SteamOS will be coming to other handhelds before you can install it on your PC 'because right now, it's very, very tuned for Steam Deck'
Where the hell is SteamOS? That was one of the key questions I wanted answered when I sat down with Valve's Lawrence Yang and Yazan Aldehayyat, two of the longest serving members of the Steam Deck team. As always, the answer is «soon» but interestingly Valve is looking to make it available to other handhelds first, before a wider PC and laptop launch.
The promise of Valve's rejuvenated Arch-based Linux OS has ably demonstrated the power of the dedicated gaming operating system, especially when you think about what Proton has delivered when getting Windows games working in a Linux environment. And since the Steam Deck originally launched at the start of last year a general install build has always just been «soon» on the horizon.
To be fair, we have long had system images we can drop onto existing devices, such as laptops, desktops, and toasters, but Valve has always said «It may not work properly. SteamOS 3 proper will come out sometime after [the Steam Deck] launch (and even then it may not work on your toaster.)»
So when are we going to get SteamOS 3.x outside of the Steam Deck?
«Oh, man,» sighs Lawrence Yang, «it's very high on our list, it's on our list and we are working on it. But a lot of the same people that would make the general install of SteamOS available are the same people that are making Galileo [Steam Deck OLED] work.
»We're hoping soon, though, it is very high on our list, and we want to make SteamOS more widely available. We'll probably start with making it more available to other handhelds with a similar gamepad style controller. And then further beyond that, to more arbitrary devices. I think that the biggest thing is just, you know, driver support and making sure that it can work on whatever PC it
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