Valve has announced its next portable gaming PC, the Steam Deck Pre-orders are now open, and while its success has been mixed, many people seem to be interested in Valve's latest hardware

However, the Steam Deck does not come with Windows, so it cannot play most games in the Steam library It is software called Proton, which is basically a compatibility layer that allows Windows games to be played on Linux-based operating systems [Proton and its accompanying Steam OS Linux distro are not new In fact, Proton has been around for several years and made waves in the Linux gaming community a few years ago; Steam simplified PC gaming outside of Microsoft's purview and has gotten much better since then

However, Proton has its limitations But it is important to realize that Steam Deck could be infinitely more successful than the ill-fated Steam Machines; Valve has been serious about Linux for years now, and Steam Deck is likely to be the company's next big push

People who have been using Windows or Macs all their lives may not be familiar with the entire alternative ecosystem around the Linux kernel In this space, they are free to do almost anything a computer can do

Linux is everywhere If you're using an Android phone right now, you're probably using one built on top of the Linux kernel But Linux never really took off in the desktop arena, even though many, including myself, wish it would The reason for this is user-friendliness

Many Linux distributions (called distros) are very welcoming to newcomers, but Linux handles things differently than Windows, so some processes have to be relearned However, since Linux handles things differently from Windows, some processes need to be relearned Not everyone welcomes it, and Linux has a reputation for having a steep learning curve

The most popular Linux distro in the world is Ubuntu Many other popular distros are based on Ubuntu with their own tweaks and desktop environments (another term for UI) When Valve first developed the Steam OS, it was based on Ubuntu However, the new version that runs on Steam Deck is based on a different distro called Arch (which uses the KDE Plasma desktop environment)

Arch Linux itself is something of a meme in the Linux community, but it is also very powerful My personal distro of choice, Manjaro, is also based on Arch; there are probably many reasons why Valve switched the base of the Steam OS from Ubuntu to Arch, but I won't go into them here

Valve also released Proton, an improved version of the community project formerly known as DXVK; Valve used the same work done by the DXVK developers and released a compatibility layer shortly after; the nature of Proton allowed many Windows-only games can be converted into something that a Linux-based operating system can understand

However, it must be emphasized that Proton is not an emulator; like DirectX, it simply converts the APIs used by the game into something Linux can understand Emulator) software, a fork of the popular WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) software, which has been the main way to run Windows programs on Linux for many years

Valve started with a very short whitelist of games that would run on Proton, but from the beginning, users could run any game they wanted in Proton to see if it would work While not necessarily successful, it strengthened the dwindling Linux gaming community into a truly passionate one, and sites like ProtonDB emerged, providing a database of games with compatibility ratings and user reviews of what worked and what didn't (or how well) See our guide to checking if your Steam game will work with Steam Deck

Proton was adaptable, and Valve unleashed it on the community, resulting in many breakthroughs, including a variant by a developer known as GloriousEggroll; Valve must have decided that Proton was ready for prime-time use, as it was the first game to be released with Proton, and the first to be released with it

Besides some games not running perfectly under Proton, the biggest hurdles were games with anti-cheat software; titles such as Destiny 2, Apex Legends, and PUBG, all of which have anti-cheat activated and therefore cannot They do not work Some games can result in a permanent ban for even a single attempt to run the game

Easy Anti Cheat, one of the biggest anti-cheaters, was supposed to support Linux, but was sabotaged by Epic Games and has not been seen much since This has been a major bottleneck for many people, including myself, in making the serious jump to Linux

However, Valve knows this and insists it will be resolved by the launch of Steam Deck I play Apex Legends regularly with friends and would love to be able to run Linux on my gaming rig and still be able to play with them But as with anything, don't get your hopes up until you see Valve's announcement [Steam Deck is an exciting technology, not only an affordable entry point into PC gaming, but also a step forward for the Linux desktop After all, the year of Linux will come someday

What all of this means for you and your future Steam deck is that, as it stands, most games on Steam will work However, I expect Valve (and the community) to really step up their efforts to make Proton even more seamless between now and when the final product is released

Also, the Steam Deck is a full-fledged PC with an AMD APU, so it's free to do other things as well; there's a whole world of Linux gaming, including great software like Lutris, but that's another topic