Prebuilts are often cheaper due to the manufacturers selling bloatet crap as “preinstalled OEM Windows” where they get paid to include a bunch of unnecessary software into their images. That way, they can sell their PCs for cheaper while still making a profit.
I think the argument is the Steam Machine won’t get that advantage because it’s running Linux out-of-the-box. There’s still some stuff that could be bundled, but I expect it not to do so for money. I don’t think the Deck does.
Prebuilts are often cheaper due to the manufacturers selling bloatet crap as “preinstalled OEM Windows” where they get paid to include a bunch of unnecessary software into their images. That way, they can sell their PCs for cheaper while still making a profit.
So things you can easily remove by resetting Windows, ok got it.
I think the argument is the Steam Machine won’t get that advantage because it’s running Linux out-of-the-box. There’s still some stuff that could be bundled, but I expect it not to do so for money. I don’t think the Deck does.
Yes, that has been the conventional wisdom for the last 20 or so years.
They also get better parts prices than consumers if they buy bulk.