Valve may be preparing to bring its SteamOS to the masses, and by that, we mean other gaming handhelds that are not the Steam Deck. At least, that is according to details skimmed off the most recent firmware patch notes.
The notes from the SteamOS 3.6.9 Beta update, particularly in the Input section, have a part that says “Added support for extra Ally keys”. This is possibly a reference to the buttons on the ASUS ROG Ally.
Last year, Valve said that it plans on making SteamOS available and operational on the console of its rivals. Specifically, it said that it considers a general release of its operating system a high priority.
Currently, the Steam Deck is the only gaming handheld that can run SteamOS. Other handhelds on the market, such as the Ally, Ally X, MSI Claw, and Legion Go, operate with Windows OS, which is perfectly fine. It can be argued that if this rumour is true, it would tip the scales into Valve’s favour; as it stands, the Deck is the only console that can run both SteamOS and Windows, the latter obviously requiring a bit of elbow grease to get running.
Getting it to run on non-Deck consoles could also lead to better improvements over Windows, particularly in the power consumption department. But, as it stands right now, the timeline as to when we’ll see this happen is unclear
(Source: XDA, PCGamer, Tom’s Hardware, Techspot)
