Valve deserves a ton of credit for making Linux gaming not only viable, but good. SteamOS was a big part of that; Valve spent a ton of time proving this A Linux-based gaming operating system can be polishedaccessible and provides a really good experience. The Steam deck it was the perfect canvas to display it on, and despite being primarily a handheld, the desktop mode meant you could use it as a desktop computer if needed.
This desktop mode doesn’t really give you all the features you want from a desktop computer, and when you focus on this user hardware it’s still not fully supported, it’s clear that SteamOS isn’t a true replacement for Windows. Bazzite, an operating system developed under the Universal Blue project, was chosen as one of the best options for Linux gaming due to its excellent functionality, but one of its strengths is that it can be used as a normal computer.
Bazzite gives you the SteamOS part you really want
The first configuration for the game is perfect
The biggest reason Bazzite works so well on the gaming PC is simple: it understands why people like SteamOS in the first place. Bazzite’s supported images can be loaded directly into Steam Game Mode, and it also includes a proper Desktop Mode that you can access from the power menu. In other words, the SteamOS-style experience is there if you want it with these images, but it’s also available to you in the normal KDE/GNOME images.
It also has many of the parts of SteamOS you want under the hood. The update model is very close to SteamOS, featuring “atomic” image-based updates, meaning the OS is always in a usable state and rollbacks are simplified. Bazzite is not Arch-based like SteamOS, but has newer Linux kernels and simpler driver packaging, with separate images for AMD/Intel and Nvidia hardware. With SteamOS, there is no special image other than the current recovery image.
When I started using it on my main computer, I simply selected the GNOME Intel/AMD image that matched my hardware and it had everything I needed. Almost every game ran without a hitch, and if I wanted it for a handheld or HTPC, the Steam Game Mode images would be perfect for that.
Bazzite makes non-gaming use feel more natural
It is more flexible
SteamOS is built with a select few hardware configurations in mind, while Bazzite supports virtually everything, and that’s where the gap starts to widen. When it comes to non-gaming use, SteamOS is by no means built with that in mind. Valve is pretty clear about this in the way they describe SteamOS.
Bazzite supports Distrobox, recommends Homebrew for installing non-Flatpak apps, and even offers a developer option for software development. SteamOS has none of these, and in fact, installing anything other than Flatpaks will be removed in any future update. You can get a lot out of SteamOS, but there’s a reason why no one actually runs it day-to-day.
When I tried to use SteamOS on my main gaming rig, I encountered a lot of little missing pieces of the puzzle when I went to do any non-gaming task. I still ran into some with Bazzite, but the difference is that getting Bazzite up to speed is much simpler than doing the same for SteamOS. Things like virtualization support and GPU-pass are additional things that make this gap even bigger and are Bazzite’s main strengths for me.
If you only play games, SteamOS is great
Couch computers and handhelds
SteamOS should be your primary choice on officially supported hardware. It’s clean, does what it needs to, and has the development power of a gaming giant behind it, which means you’ll run into fewer little, weird issues. For example, when I try to switch users to Steam on my computer running Bazzite, it will render the entire Steam client useless. The application itself does not open windows and this behavior persists through reboots. Turns out this is a known issue which is frustrating for me. The broken Bazzite experience has often made me consider going back to SteamOS, but there aren’t so many other features that I can’t.
SteamOS is fantastic, but Bazzite makes more sense for most configurations
I like Hara very much SteamOS is in chargeand Valve has already done right by many gamers by setting the stage for operating systems like Bazzite to exist in the first place, making it the best handheld gaming OS available. But it’s not the right choice right now. For me, SteamOS still lacks a lot the computer can be used as an actual computerand adding these features to unsupported hardware can cause a lot of future headaches that frankly aren’t worth it right now.
