TECH NEWS – SteamOS will therefore be essentially ready to use out of the box not only on AMD graphics cards.

Although the Steam Machine has been widely criticized for its disappointingly weak performance and excessively high price, for some people it is exactly what they have been looking for: a compact, console-like PC that runs their entire Steam library while fitting seamlessly into a living-room setup and offering reliable performance for less demanding games. The fact that it runs SteamOS has been crucial to the appeal of this niche product. The promise of playing comfortably from the couch without having to deal with Windows 11 was enough for some people to accept its price.

For those who cannot really stomach the high price of the new Steam Machine, however, Valve has provided a solution. SteamOS 3.8.10, released last week, brought major compatibility improvements for Intel and AMD’s latest and most powerful platforms. According to Valve employee Pierre-Loup Griffais, starting with the SteamOS 3.8 release, users can build their own Steam Machine from any PC components.

Valve is not stopping there. Griffais also stated that Valve is working with Nvidia to improve SteamOS compatibility with desktop hardware. While the biggest challenge for Linux compatibility, support for Nvidia graphics cards, will likely not be resolved this year, Valve will continue working on it behind the scenes.

Although the Steam Machine is still fresh in everyone’s memory, it is not the most interesting use case for SteamOS. The Steam Deck is arguably the more compelling example, as SteamOS enables performance from its hardware that few would have thought possible. With Intel’s newly gained efficiency advantage in the handheld market and SteamOS improving its compatibility with Intel hardware, all the pieces appear to be in place for a Panther Lake- or Wildcat Lake-based handheld with official SteamOS support.

It will be interesting to see how this affects Linux market share in the future. Bazzite and CachyOS already offer a solid gaming experience, but SteamOS, as Valve’s official platform, has unique mainstream potential. If SteamOS truly becomes a viable solution for PC gamers using all kinds of hardware, perhaps the year of Linux gaming PCs will finally arrive.

Source: WCCFTech, The Verge