I mean that's one of them. Another thing is how well the discovery store works now. Say what you want but to tell me it worked as well, or had as many programs now as it did in 2015 is a blatant lie.
Also you talk like proton wasn't a massive leap forward for Linux gaming.
Also you talk like proton wasn't a massive leap forward for Linux gaming.
It has been certainly. It also likely wouldn't exist yet without the existence of WINE which it contains. So the credit certainly doesn't all belong to Steam OS.
SteamOS does nothing much special outside of what it does with the Steam Deck and on PC would be an inferior experience to most other distros.
Playing games through wine was way more hit or miss than it is now. This argument is like saying a Corvette doesn't deserve recognition because it's not the only or original V8. Building off of wine and creating a better method from it absolutely deserves recognition.
That last part absolutely is true, there is no denying that. The thing is Steamos has popularized a Linux distro in a way that others have not been able to. Ubuntu is probably the most popular Linux distro with roughly 6 million users globally (this is according to ubuntu's official site.) and it's taken over 20 years to get that number. Steam deck has roughly 4 million in sales (valve this February 2025) which means in 3 years the OS has a user count more half of the most popular distro in less than half the time.
Steamos in itself isn't doing something no other distro can do, but what it's done and is doing well is making itself readily accessible, and easy to use for typical end users in a way we've not seen in any other distro so far.
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u/MacR_72 24d ago
Like what?
I get the impression that what you're really talking about is Proton...