Be very keen to see steam OS everywhere, there’s a vetted interest in valve getting this widely adopted (more devices running it means more eyes on steam and more potential sales)
I’m keen to see the hardware variations device manufacturers come up with when they can just throw steam os on them and it all “just works”
Seems like they won’t release it before it’s in a state where it’ll “just work” on about machine, which makes sense, since that’s the thing that helped the Steam Deck to success.
To that end it’ll probably be a while before they can get there, particularly for machines with NVIDIA GPUs, assuming stuff like multi-monitor VRR and bug-free Wayland support is on the list of requirements.
Not exactly. There’s the old Debian based version and a user edited version of the deck’s recovery image. The latter gets you pretty close to the experience, but as with most arch based distros it’s not always a super user-friendly experience.
If the reduction in overhead, or any other optimizations it might offer, increases performance even more, I might go out of my way to set up a multi-boot.
A gaming-focused, curated experience that just works™️
With a little know how you can get 99% of the way there with any arch based distro, but installing a new OS for non techies can be pretty intimidating. Having Valve’s assurance that it works with all common hardware would help more people take the plunge, I think.
It’s tuned for a specific hardware platform right now. Choosing specific hardware platforms for support is just an extensions of that.
However the “PC” platform is basically an amalgamation of any possible hardware combination that currently exists, and is a whole different target for a project like this.
The current, unavailable for general download, is Steam OS 3. Valve just refuses to put a number 3 anywhere, do they just pretend the other two do not exist.
BTW, there are a few “almost steam os” out there. I can vouch for Bazzite, it’s fedora based and really good. Very welcoming for beginners, but had a lot of options of you want to dig a bit.
I think you’re talking about the really old version from the steam machines. The OS the Steam Deck uses (version 3.0+) is completely rebuilt and uses a different OS as a base (now using Arch instead of Debian)
If you mean the old Debian based one, yes. SteamOS 3+ is arch based and released with the steam deck. Valve said they’d release a version for desktops, but have yet to follow through.
Listen, I would pay good money for an off the shelf console first computer that runs SteamOS, has as primary input a controller and an ARM architecture or any other small form factor x86, that fits under the TV. Freaking SteamMachines were a top notch idea, and Gabe should go for it again.
That gets wildly different with how taxing games are and how much they specifically take advantage of x86_64 instructions sets. Even decade old games would barely squeak by, if they don’t break entirely.
The OS was also very limited with focus on Linux ports of games which there were not very many at the time. Proton wasn’t a thing yet. I bought two of them, one for myself and one for my brother. I tested it out & it was neat but wiped both to do clean installs of Windows 7 so could play the games we wanted.
I think it’s worth checking out some diy alternatives that get the job done. I built my own “steam box” with some cheap Ali Express parts (Elsa 5700xt and Erying motherboard with core I9 equivalent engineering sample) to great success. The OS is key. I’ve found two that work very well:
Would love a new Steam Machine and could actually be good this time. Proton didn’t exist when they released the original Steam Machines which limited you to linux ports of games. I had bought two but wiped & did clean installs of Windows 7 so we could play all the games wanted to.
Before Proton, gaming on linux relied on native ports or WINE. Native ports were rare & not always better. WINE took some learning to make work well but I dunno, never got any good at it.
I have a suspicion that they are making something. In an interview about the steam deck refresh one of the engineers mentioned how they couldn’t find an AMD apu that was efficient and powerful enough to warrant making a steam deck 2, he said not in this chassis anyway. Insinuating they know of one for a different chassis. Pinch of salt.
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