Steam OS on PC, what is it like?

[Noctosphere]

Hello everyone,
Class is done, I'm now free for a few months before going back again.
It is now the best moment for me to look for a new OS to work with on my main PC.
I tried to change earlier, during late 2025, but since class was about to begin, I prefered to go back to windows, mainly due to a lack of time to get used to a linux based OS.
I was told to use Linux Mint, as well as Linux Ubuntu. Maybe it was due to the lack of time to get used to it, but I just couldn't figure out how everything was working and how to get acces to all my stuff
I remember it was a problem of disc formats (NTFS vs Ext4), that was solved in the end. But now, I'd like to know, is Steam OS good for a PC?
Here's a list of what I usually do on my PC
Browsing (Facebook, Youtube, etc.)
Gaming (Steam, emulation)
AI/LLM (Stable Diffusion, ComfyUI, Tripo)*
3D modeling/animation (Blender+Maya)
Torrenting (Nothing too shady)

Do you guys think these are all thing I can do on Steam OS or it would be better to try again with Mint or Ubuntu?
Also, without taking a look at all other programs I use or might use in the future and see if they have a linux version (DaVinci, which I need to use for school), do you think that I would be able to use them on Linux (Steam OS + Proton?) and they would run fine? Or that I should keep Windows?

Edit : Forgot to add this at the end
*Apparently, AI/LLM have better performance on Linux-based OS. No idea if it's true, but I'm still willing to give it a shot

 

[Magsor]

I think you are heading for a trainwreck. Steam OS likes AMD hardware supposedly. I am switching too I am on fedora right now but I have had mid-success with game and need a streamlined way to run windows apps (thru steam?). Every emulators out there is deeply flawed. I will be switching to Nobara soon to see if I get more success with more games, Also something to remember: flathub.org is the goat.

 

[tech3475]

Ubuntu is AFAIK still the main distro for Steam on Linux, outside of Steam OS of course.

Alternative methods exist such as Flatpak, but these from what I've heard can have issues e.g. lack of VR support.

I've seen others use Bazzite, but I haven't used this myself and there are other distros such as Pop OS!, although I had issues with Waydroid so quickly ditched it.

Steam OS itself is based on Arch, but I would avoid that if you're relatively new.

Personally, I lean towards Mint, in part due to it's Ubuntu base and part ease of Installing Nvidia drivers*. But I haven't used it long term as a daily driver.

edit:

*comapred to Fedora

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hello everyone,
Class is done, I'm now free for a few months before going back again.
It is now the best moment for me to look for a new OS to work with on my main PC.
I tried to change earlier, during late 2025, but since class was about to begin, I prefered to go back to windows, mainly due to a lack of time to get used to a linux based OS.
I was told to use Linux Mint, as well as Linux Ubuntu. Maybe it was due to the lack of time to get used to it, but I just couldn't figure out how everything was working and how to get acces to all my stuff
I remember it was a problem of disc formats (NTFS vs Ext4), that was solved in the end. But now, I'd like to know, is Steam OS good for a PC?
Here's a list of what I usually do on my PC
Browsing (Facebook, Youtube, etc.)
Gaming (Steam, emulation)
AI/LLM (Stable Diffusion, ComfyUI, Tripo)*
3D modeling/animation (Blender+Maya)
Torrenting (Nothing too shady)

Do you guys think these are all thing I can do on Steam OS or it would be better to try again with Mint or Ubuntu?
Also, without taking a look at all other programs I use or might use in the future and see if they have a linux version (DaVinci, which I need to use for school), do you think that I would be able to use them on Linux (Steam OS + Proton?) and they would run fine? Or that I should keep Windows?

Edit : Forgot to add this at the end
*Apparently, AI/LLM have better performance on Linux-based OS. No idea if it's true, but I'm still willing to give it a shot

If you use the PC for other things than just gaming you would probably be better served by a more general purpose (but still gaming oriented) distro. SteamOS is really meant for using the Big Picture interface as your main interface and the desktop is secondary. That makes sense on a handheld or on a TV setup where you just want to pick up a controller and play but if keyboard/mouse is your primary input method you might not want Big Picture to launch by default.

Edit:
I can't advise you on a specific distro because there are a bunch of different recommendations and I don't have personal experience with any of them, it depends what you want out of Linux. Nobara, CachyOS and Bazzite are all common recommendations. If you like to tinker Bazzite is not a good option but it may be good if you want the simplest setup.

