Linux Gaming, SteamOS & Steam Deck

The Linux gaming and Steam Deck stack. For multi-store PC launchers see PC launchers. For self-host streaming from your gaming PC to your Deck see Self-host streaming (Sunshine + Moonlight). For emulators on top of EmuDeck see Multi-system emulators and Nintendo / Sony. For game saves portability see Cloud saves & Ludusavi. For Steam Deck OLED, ROG Ally and dedicated retro handhelds see Handhelds (Anbernic / Retroid / ROG Ally).

The 2024–26 reality: Linux gaming actually works now. Proton + Wine has crossed the threshold where most Win-only games run flawlessly. Steam Deck OLED (2023) made Linux handheld gaming mainstream. Bazzite + Decky Loader + EmuDeck is the standard "Steam Deck experience on a non-Deck PC" stack. ProtonDB is the indispensable per-game compatibility check.

Distros built for gaming

• ★ ★ SteamOS 3 — free closed (Valve); Arch / KDE Plasma based. The Steam Deck's OS. Game Mode (Gamescope session) + Desktop Mode (KDE). The reference implementation. Now also installable on non-Deck devices via the official ISO (since 2024 → 2025 broader rollout); experimental on non-AMD hardware.
• ★ Bazzite — free OSS; Fedora-Atomic / Universal Blue base. The "SteamOS for desktops" — image-based immutable Fedora with Steam, Lutris, gaming kernel patches, Decky Loader, Waydroid, etc. preinstalled. The default Linux gaming distro on x86 desktops in 2026. Variants: Deck, desktop (Plasma or GNOME), HTPC.
• ChimeraOS — free OSS; Arch base; Game Mode focused. Pre-Bazzite Deck-shape distro. Active but smaller community.
• HoloISO — free OSS; community SteamOS clone (Arch); Valve's official SteamOS install path has reduced its niche.
• Nobara Project — free OSS; Glorious Eggroll's gaming-focused Fedora fork. GNOME / KDE / Plasma. Bazzite is more polished but Nobara has loyal users.
• Linux Mint Gaming — community spin, smaller scope.
• CachyOS — Arch with performance-tuned kernels and BORE scheduler; rising.

Steam Deck specific

• ★ ★ EmuDeck — free OSS; Bash installer for Steam Deck (and increasingly other Linux distros + Win). One-click install of RetroArch + standalones (Dolphin, PCSX2, RPCS3, DuckStation, melonDS, mGBA, Cemu, Ryujinx-fork, Citra-fork, Vita3K, ScummVM, DOSBox, ES-DE, Steam ROM Manager) plus Decky plugins, default ROM folder structure, and bezel artwork. The EmuDeck team is the de facto Deck retro-gaming distribution layer.
• ★ Decky Loader — free OSS; SteamOS plugin manager for Game Mode. Plugins: SteamGridDB, ProtonDB Badges, PowerTools (per-game CPU/GPU tweaks), Bluetooth, Audio Loader, NonSteamLaunchers, Pause Games, MetaDeck, MoonDeck (Moonlight integration). Indispensable on Deck.
• ★ CryoUtilities — free OSS; performance-tweak script for Deck. Adjusts swap, swappiness, huge-page allocations, shader cache. Often baked into EmuDeck.
• ★ NonSteamLaunchers — free OSS; Decky plugin / standalone script that installs Epic / GOG / EA / Ubisoft / Battle.net / Heroic / Amazon / Itch / Xbox into Game Mode-friendly shortcuts.
• MoonDeck — Decky plugin that integrates Moonlight into Game Mode for one-tap streaming from a desktop GPU.
• SteamGridDB — free; community Deck-sized artwork database. See ROM management.

Wine / Proton

• ★ Proton — free OSS-ish (Valve fork of Wine + DXVK + VKD3D-Proton + various components); pre-bundled with Steam. Steam will pick a Proton version per game; you can override per-title in Properties → Compatibility.
• ★ Proton-GE (Glorious Eggroll) — free OSS; community Proton with extra patches, codec support, latest Wine staging. Drop into ~/.steam/steam/compatibilitytools.d/ (or via ProtonUp-Qt). Used widely for the "this game won't launch on stock Proton" case.
• Wine — LGPL OSS; the upstream. Steam doesn't use stock Wine; Bottles / Lutris / CrossOver do.
• DXVK — MIT OSS; D3D9/10/11 → Vulkan translation. Bundled in Proton.
• VKD3D-Proton — LGPL OSS; D3D12 → Vulkan translation. Bundled in Proton.
• ProtonUp-Qt — GPLv3 OSS; Qt GUI for installing Proton-GE / Luxtorpeda / Boxtron / etc. into Steam.

Compatibility & tweaks

• ★ ★ ProtonDB — free; community-curated per-game Linux/Deck compatibility database. Platinum / Gold / Silver / Bronze / Borked ratings + per-tweak community write-ups. The first thing to check before buying any game on Deck.
• Are We Anti-Cheat Yet? — free; community list of multiplayer games' anti-cheat status on Linux. The grim companion to ProtonDB for online games.
• ★ MangoHud — MIT OSS; in-game performance overlay for Linux + Deck. FPS, frametime, CPU/GPU usage, temps, power. The default "is this thing working?" overlay.
• GOverlay — GPLv3 OSS; GUI for MangoHud and vkBasalt config.
• vkBasalt — Zlib OSS; ReShade-style post-processing for Vulkan games on Linux (sharpen, FXAA, lift gamma).

Game Mode / kernel / scheduling

• GameMode (Feral Interactive) — BSD OSS; daemon that nudges CPU governor + scheduler when a game launches. Bazzite / SteamOS already include it.
• gamescope — BSD OSS (Valve); Wayland micro-compositor; the heart of SteamOS Game Mode. Resolution scaling, FSR, integer scaling.

Pick this if…

• Steam Deck out of the box, retro layer: EmuDeck + Decky Loader + CryoUtilities.
• Linux gaming desktop, easy: Bazzite Desktop.
• Linux gaming desktop, hands-on: Nobara or Arch with manual setup.
• Game won't run: check ProtonDB; try Proton-GE; check Are We Anti-Cheat Yet.
• Stream from desktop GPU to Deck: Sunshine + Moonlight + MoonDeck.
• In-game perf overlay: MangoHud.