Valve will reportedly support Asus ROG Ally and other rival handheld devices through its SteamOS. The company sells its own gaming handheld computer, the Steam Deck, and says it will allow third-party devices to run its Linux-based operating system. SteamOS is designed and optimized for the “living room experience” and powers the Steam Deck, but most modern gaming handhelds (including the Asus ROG Ally) run on Windows. While Microsoft’s operating system offers flexibility and broader support for third-party game launchers, Windows-based handheld devices have faced criticism for a less-than-ideal operating system experience.
SteamOS support for other handheld devices
The company confirmed its plans to The Verge, saying it intends to bring SteamOS support to the Asus ROG Ally and other Windows-based handheld devices. Currently, competing handheld devices can run the Steam desktop app on Windows.
Recently, the release notes for SteamOS 3.6.9 Beta mentioned “added support for additional ROG Ally keys,” leading to speculation about SteamOS’s support for the device. Valve has now confirmed that they are doing the same thing.
Valve designer Lawrence Yang told The Verge: “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.” This means that Windows-based handheld devices such as Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw may receive SteamOS support in the future.
However, that doesn’t mean rival companies will start shipping handheld gaming PCs running SteamOS out of the box. According to the report, one of the reasons Asus chose Windows for its handheld PC was that Microsoft ensured its operating system could run on devices with different hardware specs and chipsets.
Windows-based handheld devices
While Valve has confirmed that it’s working on bringing SteamOS support to third-party devices, don’t expect SteamOS to start releasing on other handheld devices anytime soon. According to the report, while the company has made “steady progress,” its operating system is not yet ready to run on other devices out of the box.
Valve’s Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED models run on SteamOS, bringing a console-like interface to Steam, the company’s digital game storefront. The Steam client runs on other handheld devices via Windows applications, but does not bring an intuitive interface.
The recently launched ASUS ROG Ally X runs the Steam Windows client
Windows-based handheld devices like the ROG Ally are getting wider support for game launchers like the Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, and Xbox, but the touch-based Windows OS experience often leaves a lot to be desired. These devices essentially function as handheld PCs, and with constant updates, bugs and bottlenecks related to the Windows experience are common. At the same time, Steam Deck also offers a traditional Linux-based PC experience in its desktop mode and brings a console-like interface to Steam OS, allowing users to smoothly browse and access their Steam library.
SteamOS is Valve’s Linux-based operating system, built on Debian OS and optimized for what Valve calls a console-like “living room” experience. The operating system comes preinstalled on Steam Deck devices.
