Now is the time for Valve to release the Arch based SteamOS 3.0 officially so that it can be easily installed on non-SteamDeck hardware.
Proton was the missing piece that makes Steam Machines viable. Valve should be making SteamOS 3.0 available to hardware companies like ASUS. The Ally should have been a SteamOS device, IMO.
It's not up to Valve. GPD Win4 is an amazing little device with slide out keyboard 32 GB Ram and LTE that runs SteamOS. It's much faster than my current laptop and would make a fine replacement.
ASUS is getting a little bit better with their Linux support, but Zenfones for example were great little devices with atrocious software support.
SteamOS 3.0 (what runs on the steam deck) is very different from the SteamOS that they've been releasing for a while now. and, unfortunately, 3.0 only runs on the steam deck right now.
And the new GPD Win Max (2023) looks fantastic as well. It's spec'd up to a Ryzen 7840U and maxed out you can run 64GB of DDR5 and has PCIE 4.0. It's even got the new Oculink port.
This is a fantastic machine, thanks for sharing. 64GB with Oculink looks phenomenal. I had a one mix at some point, but repairability was basically "get insurance money if it breaks", but for the performance and the form factor I might just switch back.
This isn't the same SteamOS as the one that the Deck is running, it's an old one from their Steam Machines. Valve should take that page down or put up some sort of warning as it's been confusing people.
You could try ChimeraOS ( https://chimeraos.org/ ) to kinda install SteamOS onto a system. I've tried it with a relatively old laptop with an AMD graphics card and it seems to work ok.
Proton was the missing piece that makes Steam Machines viable. Valve should be making SteamOS 3.0 available to hardware companies like ASUS. The Ally should have been a SteamOS device, IMO.