TheRetroArcade
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Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Wayland has also arrived.
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SteamOS is what keeps the Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion Go S as some of the best handheld gaming PCs, despite the former's outdated hardware. Valve's own operating system is also set to power the forthcoming Steam Machine. Though it's a Linux-based OS in its own right, with its own updates, and a big one has just landed…
In SteamOS 3.8.0 Preview, initial support has been added for the Steam Machine. While neither the price or release date of living room box has been confirmed, we do know the living room box comes with a Zen 4 CPU and a semi-custom RDNA 3 GPU. Support for these architectures should be pretty well baked into Valve's OS already, however, as the patch notes also confirm more up-to-date support for AMD/Intel platforms and third-party handhelds.There's a lot in this update. Two points in the patch note, in particular, stand out as good news for anyone hoping to load SteamOS onto a non-Valve device:
The Steam Machine has a discrete GPU, hence further support makes a lot of sense, but it also gets us closer to Valve's vision of an actual Steam Machine. Not just the pre-packaged box, but the concept of sticking SteamOS onto your own hardware. We've tried SteamOS on a couple of devices over the past few years and it's yet to feel like the best option—Bazzite or another Linux distro is often a better pick.
We might be a ways off a wider release of SteamOS, and one that's ready to roll on a range of hardware, but in the meantime, Valve has made good on bringing further handheld support to the OS. There are a lot of improvements here for non-Valve handhelds, especially the Lenovo Legion Go 2.
A couple of us at PC Gamer have tried adding SteamOS to various Windows-powered handhelds over the years, to mixed success. There are two things that tend to trip us up: screen rotation and audio drivers. Sometimes you can get around it, sometimes you can't, but I'm hopeful that further support baked into the OS should start to make a SteamOS switch more viable.
SteamOS has also been updated to Wayland by default. Wayland being a protocol that organises how applications are seen and interacted with. It's not a GUI, rather the protocol for displaying stuff—a display server that ensures display is coordinated between applications. The alternative, X11, is much older and largely being replaced in Linux distros by Wayland. I'm n...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
SteamOS is what keeps the Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion Go S as some of the best handheld gaming PCs, despite the former's outdated hardware. Valve's own operating system is also set to power the forthcoming Steam Machine. Though it's a Linux-based OS in its own right, with its own updates, and a big one has just landed…
In SteamOS 3.8.0 Preview, initial support has been added for the Steam Machine. While neither the price or release date of living room box has been confirmed, we do know the living room box comes with a Zen 4 CPU and a semi-custom RDNA 3 GPU. Support for these architectures should be pretty well baked into Valve's OS already, however, as the patch notes also confirm more up-to-date support for AMD/Intel platforms and third-party handhelds.There's a lot in this update. Two points in the patch note, in particular, stand out as good news for anyone hoping to load SteamOS onto a non-Valve device:
The Steam Machine has a discrete GPU, hence further support makes a lot of sense, but it also gets us closer to Valve's vision of an actual Steam Machine. Not just the pre-packaged box, but the concept of sticking SteamOS onto your own hardware. We've tried SteamOS on a couple of devices over the past few years and it's yet to feel like the best option—Bazzite or another Linux distro is often a better pick.
We might be a ways off a wider release of SteamOS, and one that's ready to roll on a range of hardware, but in the meantime, Valve has made good on bringing further handheld support to the OS. There are a lot of improvements here for non-Valve handhelds, especially the Lenovo Legion Go 2.
A couple of us at PC Gamer have tried adding SteamOS to various Windows-powered handhelds over the years, to mixed success. There are two things that tend to trip us up: screen rotation and audio drivers. Sometimes you can get around it, sometimes you can't, but I'm hopeful that further support baked into the OS should start to make a SteamOS switch more viable.
SteamOS has also been updated to Wayland by default. Wayland being a protocol that organises how applications are seen and interacted with. It's not a GUI, rather the protocol for displaying stuff—a display server that ensures display is coordinated between applications. The alternative, X11, is much older and largely being replaced in Linux distros by Wayland. I'm n...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?