Is Steam OS open source? Can it be run on other devices?

[RedBaronK™]

Like the Ally or Legion Go? I actually really like steam OS, would love to run this on fast hardware without the windows bloat ware.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

They haven't released it yet. So far, it is only recommended on the Deck.

[RedBaronK™]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

They haven't released it yet. So far, it is only recommended on the Deck.

:summercat2023:

That makes me a sad panda ☹️

[Prezidentas]

there is chimera os to replicate SteamOS on other devices

[retro_Ed]

I use ChimeraOS on my Ryzen 3400G minipc.
It runs great with all the features except manual TDP / CPU settings.

Nvidia users can stop reading now. It does not work.

[RedBaronK™]

Originally posted by Škoda 14Tr:

there is chimera os to replicate SteamOS on other devices

Hmm thanks, I might experiment with this on an old gaming pc for the living room. So no official valve word on this huh?

[MJ711]

sadly, not yet

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by RedBaronK™:

Is Steam OS open source?

Yes! Well, mostly. Steam itself isn't open-source.

Originally posted by RedBaronK™:

Can it be run on other devices?

Well, not directly, and not yet. The goal is for a general purpose release of SteamOS 3 that you can run on any device, but they're focusing on the Steam Deck right now.

There are projects like Chimera OS[chimeraos.org] that aim to give you that SteamOS experience in a general purpose Linux distro with some extras.

There's also HoloISO[github.com] which is a more direct implementation. That one lacks support for Nvidia GPUs. They might work anyway, but you'll be on your own.

If you don't need the handheld/controller focused interface, you can install any Linux version of choice and just install Steam as usual. A few recommendations are Nobara[nobaraproject.org], Garuda[garudalinux.org], Linux Mint[linuxmint.com], and Kubuntu[kubuntu.org].

Countless more than that. You can get lost trying them all. No matter what you choose, Steam will work fine.

[RedBaronK™]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Originally posted by RedBaronK™:

Is Steam OS open source?

Yes! Well, mostly. Steam itself isn't open-source.

Originally posted by RedBaronK™:

Can it be run on other devices?

Well, not directly, and not yet. The goal is for a general purpose release of SteamOS 3 that you can run on any device, but they're focusing on the Steam Deck right now.

There are projects like Chimera OS[chimeraos.org] that aim to give you that SteamOS experience in a general purpose Linux distro with some extras.

There's also HoloISO[github.com] which is a more direct implementation. That one lacks support for Nvidia GPUs. They might work anyway, but you'll be on your own.

If you don't need the handheld/controller focused interface, you can install any Linux version of choice and just install Steam as usual. A few recommendations are Nobara[nobaraproject.org], Garuda[garudalinux.org], Linux Mint[linuxmint.com], and Kubuntu[kubuntu.org].

Countless more than that. You can get lost trying them all. No matter what you choose, Steam will work fine.

Actually that never occurred to me! If I like steam OS because it doesn't have the bloatware, yeah you are right.. I can just install Linux and put steam on it!

I don't have experience besides Steam deck... Are those Linux OSes you mentioned free? Or do I need to buy a copy like windows?

[Rodomar705]

The closest thing we have right now to SteamOS for other hardware is Bazzite, which can be also used as a SteamOS replacement for the Deck. If you download the Deck variant you will get basically a clone 1:1 of SteamOS but on a more modern Linux base, a working package manager and a lot of auto installable stuff if you so desire after the first boot.

[Rodomar705]

ASUS Ally support is still not yet polished/bug free since ASUS and standard driver are like water and oil, but for the few people that tried on the Legion GO it seems almost plug and play already AFAICS. Not too much report from people yet, since it's basically just released on the market.

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by RedBaronK™:

I don't have experience besides Steam deck... Are those Linux OSes you mentioned free? Or do I need to buy a copy like windows?

All free (and Free). For a general purpose computer I'd strongly recommend Kubuntu over the others listed: Garuda and Nobara are niche distros with very small maintenance teams, and Mint uses Cinnamon or Mate as its desktop environment rather than the KDE Plasma that the Deck uses for its desktop mode. (I prefer KDE anyway, but KDE is also what you're used to now)

Kubuntu is a well-maintained (it's an official flavour of Ubuntu), popular (so it's easy to find help) distro with a conservative upgrade cadence (so things won't break unexpectedly) that uses KDE Plasma as its desktop environment. You can get more adventurous with distro choice later - if you want - once you've got some experience under your belt to know what you want from a distro.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by RedBaronK™:

I don't have experience besides Steam deck... Are those Linux OSes you mentioned free? Or do I need to buy a copy like windows?

Yes! Free as in beer, and free as in speech.

[ShadowShifterMarlith]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

They haven't released it yet. So far, it is only recommended on the Deck.

:summercat2023:

So far, it is only recommended on the Deck?

Sounds like a Loyalty problem at between Customers & Valve...

This is fantastic, lOlOlOlOlOlOlOl...

[RedBaronK™]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Originally posted by RedBaronK™:

I don't have experience besides Steam deck... Are those Linux OSes you mentioned free? Or do I need to buy a copy like windows?

All free (and Free). For a general purpose computer I'd strongly recommend Kubuntu over the others listed: Garuda and Nobara are niche distros with very small maintenance teams, and Mint uses Cinnamon or Mate as its desktop environment rather than the KDE Plasma that the Deck uses for its desktop mode. (I prefer KDE anyway, but KDE is also what you're used to now)

Kubuntu is a well-maintained (it's an official flavour of Ubuntu), popular (so it's easy to find help) distro with a conservative upgrade cadence (so things won't break unexpectedly) that uses KDE Plasma as its desktop environment. You can get more adventurous with distro choice later - if you want - once you've got some experience under your belt to know what you want from a distro.

I'll try reading up on this Kubuntu and watch some YouTube videos also. So in your opinion, for a gaming laptop this Kubuntu is the best?

As with windows and drivers, will Linux require drivers too for the laptop hardware it's installed on?

[tyl0413]

Originally posted by RedBaronK™:

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

All free (and Free). For a general purpose computer I'd strongly recommend Kubuntu over the others listed: Garuda and Nobara are niche distros with very small maintenance teams, and Mint uses Cinnamon or Mate as its desktop environment rather than the KDE Plasma that the Deck uses for its desktop mode. (I prefer KDE anyway, but KDE is also what you're used to now)

Kubuntu is a well-maintained (it's an official flavour of Ubuntu), popular (so it's easy to find help) distro with a conservative upgrade cadence (so things won't break unexpectedly) that uses KDE Plasma as its desktop environment. You can get more adventurous with distro choice later - if you want - once you've got some experience under your belt to know what you want from a distro.

I'll try reading up on this Kubuntu and watch some YouTube videos also. So in your opinion, for a gaming laptop this Kubuntu is the best?

As with windows and drivers, will Linux require drivers too for the laptop hardware it's installed on?

Yes it's a good choice, on Linux you usually don't need to separately install drivers, they come included so most hardware will just work out of the box. Some exceptions are some WiFi cards and nVidia GPUs. For those there'll be a Driver Manager app on Ubuntu if I remember right and you just go in there, tick on the nVidia driver, restart and you're good.