I’m thinking about switching to SteamOS since it’s built for gaming. Most of my games run fine on Linux Mint, but not all of them. I also heard Valve say “it’s just a PC”, does that mean it’s suitable for software development too?
Most of my games run fine on Linux Mint, but not all of them.
You’re not changing much when you’re changing distros, you may have slightly newer or older packages but we’re all running essentially the same Linux Kernel, Proton versions, etc.
You’d probably have less of a headache by trying to diagnose the games that don’t work than swapping OSs blindly and hoping that works.
If you were to swap, I’d look at something Arch-based. This way you’ll have access to the newest versions of everything (for good or ill).
You’re not changing much when you’re changing distros
This needs to be a pinned comment on every distro-hopping post.
For real. It’s basically do you like typing apt, dnf, or pacman more? Do you want stuff ready to go with potentially things you’ll never use, or do you want to do it all yourself? Do you want daily updates or just occasionally updates.
Strong disagree. I tried so hard to make Fedora and Mint work but it just wouldn’t play nice with my RTX 3080. Could it have worked with enough tinkering? Probably, but it took even less time to simply get CachyOS to work for most things out of the box.
SteamOS is arch based… As a note.
CachyOS is literally what people seem to think steamOS is. Bonus points it’s not atomic.
but we’re all running essentially the same Linux Kernel
Uh, yes and no. If you’re on Linux Mint 22.2+ you’re on 6.14. If you’re on Linux Mint 22.1 you’re on 6.8.
If you’re running Arch or equivalent, you’re either on 6.17 or 6.18 at the moment.
Now that doesn’t seem like a huge gap, but 6.8 came out March 2024. 6.14 is from March 2025. Debian 13.3 I think is on 6.12 which is November 2024.
These all seem recent, but Linux moves at such a fast pace that if you’re gaming you really should be on the latest kernel for the best possible performance for gaming, especially if you have newer hardware.
Of course use whatever you like, but I would tell people to evaluate what would be the best option for their environment. For me I run my own websites and game servers. They’re all on Debian containers.
If my mom came up to me and said she wanted to try “Linux” on her laptop, I’d just throw Ubuntu 24.04(or 26.04 for the next LTS) on it because I know she just needs something to surf the web.
And for me I recently went all in on CachyOS for my laptop and gaming desktop. I’m not running the latest and greatest hardware(Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series, Nvidia 3000 series), but this is my first attempt at a Arch based distro(well except my Steam Deck) and it’s been pretty rock solid.
As others have said, Bazzite is probably a better choice as steamos is pretty much targeting the steam deck. But if you want there is also the HoloISO project that tries to make SteamOS work better on other hardware.
https://github.com/HoloISO/releases/releases
I don’t think HoloISO is developed anymore. Last release is from Jun 3, 2024.
SteamOS isn’t really avaliable 😅 they said they were gonna do it, but they never did.
Bazzite is basically steamOS for normal pcs- but I would try something like endevaros or other arch distros if u wanna aim for steam.
SteamOS is arch based.
I assume it will come once the steam machine is out in a few months
Think you should edit your comment to remove the misinformation.
gurl what?
SteamOS is made for spesific hardware. hell a couple of years ago you had to try to trick it to even install on smth outside of steamdeck.
You said it isn’t available but it is. So you should edit your comment to not spread misinformation or clarify with a qualifier about hardware.
https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/download/?ver=steamdeck
It’s “available” in that you can get the ISO to re-install SteamOS on your Steam Deck in case you decided to try running Windows or your install got corrupted.
SteamOS as it is right now only works on an all-AMD setup, and there’s still issues with it if it’s installed on anything but the 3 devices that are officially supported at the moment
Perhaps then, for the sake of pedantry, a better fitting word could be “compatible”.
“Compatible” is not the word to use here. If you have Intel or Nvidia hardware you’re going to have tons of issues. Especially with Nvidia graphics cards where you generally don’t get a display at all.
Hell, I have an all-AMD system and I would likely have issues as well, since SteamOS doesn’t support GPU’s newer the the RX7000 series, and I have an RX9070XT.
If you’re going to insist on putting a label on the SteamOS install file, it’s “unofficially available for technical support”. Anything suggesting more than that is dishonest
Game compatibility and overall performance will be mostly the same regardless of which Linux distro you choose.
Yes some gaming focused distros add a few small extra tweaks bit in the grand scheme of things it’s largely the same.
I wouldn’t suggest using SteamOS outside of steam hardware het as its not built for general purpose computers. Futhermore, I wouldn’t suggest using Bazzite (the steamos-like distro for general purpose computers) unless you were installing it on a gaming focused pc or htpc.
You want to install SteamOS on your desktop PC? Because thats not officially supported. You can still do it, but you might get unlucky with hardware compatibility. Its primarily intended for use with custom hardware like handhelds or for dedicated gaming machines that you would put in your living room.
