this isn’t a linux problem lol, it’s specifically a wayland problem
Which, given where the Linux desktop world is going, effectively makes it a Linux problem.
Yes I know I know, it’s all made up of a bunch of different projects all working in tandom, GNU+Linux+Wayland+systemd+KDE+whatever. But at the end of the day, if one critical system component fails, it all fails.
It doesn’t work well on NVIDIA RTX 3080 or AMD 7900 XT. It works okay on my Intel laptop until I connect an external display, at which point it breaks totally. I replied to another who replied to this post.
Wayland is bad. Wayland is VERY bad, in fact. It is by far the worst display technology of any major platform. It’s worse than Windows and worse than OS X by a mile. It may beat X11 but it’s a close run. I’m sure as more effort is put into Wayland and less into X11 and the committees decide to start being practical things will improve, but right now it’s an impossible choice for me.
As an end user, I don’t really care whose fault it is. I just have a broken desktop, that’s all it is to me.
I’ve been using PipeWire for a long time. It doesn’t require Wayland and isn’t actually part of the display stack, but is rather a media streaming engine. Of course it is a critical missing component of Wayland also, which is why it goes well with Wayland.
PipeWire does have problems with crackling audio after resuming from sleep though. I don’t know if the Steam Deck uses PipeWire but it has this problem, too, sometimes.
Anyway, I’ve been through the whole thing before and I’m weary of repeating myself unfortunately. But it’s things like broken cursors that don’t work or can’t be enabled for no apparent reason, broken desktop effects, broken docks, panels, VRR (when moving said software cursor), broken GPU power management, broken scaling, blurry text, and on and on it goes. I’m just sick of it, I’m sorry.
Nobody has ever said that, but it’s been almost 15 years of development now and it’s still barely usable. The Linux graphics stack is in a state. If for whatever reason you can’t use X11, due to some mysterious bug in kwin say, the Linux desktop is effectively unusable for some at this point.
I gamed on Linux for 2 years. Gave up a few wild ago. It’s getting there, but it’s very broken. PCSX 2 devs are right, unfortunately.
I still use Steam Deck though. Valve’s got their own little garden now that actually works well.
Well, the macOS display server just had the right technologies put into it at a very early age. It’s based on work from Adobe and movie studios, and as a consequence it has scaling and colour management which is to die for.
Wayland started from such a different approach. They started not with a look to the future, but with a look to disconnect from the past with no regard for the future. They were more worried about removing old things like hardware sprites and built in fonts than they were worried about proper display scaling and things like that.
I mean it looks like it’s gonna get there. They’re approaching these things. Steam Deck has amazing HDR from everything I hear. But the day this is fixed is not today, and I can’t use it anymore. :(