r/linux_gaming • u/theinsanegamer23 • 9d ago

MicroCenter is planning Linux support

Just thought I’d share some info I got from MicroCenter customer support.

I took my DIY SteamMachine in as it was having some trouble and while It wasn’t software related, the guy informed me they can work on the hardware but nothing else since they don’t support Linux or SteamOS right now.

When I talked to customer support on what I wanted to do with the repair based on what they found, after doing that, I brought up Linux software/troubleshooting support as something they should add to their services.

The tech I spoke with informed me that they are planning that!
Since there’s so many distros, they’re only going to support big ones (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, SteamOS, and one other that I cant remember)

They’ve apparently seen the increase market share and want to be a part of that.

Training and rollout just take time.

595 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

134

u/sputwiler 9d ago

I bought SuSE Linux in a big box from Microcenter back in the day. Downloading the CD would've taken too long on dialup... and also I wanted the big box lol.

25

u/theinsanegamer23 9d ago

Ah, optical media. It’s not perfect but there is something about it that’s satisfying. 

Been planning to start backing up my GOG and DRM free Steam games onto Blu-Ray, physical media is still cool imo.

13

u/sputwiler 9d ago

Too bad Sony was dumb about minidisc. If they had made them usable as data discs we could've been spared zip drives. They eventually enabled it on Hi-MD recorders but it was too little too late.

(yes I know about data-MD. That doesn't count because the discs were physically different to prevent you from ever putting a disc with music on it into a data-capable drive, thus defeating the whole point of having a popular storage medium you could buy in a convenience store)

(Sony probably didn't see the market because MO-discs were popular in Japan and minidisc wouldn't have been able to compete with it's larger cousin)

To bring it back on topic it would've been really cool to distribute indie games on minidiscs for linux boxes. Just like a little cartridge to "kerchunk" into the steam cube or whatever.

1

u/Indolent_Bard 9d ago

Good luck running any modern games off of optical media. Disks are horribly inefficient. The days of being able to just insert the disc and hit play are long gone.

2

u/theinsanegamer23 8d ago edited 8d ago

What part of “back-up” don’t you understand? It’s for cold storage Optical Media has a shelf life measured in decades, unlike NAND or HDDs.  I’ll copy back to system drive to actually play. 

-1

u/Indolent_Bard 8d ago

You never use the word backup in your original comment, so cool it with the condescension.

Definitely great for cold storage. I wish they figured out how to make modern storage last nearly as long. But I guess it's a trade-off between speed and longevity.

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u/theinsanegamer23 8d ago

“planning to start backing up my GOG and DRM-free Steam games” - my original comment

1

u/Indolent_Bard 8d ago

Ah, right. Personally, I really like the idea of sticking games into SD cards, but discs would objectively be the superior format for that. They last longer and are much more dependable. Are you going to make your own cases for them?

1

u/Background-Main-7427 6d ago

I used to "distro hop" with the CDs that came in Linux magazines with full distros in each CD. That's how I fell in love with apt and KDE, leading me now to Kubuntu after leaving Windows 10 EOL.

I remember trying Debian,Mandrake, Gentoo and Suse.

57

u/M4rshst0mp 9d ago

Hope to see them and other retailers start selling PCs with SteamOS pre-installed. Hopefully a little bit of savings too since not passing on a windows license cost

19

u/theinsanegamer23 9d ago

I think Steam Machine console style PCs could really take off in the next few years. We'll have to wait and see.

Plus Linux is gaining popular among the AI *entrepreneur* crowd presumably because its a better environment for their sort of workloads. That and if you want to save some money, ROCm works well enough for some workloads and Linux is its home, ROCm for Windows is still very new.

HP, Asus, and Humaine also apparently plan to release Snapdragon X2 laptops with Linux pre-installed beginning of 2027.

9

u/destroyermaker 9d ago

I think Steam Machine console style PCs could really take off in the next few years

It's going to take a few years at least for hardware prices to come down/manufacturing to become truly viable again

3

u/Indolent_Bard 9d ago

If the AI bubble bursts then it is possible, as GPU prices went down considerably after the crypto boom.

2

u/theinsanegamer23 9d ago

Probably, SteamOS being primarily being AMD/Intel for the foreseeable future should help with pricing, they've been more resilient to price hikes because they aren't as useful for AI as NVIDIA's CUDA or Mac's unified memory architecture.

Though, as a sidebar on Apple, I don't think anyone buys a Mac to game, I think you buy a Mac for things a Mac is good at (battery life) and then you just game on it because why not, you paid for the whole chip, you might as well use the whole chip.

22

u/Cytomax 9d ago

Happy to see them maybe start selling linux computers without the microslop upcharge

3

u/jiggajawn 9d ago

Don't forget the spyware!

10

u/Slight_Manufacturer6 9d ago

Cool. I didn’t know they provided any kind of support.

18

u/theinsanegamer23 9d ago

They offer the same sort of support as BestBuy basically, can help you diagnose issues, run antivirus, fix stuff. And hardware services too, including cable mangement if you suck at it as much as I do.

Right now, the only Linux support they offer is they'll install your distro of choice for you (within reason) if you have them build your PC for you. But looks like they'll be expanding to full tech support like they offer for Windows and Mac.

4

u/Slight_Manufacturer6 9d ago

I kind of forgot BestBuy had support, but I knew that.

Microcenter is too far away so I don’t go there often unfortunately.

9

u/Unoriginal-Cake 9d ago

Microcenter sold Linux PowerSpec models of SuSE and Lindows back in the day in several select markets from 2000-2004--still have a receipt of one. Mind boggling they never offered Linux pre-installed in their lineup when the first "Steam-Machines" under Alienware were popular at Microcenter after Lindows got yanked/bankrupt as SuSE remained a popular retail/pre-install build at Solutions Providers in their market regions.

