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Don't expect a SteamOS phone after the Steam Machine, Valve engineer says
(www.rockpapershotgun.com)
this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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A lot of people looked at SteamOS on ARM and naturally speculated that there could potentially be a SteamOS for phones in the future.
I think there's a myriad of reasons that would be a bad idea but not completely out of the question.
The software is open source. Someone will make it, it doesn't have to be Valve. In fact there are already projects like Winlator. This will just accelerate that
Creating a Linux based OS for phones is an enormous task. There are several of them around but most are barely functional from my research.
The problem is that contrary to x86 the stack powering Android phones isn't made for OS portability.
On x86 the basic concept is "There's one OS image/distro and it runs on everything". You can take one Debian iso and it will run on close to every x86/x64 PC out there.
Android phones don't work like that. Every image needs to be custom-fitted to exactly the hardware it runs on.
That makes it hugely difficult for Linux-on-Android-phones to just work on any phone, which again makes it very difficult for the already-cash-strapped hobbyist Linux-on-phones projects that are out there to actually support all the hardware on the phones.
If Valve would make such a thing as SteamOS on phones, it would be specific SteamOS phones, not SteamOS as a custom ROM for random phones.
Only if the phone hardware is closed and locked. If not for chip manufacturer patents, stock Debian would run no problem on every new phone a week or two after it hit the shelves (if not sooner, like when friendly vendors send early hardware out to developers).
Instead, every revision of every model phone has a bunch of unique black-box bullshit that must be reverse-engineered, all of which expressly exists to keep you from using your hardware the way you want.
You know all of this.
The point (that you made, that) I want to emphasize is: Valve is a hardware manufacturer now.
And I would absolutely buy an AARCH64 Steam Deck that could replace my Android.
Yeah, it's not like an open phone ecosystem couldn't be created, that's for sure. If the whole industry would come together they could clearly make an open-standard system that would work just as well with custom OSes as x86/x64 does.
My point was that right now in the current setup that exists, someone like Valve couldn't just waltz in, create their own Custom ROM and expect that it just works on all phones.
That would be the only viable way that something like SteamOS would make it onto phones. Either first-party manufacturing by Valve (like the Steam Deck) or partnerships with other first-party manufacturers.
Sounds we are very much on the same side of this discussion.
The main issue with a non-Android SteamOS phone would be the apps. It would be amazing for gaming, but if it doesn't run Android/iOS apps (with the latter being extremely unlikely), it will likely suffer the fate of all the other smaller phone OSes. The main issue I see there is that if I would use a SteamOS-phone, I'd still have to carry a regular Android phone for all the apps I need (2FA/Authenticators, government 2FA, banking app, public transport, messaging, ...). The only use case that would really benefit from a SteamOS phone would be gaming. So in the end, a better device to fill that use case would be a small handheld gaming device with a built-in controller. Basically a Switch Lite Steam Deck.
Valve brought gaming to Linux, I'm confident they could bring banking to Linux too.
If all banking apps were already on Steam, I would agree. Fact is, I haven't seen a single banking app on Steam.
Well, it's not a phone replacement yet.
I'd expect them to release a phone-sized gaming device with built-in controls. Something like a Switch Lite.
None of them have loads of money backing them. Valve has loads of money.
Yes, that was point, thank you for elaborating.
I would say Canonical is a pretty big company with money
However, their decision-making skills are less thrilling.
The real problem is the hardware. Somebody needs to make a handset that has any chance of actually working out of an SoC that the manufacturer isn't actively trying to stop people from using for anything other than mass mind rape. Once you've got that made, some neckbeard will have Debian running on it by sundown.
Why use the word rape at all there? Lack of imagination?