Valve says official SteamOS support for a gaming handheld other than Steam Deck is on the way

The update note for SteamOS 3.6.9 Beta: Megafixer mentions the support for the extra keys of the Asus ROG Ally. This addition suggested that Valve might officially allow Steam Deck's operating system to work on handheld gaming devices made by other companies.

Valve designer Lawrence Yang has now confirmed that support for third-party gaming handhelds is actually being worked on. More specifically, Yang told The Verge that the mention of adding support for the ROG Ally keys on the update note is "related to third-party device support for SteamOS."

Yang continues that the team at Valve is "continuing to work on" adding official SteamOS support for gaming handhelds other than the Steam Deck. This may eventually put a bit of pressure on Microsoft, as most of the handhelds ship with Windows now. According to Asus, one of the reasons why Microsoft's OS is the go-to choice is because of the dedicated validation process that makes sure that the operating system runs on "different hardware configurations and chips."

While Valve's statement doesn't mean that official SteamOS will be available for rival gaming handhelds soon, if it does land, Windows may have a big competitor, especially because of how well the operating system is optimized for Steam Deck. Of course, it's not like you can't get a taste of the OS on your gaming handheld now.

Projects such as Bazzite and ChimeraOS are currently in a stage where they are considered to be good alternatives to SteamOS for gaming handhelds that ship with Windows (512 GB Lenovo Legion Go curr. $548.03 on Amazon). However, it's worth mentioning that Microsoft's operating system does have an upper hand in some cases, such as support for Xbox PC Game Pass and wider compatibility with games. But dual-booting does stand as a solid solution for this.