Happy three years to the Steam Deck – the Linux gaming machine that changed everything!
It’s been three years today since Valve released the Steam Deck. Not only has Valve shown how incredible Linux actually can be as a gaming platform, but they really kicked the industry into gear on PC gaming handhelds.
What a success it’s been! Selling multiple millions, although we don’t know the exact number since Valve don’t really like to talk in such specifics. And we’re closing in on 18,000 games rated at least Playable (although the rating system is a bit off at times), that’s a whole lot of gaming you can do from the comfort of your couch, on the bus, the toilet — wherever.
During this time Valve have released 14 major updates to Proton, the compatibility layer that runs Windows games on Linux systems like SteamOS / Steam Deck. Going from Proton 7.0-1 in February 2022 just before the Steam Deck release up to the latest Proton 9.0-4 in December 2024. The progress on game compatibility has been impressive (although anti-cheat is still a real problem). That’s only counting numbered Proton updates too, there’s plenty more that have gone into Proton Experimental and Proton Hotfix in between. If you’re confused on the different Proton versions be sure to read my guide.
We’ve seen some huge updates to SteamOS Linux during this time too.
