Steam OS

SteamOS FAQs: What people are eager to know about Valve’s operating system.

SteamOS
Click here for Valve’s official page on SteamOS.

What is SteamOS? It is the proprietary operating system developed by Valve who is the developer of the famous PC gaming software platform steam. The first two versions of the OS were based on a Debian distro of Linux, but the new 3.0 version of the OS will be base on an Arch distro of linux. The main focus of the OS is to provide an open source OS focused on PC gaming whether its with the traditional mouse and keyboard setup or in Big Picture Mode for couch gaming with a controller.

Is SteamOS free? The OS is both completely free an Open Source which means the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified by anybody. Valve intends to make their OS as accessible as possible to achieve a wide distribution. You won’t have to ever worry about buying a new retail key anytime Valve makes a major version revision to the OS.

Can SteamOS play all PC games? Well yes… but actually no. With Valve developing Proton as an additional compatibility layer to Linux to increase the amount of games their OS can run you can expect a good chunk of your library will be playable out of the box. However the more tech savvy users can fiddle around with Wine and Lutris profiles to further increase game compatibility.

Will SteamOS be easy to use with a controller? One of the biggest selling points of Valve’s OS is it’s Big Picture Mode with a user interface designed to be navigated with a controller. While a mouse and keyboard is still serviceable in Big Picture Mode the UI is more streamlined for controller use.

Don’t forget to checkout our FAQ on Microsoft’s upcoming Halo Infinite expected to release this holiday season!

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