Maybe I'll write something in the future
It was not too hard if you are already familiar with Nix. The features supported (and the custom Linux kernel) can be found in surface-linux. For NixOS I used the nix-hardware flake to simplify things.
The worst part was the compilation of the Linux kernel, that took hours on the surface. Eventually, I used the remote nix build feature to compile on a more capable computer.
I use both Julia and Rust, I did shot a few times in the foot with Julia (for instance, getting memory leaks on the GPU). Now, I use Julia (the REPL) when I want to quickly script some code and use Pluto.jl to plot data and teach programming.
Yes, I believe it has plenty advantages in using the steam deck vs android tablets. Instead of installing Ubuntu on my Steam Deck, I utilize Podman and Podman Compose to launch the necessary ROS nodes.
My Steam Deck records compressed RGB+D and LiDAR data into rosbags, while running a LOAM-based algorithm and visualizing the map in real-time. During this process, the CPU usage remains around 70%. The primary consumer of system resources was Chrome, (running Foxglove), which accounted for approximately 17% of CPU usage. This leaves room to experiment with more resource-intensive algorithms (which I will be doing in the future). I think I could not have managed this in a tablet for the price of the Steam Deck.
The presence of joysticks on the Steam Deck proves useful for utilizing it as a controller, another benefit versus using an Android tablet. Although I have not yet messed with the joysticks, only with the back buttons to add a few keybindings.
He gave an interview where he said he took off the the gloves during that penalty to play mind games on the opponent.