Valve Shrinks SteamOS Size From 24 GB to 10 GB for Steam Deck

[Uskompuf]

Valve has been developing SteamOS 3.0 to launch with their upcoming handheld Steam Deck device with a redesigned interface. The latest SteamOS 20211120.2 image shows a dramatic reduction in total file size from 24 GB to 10 GB for the operating system which will give users an extra 14 GB of useable space for games and applications. Valve has also improved WiFi performance, fixed HDMI output, increased touch screen reliability and released updated kernel drivers for the Audio, GPU, and other components. These changes will be of significant importance especially for the entry-level Steam Deck that comes with just 64 GB of internal storage. The Steam Deck is now expected to begin shipping to customers in February 2022 after an initial delay from December 2021.



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[WhitetailAni]

Now if only iOS could go back to being sub-4GB like it was in the iOS 11 days.
I wish iOS had a space-saving mode where you could opt for the "feature-removed" pack so it doesn't eat 7GB of space on your 16GB phone.

 

[Mussels]

If nothing else SteamOS is going through some massive changes and improvements here

 

[lexluthermiester]

If nothing else SteamOS is going through some massive changes and improvements here

Likely a fair amount of optimizations. Always a good thing!

 

[Fourstaff]

Wonder what they did to shrink it by more than 50%, was there a lot of replication which could be removed?

 

[LabRat 891]

Wonder what they did to shrink it by more than 50%, was there a lot of replication which could be removed?

My first guess is slimming down included services and packaged drivers.

 

[PanicLake]

14GB is a lot of "garbage" because if you can afford to throw it away... garbage it is. And I bet that if they really wanted they could be slimmed even further, and I'm talking about all OSs not just SteamOS.

 

[Jeager]

My first guess is slimming down included services and packaged drivers.

Explain me what kind of drivers can they package ? Base OS is linux arch (amd drivers already included in the kernel)
10gb doesn't seems enough slim for an arch + steam install

 

[Nyek]

Wonder what they did to shrink it by more than 50%, was there a lot of replication which could be removed?

Basically move from Debian/Ubuntu to Arch.

 

[dj-electric]

10GB is still very bloated for a handheld device OS. I still wonder how much of it can be cut off.
This thing can probably weigh only 3-4GB if Valve really wanted it to

 

[C1ff0]

10GB is still very bloated for a handheld device OS. I still wonder how much of it can be cut off.
This thing can probably weigh only 3-4GB if Valve really wanted it to

I don't know. Keep in mind that the 10 gb likely contains the entire Os, the compatibility layer of windows and all drivers for the Deck. I don't know how much, but the compatibility layer could be a good part of the 10 gigs. It has to translate all software calls for windows to linux... Lets wait and see if they manage to squeeze a few more gigs out.

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

meanwhile Windows monthly update used to be around 150-200mbs, now its over 500mbs

 

[efikkan]

Wonder what they did to shrink it by more than 50%, was there a lot of replication which could be removed?

I doubt there are many duplicated files. My guess would be unnecessary package dependencies etc., just one tiny dependency can quickly pull in hundreds of others. As much software for Linux is designed to be built on numerous platforms, there is also a lot of potential to trim stuff down. This is a tradeoff, the downside is more maintenance.

Doesn't Steam still use Qt? If you include the whole toolkit that can be several hundred MB, but they probably only rely on a tiny subset. So by removing some dependencies and perhaps tweaking some makefiles they can probably get it quite small. Then do the same for other dependencies and you quickly shave off gigabytes…

And I bet that if they really wanted they could be slimmed even further, and I'm talking about all OSs not just SteamOS.

Yeah, an embedded system like this should easily fit within 2-3 GB. The only reason I see to go beyond that would be if caches etc. would improve performance somehow.
If only Android could learn from this…

 

[EatingDirt]

14GB is a lot of "garbage" because if you can afford to throw it away... garbage it is. And I bet that if they really wanted they could be slimmed even further, and I'm talking about all OSs not just SteamOS.

I'm not a programmer, but it seems logical that when you know exactly the hardware your OS needs to support, you can throw away a lot of the stuff in there designed to make the OS compatible/recognize other hardware configurations.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Now if only iOS could go back to being sub-4GB like it was in the iOS 11 days.
I wish iOS had a space-saving mode where you could opt for the "feature-removed" pack so it doesn't eat 7GB of space on your 16GB phone.

They do have a space saving mode, its called iCloud and "buy a bigger phone this year". Because Apple.

