Valve today (12 November 2025) announced their new Steam Machine (x86 CPU, 6x more powerful than Steam Deck) and Steam Frame (self-contained and PCVR streaming VR headset with ARM CPU & “FEX” translation of x86 to ARM) to be released in early 2026. No prices yet.

I’m trying to speculate what effects this will have on the wider Linux ecosystem. Both devices will be running Steam OS and be open so you can run any OS.

First, I’ve read many people state that the Steam Deck considerably increased the number of devices running Linux, so it seems to me that these two new devices will accelerate that trend.

Second, it seems to me that the Steam Frame will significantly increase VR use and development for Linux.

Third, I wonder what the implications of Frame’s x86 to arm translation layer (based on FEX, an open source project that I only learned about today) as well as Android compatibility (they state it can sideload Android APKs) will be. Could this somehow help either Linux on Apple silicon or Linux phone efforts? I’m very unfamiliar with what’s going on with either of these efforts, so I may be way out on a limb here.

What do you think about all this?

Edit: this article may prompt some additional thoughts with its discussion of the openness of the Frame - https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-steam-frame-catalog-whole-compatible/

  • BigHeadMode@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz
    40·
    10 hours ago

    Huge win for Linux. Steam Deck was the first volley, but this hardware is an all-out assault on Windows’ gaming dominance. MS is asleep at the wheel and making worse and worse software. I’m a 20 year Windows user and I’m planning my exit. If I were a gaming executive, I would assume 5 years from now that a smaller percentage of Steam users will be on Windows than there are today. I would want a damn good reason for my company’s next game to not have full Linux support.

    Microsoft will either:

    • win through innovation
    • win through monopolistic practices
    • win through inertia
    • slowly lose by having a worse product

    My money is on #4. Windows will probably be the #1 desktop/laptop OS for the next 20 years, but we could enter a world where Linux and MacOS are each 10% or more of the market. Steam shows 95% Windows but that’s for a gaming-focused market.

    Valve isn’t perfect. They’re still a corporation. But if every company was as evil as Valve, we would achieve near world peace. They’ve contributed amazing things to open source through heavy investment.

    https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

      • balance8873@lemmy.myserv.one
        6·
        4 hours ago

        Don’t be such a ridiculous fucking hater you blind yourself to reality

        Barring literally everything else, this steam box shares its lineage with the Xbox, not Sony or Nintendo’s products. Speaking as one who ran xbmc on their classic first-gen it’s nice to see things coming full circle to “everything is just a media center pc, bitches”.