Your Steam Deck Is Secretly a Linux PC. Here Are 10 Ways to Unlock Its Full Potential

SteamOS is having a breakout moment. The Linux-based operating system powers Valve's popular Steam Deck handhelds and the hotly anticipated Steam Machine , and is becoming an increasingly important part of the broader PC gaming ecosystem. Unlike traditional consoles such as the Nintendo Switch 2 , Sony PlayStation 5 , or Xbox Series X , SteamOS offers far more flexibility, combining a console-like gaming experience with access to a full desktop operating system.

That desktop is built on KDE Plasma, giving you a familiar PC environment for browsing the web, managing files, installing apps, and much more. While the idea of using a Linux-based system may sound intimidating, SteamOS is surprisingly approachable—even for people who have never touched Linux before.

Ready to explore beyond Gaming Mode? Press the Steam button, select Power > Switch to Desktop, and you'll unlock a wide range of features that turn your SteamOS device into a capable everyday computer. Here are 10 tips to help you get the most out of the desktop experience.

1. Navigate the Desktop With Gaming Controls

Valve's SteamOS desktop works with the Steam Deck's hardware, the Steam Controller , and other gaming controllers, so you can navigate it without a keyboard or mouse. The right analog stick or trackpad controls the mouse cursor. The right trigger button ( R2) performs a left-click, while the left trigger button ( L2) performs a right-click. To pull up the on-screen keyboard, press Steam+X. The Steam Deck has a touch screen, so you can also navigate the desktop with it. The experience is similar to using Windows 11 on a touch screen: Dragging your finger to scroll works well, as does tapping buttons instead of clicking them. However, touch targets can be small and somewhat difficult to hit on a Steam Deck's 7.4-inch display.

2. Browse the Full Web With Chrome or Firefox

The SteamOS desktop comes with a Firefox shortcut pinned to its bottom panel. Click it, and SteamOS will offer to install the Firefox web browser from the Discover app, which is SteamOS's recommend place to find and install desktop applications. You can also install Google Chrome or other alternative web browsers , such as Brave and Vivaldi, from here.

Your web browser of choice gives you full access to the entire web from SteamOS, so it's at least as capable as ChromeOS in that respect. DRM is the only problem you'll encounter on the web: Netflix tops out at 720p in Chrome and Firefox on SteamOS and other Linux distributions. That's good enough for streaming videos on a handheld console, but not impressive on a high-resolution monitor or TV.

3. Install Any App That Runs on Linux

The Discover app, accessible via the Start menu-like application launcher on the left side of the panel, lets you install desktop applications in a few clicks. It uses the Flatpak application format. You can find most Linux-compatible applications here, including Discord, Spotify , and VLC. Proton VPN , our top-rated VPN , is also available.

4. Access the Full File System

SteamOS includes the Dolphin file browser, and it gives you access to the full file system. You can also insert microSD cards or USB-C flash drives.

5. Connect a Dock for a Traditional Desktop Experience

SteamOS supports external displays and peripherals. With a USB-C dock , you can quickly connect a SteamOS machine to an external display , keyboard, and mouse. SteamOS also supports Bluetooth for wireless mice and keyboards; look for the Bluetooth icon on the panel to connect them. With a larger monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse, a SteamOS machine delivers a full desktop experience at your desk or in the living room.

6. Get Emulators for Retro Gaming

The Discover app on SteamOS also lets you install emulators for old-school gaming . SteamOS is an excellent operating system for retro game emulation; most traditional game console operating systems prevent you from installing emulators . ROM files containing games are copyrighted, however.

7. Play Games From Outside of Steam

SteamOS doesn't restrict you to just Valve's Steam game store. You can install games from elsewhere, including Battle.net, the Epic Games Store, and GOG, although these storefronts don't officially support Linux. 

Lutris, available in the Discover app, uses the same Proton compatibility software that lets Steam run Windows games on Linux . This application guides you through installing non-Steam Windows games on your Steam Deck. Most games work on SteamOS, although some have anti-cheat software that runs only on Windows.

8. Discover a Universe of Free and Open-Source Applications

SteamOS has a whole universe of free, open-source desktop applications for productivity beyond gaming and the web. You can install the free LibreOffice office suite to edit documents and create spreadsheets, and much more. Many of these open-source applications run only on Linux—not on macOS or Windows —so you might not be familiar with them. You can find them in the Discover app using the search box.

9. Pair SteamOS With Your Phone

SteamOS comes with KDE Connect, which pairs the KDE Plasma desktop with your Android or iOS phone. You can see smartphone notifications, send SMS messages, and share a clipboard between your SteamOS machine and Android phone, for example. To set it up, open the Settings app from the menu, then go to KDE Connect. The application will guide you through installing the associated app on your phone and pairing it with your SteamOS machine. The KDE Connect app for iOS includes fewer features than the Android version due to Apple's platform restrictions. However, it still supports file transfers, a shared clipboard, and remote input to control your SteamOS machine from your phone.

10. Use a Full Linux Terminal

Beyond the desktop itself, SteamOS gives you access to a full Linux terminal. By default, SteamOS uses an immutable file system that keeps system directories read-only. But you can get write access to the entire system and do whatever you like. Valve doesn't recommend doing so because system-level changes might not stick after SteamOS updates and could cause system problems if you don't know what you're doing. However, on SteamOS, it's up to you.

Know Where SteamOS Excels—and Where It Doesn't

The Steam Deck OLED delivers a capable desktop experience in my testing, with smooth performance for web browsing, light productivity, and media consumption. It can run the desktop at up to 4K resolution when connected to an external display , and its 16GB of RAM is enough for quite a few browser tabs. The Steam Deck's AMD APU is designed for power efficiency rather than high-end performance, so it isn't ideal for demanding workloads, such as 4K video editing .

SteamOS Is More Than a Gaming Platform

Valve's SteamOS isn't just a wrapper for playing games. Devices running it are bona fide PCs. You can even wipe the SteamOS operating system from a Steam Deck and install Windows instead , although Valve doesn't officially support Microsoft's OS on its Steam hardware. 

If you enjoy the SteamOS experience and want something similar on your other devices, you can install a Linux distribution, such as Ubuntu , and customize it to fit your needs . Kubuntu comes with the same KDE Plasma desktop as SteamOS. For a SteamOS-style, gaming-optimized Linux experience on PC hardware not created by Valve, consider the Linux-based Bazzite operating system .

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