Valve has always been a supporter of Linux gaming, but the Steam Deck could really kick things into gear.
While a lot has been made of how the new Steam Deck could take on the Nintendo Switch when it comes to handheld gaming, what’s perhaps most exciting is what it could do for Linux gaming. The Steam Deck runs Steam OS, an operating system built by Valve and based on Arch Linux. Steam OS has been around for a while now – though you might not have known it. Originally a Debian-based Linux distro, Steam OS was originally conceived as an alternative to Windows 10 that gamers would use, either installing it on their own gaming PCs, or by buying a Steam Box gaming device. The benefits of Steam OS were that, like other Linux distros, it would be free – so you didn’t need to buy a license as you do with Windows 10. The money you save on that could then be spent on something more fun, like more games or putting it towards upgrading your GPU, for example. Steam OS was also less resource-hungry than the comparably-bloated Windows 10, and that meant that when playing games, your PC could concentrate its firepower on the game, not background processes, and this could lead to better performance in games. These sound good, but Steam OS failed to take off, and gamers stuck with Windows 10. The main issue was that many game developers didn’t share their enthusiasm for Linux as Valve has, so wouldn’t make ports of their games to run on Linux.
