Valve releases SteamOS 3.8.25 Beta with expanded handheld support and firmware fixes

Valve has pushed the SteamOS 3.8.25 Beta update, which includes Steam Machine Firmware 108, fixes for sleep‑wake loops, CPU performance drops, speaker dropout on Steam Deck OLED units, and HDMI and Bluetooth audio issues. The beta adds gamepad support for several third‑party handhelds—including the MSI Claw, OneXPlayer, AYANEO Pocket S2 and Konkr FIT—and provides preliminary drivers for the upcoming Steam Frame Wireless Adapter. A known regression affecting FSR performance remains, so users are advised to wait for a fix before upgrading.

In parallel, Linux gaming distributions are gaining modest market share. SteamOS accounts for 0.89 % of Steam hardware survey respondents, while CachyOS and Bazzite together reach 0.88 %, showing that a growing number of gamers install Linux‑based gaming OSes on desktop PCs. Windows 11 still dominates the market, but the Linux share is slowly rising despite ongoing anti‑cheat challenges.