy instances, discords, etc... that are full of people asking for how to get specific software to work on Windows/etc... People still sit and read documentation all the time.
I opted for the ROG Ally X. A couple of things swayed me. My ability to hold it in store and the tech specs for future proofing were both reasons. But I never planned for this device to be a Windows only handheld. I specifically bought it for the few games I own that can't run Linux and I run everything else in Bazzite. If it had come with Steam OS I likely still would have bought it and done a dual boot. I don't think it's fair to assume that people are buying non-steam handhelds just because they don't want to deal with Linux. They likely have no idea what Linux has to offer and are going with what they can buy in store.