Bazzite is an alternative OS to SteamOS for the deck and other handheld PCs. Unfortunately due to a mistake, anyone who installed Bazzite before July 3rd 2024 won’t get automatic updates.
If this affects you, I’d suggest checking out the article to get instructions on fixing it.
Is there a benefit in using it over the default OS?
Their GitHub has everything you’d want to know.
Build Bazzite | failingI guess so.That really doesn’t mean much.
Unless you’re planning on building from latest source, that info isn’t for you.
Because it’s based on fedora atomic it uses rpm-ostree, which lets you layer packages to persist between updates. Good for stuff that isn’t available as a flatpak or doesn’t work as well when installed as a flatpak. Beyond that not much, maybe if someone doesn’t trust Valve with their OS?
On SteamOS you can still kind of have non-flatpak packages persist by using distrobox.
It’s still a sandbox, just one that hasa bit more latitude in what you can install than a flatpak.edit: distrobox seems more integrated with the host OS than I thought
Including the xone kernel driver for proprietary Xbox dongles is quite nice
(you can connect Xbox gamepads via bluetooth but that will often times give you a higher input lag for Xbox pads anyway)
It has all the advantages of steamOS, can boot straight into game mode, supports Decky plugins, etc.
However it also supports installing traditional Linux programs permanently (which steam OS generally won’t let you do), and has other benefits too.