Is this a totally crazy idea? Talk me down before I hurt myself.
On a docked Steam Deck, yes sure. It’s a perfectly good desktop replacement.
On any other PC, I would recommend a traditional distribution over Steam OS.
I use Manjaro which is basically the same thing.
Is steam OS not just flavored Debian?
Not anymore according to Wikipedia:
SteamOS, version 3.0. This new version is based upon Arch Linux with the KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment
Iff all the apps you’d want are already containerized into the system used in steamos why not. As furzegulo pointed out, it’s immutable
EndeavorOS with KDE is basically steamOS without restrictions. I’ve been running it fine for years.
When is Valve going to release SteamOS Desktop? I would use it for many things.
I did it for a while on my steam deck but I switched to bazzite.
Try it, the worst thing that can happen is you waste a few hours, get mad, break your PC, and get a brain aneurysm
break your pc
If you’re able to get steamos installed on a regular PC, it’s still gonna be immutable by default
It’s not going to stay immutable for long when OP takes a bat to it
Depends what you mean.
Using a docked Steam Deck for day to day tasks? Sure, a bit slow for some things (capped power budget) but it’s fine. Did it for a while out of curiosity.
Installing SteamOS on a random PC? Lolnope. Nothing but Steam Deck is even tested by Valve. Just get Fedora or something.
This is the answer, I was going to write almost word for word exactly that. OP if you mean using a Steam Deck as your daily driver, you’re probably fine, if you mean installing it on a random PC then nope, even if you get it working it will be an uphill battle constantly.
