Thanks to the arrival of the SteamDeck, Linux has started to gain some share in the operating systems market, SteamOS being the main responsible It is worth mentioning that the good acceptance that SteamOS has had is not something that has happened overnight, since although many will remember that Steam tried to enter Linux in the gaming market for a long time both with its operating system intended for games, as well as with the Steam Machines,
How many of us have not dreamed at some point of having those dream machines in our hands to be able to tinker with them. Lucky are all those who managed to get one, since at least in the case of me, at that time I was still a teenage student and being able to afford such a computer at that time was unimaginable and we simply had to settle for using SteamOS with our current hardware.
The reason for mentioning this, is because Many have already begun to take some interest in using SteamOS again. and with it SteamFork is born, a project that is developing a Linux distribution that recreates the SteamOS environment for use on regular PCs and gaming consoles other than the Steam Deck.
SteamOS, currently uses Arch Linux as a base and is designed to Steam deck. Includes the composite server Gamescope based Wayland, which optimizes gaming performance, a read-only root file system, atomic updates, support for Flatpak, and two interface modes: Steam Shell y KDE Plasma. Although SteamOS is available only for Steam Deck, Valve has announced its intention to release official versions of SteamOS for PC and is working on compatibility with other consoles.
SteamFork, the new SteamOS variant for normal PCs
SteamFork It is derived from the HoloISO distribution and seeks to maintain compatibility as close to SteamOS as possible, without adding third-party packages or altering its base functionality. The changes focus exclusively on support for additional hardware.
SteamFork retains the identical interface to SteamOS and adds a KDE-based desktop mode. Additionally, JELOS-derived optimizations are incorporated for power management, improving cooler control on supported devices and disabling RGB lighting by default. Installation of additional programs in Flatpak format is also allowed.
Among the latests Moravia's compositions main features Some of the highlights of SteamFork include:
- Full SteamOS UI/UX, including desktop mode.
- Minor changes to SteamOS to preserve upward compatibility.
- Power management optimizations carried over from JustEnoughLinuxOS .
- Improved fan curves on supported devices.
- RGB disabled by default, will flash if battery is low (on supported devices).
- Supports booting from removable media such as USB drives and micro SD cards (minimum 64GB).
SteamFork is a Linux distribution that It consists of various open source components, and each one of them It is distributed under its respective licenseThis means that the various elements that are part of the project, such as emulators, media players and other programs, are subject to the specific licenses under which they were released by their original developers.
Unless otherwise noted, content created directly by the SteamFork team is provided under the terms of the MIT License.
SteamFork It has been tested on several devices, some sponsored and verified, ensuring better support. Sponsored devices are being actively maintained, while unsponsored ones may have unknown issues. It is mentioned that for modern devices with AMD GPUs or APUs, SteamFork should work without any issues, although they have not been tested.
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it or get the system image, I invite you to visit the following link for more information and/or download links. Weekly 5GB updates are distributed by replacing the base image and can be installed on USB Flash or SD cards.