SteamOS
SteamOS is a Linux distribution developed by Valve. It incorporates Valve's popular namesake Steam video game storefront and is the primary operating system for the Steam Deck, Valve's portable gaming device, as well as Valve's earlier Steam Machines. SteamOS is open source with some closed source components.
SteamOS 3.0 "holo" with the default Plasma desktop running on the Steam Deck | |
| Developer | Valve, Collabora |
|---|---|
| OS family | Linux (Unix-like) |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source base system with closed source components |
| Initial release | December 13, 2013 |
| Latest release | 3.5.7 (November 22, 2023) [±] |
| Latest preview | 3.5.16 Preview (February 2, 2024) [±] |
| Repository | repo |
| Marketing target | Gaming, entertainment |
| Available in | Various |
| Package manager | |
| Platforms | x86-64 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic (Linux) |
| Userland | GNU |
| Default user interface | Steam (gaming mode) Plasma (desktop mode) |
| Official website | SteamOS |
SteamOS was originally built as a client for video game streaming over a local network from a gaming PC and was later extended to support some on-device gameplay, with the intent for lightweight, upgradeable PC's, known as Steam Machines, to run SteamOS for game streaming and local play. SteamOS versions 1.0, released in 2013, and 2.0, released in 2015, were based on the Debian distribution of Linux with GNOME desktop. Valve encouraged developers to incorporate Linux compatibility into their releases to better support Linux gaming options, including SteamOS, with mixed success.
In February 2022, Valve released the Steam Deck gaming handheld, running a dramatically updated version of SteamOS, version 3.0, based on the Arch Linux distribution with the KDE Plasma environment pre-installed, as well as Valve's Proton compatibility layer, allowing many games designed for Windows to run natively on SteamOS.