With the announcement of the Lenovo Legion Go S handheld gaming PC, the gears are well and truly turning. Revealed to be the first officially licensed third-party device to be running Valve’s Linux-based OS, we finally have more details about what to expect from the future of SteamOS—chiefly, Valve is opening the floodgates.
In a recent news post, Valve announced that SteamOS will expand “beyond Steam Deck,” with a beta version of the operating system becoming available for users to download ahead of Lenovo’s handheld shipping. Considering the Legion Go S is slated for a May release, that beta could be even closer than we think. At any rate, it’s been a long time coming.
Valve says it hopes this soon-to-be-more-widely-available beta version will “improve the experience on other handhelds,” with the company continuing work to extend SteamOS support. Gaming On Linux noted a slight edit that changed ‘devices’ to ‘handhelds,’ suggesting an attempt by Valve to manage expectations; for the time being, it would appear that official support for running SteamOS on your actual desktop is a possibility that remains lost to the mists.
We got an inkling more recently that SteamOS was in reach for non-Deck handhelds back in August when support for the ROG Ally handheld’s keys was detailed in a Beta update. Refined wording of SteamOS’ brand guidelines a few months later strengthened the theory—turns out we weren’t just blowing smoke!
Groaners aside, it seems highly likely that both SteamOS and by extension, the Steam Deck itself will continue to win people over. Versatility is the name of the handheld game; even though SteamOS is Linux-based, Valve’s Proton compatibility layer ensures games made for Windows work on Steam Deck, so development studios don’t also have to worry about creating a Linux port.
Furthermore, SteamOS’ desktop mode on Valve’s own handheld affords plenty of room to tinker and customise your device. This means that even on the Steam Deck itself, you’re not locked into only playing on Steam and can install competitor clients to your heart’s content. For another example, downloads over desktop mode were also how many turned their Steam Decks into stream decks—inelegantly to begin with, though dedicated apps like Nvidia’s GeForce Now make game streaming even breezier.
For these reasons and more, we still rate Valve’s original handheld. But with the Steam Deck 2 still a ways off, it certainly doesn’t hurt to see a few more SteamOS-compatible options on the horizon.
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