Valve will reportedly backup Asus ROG Ally and alternative rival handhelds with its SteamOS. The corporate, which sells its personal gaming hand held, the Steam Deck, has stated that it is going to permit third-party units to run its Linux-based running device. SteamOS, designed and optimised for the “living room experience,” powers the Steam Deck, however most present gaming handhelds, together with the Asus ROG Best friend, run on Windows. Pace Microsoft’s running device supplies flexibility and wider backup for third-party sport launchers, Home windows-based handhelds have confronted complaint over their less-than-ideal OS enjoy.
SteamOS Help for Alternative Handhelds
The corporate showed its plans to The Verge, pronouncing that it intends to deliver SteamOS backup to Asus ROG Best friend and alternative Home windows-based handhelds. Lately, rival handhelds can run the Steam desktop app on Home windows.
Just lately, release notes for SteamOS 3.6.9 Beta discussed ” Added support for extra ROG Ally keys,” leading people to speculate over SteamOS support for the device. Valve has now confirmed that it’s working on the same.
“The observe about ROG Best friend keys is alike to third-party tool backup for SteamOS. The crew is continuous to paintings on including backup for spare handhelds on SteamOS,” Valve designer Lawrence Yang told The Verge. This means Windows-based handhelds like Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go and MSI Claw could get support for SteamOS in the future.
It doesn’t, however, mean that rival companies will start shipping their handheld gaming PCs running SteamOS out-of-the-box. According to the report, Asus opts for Home windows for its hand held as Microsoft guarantees that its OS works across devices with different hardware specifications and chipsets, among other reasons.
Windows-Based Handhelds
And while Valve has confirmed that it’s working on SteamOS support for third-party devices, don’t expect SteamOS to start shipping on other handhelds anytime soon. According to the report, while the company has made “steady progress,” its OS isn’t ready to run out-of-the-box on other devices yet.
Valve’s Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED models run on SteamOS, which brings a console like interface for the company’s digital games storefront, Steam. The Steam client works on other handhelds through the Windows app, but does not bring the intuitive interface.
The recently launched Asus ROG Ally X running the Steam Windows client
Windows-based handhelds like the ROG Ally get wider support for game launchers like Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect and Xbox, but the touch-based Windows OS experience often leaves more to be desired. These devices essentially act as a handheld PC, with constant updates, bugs and bottlenecks associated with the Windows experience being very much present. Meanwhile, the Steam Deck, which also offers a traditional Linux-based PC experience in its Desktop Mode, brings a console-like interface with Steam OS, allowing users to browse and access their Steam libraries smoothly.
SteamOS is Valve’s Linux-based operating system that builds upon Debian OS, optimising it for a console-like “front room” enjoy, as Valve yelps it. The OS comes pre-installed on Steam Deck units.
