Earlier this week, Valve has distributed the Steam Deck development kit to game developers but, according to SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik, the dev kit has been leaked online. for this reason, we were able to get an idea about some of the neat features that will be coming in Valve’s new handheld console, such as the Deck’s Operating System and UI.
Firstly let’s talk about the Operating System of the handheld device, and the Steam Deck will come with the SteamOS 3.0. The OS will be based on the new version of the company’s Linux-based platform which has similarities to the Windows app. These similarities seem to be a departure from the original SteamOS which was aiming to be more of a proprietary OS from Valve.
According to Djundik, the OS has been leaked and is now usable in other portable devices:
However, for now, we don’t have much information about the operating system and in the leak, Djundik doesn’t show which systems have been able to run SteamOS 3. However, the leak we do get to see is a sneak peek into the Steam Deck’s UI and will be replacing the outdated Big Picture Mode.
But the screenshots which were leaked were already seen by us before however, they give us an idea of what the user experience will be like. It should be noted that the system’s UI is still a work in progress.
On another note, AMD is looking to help Valve make the handheld compatible with Windows 11 and the chipmaker and Valve are working to solve the TPM 2.0 requirement issue that Windows 11 has to ensure that the Steam Deck is compatible with the upcoming OS when the handheld releases.
The Stream Deck is planned to become available at the end of the year. but, some users might have to wait until Q2 2022 and beyond for their unit to arrive.
