After the recent Patch Notes piqued interest, Valve has confirmed that its Linux-based SteamOS will support upcoming non-Steam Deck portable devices.
Designer Lawrence Yang said The limit third-party devices may eventually run its operating system, starting with ASUS ROG Ally. Yang told the outlet that support was in the cards as early as end of 2022as a potential herald of the return of the Steam Controller or Steam Machine.
However, he stressed that the feature is “not ready to launch yet.” Valve is making “steady progress” and looks like it wants to prepare support for more portable devices before launching it.
“The note on ROG Ally keys is related to third-party device support for SteamOS,” he explained. “The team is continuing to work on adding support for more portable devices.”
When Yang spoke with The limit in 2022, he said a separate release of SteamOS 3 (the Deck’s operating system at the time) was planned. That effort has also made progress, and he has now said Valve will make Windows drivers available for use for the Steam Deck OLED.
This feature will allow users to switch between Windows and traditional operating systems, which could expand the Deck's capabilities to run more PC games.
Dual booting is still a priority, Yang assured, but he also admitted that there is “no time” to support it yet. “We haven’t gotten around to doing that yet.”