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Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

Maybe, but we're not quite there yet - Valve still restricting the OS to their hardware. Come back when people who build their own gamer PCs start choosing SteamOS en masse. That's then the start point of a movement away from Windows.

I agree that the 10/11 migration has been an infuriating experience for a lot of users. A Microsoft unforced error, seemingly in the name of insisting on forcing TPM on people.

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That's incorrect, where did you pick it up?

You can install SteamOS on any machine, but AMD GPU are somewhat required if you're not up to major tinkering. Valve does not officially support NVIDIA gpus atm; they are working on it.

Here's a video from Linus Tech Tips on how to do this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdR-bxvQKN8 .

Easier access to SteamOS images for generic HW also appears to be in the works:

> Ahead of Legion Go S shipping, we will be shipping a beta of SteamOS which should improve the experience on other handhelds, and users can download and test this themselves. And of course we'll continue adding support and improving the experience with future releases.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/news/collection/steam/?emclan...

> Valve does not officially support NVIDIA gpus atm

Given NVidia's reluctance to support DRM (direct rendering manager) and Wayland, plus the general levels of nightmare that their official Linux drivers are, I wouldn't say this is Valve's fault. They've already been a poor choice on Linux 20 years ago. Even Apple has always been uneasy about their relationship (while Radeon was a less powerful choice for "premium" machines).

Also consider the ongoing AI hype. NVidia is right now very busy making their GPUs do exceptionally useful work on Linux - except the money is not in the graphics.

Wayland works fine with Nvidia’s drivers. It has worked fine for years. Nvidia was the only option for 3D graphics on Linux 20 years ago.

Interestingly, the SteamOS documentation mentions Nvidia driver support:

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/wiki/Getting-Starte...

That is for SteamOS 2. The newer SteamOS 3 does not officially support anything other than AMD hardware because the Steam Deck uses AMD hardware and their current focus is on improving support for that.

Nvidia had best in class support for linux and freebsd as a result of essentialy using the same driver across all three operaating systems. If you wanted good opengl support they were the only choice 20 years ago! Valve not supporting nvidia gpus at the moment has more to do with SteamOS on ly shipping on the steam deck which uses AMD hardware.

Yeah, if you wanted a low power x86 device (which pretty much means iGPU) then AMD is the only game in town. The open source drivers probably helped in this regard but if things were different I doubt Valve would have turned their nose up at Nvidia.

Via original article: https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/7/24338405/valve-steamos-bet... (i.e. in the future tense)

Not providing official support != Restricting.

Valve does still provide official support for Steam, even if you run it on a different set of HW or distribution.

Not providing official support for random hardware seems reasonable. Neither do Microsoft nor Apple.

The thing is that the benefits ps SteamOS extend to other distros.

Once Proton made it feaaible to easily play most Windows games on Linux, I could transition to Mint and not look back. Gaming is what kept me shackled to Windows.

I always thought that there were some things that kept people on Windows, and the main ones are Office and Gaming. Nowadays the latter is not an issue anymore.

>Valve still restricting the OS to their hardware.

This is changing very soon - Lenovo announced the Legion Go S at CES 2025, and it will ship with SteamOS.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/52983491...

https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

Or you can get a community distribution with the same set of packages with +/- QoL patches or a different base: ChimeraOS or Bazzite.

I think this is actually an outdated link. Modern SteamOS is based on Arch Linux, this refers to the old Debian-based OS from the "Steam Machines" era.

Looks like this will get a refresh, though, as per my other comment.

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