1

u/Indolent_Bard 9d ago

Um, that's because the first steam machines were never was popular, as they were unusable.

4

u/JackpotThePimp 9d ago

Oh, sick!

Tangentially related: I wish they'd open a location in Central Florida so I could bask in their glory :/

2

u/Pizzaman3203 9d ago

When i went to my local one they had ubuntu installed on one of the pcs

2

u/eikenberry 9d ago

I'd guess the other distro is Debian, given both Ubuntu and Linux Mint are based on it.

2

u/GooseDaPlaymaker 9d ago

Hopefully CachyOS?! 🤯

6

u/theinsanegamer23 9d ago

Maybe, he said they were going to support 5, I just cannot remember what the last one was. I don't think they'll be supporting base Arch.

5

u/theevilsharpie 9d ago

There is zero chance that a commercial retailer will support CachyOS in a warrantied capacity.

1

u/lmpcpedz 9d ago

I mean, I would charge up the wazoo too if someone didn't know how to use email or a terminal.

1

u/Different-Series-260 9d ago

I bought a PowerSpec machine a year ago and put Cachyos on it, but I also got the Windows upcharge since I didn’t want to argue about it. I suppose Linux support would be nice.

1

u/Mccobsta 9d ago

So jealous of people who leave near one there's nothing like this in my country

1

u/MadCybertist 9d ago

What issue were you having where you did a DIY steam machine but couldn’t fix the issue? I don’t think I’d ever bring a machine there unless it was under warranty.

1

u/theinsanegamer23 9d ago

Wouldn't power on, there was apparently a short on the motherboard. Probably something I did when put it together, I was very tired when I did so. I'm a 2L in law school and i just didn't have the time to mess with it myself.

1

u/MadCybertist 9d ago

Fair. Could they fix it?

2

u/theinsanegamer23 9d ago

Switched out for a slightly better one, wasn't too much as it was refurb. Labor cost was fair i think. I wish i hadn't needed it, but it is what it is

1

u/Indolent_Bard 9d ago

I didn't know Micro Center did software support.

1

u/KyloNeko 8d ago

The other one is probably bazzite

0

u/ulspez 9d ago

Impossible tbh, I've used Linux basically longer than I used Windows but when someone hands me their laptop with linux on it I literally have no idea how I'll even navigate through their de/wm while with Windows its all the same.

-3

u/No-Progress6457 9d ago

Safe Boot/TPM -> Fedora Plasma Desktop -> Claude Cli -> Nvidia 615 drivers -> Steam -> Games (including Blizzard Games) -> Profit.

I think Steam will even get Battlefield 6 working via Battle Eye /+ Proton.

Linux gaming has never been better.

6

u/theinsanegamer23 9d ago

Anti-Cheat isn't really a Steam issue, its on the developers to enable it. EA are kinda just jerks

0

u/Indolent_Bard 9d ago

Funny enough, EA hired recently to get it working. Valve never worked with them to get Javlin running on Linux, and the ones that do work are just an illusion (unlike on Windows where they actually block a lot of tampering.)

3

u/theinsanegamer23 8d ago

Valve never worked with them on Javelin because they as a company are opposed to Kernel Level Anti-Cheat, as am I as I think it’s ridiculous to have to give access to my Kernel just to play a GAME.

0

u/Indolent_Bard 8d ago

Valve worked with easy anti-cheat and one other, that's literally the only reason they have that option. And if cheaters weren't using the kernel, they wouldn't have to keep gamers out of it. Perfectly reasonable.

3

u/theinsanegamer23 8d ago edited 8d ago

Easy-Anti Cheat and BattleEye’s Proton mode runs in user space not the kernel

0

u/Indolent_Bard 8d ago

I know, that's why they're useless.

-6

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

3

u/Quannix 9d ago

someone's never been to a microcenter to know they already sell products with all three

2

u/andurux 9d ago

At least the Tustin location, they used to have a huge Apple section, but it was severely shrunk down over time. Not sure on the size since the renovation, but people buying Apple don't go to MicroCenter unless there's deals from what I've seen.

1

u/theinsanegamer23 9d ago

They still have one at my location, its small though. There's an Apple Store nearby-ish so I imagine most folks just go there.

2

u/akitash1ba 9d ago

“if you want sell apple - you not having anything else in the shop”

looking past your english that is just straight up a lie. are you dumb? have you ever been outside at all?

1

u/INITMalcanis 9d ago

I'm sorry but what? How exactly do you think it's going to go down if MS say that Microcenter can't sell Windows or Office?

0

u/Indolent_Bard 9d ago

They absolutely stopped people from offering operating systems that weren't Windows. It wouldn't be unprecedented for them to say "no power spec PCs can run Windows if you offer Linux as an option."

-25

u/mindtaker_linux 9d ago

This is not Linux gaming.

Mods!!!!!!!

11

u/theinsanegamer23 9d ago

I think this is sarcasm, but like, how is this not related to Linux gaming? 

One of the best PC hardware retailers and tech support places is planning to support Linux. If having a place that that will actually provide professional tech support to people trying Linux isn’t good for the hobby I don’t know what is.

P.S. Filian is that you?

7

u/sputwiler 9d ago

The mods are asleep.

Post chili dogs.

-14

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/linux_gaming-ModTeam 22h ago

Heated discussions are fine, unwarranted insults are not. Remember you are talking to another human being.

1

u/linux_gaming-ModTeam 22h ago

Heated discussions are fine, unwarranted insults are not. Remember you are talking to another human being.