Let me preface by saying I love everything Valve has done for Linux gaming and I’m fully aware that Linux wouldn’t be where it is now without Steam. With that said… I really don’t get the hype for SteamOS on other devices. I mean, it’s serviceable if all you do is gaming but it’s honestly one of the worst desktop experiences I’ve ever had (and I’ve used gnome had many): You need to go into desktop mode to do pretty much anything a regular computer should be able to do and, when you get back into Steam, it closes everything you opened while in desktop mode. This means you have to rely on hacky software to do things you would just be able to do if Steam was better integrated with the desktop. For example, why do I need to install a plug-in to import all of my games from different stores into Steam when I should just be able to alt-tab into whatever launcher I want? No, I will not import other launchers into Steam’s launcher and then launch the launcher from the Steam launcher to launch the game — I’m not a crazy person. It feels as if Steam is doing everything in its power to keep me from leaving it and punishes me for daring to try, which honestly reminds me of a certain fruit company. Now, Valve obviously designed SteamOS to be used with a controller and only for games bought from Steam (which is delusional but I digress), so let’s assume you are that person: you have your entire game library on Steam and you use a controller as your main input device so you don’t see the need to ever leave Valve’s walled garden. Then you’d still be better off with any one of the other 37 thousand distros that come with Steam preinstalled because then you at least have access to the desktop Steam UI.

tl; dr: SteamOS kinda sucks, just use a normal distro. Yes, even if you exclusively buy games from Steam.