New VR gear to compete with Meta's bullshit Quest line. Has the added bonus of being developed with Linux in mind, so even if Valve enshittifies, I could install whatever OS I wanted on the Frame and it's still mine.

Gaming VR from the only company I trust to not completely fuck it up.

IMO, it's not "trust to not completely fuck it up"...

Instead, for any product at all, Valve is the only company I don't completely trust to completely fuck it up.

Still, I'm not hyped on VR.

So what’s the difference between this and the Index? Is the Frame its own independent unit? Does it require the lighthouses to orient itself?

It's its own unit! From Valve's own website:

Steam Frame is a streaming-first, wireless VR headset + controllers that can handle your whole Steam library. Step into immersive VR, or lean back and enjoy your non-VR catalog. And it supports stand-alone play too.

It's got its own CPU, GPU, and RAM, and has SteamOS preinstalled (just like the Deck or upcoming Machine) that you can play standalone games on, but also stream from a PC for even beefier games.

Nice. I never looked into it cause I just figured it was Index 2

There's some pretty interesting tech and development behind it, too. Like the Proton-like translation layer which will allow x86-native games to be played on ARM (I think this is an accurate, if reductive, description of Valve's FEX). It's just a cool piece of hardware, sorry if I seem too excited 😅

Its good for flight/space/racing sims and beat saber. Anything else is kinda meh