SteamOS could soon see general release and work with other portable gaming PCs

In short: One of the main advantages of Steam Deck over more powerful portable gaming PCs is its operating system, which is designed to mimic the interface of a gaming console in a Linux PC environment. Valve has long planned to bring the operating system to other devices, but a recent Steam Deck software update includes the first mention of a competing portable device.

A mention in this week’s Steam Deck firmware patch notes has some observers speculating that Valve is preparing to release its prized Linux build for third-party hardware, a move that could have significant impact on the emerging portable PC space.

The SteamOS 3.6.9 beta release notes mostly consist of bug fixes and support for additional external controllers. However, a line towards the end confirms that the firmware now supports “additional ROG Ally keys,” likely referring to the buttons on Asus’ ROG Ally portable PC.

The mention follows Valve’s previous comments about plans to make SteamOS compatible with a wider range of systems. Late last year, the company told PC Gamer that it was considering the general release of SteamOS a priority. The operating system will first come to other mobile devices and PCs that use gamepads, and then be available for installation on any PC.

Competing portables like the ROG Ally, MSI Claw, Lenovo Legion Go, Ayaneo, and GPD Win all run Windows, which supports more software than SteamOS. However, because it’s designed for large screens and keyboards, Windows can feel cumbersome on small devices that only use gamepad buttons. The ability to install SteamOS on multiple portable PCs can significantly improve the user experience.

Valve’s Lawrence Yang explained that working on Steam Deck OLED was taking resources away from the project (let’s not forget that Valve’s teams and headcount aren’t that large), and driver optimization was a major challenge. Many games likely run well on Steam Deck because Valve can optimize SteamOS’s graphics drivers and shaders for a known, static hardware configuration. Including third-party hardware into the equation would likely complicate the process.

Amateurs have released SteamOS clones like Bazzite and HoloISO that support any hardware, but their complicated installation process can go against the design intent of laptops, which are simply meant to be easy to boot up and play.

Additionally, HoloISO does not officially support Nvidia GPUs. Allowing OEMs like Asus to ship SteamOS devices out-of-the-box would likely speed up the spread of Valve’s software.