SteamOS Linux 3.8 released as stable
139 points - today at 4:05 AM
SourceThat non-steam-deck section is glorious.
pidgeon_lover
today at 8:26 AM
Can it be used without logging in online to Steam?
CodesInChaos
today at 8:46 AM
From my experience with the steam deck:
If you're already logged in, you can use it online. But if it decides to log you out, and you're offline, then you're out of luck.
Older versions allowed you to switch to desktop mode without logging in (with broken on screen keyboard, since that's only available once you log into steam), but that option is missing in newer versions.
They changed its location and it was bugged for an update. You go to Settings > System and then enable Show Switch to Desktop Mode.
CodesInChaos
today at 8:57 AM
For me the "Switch to Desktop mode" button only showed up after logging into steam but was hidden while logged out.
Right that setting is to make it show when logged out. You can get to the setting without logging in.
Yes. They recently made it extra easy to do too.
Realistically, what should be expected if I run this in my desktop with AMD 9000x CPU and a NVIDIA RTX 5000x GPU?
I don't think it works with NVIDIA.
CodeCompost
today at 7:55 AM
I just run CachyOS on my gaming desktop which is also Arch based. Works fine.
Yeah that works but they asked about SteamOS not CachyOS and SteamOS doesn't work with NVIDIA.
Use CachyOS or Bazzite instead.
pidgeon_lover
today at 8:27 AM
Can those be used without logging in online to Steam?
Only if you don't want to use Steam. I'm not really sure what point you think you're making here by constantly asking whether you can use SteamOS without logging in to Steam. You can however install literally anything you like on a Steam Deck.
It's nice on something like Steam Frame where it's hard to install a new OS. Forcing a log-in like Windows is evil and sucks when you don't have internet.
Nobody knows if it will be hard to install another OS on the Frame.
The hard part is making one work on it since none already exist like the hundreds that exist for normal computers like Deck. They might not let their 6dof headset tracking code be shared and getting that working would be very hard.
Yes, they are Arch and Fedora Atomic variants respectively and don't require any accounts or corporate affiliation.
Yes you can use SteamOS without logging into Steam too!
jonathanstrange
today at 7:39 AM
Very cool. As a Linux Mint user, I'm starting to get interested in SteamOS. So maybe someone with experience can answer my question:
How good is SteamOS as a general distro for a desktop machine? What are the Pros and Cons?
CodesInChaos
today at 8:54 AM
I found it very annoying and restricting. Most significantly being restricted to flatpak. For example I failed at installing whonix and couldn't get rust and vscode to work together.
If I didn't plan to get rid of by steam deck, I'd install a different distro in it. I definitely wouldn't install it on a desktop, support for the deck's keyboardless form factor is the only reason I might choose SteamOS over a normal distro.
Though I didn't know about distrobox then, perhaps that works better.
It's good if you use Distrobox and it comes with it.
jonathanstrange
today at 7:49 AM
Thank you so much! For some reason, I didn't even know about Distrobox!
I installed Antigravity with Codex in Distrobox Ubuntu. The Agents happily use sudo without care that it is a container. It's great when I run random scripts from the web that I don't even know how to uninstall and never worry about gunking up the main system.
yjftsjthsd-h
today at 8:04 AM
It might be fine for just avoiding clutter, but be warned that distrobox defaults to very weak separation between container and host (e.g. default mounting your real home into the container). Good organizational tool, bad sandbox. (This is not a fault, just a matter of what the tool is optimized to help you do.)
I like that as a feature because I can use it like a normal root system. I have a pretty easy time seeing what goes in my home folder. It isn't esoteric to explore like system folders. If I had something I needed to keep private from Distrobox I could put it in my SD Card since it isn't mounted in the home folder on SteamOS and is in /run/media. You could also install QEMU in Distrobox or the virt-manager flatpak for a full sandbox.
jauntywundrkind
today at 4:52 AM
A very fine sense of timing to release this one year after KDE 6.4 was released! https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.4.0/ . Here in 2026, KDE 6.7 just dropped.
I'm still super excited for this release. KDE 6.4.3 from 6.2.5 is a nice jump. I'm very excited to get Wayland here, which is my normal baseline.
Maybe this time I'll try to get Niri running on this desktop. This is one of my daily driver systems, with a monitor plugged in. I'm typing on it now. I've been holed up on on 3.7.14, build id 20250701.1, since I don't want to lose the desktop, but this one seems worth losing my desktop for. Nothing but respect for Valve for working on ruac, a very nice A/B system image switcher, that powers all these updates, even if it means I'm about to lose this desktop. https://github.com/rauc/rauc
I'd kill for KDE 6.4 crying in my work laptop with Ubuntu 24.04 with Plasma 5.27 :)
Are you not permitted to bump to current LTS on work laptop?
Not until it's rolled out by our IT team. It's a managed installation.
TiredOfLife
today at 6:37 AM
That line about update arch base means it is shipping only a year old packages and not 1.5 year old ones.
When you maintain systems long enough you realize that's a feature rather than a bug
bravetraveler
today at 8:36 AM
So, depending where you look, more current than $FAVORITE_LTS... with a distribution found on mass-market gaming devices intended for precisely three wrappers. Why do you, presumably a normal user, even care about the packages? Eesh.
As long as Valve provides more snapshot updates in the next six months, I don't see the problem. The ~~TiVo~~ toy is maintaining currency.
I'll concede this might be annoying for the subset that chooses to use a Steam Machine as a server or development workspace, once the product releases. My condolences to this imaginary and small group. They'll be shocked to find immutability, too.
i’d love to see blackmagic jump in with steamos as their main distro. i think they build for rockyos currently but…
if they jump to building davinci resolve (and its new lightroom style photo editing) on steamos rather than rocky.. this would be pretty powerful combine the insane wonders steamos is doing for gaming on linux and add davinci, that would really open up the linux landscape for a ton more people.
i’m currently daily driving linux for work, gaming, and personal pc. unfortunately i’m still pulling out my macbook for video editing and for lightroom.
come on blackmagic, read this and take the leap. valve has done fucking amazing with linux. just choose steamos to build against rather than rocky. its going to have significantly higher number of people already using it for other stuff.
I believe the tools like Resolve are built around VFX reference platform specs. I doubt anyone will standardise on the basis of a rolling distro where you can’t pin glibc version. https://vfxplatform.com
steamos is not a rolling release. yes, it’s built on arch, but they halt with snapshots and do testing and their own patches before they roll out updates.
charcircuit
today at 8:25 AM
The flatpak runtime they would choose would have a fixed glibc version.
davinci resolve is available on the aur
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/davinci-resolve
sure, but you have to jump through hoops to make it work. the only distro blackmagic supports is rockyos. they don’t want to build against and support hundreds of distros so they work specifically against rocky. to save developer time.
my point is, since steamos is already supporting their distro and not rolling out bleeding edge, (yes, it’s based on arch, but they freeze it and they test it before they roll out updates) blackmagic would have a vetted foundation to build on and a much larger user base from the jump.
I imagine it's for the upcoming hardware.
jay_kyburz
today at 6:14 AM
It's the second point in the release notes
Obviously correct, what I meant is that they don't mention the Steam Frame which is what I'm interested in and had in mind due to the recent "leaks" on Steam getting shipments in the US.
lanycrost
today at 7:58 AM
It's always great to hear about linux in gaming.
It's sad that they decide to increase the price for steam deck (even if I have one already). Hope it doesn't mean steam machine will cost 1000+.
"decide" feels like a particularly choice word for a supply chain issue hitting many consumer facing companies.