Valve today (12 November 2025) announced their new Steam Machine (x86 CPU, 6x more powerful than Steam Deck) and Steam Frame (self-contained and PCVR streaming VR headset with ARM CPU & “FEX” translation of x86 to ARM) to be released in early 2026. No prices yet.
I’m trying to speculate what effects this will have on the wider Linux ecosystem. Both devices will be running Steam OS and be open so you can run any OS.
First, I’ve read many people state that the Steam Deck considerably increased the number of devices running Linux, so it seems to me that these two new devices will accelerate that trend.
Second, it seems to me that the Steam Frame will significantly increase VR use and development for Linux.
Third, I wonder what the implications of Frame’s x86 to arm translation layer (based on FEX, an open source project that I only learned about today) as well as Android compatibility (they state it can sideload Android APKs) will be. Could this somehow help either Linux on Apple silicon or Linux phone efforts? I’m very unfamiliar with what’s going on with either of these efforts, so I may be way out on a limb here.
What do you think about all this?
Edit: this article may prompt some additional thoughts with its discussion of the openness of the Frame - https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-steam-frame-catalog-whole-compatible/
Desktop is a built-in feature of SteamOS. They’d have to actually work to remove that by default. No reason for it not to be there.
Yeah, but I don’t think KDE has VR capabilities. So it’ll be interesting to see how that’ll work. They mentioned the ability of opening desktop applications in VR. So I think you’ll be able to position those in space.
It wouldn’t need to. They would just need to include a virtual desktop manager or interface to render the usual compositor in a VR sort of way. That’s why I put it in the list. Same thing that would make a theater mode would also allow a desktop to render in a space on a VR compositor.
Yeah, I can understand that. I had heard that Steam Deck had a desktop feature built-in. Some of the videos and articles about the Machine have shown and mentioned desktop apps and KDE, but not regarding the Frame, so I wasn’t sure, especially considering that Frame will be using a different hardware architecture.