I remember reading like a year ago that they wanted to get it on other handheld devices first (which this post looks to cover), so don't hold your breath but hopefully it's a step closer
They promised a generic release (no date) when steam deck was first revealed lol. Typical valve time but I know they’ll deliver a decent starting experience. They’ve leaned a lot and improved the steam deck software a lot too.
Hopefully getting some OEMs on board (that want SteamOS on their handhelds) makes it easier to maintain - I'm sure that's what they're kind of hoping for before releasing a general release.
I’ve been feeling for a while now that Nvidia’s more recent approaches to open source drivers has been encouraged by their background talks with Valve, getting pressured by such a wildly successful new device.
I'm willing to bet it's mostly AI, which is what caused Nvidia stock to skyrocket. Linux is the dominant platform for AI work. They definitely don't want flaky drivers on Linux going ahead.
I’ve been feeling for a while now that Nvidia’s more recent approaches to open source drivers has been encouraged by their background talks with Valve,
A GPL-compliant kernel module is a legal requirement when shipping a product combining a Linux OS with Nvidia drivers. NVidia actually used a modified Nouveau kernel module for Tegra hardware because of that but weirdly insisted that their proprietary kernel module needs to be used for x86 Nividia drivers. You could not legally ship a car where the computing architecture is an x86 CPU + an NVidia GPU with the older proprietary kernel module.