Valve’s SteamOS is about to go public—New leak points towards imminent release

The code changes insinuate that SteamOS is being adjusted for devices beyond Valve’s proprietary handheld. The timing of these findings aligns with previous reports from CES 2025, where Valve confirmed its plans to make SteamOS available for third-party manufacturers. The first non-Valve device set to feature SteamOS is Lenovo's Legion Go S, expected to launch in May 2025. @SadlyItsBradley also stated that Valve has been pushing numerous commits in preparation for a general public release of SteamOS, with an initial focus on handheld PCs.

If we're feeling generous, we can also entertain the possibility of even broader hardware support, including ARM-based devices. In May 2024, Arch Linux officially began working towards ARM and RISC-V support through a test integration project called 'Arch Linux Ports,' collaborating with port maintainers to scale hardware compatibility. While not a direct confirmation, there's a chance that SteamOS might unofficially support ARM devices in the future. As per our previous reports, Valve has been testing ARM64 support for Steam titles, particularly for its rumored standalone VR headset, Deckard. If SteamOS and Proton gain further ARM support, it could open the door to wider adoption on non-x86 platforms.

Adding more fuel to this speculation, Wine 10.0 recently introduced improved ARM compatibility, including support for ARM64EC architecture and an x86 emulation interface. Since Proton is built on Wine, this makes broader ARM support for SteamOS an increasingly plausible scenario.

Historically, Windows has dominated the gaming OS landscape due to widespread compatibility with gaming hardware and software. However, with SteamOS providing a Linux-based alternative optimized for gaming, Valve could be positioning itself as a serious competitor to Windows in the gaming space, especially since an Xbox gaming handheld is reportedly on the horizon.