We know that before too long, Valve is breaking SteamOS away from just being on the Steam Deck, and it looks like that day is coming fairly soon.
In the patch notes for the latest preview build of SteamOS, version 3.7.0, there is a single line among some fairly meaty changes that pricks up the ears.
“Beginnings of support for non-Steam Deck handhelds.”
That’s not to say that v3.7.0 is going to be the first version of SteamOS that will hit non-Valve handhelds, in fact, the way it’s worded would lead you to lean towards it not being.
The Lenovo Legion Go S is the first partner piece of hardware that will have a version that ships with SteamOS on, albeit as a choice not a replacement for Windows (we’ve already reviewed the Windows version, of course.)
But SteamOS is also being geared up for an official release as a piece of software folks who own other handhelds like the ROG Ally, and Lenovo Legion Go, can download and install themselves to make their own Steam Deck.
You can already do this to some degree by using Bazzite, which is a third-party Linux distro that has been built to mimic the UI and behavior of SteamOS. I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve heard good things from my colleague, Ben Wilson, who has, and it bodes well for SteamOS on these non-Valve handhelds.
Anticheat and other compatibility issues aside, SteamOS is just better to use on a handheld right now. The handheld UI is incredible, and Linux is just better at not gobbling up all the available system resources. It just is. Having SteamOS available for other handhelds is a massive shot in the arm for the category.
While Valve is busy laying the groundwork for other handhelds, that’s not the only important development in the latest version of SteamOS, which you can try on your Steam Deck right now by enabling the preview channel.
Here are the other key points:
- Updated to a newer Arch Linux base
- Updated the Linux kernel to 6.11
- Updated the Mesa graphics driver base
- Desktop mode now ships with Plasma 6.2.5
Most normal people will never need to care about any of that, but the short version is newer and better. The desktop upgrade is a move to a full new point release of KDE Plasma, which is significant.
Also sneaking its way in is a feature currently exclusive to the Steam Deck OLED, wherein your Bluetooth controllers will be able to wake a Steam Deck LCD from sleep. Perfect if you keep it docked to an external display a lot.
It won’t be too long before this release hits the stable channel, though as of yet the bigger wait is on news when the beta of SteamOS for other handhelds is going to kick off. But it’s definitely coming, and in the nearer term, it seems.