SteamOS
A gaming distro originally built for the Steam Deck and Steam Machine, but installable on consumer PCs too (unofficially, however). Boots into a Big Picture-style console mode by default, with a desktop mode featuring KDE Plasma underneath
About SteamOS
SteamOS is Valve's take on a gaming operating system, built on Arch Linux under the hood. Boot it up and you land in the familiar Big Picture-style console interface - controller-friendly, no mouse needed. Switch to desktop mode and you get a full KDE Plasma environment for when you actually need a real computer. It started life in 2013, then got a complete rebuild in 2022 to power the Steam Deck. For years it was basically a one-device OS. That changed with ver. 3.7 and especially 3.8 in mid-2026, when Valve started officially supporting other handhelds too - the ROG Ally line, Lenovo's Legion Go family, the MSI Claw, and a bunch of smaller AMD handhelds from OneXPlayer, GPD, and others. Only the Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and the Legion Go S carry Valve's full "Powered by SteamOS" stamp. The real trick behind SteamOS is Proton - Valve's compatibility layer that runs most Windows games on Linux without the developer having to do anything. That's what makes the whole thing work in practice, not just on paper You can also throw it on a regular PC if you want, though that's unofficial and you're on your own for support.
Highlights
- -Console-style UI - boots into Big Picture-like gamepad-driven interface
- -Proton included - runs most Windows games natively via Wine/DXVK compatibility layer
- -Installable on generic PCs - unofficial, but supported by the community. Valve mentions support for AMD CPUs