The Linux-based operating system that powers Valve's Steam Deck is one of that handheld gaming PC's key selling points. While there are a growing number of handhelds that have hardware that looks better on paper, so far they all ship with Windows, an operating system that supports a vast number of PC games, but which was designed for keyboard and mouse input. SteamOS was designed for a handheld console-like experience.

Valve has long said that it wants to bring SteamOS to third-party hardware, and it looks like 2025 is the year that will happen. In May Lenovo will begin shipping a version of the Legion Go S handheld running a licensed version of SteamOS with the same features as the software that runs on the Steam Deck, and Valve says it's also working with other PC makers on device that could ship with SteamOS some time after that. But Valve says you won't necessarily have to wait until May to try out SteamOS on third-party handhelds: the company plans to release a SteamOS Beta  in the coming months that can be downloaded and installed on a wide range of handhelds.

SteamOS

You can already kind of do that by installing a third-party port of SteamOS such as Bazzite, HoloISO, or ChimeraOS. But those are unofficial implementations that don't receive software updates delivered by Valve, and which may have compatibility issues with some hardware or games that work on a Steam Deck.

Valve says the version of SteamOS that will ship with the Legion Go S is the same as the software that runs on the Steam Deck, and the same will be true of the version that it makes available for installation on other devices… although since it will be considered beta software at launch, I wouldn't necessarily expect the same level of support as you'd get from hardware that ships with the operating system pre-installed.

Still, it's a way to ensure that you'll get regular software updates delivered directly by Valve, and an operating system that's optimized for handhelds.  It's designed for controller-based input and has features like support for quickly suspending and resuming games. While the OS defaults to a full-screen Steam environment, there's also a desktop mode that allows you to use the handheld like any computer. And you can even install alternate game stores and launcher apps.

While SteamOS is a Linux-based operating system, most Windows games work "and the vast majority of the Steam library runs on SteamOS thanks to the Proton compatibility layer Valve ships" that allows Windows games to run on Linux even if developers don't specifically target the operating system.

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