Linux

Like IBM and Red Hat!

Microsoft is deeply entrenched and has undergone decades of enshittification. SteamOS is at only the beginning of this cycle. And since SteamOS is linux-based, it's likely to have ramifications for the whole GNU/Linux ecosystem. Furthermore, if there are two vastly different OSes that developers and graphics card manufacturers need to seriously target, they're more likely to write more platform-agnostic software that everyone can benefit from.

Because valve is a private company. They don't have to answer to shareholders. That means, they don't go through enshitifaction, they care about their product and their customers. Are they perfect? Absolutely not, are they good? Better than every single company out there that tries to be like them. Period.

Because it's open source and based on the Linux kernel. It's owned by them but you can do what you want with it. You can't with Windows.

So if a game works on the Steam OS, it works on pretty much any distro

I game with Steam on Linux, but I'm not using Steam OS

Also, that means that every effort made by Valve to improve compatibility is beneficial to everyone.

Edit: Also, even if it were closed source, I think it would still be good as it gives us alternatives to Windows. But

The source is always free so you could fork it if you disagree with them. Also it means broader support for Linux gaming

Hell yeah, brother.

Old steam os was an Ubuntu derived OS. Ubuntu has issues relating to the organization that runs it. New steam os is basically a coat of paint on top of Arch which is community based. The old os is deprecated.

The version on steam deck is fantastic, but they have been polishing it for desktop use for a while now. I can’t wait to have it available.

I think modern steamos is based on a different distro then it was then. Also proton is good enough now to justify switching for a lot of people

If I recall correctly, this has never happened the way it's happening now. It was a matter of "hey, you can fork it on GitHub and make your own iso thing", hence why there was a "holoiso" or something like that that (I keep forgetting the name) where people used if they wanted to install steamOS on a device. This one is straight supported by valve. Like "hey, here is our official steam OS that we use on our steam deck. Use it and we will support you".

From what I recall, it wasn't something you could easily use like a normal distro, and that version was based on Debian (so stable but outdated software). It only worked on some hardware, and you had to do a full system wipe.

More likely, this is them officially partnering with handheld or gaming laptop makers, using their latest Arch-based distro and allowing them to use Valve/Steam branding as a selling point.