According to PCWorld, Valve has spent the last decade methodically building SteamOS into a viable competitor to Windows for PC gaming, starting with its initial release in 2013. The true game-changer was the Proton compatibility layer, launched in 2018 and continuously improved, which now allows the majority of Windows games to run automatically on Linux. By 2022, Valve was directly funding over 100 open-source developers to work on Proton and SteamOS, a commitment that paid off with the 2022 launch of the Steam Deck handheld. Now, benchmarks show games often perform better on SteamOS than Windows 11, and Valve is preparing new Steam Machine living room PCs for 2026. The company is even ready for Arm-based hardware, funding the Fex emulator for a future where SteamOS runs on non-x86 chips. Microsoft, distracted by initiatives from the metaverse to AI, is now scrambling to catch up as PC gaming decouples from its Windows platform.
The Persistence Payoff
Here’s the thing that’s easy to forget: Valve’s first swing at this, the 2013 SteamOS and Steam Machines, was basically a flop. Nobody bought the hardware, and developers didn’t want to port their games. So why did it work this time? Pure, stubborn persistence. While Microsoft was chasing the next big shiny thing—remember the crypto wallet in Edge?—Valve was quietly writing checks and doing the boring, hard work of making Wine actually usable for normal people. They turned a flaky, enthusiast-grade tool into a seamless background process. That’s the real heist. They didn’t invent something new; they just made something old work shockingly well through brute force and funding. And now, they’ve created a situation where supporting the Steam Deck, a hugely popular device, means ensuring your Windows game runs great on Linux. Talk about a power move.
Why Games Run Better On Linux
It sounds counterintuitive, right? How can a compatibility layer running on top of another OS beat the native experience? But the benchmarks don’t lie, and I’ve felt it myself comparing handhelds. A big part of it is that Windows is just… heavy. It’s a general-purpose operating system doing a million things in the background. SteamOS, especially in Gaming Mode, is a stripped-down, focused environment built for one job: running games. Proton cuts out a lot of the Windows overhead. Think of it like a dedicated race car versus a family sedan you’ve tuned up for the track. The sedan might have a powerful engine, but the race car is all about that single purpose. Microsoft is finally trying to build its own “race car” mode for handhelds, but Valve has a multi-year head start. The irony is delicious.
The Final Windows Moat Is Draining
For decades, the killer reason to choose Windows was simple: “It runs all my games.” That was the unbreakable moat. Apple never cared, and Linux was a tinkerer’s nightmare. But that moat is now full of holes. Proton handles most single-player games flawlessly. The last big holdout was anti-cheat software, which required deep kernel access that Linux (rightfully) wouldn’t grant. But even that fortress is falling. Because the Steam Deck is such a big market, anti-cheat companies like Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye have worked with Valve to support Proton. And let’s be honest, a lot of gamers are happy to avoid those kernel-level rootkits. So what’s left? Habit? At this point, if you’re building a dedicated gaming rig, why wouldn’t you consider SteamOS? It’s free, it’s fast, and it runs your library. Manufacturers are starting to ask the same question. That’s a paradigm shift Microsoft never saw coming.
A Future Bigger Than Gaming?
This is where it gets really interesting. SteamOS isn’t just a console interface. Underneath, it’s a full, modern Linux desktop running KDE Plasma. You can dock your Steam Deck or a future Steam Machine and use it as a regular computer. Valve gets to piggyback on the entire mature Linux app ecosystem for free. And with Microsoft itself pushing everyone toward cross-platform web apps, the need for “native Windows” software is shrinking. Could we see SteamOS laptops? Why not? The foundation is there. And Valve’s work on Arm compatibility via the Fex emulator shows they’re thinking years ahead, ready for the industry’s eventual shift away from x86. They’re not just building a gaming platform; they’re building a viable, general-purpose PC platform that starts with gaming as its superpower. Microsoft spent years worrying about locking Windows down to protect its platform. Now, the platform is slipping away because they forgot to protect the very thing that made it indispensable.
