i tried it for a bit since i’m going the oscp cert rn and my windows desktop is being annoying since i run wsl so vmware runs like shit. and my macbook is arm
what kind of pentesting are you trying to do? it has monitor mode which is neat, but i’d still rather hook it up to a mouse and keyboard. at that point i just use my laptop cause wifi snooping isn’t my thing
curious, what makes the apple studio display not compatible with the steam deck? i know the ts3+ dock doesn’t work, if you’re using that, but the ts4 one does
re: windows, i don’t have a legion pro and maybe the software is better but i hated windows on my onexplayer. updating drivers was a pain and the experience was pretty cumbersome. steamos was hands down the smoother experience
steamos doesn’t require tinkering any more than the other handhelds. you can easily tinker with just the game settings but i largely play games out of the box. if you stick to steam games, the tinkering is mostly qol to squeeze out more battery life or configure controls. if you run other clients then yeah ticketing is involved. compatibility is lower than windows but i don’t play any multiplayer games on the deck. most of my single player games, even non verified works pretty well for me. for the odd few that don’t work, the latest proton version or experimental usually fixes things
the portal sounds great for minimal work but i hardly touch my ps5 and the other handhelds can easily stream ps5 games. i personally don’t think the portal is worth the money
do you have a small list of the kind of games you want to play? the main problems are games with anti cheat and games with their own launchers. games with anti cheat you can check https://areweanticheatyet.com/ to see if your game works on the deck. if you’re adamant about playing those games you’re better off dual booting or installing windows, or getting an ally/legion go or something
for games with their own launchers, it can get annoying. rockstar launcher sometimes breaks games for me and whatever ea calls their client now occasionally breaks too. they get resolved and the community usually has some fixes. its annoying but works most of the time, at least for the games i play
i play a lot of deck unverified games and jrpgs. most deck unverified games work well for me and if they don’t, the latest proton from the protonup-qt app usually fixes it https://davidotek.github.io/protonup-qt/. same with jrpgs. else you can hop over to https://www.protondb.com/ to see community comparability rankings, tips, and fixes
depends on your lifestyle and the kind of person you are. i don’t have a screen protector on anything i own and never had an issue. i don’t share my stuff or have people in my apartment touch my things. and i only play it indoors
i personally would invest in a better resolution monitor than the steam deck, but i have all the devices you have and still get good use out of my steam deck. i keep my switch around but never touch it since i have a better time emulating on my pc
if you have extra funds i view my deck as an auxiliary gaming device since most of my deck gaming is jrpgs, indies, and games that i want to pick up right away out of standby mode then suspend so i can switch to my pc and play more demanding games. sometimes i stream emulated switch games from my pc to my deck and it works great within the house
you’ll probably have better luck explaining your situation to steam or getting friends/family to help ship it back