Maybe I'm one of very few, but I am 100% a Steam Deck user for GOG games (I use Heroic Games Launcher, but I do also have Junk Store and the plugin for GOG installed too). I love being able to play my library on the go, and even have achievements working!

So I guess I'm just wondering, how many Steam Deck users are here in the forum?

I alternate between my main workstation/gaming PC, my Linux HTPC, and my Steam Deck. I love my Steam Deck! I modified mine to have a purple translucent back. :)

100% GNU/Linux here, but 0% Steam Deck (I don’t own one, and never will).

I just don't understand the appeal of handheld gaming and never will.

I am kinda intrigued by handhelds being able to run PC games, but I am not using one myself because:

1. The kinds of games I tend to play (RPG, RTS etc.) tend to need concentration, so not the kind of games I'd play for 20 minutes while sitting in a bus on a way to work, or waiting for doctor to call me in.

2. When I have enough time for such games, I usually have a desk and a power outlet available as well, and even if not, I could just as well take my laptop and play on it.

3. Too small screen for my weary eyes.

4. I tend to play lots of games that need a keyboard and a mouse.

5. When I look at the prices of handhelds, I keep thinking "Heck, I could get a pretty good gaming laptop for that price as well".

Still, I am sure I could find lots of games to play on a handheld (many PC games are quite playable with a gamepad, hence they'd work ok on handhelds as well I guess), and especially for playing some emulated console and arcade games, a handheld might be great.

Yop. The screen is too small. There are games with touchscreen functions like Bad North and https://www.gog.com/forum/general/list_of_touch_supported_games_on_gog
but all it needs is a tablet with Windows 10. Steam Deck does go touchscreen, but it has Steam OS, and that is one Steam too much.

I am seriously thinking about positive jokes like Stream Deck. https://www.elgato.com/us/en/s/welcome-to-stream-deck

I have one. I travel a bit, and it is easy to just whip it out on a train or plane. Bur I have enough games on Steam to bother with other games.

I get the appeal of handhelds for games that can be played primarily on a controller (platformers, racing games, etc). Problem is for many older games and entire genres (RTS, FPS, Commandos-like strategy games, 4X, point & click adventures, text adventures, etc), I find trying to force them to 'fit' onto a controller just to fit the device's form factor plays far worse than a keyboard & mouse they were designed around. Trackpads on handhelds are still slower vs mice for rapidly selecting things as they're always been on laptops. You can get away with that for slow-paced non-actiony point & click adventures, less so with RTS's. AntiMicroX can translate controller input to a "virtual" keyb / mouse, but older FPS's still play far worse when all the "under the hood" controller 'cheaty' code quietly placed in modern FPS's (eg, controller auto-aim, snap targeting, enlarged enemy hitboxes, weapon wheel selection, etc) is missing.

Touchscreens work best for mobile games designed around them (eg, Bejeweled) because they usually have large oversized UI elements ("It looks like a mobile port!") for precisely that reason. Anyone who's played around with Magic DOSBox on a similar sized 7-8" Android tablet can see for themselves some games can work fine whilst other games can technically "run" but simply aren't that enjoyable to play in practise in the face of issues like non-scaling UI's (hard-coded for 92ppi = on a +200ppi HiDPI 7" screen some UI elements can shrink to being absolutely tiny and barely readable), or selecting individual units in say Age of Empires / Lemmings, etc, when they're far smaller than the finger you're trying to 'click-tap' them with.

Workarounds for text heavy games like having to keep toggling an on-screen keyboard overlay (to type) then put it away again (so you can see what's underneath) on every key entry can get very annoying very quickly vs having a proper "hard" keyboard in text heavy games. And although you can solve half these issues by plugging in a dock, then plugging in a keyboard & mouse / external monitor into that dock, it's then significantly less portable than the marketing brochures suggest.

I looked at handhelds with serious consideration to buy one, but with a wider taste in / preference for older games than the usual narrow slice of only the newest action-adventure AAA's they typically get demo'd / reviewed with, personally I'd rather have a 14" laptop / detachable Windows tablet with the same 7840U / 8840U APU (eg, Minisforum v3) that does a whole lot more outside of just gaming (14" vs 7" screen difference makes office, web browsing actually pleasant) for little extra weight that you can still connect a compact Bluetooth controller (eg, SN30Pro) to anyway but without it being forced as the "expected" input device for a lot of older K&M-centric games that simply weren't designed around 2 joysticks.

Even for those, I don't. But that's on me. It's just not how I can enjoy games, for many reasons. I don't like the idea of zoning out from my sorroundings like that for one thing. If I'm to be really comfortable focusing on a game it's at home, where no one an nothing will bother me and vice verse and I won't miss anything (either in the game or in real world). For another, I don't even see when would I play. On a 15-20 minute bus ride? That's not enough time to play anything for me and not feel like I'm cramming it in and have to hurry. Waiting for a doctor's appointment? Thankfully I don't do that very often, and if that should come up I'll just read a book. A long journey? I'd feel like playing a game during that is a dumb waste. I play games every day at home, playing more when I'm finally traveling would be almost sad. For the most part in circumstances where playing handheld might be an option I'm just comfortable to be alone with my thoughts or, again, I'll read a book.

Y'all, there are more scenarios in life than waiting in a doctor's office lmfaoooo

It's no different than bringing a Nintendo DS in your backpack, only it's far more powerful. So car rides (if you're not driving for a period of time), planes, or chilling in your hotel bed, or just chilling at home in bed if you're sick or something. It's also very useful to bring to friend's houses be it to just chill and play games by myself while other people play other games, or hooking it up to the TV and connecting some controllers and playing some games that way with everyone.

It's also great at emulation, so 2/4-player Mario Kart 64 in far better detail than native Nintendo 64 is amazing.

That is a good point, probably the same to me. It would seem kinda odd try to isolate yourself from the surrounding world that way. I usually have to be in certain kind of mood to play games, ready to concentrate on a game etc., and some busy airport or a bus ride is not that.

During e.g. a 10 hour flight, there I could see myself trying to play something just to waste hours (I am not into that "raw dogging" or whatever it was called where you just stare at a wall during a long flight), but I make such long flight max once a year (some years not even that), and there tends to be other activities there as well, e.g. last time a watched a few movies during the flight, e.g. "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" which was great.

Also, as said, since I am a laptop gamer, my only option to play games is not at home on a desktop PC. If I go to some other place for a week or month, I most probably have my laptop there with me, and I can play on it if I am really so bored or have time to kill there. I have a bit of problem thinking of gaming situations where a handheld would be a better option for gaming than a laptop, but a very long train trip or flight might be one (since there is no desk and probably no power outlet either).

Those PC handhelds look interesting, but have the drawback that they won't fit in my purse.

I've ended up getting controller that goes around my phone, and I can then use it for emulation or streaming games from my PC. (The latter, of course, only really works at home, but it means I can play the game lying down.)