Using my Steam Deck as a work PC for 3 weeks — notes & impressions
old.reddit.com
My work PC died and while waiting for repair I ended up working on my Steam Deck for the last three weeks. I’m not a total Linux newbie, but I...
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/steamdeck by /u/Thory4fun on 2025-09-13 20:30:39+00:00.

My work PC died and while waiting for repair I ended up working on my Steam Deck for the last three weeks. I’m not a total Linux newbie, but I usually spend 99% of my time in Windows, so I thought it might be interesting to share some notes.

Setup:

  • Two screens stacked (one ultrawide, one standard) via a Lenovo docking station
  • One day of travel to client meetings — obviously couldn’t bring the Deck to such professional setting, so I borrowed an old laptop instead

What worked:

  • KDE is surprisingly close to Windows. Similar shortcuts, and window/tab arrangement felt natural.
  • Taskbar could be placed where I’m used to (left side vertical).
  • Overall experience was about 90%+ positive — not too much to complain about.

What didn’t work:

  • Every restart boots to gaming mode, so I had to manually switch to desktop each time.
  • Immutable system files made some things tricky (like installing Python libraries).
  • My mic wasn’t always picked up — had to re-plug ports occasionally.
  • Input would sometimes stop registering for several seconds if the Deck was busy with other tasks.
  • MS Teams was the biggest gap. I used Ferdium for chat, but calls don’t forward there. No native client meant lots of compromises.
  • Tried LibreOffice and WPS Office — both had issues (crashes / weird bold text bug). Ended up using Google Docs most of the time. If I did this long-term, I’d probably spin up a Windows VM for heavier MS Office work.
  • I didn’t actually game on it during this period. Docked switching between work and game modes felt too disruptive, so I just played on my 3DS instead.

Bottom line:

The Deck actually works quite well as a flexible PC, and it surprised me how much I could get done on it. At the same time, it goes a bit against the unique position of the Deck as a pure gaming handheld, where one button press gets you straight into a game. Still, it’s great to know it can handle work in a pinch.

Has anyone else here tried using their Deck as a daily driver for work? How did you deal with Teams/Office or other workflow gaps?