If you just want a desktop OS that can be used for productivity, but also goes well with gaming, i would choose something else.
Popular choices are CachyOS or Bazzite if you want to have very up to date software, but personally im just running good old debian even if it does not have the absolute latest drivers.
Unless something is badly configured, there shouldnt be a major difference between any of these distros game performance wise, so its more about what you like in terms of UX and UI.
And heck, I’m on Ubuntu and have no problems. I played BGIII and Cyberpunk 2077, full graphics,no glitches. Currently back on Skyrim with a couple hundred mods using Vortex.
Any Linux distro with Protontricks should be fine.
I’ll echo this, minus the Skyrim part because it’s been years since I touched it. Also, I’m on Debian, not Ubuntu. BGIII, Cyberpunk, Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West, Satisfactory, Doom 2016/Eternal, Diablo III when I’m in a particularly self-loathing mood…anything I throw at it, it’s handled. Haven’t played a single game on Windows in at least 3 years.
Also runs DaVinci Resolve Studio like a beast. That includes peripherals like the Speed Editor and Micro Color Panel, as well as the Blackmagic Intensity 4k capture card in a Thunderbolt enclosure. For my use case, there’s nothing Windows does that Debian can’t, apart from the whole “I paid like $200 for a license for this OS so the can serve me ads and spy on me all the time” thing.
I’ve used it. It’s fine on the SteamDeck but it’s not made for desktop yet. Just use CachyOS or Bazzite.
I also heard Valve say “it’s just a PC”, does that mean it’s suitable for software development too?
Yes, I used my Steam Deck for software development briefly. But don’t use the flatpak versions of the IDEs, use the tarballs instead. The flatpak sandbox will cause weird issues when the IDE is trying to access resources outside its sandbox. Also keep everything -as much as possible- in your home directory as intended by SteamOS, don’t try to unlock the read-only filesystem, even though you can, you will lose everything when SteamOS updates.
I still haven’t gotten to give it a full proper go. But Toolbx is designed to assist with development on immutable OSs. Let’s you do regular package installs for all the various Dev tools into a container. Can either install your IDE into the container and run it like a regular app, or use an IDE with built-in Dev Container support.
It’s optimized for gaming and you can install a lot of standard Linux apps. But it only works on specific hardware like the Deck and Legion at the moment, the Frame and Machine should be running their versions. A lot of things that come in a standard Distro for PCs have been removed that you might take for granted. I like to think of it as a balance between PC and game console, remember when you could side load Linux onto a PS3, sort of like that.
I use my Deck in desktop mode and connect it to my TV for web browsing, Steamlink to my tower and occasionally use the Libre apps, but I wouldn’t recommend using it as your daily PC. It doesn’t exactly feel like a fully fleshed out PC, hard to put a finger on it until you use it.
I use it as my daily pc. Though ive got another for docker and shit so maybe thats enough.
There’s really no reason to use it on a general purpose desktop. It’s designed to basically make a PC into a console. You do still have full access to the (mostly) normal Linux system behind it, but it’s not something I’d use unless I was setting it up for someone who didn’t want to deal with any of the behind the scenes stuff.
CachyOS, Nobara, and Bazzite all should get you the same level of gaming support with more flexibility as a normal OS, and they can all run Steam Big Picture which is basically the SteamOS UI.
Finally the discussion I searched for. I bought a steam deck killed steamOS the first day and went full bazzite. But since I used CachyOS on other hardware, I believe it is maybe better. So what? SteamOS, Bazzite or CachyOS?
I’m partial to CachyOS due to its mutable nature. Sure it gives you more tools to hang yourself with but it also means the most freedom for what you want out of your OS experience.
Is SteamOS even available for desktop PCs yet? I don’t think it is.
From the SteamOS page:
We expect most SteamOS users to get SteamOS preinstalled on a Steam Deck or device that incorporates SteamOS. The only devices officially supported on SteamOS right now are Steam Deck and Legion Go S. We are working on broadening support, and with the recent updates to Steam and SteamOS, compatibility with other AMD powered PC handhelds has been improved.
Until this changes, which I think is in the works, I recommend using some other popular distro.
Not much suitable for software development in normal classic way, all ur building tools u will have to run in distrobox or similar ways, u can disable read only file systems but it loose all point it basically just arch linux
I have a Steam Deck and it works brilliantly for me.
If you want to JUST game, SteamOS is great, like for a handheld, a living room gaming PC, etc.
If you want to do software dev, look elsewhere like Nobara, CachyOS, etc.
If it’s only for the games, maybe using steam flatpak can help. So the packages needed for gaming on steam will be up to date (if you have an NVIDIA card it will still be a problem I guess). And install maybe protonup-qt (don’t know if it is still used or replaced, sorry) to manage your proton versions and download the versions needed.
In addition, check protondb website to see if the problem you encounter are known and if it can be solved whether with a different version of proton or a command line in steam launcher exe of the game.
