It's normal for old versions of an OS to stop receiving support after a new version replaces it. That's not unique to steam OS. if I install an old version of bazzite, or any deprecated Linux kernel, modern apps will not necessarily be made backwards compatible with it.

But steam OS will have more installs than any other Linux variant just because of Valve's brand recognition alone and the FOSS community will target it as their primary platform for software compatibility as a result.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 1 points 3 hours ago

This is the big reason why I want to hop aboard an Arch SteamOS desktop train. If I ever have to wrangle with technical issues, or goddess forbid, the terminal, I want the documentation to be there to walk me through it. My first attempt at transitioning over to Linux Mint didn't work out, since there were technical issues that got in the way of fully replacing Windows 11.

Having reliable compatibility reduces the need for documentation, and a standardized platform for the documentation helps even more.

[–] Decq@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Its normal when there is a new release. But steam OS 2 was abandoned long before version 3 came around.

[–] omarfw@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

What's important right now is converting people away from windows. I expect Steam OS 3 to be much more beginner friendly than any other distro. If an average PC gamers first impression of linux is constant troubleshooting, they're not going to try another kernel; they're just going to go back to windows.

Even if valve stops support later, they will have still introduced many people to linux in a beginner friendly way and wrestled the gaming ecosystem out of microsoft's grip that much more.