10GB is still very bloated for a handheld device OS. I still wonder how much of it can be cut off.
This thing can probably weigh only 3-4GB if Valve really wanted it to

This isnt a mobile OS like android or iOS. This is technically a full fleged desktop OS complete with all the proton compatibility needed to run the steam library. That wont be small.

 

[DrCR]

For those wondering how so much space could be saved vs their old Ubuntu-based setup, I’m speculating they may have decided to actually let the OS do OS things rather than being so gung-ho the snap/flatpack route Ubuntu is inexplicably doubling down on (which can be like an entire OS — per app).

Here’s more on that topic if you’re interested:

Flatpak Is Not the Future

 

[Fourstaff]

I doubt there are many duplicated files. My guess would be unnecessary package dependencies etc., just one tiny dependency can quickly pull in hundreds of others. As much software for Linux is designed to be built on numerous platforms, there is also a lot of potential to trim stuff down. This is a tradeoff, the downside is more maintenance.

Doesn't Steam still use Qt? If you include the whole toolkit that can be several hundred MB, but they probably only rely on a tiny subset. So by removing some dependencies and perhaps tweaking some makefiles they can probably get it quite small. Then do the same for other dependencies and you quickly shave off gigabytes…

If they are going down this approach, I think they will need to be very careful curating the packages to be installed, otherwise it will get bloated again very fast.

 

[lexluthermiester]

10GB is still very bloated for a handheld device OS.

I disagree. Fully installed and ready to go, the average Linux distro often tops 17GB depending on the distro. Even Mint with XFCE tops 12GB. For SteamOS to get to 10GB while retaining the intended functionality is impressive.

 

[WhitetailAni]

They do have a space saving mode, its called iCloud and "buy a bigger phone this year". Because Apple.

That's not what I meant. You can't offload part of iOS into iCloud, thereby freeing up space for personal data. I know about offloading apps, but that's not very useful when you spend lots of time in cell service deadzone areas and would like to listen to music or offload one app and install another but the free school WiFi runs at 2 bits per second.

 

[kruk]

I disagree. Fully installed and ready to go, the average Linux distro often tops 17GB depending on the distro. Even Mint with XFCE tops 12GB. For SteamOS to get to 10GB while retaining the intended functionality is impressive.

IDK, I would disagree with that. Looking at my Manjaro KDE (Arch based) install at 17 GiB and 1400+ installed packages, the /var/ caches/logs take up more than 4 GiB, next is Steam at 2 GiB, then /usr/lib/ with LibreOffice, Firmware, Latest + Stable kernel and 2 Browsers taking up 2 GiB. With Debian distros I could probably easily be at 12 GiB for a system with the exact same functionality (Steam included!).

 

[efikkan]

If they are going down this approach, I think they will need to be very careful curating the packages to be installed, otherwise it will get bloated again very fast.

Keeping such packages up to date will require some manual labor, but only major tweaking and validation whenever there is a large change to a package or changes in dependencies.

 

[Mussels]

I'm not a programmer, but it seems logical that when you know exactly the hardware your OS needs to support, you can throw away a lot of the stuff in there designed to make the OS compatible/recognize other hardware configurations.

yup. ditch the extras, and make them optional downloads ala windows update.

 

[lexluthermiester]

With Debian distros I could probably easily be at 12 GiB for a system with the exact same functionality (Steam included!).

I favor Mint which is Debian->Ubuntu based and one of my standard installs generally hits about 12.7GB before I copy personal files into it. So, to me at least, for Valve to hit 10GB for SteamOS means they are really working to lean the OS up while maintaining needed functionality. It's a bit on the impressive side of things. While I have no desire to own one of these devices, I find the development of it fascinating!

 

[Cheeseball]

Now if only iOS could go back to being sub-4GB like it was in the iOS 11 days.
I wish iOS had a space-saving mode where you could opt for the "feature-removed" pack so it doesn't eat 7GB of space on your 16GB phone.

iOS for sure is not sub-4GB anymore, but it's still just 7.50 GB as of now (iPhone 12 non-Pro and iPad Pro 11 A12Z).

 

[WhitetailAni]

iOS for sure is not sub-4GB anymore, but it's still just 7.50 GB as of now (iPhone 12 non-Pro and iPad Pro 11 A12Z).

"Just 7.5GB".
That may be fine on newer phones where the base storage capacity is 128GB, but iOS 15 supports all the way back to the 6S, and the 6S came in a 16GB storage option.