Shower thought: Valve could do the ultimate boss-move this year
If Valve really wanted to make a splash, they could release a desktop version of SteamOS in October, right when support for Windows 10 ends. For additional damage, they could bundle in Half-Life 3. Just imagine the coverage this would get.
Right, but it's a different distro than the one being referred to here. I know because I made the same mistake.
That one is based on Debian and has existed since 2013. The version on Steam Deck is Arch-based immutable and has not been publicly released yet (EDIT: For anything besides Steam Deck).
Yes, as I said in my initial comment, there is no general purpose release.
It's not true that you can "literally only use it on Steam Deck" either, lots of people have already demonstrated it working fine on a wide variety of devices. It's just not intended for that purpose.
The new version on the Steam Deck isn't available - the old version of course is, but you might as well use Bazzite.
I dont think Valve would bother trying to convert people to Linux - regardless of where people's OSes are, they are the gaming store. Plus, Valve really doesn't think developers should develop Linux native ports, so I dont think they're really push people to use Linux - just use whatever you want and play shit with Proton if needed.