(C) BoingBoing
This story was originally published by BoingBoing and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



SteamOS is coming to more computers [1]

['Séamus Bellamy']

Date: 2026-08-11  

I'm not fond of bricking my hardware. But I'm very fond of Valve's SteamOS. If you haven't had the opportunity to mess with a Steam Deck or Steam Machine, SteamOS is a deliciously easy-to-use, low-maintenance Linux distribution tuned to work on their hardware with next-to-no maintenance. Don't get me wrong: you can totally screw it up if you start messing around in Terminal, just like any other Linux distribution.

But, if you're looking to play games and manage your library in a seamless, easy-to-search manner, there's no beating it. Sound good? Well, it gets better: Steam released an update this week that makes the operating system much more compatible with a lot more hardware.

SteamOS is continuing its slow march to fuller support on a wider variety of non-Valve hardware. This weekend's release of the SteamOS 3.8.25 Beta includes "initial gamepad support" for a few recent gaming handhelds.

Among the newly supported handhelds is MSI's Claw 8 EX AI+, a pricey, powerful machine featuring Intel's Arc G3 processor, which debuted this summer. SteamOS has offered beta support for AMD-powered handhelds for a while, but Valve has only recently begun working on Intel compatibility as well, starting with devices like the Claw line.

This comes in on the tail of Valve's release of the SteamOS 3.8 update in June. That one brought in compatibility with a ton of recent AMD and Intel hardware. But it was new, and largely untested by the gaming community… and I have that thing about bricking. But now? I'm seriously considering throwing it on my gaming rig. Windows 11: You will not be missed.

Previously:

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/08/11/steamos-is-coming-to-more-computers.html

Published and (C) by BoingBoing
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/boingboing/