SteamOS Continues Its Slow Spread Across the PC Gaming Landscape (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0180545873
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/01/08/052240/steamos-continues-its-slow-spread-across-the-pc-gaming-landscape
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/steamos-continues-its-slow-spread-across-the-pc-gaming-landscape/
> SteamOS's slow march across the Windows-dominated PC gaming landscape is continuing to creep along. At CES this week, Lenovo [1]announced it will launch a version of last year's high-priced, high-powered Legion Go 2 handheld with Valve's gaming-focused, Linux-based OS pre-installed starting in June. And there are some intriguing signs from Valve that SteamOS [2]could come to non-AMD devices in the not-too-distant future as well . [...] Valve has also been working behind the scenes to expand SteamOS's footprint beyond its own hardware. After rolling out the SteamOS Compatible software label last May, SteamOS version 3.7 offered support for manual installation on AMD-powered handhelds like the ROG Ally and the original Legion Go.
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> Even as SteamOS slowly spreads across the AMD-powered hardware landscape, the OS continues to be limited by a lack of compatibility with the wide world of Arm devices. That could change in the near future, though, as Valve's upcoming Steam Frame VR headset will sport a new version of SteamOS designed specifically for the headset's Arm-based hardware. [...] It's an especially exciting prospect when you consider the wide range of Arm-based Android gaming handhelds that currently exist across the price and performance spectrum. While emulators like Fex can technically let players access Steam games on those kinds of handhelds, official Arm support for SteamOS could lead to a veritable Cambrian explosion of hardware options with native SteamOS support.
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> [...] That's great news for fans of PC-based gaming handhelds, just as the announcement of Valve's Steam Machine will provide a convenient option for SteamOS access on the living room TV. For desktop PC gamers, though, rigs sporting Nvidia GPUs might remain the final frontier for SteamOS in the foreseeable future. "With Nvidia, the integration of open-source drivers is still quite nascent," [Valve's Pierre-Louis Griffais] [3]told Frandroid about a year ago. "There's still a lot of work to be done on that front So it's a bit complicated to say that we're going to release this version when most people wouldn't have a good experience."
[1] https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-levels-up-ces-with-legion-gaming-devices/
[2] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/steamos-continues-its-slow-spread-across-the-pc-gaming-landscape/
[3] https://www.frandroid.com/marques/valve/2462758_il-y-a-12-ans-de-travail-pour-en-arriver-la-interview-de-pierre-loup-griffais-developpeur-de-steamos-los-phare-du-steam-deck
uh (Score:3)
> Even as SteamOS slowly spreads across the AMD-powered hardware landscape, the OS continues to be limited by a lack of compatibility with the wide world of Arm devices.
Name the ARM-based system that's relevant in PC gaming, justifying this statement. Oh, there isn't one? Oh, AMD's APUs are just as power efficient as an ARM when you take the GPU into account? Oh, the Steam Deck is amd64 based but still has good battery life? Oh.
I'm not an ARM hater, but the idea that lack of ARM compatibility has been affecting Valve is ridiculous.
Re: uh (Score:2)
Considering that Valve is working on an arm SteamOS device, the Steam Frame, Iâ(TM)m not sure I can reconcile your statement.
Re: (Score:2)
> Considering that Valve is working on an arm SteamOS device, the Steam Frame, IÃ(TM)m not sure I can reconcile your statement.
You can't reconcile your browser settings either. Work on that first.
Once Valve puts that device together they will have solved the problem and it... won't be a problem
Re: (Score:2)
Well, it probably hasn't hurt valve yet. But it probably will impact it eventually.
It is not hard to see that there is a good chance the computing landscape will have more ARM based system in the future. Mac laptops are ARM based, and MS produced surface with ARM for a long time now. The nintendo switch and switch 2 are ARM systems.
It seems reasonable for Valve/SteamOS to see a shift to ARMin gaming as a long term threat/opportunity.
Microsoft will do the same thing to steamos (Score:1)
That they did to netbooks. They will pressure the oems threatening their volume discounts if they touch it while also slashing prices on their own software and these days hardware.
You can't have an alternative to Microsoft until you enforce antitrust law. And you can't enforce antitrust law until you stop electing corporate tools. You can start by voting Democrat. Back in 2000 they were going to finally reign in Microsoft and then we elected Bush Jr and that was the end of that.
And here's the thing
Re: (Score:2)
Democrats have as much corporate tools as the Republicans do, is my impression. Perhaps slightly less obnoxious in pursuit of their goals, but that is about the only difference.
Re: (Score:2)
Both parties want to suck all the profit out of everything.
The most cynical view is that they are intentionally working together in an orchestrated fashion.
