That's a big ask to have them release anything with a 3 in it.

It's just not very general purpose right now. It's Arch but the base system is set up as an immutable image. Here meaning any changes to the system are lost on updates. This includes stuff like the Nvidia drivers, so it's my understanding it's of little use for the majority of Steam's install base. The kernel also isn't strictly upstream and last I checked was rather dated with needed bits backported. If your PC however had newer hardware, it could mean you wait very long for support in SteamOS. Also I'm not sure there's a generic installation process. They probably rather have device-specific images.

PC gamers already have plenty of choice with similar options, even HoloISO which is basically SteamOS with needed bits added. I'm not the biggest fan of SteamOS' approach for a desktop system, and I'm not sure Valve would want to support this use case.

I can't help but feel like Valve has somewhat dropped the ball by not releasing it yet, at least for other handheld manufacturers to use in their own devices. As it is, the Steam Deck is the only handheld PC that I know of that uses linux, and all the companies jumping on the bandwagon with competition are all using windows. It feels to me like Valve's attempt at making linux the de facto standard handheld OS for gaming devices has slipped away by now, which is really unfortunate.

Of course, the Steam Deck is still the most popular handheld gaming PC (in large part I'm sure due to low cost and the convenience of SteamOS) so it's not like it has been a failure at getting more gamers on linux, but I'd guess that if they released SteamOS 3 alongside the Steam Deck it would have made a much bigger dent in the market.

They need to release an actual home console. Not the Steam Machine uncertainty they did a few years ago.

They have the software stack, they need a beefier APU that I’m certain AMD would be glad to provide, a controller based on the Deck, and they’re set.

It could sell in the tens of millions.

oh my gosh, yes. for example, over the weekend, i brought deck to my parents. was playing Halo Wars before the drive. put deck to sleep (midgame), drove to my parents which takes an hour, hooked up the dock to their TV, turned deck back on, and BAM. playing Halo Wars right where i left off. i leave, and i do the same thing just in reverse. actually, come to think of it, i think im still in the middle of that game... Arbiter is kicking my ass

Then get bigger hands.

In case this is not a joke, Steam only runs on x86 processors. The Vita has an ARM processor. But I bet someone made some Linux that runs on the Vita. Just not with Steam games.