Valve's own operating system "SteamOS", based on a specific Linux distribution called Arch Linux, alongside their own Wine fork titled "Proton", have both opened up the doors for modern and AAA gaming on Linux machines, with their OS being developed specially for their Steam Deck handheld device. Since the release of the Steam Deck and SteamOS, many have wondered if the company could consider releasing their OS for general use as a distributable Linux distro to be installed in other devices and computers outside the Steam Deck.

That could all be a reality very soon, as Valve's designer Lawrence Yang has confirmed in an interview with The Verge that they are planning on bringing SteamOS support for other handheld devices in the market, more specifically, the ROG Ally.

Valve announced a few days ago a new update to the Beta channel of SteamOS, with version 3.6.9 adding a very specific general change which namedropped the ROG ally with the message "Added support for extra ROG Ally keys". While it was possible that Valve was simply adding support for the Steam Client on Windows to support these keys (given that the ROG Ally runs under Windows), The Verge asked directly if this was simply a Big Picture mode change, or if Valve is indeed planning to bring SteamOS to other systems:

The note about ROG Ally keys is related to third-party device support for SteamOS.
The team is continuing to work on adding support for additional handhelds on SteamOS.

Lawrence Yang mentions that work on bringing SteamOS to other devices, and even PCs, is currently "making steady progress", but their work is not ready quite yet, so it could still take some time to see SteamOS in other powerful handhelds and main PCs.

The Verge also asked about the possibility of dual-booting Windows on a Steam Deck, to which Yang replied:

As for Windows, we’re preparing to make the remaining Windows drivers for Steam Deck OLED available (you might have seen that we are prepping firmware for the Bluetooth driver). There’s no update on the timing for dual boot support—it’s still a priority, but we haven’t been able to get to it just yet.

Even though it could take some time to see SteamOS in other systems, the future for Valve's SteamOS, and Linux gaming as a whole, is looking better by the day, with more and more users using Linux and Steam for their gaming needs as days go by.

Source

 

[shadow1w2]

Would be neat to convert some old PCs to steamOS for an easy console setup for some casual gamers in my family.

Though I really wanna stick with the Steam Deck brand handheld hardware the most, just does what I want more.

 

[tech3475]

Would be nice if more games would support proton, I thought about setting up an old computer for the nephew.....but he's into Fortnite.

 

[Bladexdsl]

wonder if it will come to AYANEO's e-waste

 

[HarveyHouston]

STEAM OS!!! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

 

[ZeroFX]

About time! But I hope the verge isn't planning to make a tutorial on how to build a PC with steam os.

 

[Lodad]

This is what I've been wanting! Not that I have or can afford another handheld PC, but being able to reivigorate old devices or give an incentive for new hardware to be developed that Valve don't have to engineer is good for the hobby. I see this as a path forward for something like a Framework laptop, but in the form of a gaming handheld.

Not to mention, this creates another selling point for competitors' devices, and it benefits Steam to have their marketplace available without any extra hardware overhead, and neither company has to make as deep of an investment into support because of the third-party nature of the arrangement.

 

[eriol33]

I hope this is the beginning of the rise of Linux OS as the primary OS of PC gaming. If steam OS can dominate the PC gaming OS, maybe it will dethrone windows on desktops

 

[eyeliner]

The moment we get more handhelds with SteamOS, we might end up seeing Linux going up in the charts for gaming.

I'm still gonna run Windows but if i had a handheld, i would favor SteamOS over Windows just for better battery life since it wouldn't have a million Windows services running in the back and draining the battery.

No, you would not.

 

[subcon959]

They've been promising both these things for years. I've lost interest at this point.

 

[LanHikariDS]

Holy shit, I hope so! Full stop, I will switch most of my PCs over when this drops, probably just keep one on Windows for development shit.

 

[Xzi]

Praise be to GabeN. Would be incredible to have SteamOS on all my portable/handheld systems, within reason of course. Don't think it'll run on a Game Boy Advance any time soon.

 

[orangy57]

pretty cool, beyond me that they still don't offer the SteamOS distro that they said would release after the steam deck came out. Pretty sure the latest version of SteamOS is still from the Steam Machine days of 2014

 

[ComingInHotPink]

inb4 someone installs the distro on a PS3

hard mode:

Spoiler

getting it to run on a PS2

 

[raxadian]

Apparently this confirms Valve rumored plans to eventually discontinue the Steam Deck and why they refuse to launch updated versions of the Steam Deck with better hardware.

 

[urbanman2004]

Don't you mean "Valve's designer Lawrence Yang"? Lol @ShadowOne333

All jokes aside, once Valve makes SteamOS readily available for more x86 devices w/ compatible hardware, not only will it hike Linux's adoption rate, but it's also an incentive for Valve since it will also be a cash cow for their storefront due to entry-level PC gamers wanting to build their own game library.

 

[Jaxom]

Apparently this confirms Valve rumored plans to eventually discontinue the Steam Deck and why they refuse to launch updated versions of the Steam Deck with better hardware.

Could also be a Nintendo-like approach, to not flood the market with vastly different hardware option in too short time frames (the differences between the two Steam Deck versions are quite minimal, as are the ones between the Switch models).

Personally, I'd be interested by a Steam Deck having Thunderbolt 4 or 5 built-in compatibility to allow proper eGPU integration. Like: you have your Steam Deck, handled gaming is the classic experience, but when you're home, you can plug it to a docking station in which you have an RTX 40-series plugged-in and can go for really upgraded graphics experience.

Would end up a little more expensive (when you consider the whole package's price), but it would really bring up flexibility and customer-tailored experience for those you want to push further.

 

[Veho]

Isn't this just Steam Machine 2.0? What's different this time? Looser hardware requirements?

 

[LightyKD]

This is stupid. How about finishing the damn Windows drivers for Steam Deck OLED or updating the Windows GPU drivers for both LED and OLED?!

 

[CallmeBerto]

It will be interesting to see the benchmarks once it's officially released.

 

[gnmmarechal]

That's really my big curiosity with the original Ally. I'm openly pretty happy with Windows on it, but now I have the Odin 2 Mini for my emulation, I feel a little more eager to experiment. Especially if it means it'll give me better battery.

Also kinda curious if they got in touch with ASUS to support the XG Mobile... Doubtful on that, but it would be nice.

XG Mobile does work on Linux as far as I'm aware.