But assuming that's not true:
Republicans want to profit from starving children, Democrats want to profit from feeding them
Republicans want to profit from depriving people of health care, Democrats want to profit from helping them have it
Republicans want to profit from wars for oil, Democrats want to profit from renewable energy
Republicans want to profit
Re: (Score:2)
Think 2016 (when the Republicrat era ended) and later.
Re:Microsoft will do the same thing to steamos (Score:4, Insightful)
Lenovo et al make ChromeOS and Android devices. It would be very, very, hard for Microsoft to come up with a licensing condition that forbids SteamOS devices but not ChromeOS and Android.
A good question though is does it matter? If Valve is going to build SteamOS devices anyway, then they'll be available, and be available from a corporation with the power to market them effectively.
If Lenovo gets too scared to release a SteamOS device, then it doesn't mean SteamOS devices won't be available.
The other issue here would be that Valve is making SteamOS devices in form factors that Windows has yet to support. Is Microsoft going to tell Lenovo not to make a VR headset because it won't run Windows? What about a console like the Steam Machine? Does Microsoft have a TV-friendly user interface for a games machine that isn't XBox (and therefore not available to third parties?)
The other thing that bothers me is... how important is Windows to Microsoft these days anyway? Obviously they can't just drop it, it makes profits, but since the late 1990s their primary revenue has been from Office. A typical Windows user pays $50 every 3-5 years to Microsoft (via their OEM) for the operating system, but $50 a year to Microsoft for the office suite (yes, some pay nothing and do not have Office 365, but most Windows users pay way North of that making up the difference.) Server versions of Windows have been clearly deprecated in favor of Azure, and I've been kind of surprised that Microsoft hasn't just cloned ChromeOS, centered it around Edge with a Microsoft login, and improved Office Online enough to work well on it, it'd be a great way to make a free operating system for barebones hardware that someone else does almost all the support for.
And my reason for wondering that is... I just don't see how relevant desktop windows is to anyone right now other than a small group of us nerds, and gamers who hate consoles. Microsoft presumably knows that too, and they've been doing their best to switch to other revenue streams, and from what I can see have been very successful at it. So why bother having a pointless war on SteamOS that won't help them much and will attract anti-trust scrutiny in those parts of the world that have functional governments?
Re: (Score:1)
Unlike all these previous time, Microsoft pissed off consumers by pushing AI so hard. It doesn't work, and everyone knows a grandma that had to replace a computer because of that. If I was Apple, I'd be hammering "MacOS just works" ads and offering discounts to Windows refugees.
Single Linux Target Platform for Games (Score:5, Interesting)
A problem many developers for Linux have is what distros to target and test for. Steam OS has the potential to be _the_ reference platform for porting games to Linux. Then, once something runs under SteamOS, other distros can work out what they need to do in order for those same games to work on their distro, assuming they're interested in games.
Re: (Score:2)
That's what AppImage/snaps/flatpaks are for - a distribution-independent way to distribute software. You can even throw Docker into the mix.
SteamOS isn't about providing a standardized Linux distribution. It's just a way for Valve to provide a standard platform to run Steam on.
Steam on Linux could also run Proton, which is a WINE-based runtime library (library - not an executable) that Steam uses to provide Windows API compatibility. This opened SteamOS to being able to run a huge quantity of Windows only g
Re: (Score:2)
Do we not think it's a little silly to say "developers have a target to develop for" and then list 4 different methods that could be mixed and matched across dozens of distros? Do we have to make a permanent link to the [1]12 year old video of Linus himself complaining about this very problem [youtube.com] and where he says he has hope Valve will eventually solve this problem?
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzl1B7nB9Kc
Windows pissed off too many PC gamers (Score:1)
I really don't think many PC gamers care for endless Windows shenanigans which starting to get in the way of playing games.
Not just great news for gaming handhelds... (Score:2)
...but for Linux in general. I never imagined I would see Proton build up the momentum that it has but it's remarkable to be able to play the latest AAA titles without paying the Microsoft tax. I never thought I'd be playing Clair Obscur in Linux Mint.
I am also quite happy with the Deck but it's great to see healthy competition in the handheld gaming market. Valve isn't trying to stamp out its competitors. This is how innovation thrives. (Fuck Nintendo.)
Excellent (Score:2)
I work with computers so much that I really cannot be arsed to make the games I play work on Linux. If that gets easier (and at some point it will be a landslide), I can get rid of the joke that Win11 is on my gaming machine as well.
Well duh. (Score:2)
With Windows 11 being such a resource suck, that keeps sucking more and more with every update, it's no surprise that gamers would be interested in OS built for gaming.