Valve wants to make SteamOS, the proprietary operating system for the Steam Deck available on other hardware. This includes competing handheld PCs.
SteamOS was announced approximately 10 years ago, originally as an alternative way to launch Steam games and emulate the feel of console operating systems. In the years since, it’s became the core of the Steam Deck handheld device.
While for now, the Steam Deck can officially run Windows for maximum compatibility, Valve is still hard at work getting their Linux-based operating system up to snuff. When asked about new iterations of SteamOS appearing outside of the Steam Deck, Lawrence Yang from Valve had this to say to PCGamer:
“it’s very high on our list, it’s on our list and we are working on it. But a lot of the same people that would make the general install of SteamOS available are the same people that are making Galileo [Steam Deck OLED] work.”
“We’re hoping soon, though, it is very high on our list, and we want to make SteamOS more widely available. We’ll probably start with making it more available to other handhelds with a similar gamepad style controller. And then further beyond that, to more arbitrary devices. I think that the biggest thing is just, you know, driver support and making sure that it can work on whatever PC it happens to land on. Because right now, it’s very, very tuned for Steam Deck.”
With the new Steam Deck OLED announced yesterday, Valve seems to have plans to expand handheld PC gaming through both its hardware and software.
