Valve once envisioned that every PC maker could have its own “Steam Machine,” a PC gaming console running the company’s Linux-based SteamOS. It took a decade for that dream to evolve into the company’s own in-house developed Steam Deck gaming handheld computer, but the original dream is not dead.
The company has long said it plans to make SteamOS available to other companies, which means explicit support for the rival Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld, Valve designer Lawrence Yang has now confirmed edge.
A few days ago, some people spotted an interesting line in Valve’s latest SteamOS release notes: “Added support for additional ROG Ally keys.” We have no idea if Valve supports any ROG Ally keys, let alone additional ones. !
Maybe Valve just supports these keys in the Steam desktop client on Windows, providing a Steam Deck-like big picture mode interface for any PC, and the line mistakenly included it in these patch notes? I ask for safety.
But that’s not the case: this is indeed what Valve is finally supporting for the ROG Ally and other competing handhelds!
“The instructions for the ROG Ally keys are related to SteamOS’ third-party device support. The team is continuing to work on adding support for other handheld devices on SteamOS,” Yang told me.
Of course, this doesn’t mean Asus will officially support Valve’s installer or sell Ally with SteamOS. (Asus told me it ships with Windows for a number of reasons; one big factor is that Microsoft has a dedicated validation team to ensure its operating system will run on many different hardware configurations and chips.)
Valve also hasn’t hinted that it will offer SteamOS for rival handheld devices anytime soon. Valve is making “steady progress,” Yang told me, but “isn’t ready to go out of the box yet.”
We already know that Valve plans to release a universal version of SteamOS 3, which you can theoretically install on non-handheld computers as well; Yang says it’s making similar progress on that front, but isn’t quite ready yet.
This is the update that turns your Windows handheld device into a Steam machine; Valve promises to let you turn your Steam Decks into dual-boot Windows machines, letting you switch between the two operating systems at will. How about that? Yang said:
As for Windows, we are preparing the remaining Windows drivers for Steam Deck OLED (you may have seen us preparing firmware for the Bluetooth driver). There is no update on the timing of dual boot support – it is still a priority, but we haven’t been able to do it yet.
Valve isn’t the only company bringing a compelling combination of Linux and controller-friendly Steam UI to Windows handheld devices. Universal Blue claims that its Bazzite operating system has been supported before the advent of Asus ROG Ally X.
