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Comparison of Bazzite vs SteamOS

What is Bazzite?

Bazzite is the largest community-driven Linux gaming operating system, featuring the latest Linux drivers, rich documentation, a large community, and a variety of flavors (DX, Gnome, KDE, and Deck). It is based on Fedora and features an atomic update system (bootc), ensuring the previous update is always available if something goes wrong. It is also designed for daily driving, with a focus on gaming and development.

If you have a problem on Bazzite, rest assured you are not the first one, and you can easily find an answer in this documentation, Google, Discord, Discourse, or Reddit. In addition, since Bazzite ships the latest drivers, you can be sure that if your device can work in Linux, it will work in Bazzite.

Bazzite also contains custom hardware enablement for handheld devices, and we are proud to say that Bazzite currently works on all x86 based handhelds, where for Lenovo, Asus, Ayn, GPD, and OneXPlayer devices, it has feature parity with Windows. In addition, Bazzite has great support for AMD, and decent support for recent Intel Arc (e.g., MSI Claw) and Nvidia GPUs.

What is SteamOS?

SteamOS 3 (not to be confused with previous versions) is an Arch-based operating system originally designed for the Steam Deck. Much like ChromeOS is an OS for Chrome, SteamOS is an OS for the Steam client. It also features a basic desktop environment with KDE, X11 that allows users to e.g., install mods and emulators, but may be limiting for desktop use.

In addition, due to its development model, it usually contains packages that are 1-2 years old. For example, SteamOS 3.6 released with kernel 6.5 in October 2024, and was in service until May 2025. Kernel 6.5 released in August 2023, so on the 3.6 release day, the kernel was 14 months old and when it expired in May 2025, it was 21 months old.

This means that if you are excited to buy a new device and plop SteamOS on it, you will usually have to wait a year for it to update. For example, AMD 9070 GPUs and Strix Halo devices (e.g., Asus Z13 2025) cannot run SteamOS 3.7 (May 2025) at all, even though they released early in 2025.

When should I use Bazzite vs SteamOS?

For SteamOS, the answer is usually straightforward: if you will mostly be in Steam Gaming Mode, avoiding the desktop environment, and you have a Steam Deck, then SteamOS is a good choice. Likewise, if you have an all AMD PC that is 1-3 years old and you try SteamOS and it works well, then you can use SteamOS.

Otherwise, Bazzite is a natural choice. You will also find other benefits below.

Extra Features

  • Works on all x86-based handhelds: Legion Go/S, ROG Ally/X, OneXPlayer F1/G1/X1 variants, GPD Win 4/Mini/Max, Ayn Loki, MSI Claw 1st Gen AI7+/8+, Steam Deck LCD/OLED, Zotac Zone, Ayaneo Air/Geek/Next.
    • With built-in RGB support, TDP control, GPU control, gyro, sched-ext, back buttons, swipe gestures, battery conservation, charge bypass and more.
  • Access to both KDE and Gnome desktop environments
  • Excellent dual-boot support with Windows.
    • Read Setup Guide for more information.
    • Handheld Daemon contains a "Reboot to Windows" button for handhelds in Gaming mode, allowing switching to Windows in a single tap.
  • Support for LACT and Cooler Control, for tuning desktop GPUs and fans.
  • Fearless Updates
    • You always have access to the previous version through the bootloader.
    • For handhelds, Bazzite will automatically rollback on the previous version after 3 failed boots.
    • A backlog of the previous 90 days of updates is available, and you can easily roll back to any version with a simple command or through Handheld Daemon.
  • Ships the newest software available, along with Fedora, including optimized versions of the Linux kernel, Mesa graphics drivers, and gamescope.
  • Useful gaming-related software, such as Lutris, Umu-Launcher, ProtonUp-QT, Protontricks, and more.
  • Out of the box support for virtualization and GPU passthrough.
  • Android applications can be installed with Waydroid which is pre-installed.
  • Sunshine is pre-installed, allowing you to easily stream your games.
  • ujust convenience scripts for setting up software and tweaks such as secure boot, and additional software.
  • Uses the disk format btrfs with deduplication and compression (SteamOS uses ext4) and supports auto-mounting for internal drives and SD cards.

Daily Driving

  • System packages get updated on a weekly basis (not biannually like SteamOS).
  • Wayland is used in desktop mode, ensuring correct scaling for high-DPI displays.
  • Most desktop packages follow the Fedora lifecycle, with exceptions where there is a bug, where the package is selectively withheld or fixed earlier than Fedora.

For Developers

  • Access to multiple package managers and repositories in containers.
  • Homebrew is pre-installed for command-line packages.
  • Layer Fedora packages to the system which survive between system updates.
  • Host software as services using Quadlet.
  • Check out Development for more information.

Security Improvements

Bazzite supports LUKS Disk Encryption, Secure Boot, and TPM unlock of the encrypted disk. Bazzite also has SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux) enabled and pre-configured by default.

Secure Boot support is also useful for dual-booting with Windows, since it is required for certain anti-cheat software. Read more in Secure Boot.

Performance Improvements

Due to the use of latest drivers, Bazzite will have better performance than SteamOS on recent devices. For the devices that SteamOS works well on (i.e., the Steam Deck and 2+ year old AMD PCs), due to their age, the performance difference is negligible.