Tag: SteamOS

SteamOS as a Desktop OS? Browsing, Office, Printing, Local LLM and More!

I have been testing SteamOS on a Minisforum PC equipped with a Ryzen AI 9 370 processor (compensated affiliate link). While much of the attention surrounding this operating system focuses on its console-style interface, there is a functional desktop side that allows for traditional computing tasks.

See the desktop side of SteamOS in my latest video!

The interface is built on KDE Plasma, which offers a layout similar to Windows, including a start menu, taskbar, and file manager. However, the architecture of SteamOS is immutable. This means the operating system is designed to be wiped and replaced during updates. While the user’s files are maintained between updates, system-level modifications, such as kernel drivers or specific VPNs like Tailscale, will not persist after an update without significant technical intervention. This creates a clear boundary between SteamOS and more flexible Linux distributions like Ubuntu or Mint.

For apps, the system relies on the “Discover Store”, which utilizes Flatpaks. These applications run in isolated containers and remain intact through system updates. I found that common applications like Firefox, VLC, and Spotify are readily available. I also installed LibreOffice, which functioned as expected for document and spreadsheet work. While many open-source tools are compatible, high-end professional applications such as DaVinci Resolve are difficult to run due to the specific system architecture and driver requirements.

Another core computing function, printing, is supported on SteamOS. By accessing the system settings, I connected the device to a color laser printer on my network. The installation was straightforward, and the system successfully printed documents from a web browser.

The PC’s 64GB of RAM allowed for an exploration of local AI performance using LM Studio. I loaded a Gemma 4 model to perform image analysis on a photo from my garden. The system identified the objects in the image efficiently, reaching a performance level of 27 tokens per second. While this does not match the speed of a high-end gaming desktop with a dedicated Nvidia GPU, it is a functional level of performance for local AI tasks. It can also serve as a local AI server within a home network, though the aforementioned lack of Tailscale support limits remote access.

For those with game libraries outside of Steam, the Heroic Games Launcher is available through the Discover store. This tool provides access to titles from Epic, GOG, and Amazon Prime. It allows for the configuration of different Proton versions for each game, providing a degree of flexibility for cross-platform libraries.

The transition between the gaming interface and the desktop is handled by a simple toggle. SteamOS is primarily built for gaming appliances, but the desktop environment is sufficient for browsing, office work, and basic media management. And the cool thing is that if you have a Steam Deck, this functionality can essentially turn the Deck into a functional desktop PC when docked.

See my Steam Deck review here!

Valve’s New 5 Minute One-Click SteamOS Install !

Valve’s newest SteamOS release, 3.8, no longer locks the gaming operating system to specific hardware. This means SteamOS can be installed on any PC – provided it’s running with AMD graphics hardware.

In my latest video, I install SteamOS on a Minisforum AI X1 Pro 370 Mini PC (compensated affiliate link) as a test case to see how close to an official “Steam Machine” users can get with their own hardware.

Check it out here!

Getting started was straightforward. Valve provides a SteamOS installation and repair page with the files and instructions needed to prepare a bootable external drive. On this particular PC, I had to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS before the installer would launch, but after that the process moved along without much friction.

One important limitation became clear immediately. SteamOS currently wipes the primary boot drive during installation, and it does not appear to offer a simple graphical option for choosing a different target disk. In this case, even with another drive installed, the installer defaulted to the main Windows drive. Anyone trying this should assume the main system disk will be erased unless they have taken steps to avoid that outcome.

The operating system installed in well under five minutes, and after a short post-install update and some basic setup steps for networking, display scaling, and audio output, I was at the login screen. The overall setup felt closer to bringing up a console than configuring a conventional desktop operating system.

After logging in, the interface looked very familiar. SteamOS on this PC presents the same lean-back environment that Steam Deck users already know. I moved into the display settings to confirm that a 4K panel was being detected correctly, and the system allowed me to force 3840 by 2160 output along with appropriate screen scaling without trouble. That does not mean this class of hardware is suited to modern games at 4K, but 4k is an option for lighter or older titles.

I started by downloading a game over Ethernet, where the system appeared to make full use of the PC’s 2.5 gigabit connection. From there, I loaded No Man’s Sky and began testing performance. At 1080p with the lowest settings, the game ran at a solid 60 frames per second, which is roughly where I would expect this hardware to land. Raising the resolution to 4K dropped performance to around 20 frames per second, which confirmed that 4K gaming is not realistic here for a title like this. Returning to 1080p and increasing visual quality from standard to enhanced brought performance into the 50 to 55 frame per second range, still in line with expectations.

What stood out was that the drivers appeared to load correctly, the game rendered properly, and the hardware behaved about as it does under Windows. In Cyberpunk 2077, running the built-in benchmark at 1080p on low settings, performance again matched what I usually see from this processor, with some moments looking marginally faster. There were no obvious driver issues or instability during testing.

I also wanted to see whether SteamOS on a mini PC could go beyond native PC gaming and serve as a broader living-room system. For that, I switched into desktop mode and installed EmuDeck, the software package that automates emulator setup on Steam Deck and similar systems. The process on SteamOS looked identical to the one on Valve’s handheld. After downloading the installer, dragging it to the desktop, and stepping through the setup, I had a full emulation environment in place with little manual configuration.

To test that side of the system, I loaded Burnout Revenge through Emulation Station using a PlayStation 2 emulator configured for 1080p. The result was stable 60 frames per second performance with no visible slowdowns. Controller setup was handled automatically, which is part of the appeal of EmuDeck in the first place. Users can also push emulated games directly into the Steam interface, though I tend to prefer keeping them grouped inside Emulation Station.

The final part of the test involved an external GPU. I connected a GMK eGPU equipped with an RX 7600M XT through the mini PC’s Oculink port. SteamOS recognized it immediately, and the system booted without any special configuration. I was not able to get the same unit working over Thunderbolt in this setup, although there are reports from other users of success with USB4 and Thunderbolt-connected GPUs under SteamOS.

With the Oculink-connected eGPU in place, No Man’s Sky at 4K with enhanced settings ran at about 60 frames per second. That was a meaningful step up from the integrated graphics result at 1080p, and it delivered similar to what this GPU achieves in Windows. In practical terms, the combination turned this mini PC into a living-room gaming system that boots directly into Steam’s controller-friendly interface while also handling emulation and external graphics expansion.

What emerged from this test was not a perfect universal installer, but a clear sign of where Valve seems to be heading. On compatible AMD hardware, SteamOS is already simple enough that setting up a console-style PC with an OS optimized for gaming no longer feels experimental. The main caveat is still the installer’s handling of storage, which remains blunt and potentially destructive if a user is not careful.

For anyone with spare AMD GPU hardware, or a Ryzen-based mini PC gathering dust, SteamOS now looks like a practical weekend project rather than a niche experiment. It still has clear boundaries, especially around Nvidia support and drive selection, but in day-to-day use it already feels less like a workaround and more like the early shape of a broader PC gaming platform.