 

[AmeliaFox]

Why not just dual boot, that way you can have as many operating systems as you want (depending on hard drive space). Or use some virtual machines instead, that way you can run everything the way it's meant to be run.

 

[Latiodile]

AI/LLM (Stable Diffusion, ComfyUI, Tripo)*

*Apparently, AI/LLM have better performance on Linux-based OS. No idea if it's true, but I'm still willing to give it a shot

it seems fairly similar for me, but my experience is with reforge (different branch than main) and kohya_ss, windows is just way pickier with file paths in CMD

 

[TomRiddle]

SteamOS is really meant for using the Big Picture interface as your main interface and the desktop is secondary. That makes sense on a handheld or on a TV setup where you just want to pick up a controller and play but if keyboard/mouse is your primary input method you might not want Big Picture to launch by default.

I agree with this take. Personally I don't just see why you wouldn't just install vanilla Arch Linux with the KDE desktop environment with archinstall and from there updating preexisting packages is just a Sudo Pacman -Syu away from being set.

Personally I've been using regular Arch with KDE for over a year now with my 3080 and I7-12700K and have no desire to go back to Windows. Sure having support for Dolby Atmos for select games and software like ShaderBeam to simulate CRT motion clarity through BFI on an OLED would be nice to have but honestly I'm just too fed up with Windows for those things to be reason to switch back to Microslop.

For playing PC Games generally ProtonDB along with the Linux Gaming Wiki and the usual sites like PCGamingWiki help out a ton with making most games run good.

There might be a stigma against Nvidia cards in the community but honestly to OP performance to Windows will likely be identical minus the DX12 performance losses on the main nvidia drivers. Nvidia even has the advantage of full HDMI 2.1 support on Linux for TVs (as long as the full colour space is 4:4:4 enabled on the TV) which is something that AMD doesn't officially have due to the HDMI Forum cabal being pricks. Traditional LCPM surround sound also works great with the 5.0 setup I have as well provided that 4:4:4 HDMI capabilities are enabled by your AV reciever/TV.

So IMO I think either vanilla Arch Linux is good or something more gaming oriented like Bazzite or Nobara are the best solutions for your use case OP. For Windows applications try WinBoat (Windows 11 VM) and see if it works for you.

 

[Exnor]

Why don't you just install it and try by yourself ? You can always revert to other distro if you don't like it.

 

[Skv0ra]

Here's a list of what I usually do on my PC
Browsing (Facebook, Youtube, etc.)
Gaming (Steam, emulation)
AI/LLM (Stable Diffusion, ComfyUI, Tripo)*
3D modeling/animation (Blender+Maya)
Torrenting (Nothing too shady)

Do you guys think these are all thing I can do on Steam OS or it would be better to try again with Mint or Ubuntu?

Does Steam OS allow you to run pirated games from Steam? And that's the real answer, on any PC.

 

[Magsor]

Does Steam OS allow you to run pirated games from Steam? And that's the real answer, on any PC.

Yes. Steam does not care about piracy. You can run what you want exactly how you want (same as steam in windows ).

 

[Skv0ra]

Yes. Steam does not care about piracy. You can run what you want exactly how you want (same as steam in windows ).

Steam in Win is but a program to access online database of DRM and servers, but if their own linux distro doesn't care that's kinda impressive?

 

[Taleweaver]

Benchmarks between Linux versions are scarce, but unless you want bleeding edge stuff, any distro will suffice.
I've used chromium and libreoffice on steamos and it worked fine. Qbittorrent and emudeck work fine as well. Though I've not tried the latter on mint, i presume it's not different.

So in the end: i'd just recommend to pick a distro and stick with it until you know your way around in it. Steamos and bazzite are best for handheld/console gaming, but you can tell at least the former to boot into desktop as well.

No idea about ai or 3d modeling. Linux is is generally more conscious on what it uses (just yesterday I checked on a fresh win 11 install... It took 8 of the 16 gb ram to render an empty desktop).

Does Steam OS allow you to run pirated games from Steam? And that's the real answer, on any PC.

Of course. It's an operating system. Heck... I even use windows versions of games, af them as non steam games in steam and then tell Proton to run it. Won't work every time, but I've got dozens of games that work fine.
(ironically: mostly games I have on steam)