Linux Desktop Users Can Get The Steam Deck Experience With Bazzite

Because it is important? One of the most important benefits of Steam Deck is SteamOS, which simplifies the process of playing PC games on mobile devices for which the game was not originally designed. This new version of the operating system aims to extend this experience to more shapes and sizes of devices.

Users looking to experience Valve's Steam Deck OS on their desktop, HTPC or other portable device can now install Bazzite, which recently received the full 1.0 release. This Linux-based system includes all the features of SteamOS, along with some notable additions.

Built on Fedora 38 and the uBlue and Nvidia cores, Bazzite aims to fully replicate the interface and optimization of Steam Deck games. Similar to Valve's portable devices, it has the ability to automatically launch Steam in Big Picture mode and run Windows games via Proton at the Arch Linux compatibility level.

Since Bazzit supports installing Fedora GRUB, it can dual boot Windows, but not other Linux distributions. Additionally, users running the system on more powerful hardware, such as another desktop or laptop, can use a terminal command to disable only Steam Deck features optimized for modest hardware.

This can offer gamers the quality-of-life benefits of a PDA without performance limitations. In theory, this could be useful for devices like the Asus ROG Ally, which according to a TechSpot review performed better in games than the Steam Deck, but had software issues because it wasn't optimized Windows 11 for portable systems.

The same goes for upcoming GPD or Lenovo Legion Go phones. Meanwhile, Steam Deck owners can install a clone of the OS on Valve laptops to take advantage of its additional features, such as low-risk voltage reduction, special limits on maximum battery life, display overclocking, support for RAM mods, and more.

In addition, Bazzite comes pre-installed with Nvidia drivers, full ROCm OpenCL/HIP runtime support, Xbox wireless controller compatibility via Xpadneo driver, DisplayLink support, input mapping, Distrobox, custom update system, rollback functionality and many other features. Additionally, the installer includes a quick start guide to help new users set up and third-party plugins like EmuDeck, DeckyLoader, or ProtonUp-Qt.

While the installation process is a bit complicated, the system requirements are quite straightforward. All you need is a 2GHz quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 20GB of storage, a modern dedicated GPU that supports Vulkan 1.3, and a keyboard (for manual installation).

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