2025 may be remembered as the year Linux gaming crossed a threshold, with SteamOS rising from a niche option to a topic of mainstream conversation. The momentum was largely driven by SteamOS’s widening footprint beyond the Steam Deck, most notably through Valve and Lenovo’s collaboration on the Legion Go S—an early example of a third-party SteamOS handheld poised to broaden the platform’s reach. In fact, some handheld enthusiasts began by manually installing the Steam Deck recovery image on devices of their own, a move that predated the official OS release and produced mixed results.
The author tried this approach on the Legion Go S running an initial Windows install and found that performance, sleep and resume behavior, and the overall fullscreen UI were notably nicer than expected. There were still downsides, including limited support for certain games, but for titles the author wanted to play on handheld, SteamOS largely delivered a workable experience. The takeaway: Linux gaming on handhelds has a practical foothold, even if the library and compatibility aren’t universal yet.
When the official SteamOS version of Legion Go S launched, that foothold hardened into one of the most popular handheld configurations for SteamOS. The Legion Go S itself looks and feels modern—stylish, comfortable to hold, and reasonably powerful—and the Arch-based SteamOS still plays a part in how it performs on the hardware. The broader landscape also includes other handhelds—Ayaneo Kun, OneXPlayer and its variants, and similar devices—and our hardware editor has tried SteamOS on many of them, with mixed results. On every device except a few exceptions, the OS booted and ran, but bugs and inconsistencies could creep in.
That variability is why some readers and reviewers still point to the Framework 13 laptop as the only handheld-adjacent device that runs the OS reliably, often better on a laptop than on a handful of handhelds. For those seeking alternatives, Bazzite—an Fedora-based SteamOS-alike—offers a more configurable Linux environment that can feel less buggy for some users, but it isn’t perfect in all cases. The upshot is clear: the Steam Deck and Legion Go S with SteamOS remain the closest things to turnkey experiences among handhelds, while other devices present more of a mixed bag. The hype around SteamOS in 2025 isn’t tied solely to Valve; it’s about a broader Linux story that gained traction as Proton continued to smooth over compatibility barriers.
The Linux narrative isn’t solely about SteamOS, of course. Across Linux broadly, the argument has long been that your system can be tuned precisely to your needs. Proton helped close the gaming gap, but the broader question for 2025 wasn’t whether Linux could run games—it was whether it could run them with the reliability and ease expected by a Windows gamer. The conversation was intensified by Windows 10 approaching its end-of-life and Valve’s ongoing Steam Machine chatter, which fed a belief that a SteamOS desktop could become a viable alternative at the right price.
Yet the practical barriers remained, and they are mostly practical in nature. Kernel-level anti-cheat software has grown increasingly common in modern online games, and Linux distros don’t support kernel-level anti-cheats. Linux’s model—where users can tweak the kernel and much more—makes hard-enabling anti-cheat at the kernel level both technically challenging and philosophically uncomfortable. The anti-cheat debate isn’t minor: it directly affects whether Linux can support a core swath of online multiplayer titles. Big-name games that use kernel-level anti-cheats include Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Valorant, among others, and an increasing number of titles feature similar protections.
What complicates matters further is a widely cited list of incompatible games maintained at AreWeAntiCheatYet.com. It isn’t a colossal catalog, but it includes several high-profile titles and any future releases could adopt similar protections. Battlefield 6 is one notable example that has a kernel-level anti-cheat, and its popularity among players who primarily engage in single-player or slower-paced modes means the impact isn’t limited to strictly competitive contexts. The risk is that future big games could adopt kernel-level protections on Linux as well.
Despite the excitement around Linux’s progress, these issues pose a real barrier to a mass switch. The practical experience scale simply isn’t there yet, and the unreliability some users encounter with different hardware configurations doesn’t help. The Linux dream remains compelling—the promise of a system you control, running exactly what you want, with Proton enabling a wide range of titles—but the tipping point hasn’t arrived. The combination of patchy compatibility on handhelds, driver quirks, and a growing kernel-level anti-cheat landscape makes a wholesale switch to Linux unlikely for most gamers in the near term. The author remains convinced that dual-booting or using Linux on non-critical machines is a logical middle ground, and the Steam Machine concept might still nudge more players toward a Linux-based desktop if the price is right. Oscillating between excitement and caution, the year’s experiences suggest Linux is a credible option in specific contexts, but not a full replacement for Windows yet.
Ultimately, the author’s personal trajectory mirrors the broader sentiment: Linux in 2025 is a strong, visible option with genuine momentum, but kernel-level anti-cheats and reliability challenges render it insufficient to supplant Windows for the majority of gamers. The call for a practical alternative to kernel-level anti-cheat protections—whether through different anti-cheat architectures or improved Linux driver stability—remains the critical hinge on the path from curiosity to ubiquity. For now, Linux is a compelling side quest rather than the main campaign, particularly for players who place multiplayer readiness and out-of-the-box reliability at the top of their list.
While Linux’s fan base continues to grow and SteamOS gets more devices in scope, the practical reality for most players is that Windows still offers a smoother online experience today. Dual-boot remains a viable route for those who want to tinker without giving up the Windows environment for work, and SteamOS on a handful of handhelds suggests that the operating system has a future in the living room and on portable rigs—just not as a universal Windows replacement yet.
The year also reminded industry observers that Linux isn’t a mere novelty. Proton’s ongoing improvements, SteamOS’s presence on more hardware, and the willingness of publishers to experiment with alternative kernels and distributions all point to a broader, more resilient ecosystem. But until kernel-level anti-cheat protections find a workable path on Linux or until reliability across hardware improves to a point where a handheld Linux rig feels as plug-and-play as a Windows PC, the migration arc will remain gradual. The Linux narrative in 2025 is thus one of growing visibility and measured progress—an invitation to experiment, not a mandate to abandon Windows just yet.
The final takeaway is pragmatic: Linux gained real cultural cachet in 2025, but practical barriers prevent a mass switch. It’s a year that proved Linux gaming can be more than a niche curiosity, especially on handheld platforms, yet also a year that underscored how critical kernel-level anti-cheats are to the modern online gaming experience. For the foreseeable future, PC and console players who crave a completely Windows-free setup will mostly continue to rely on Windows, with Linux serving as a compelling, if still transitional, option for those who prize control, customization, and a broader tinkerer’s mindset.