When the Steam Deck originally launched on February 25, 2022, we called it "streamlined, responsive, and undeniably compelling" in our five-star review.
Designed and produced entirely by Steam's parent company, Valve, it arrived running a custom Linux version called SteamOS. This was an introduction to Linux for many PC gamers who'd otherwise been beholden to Windows, and it proved to be a stable, efficient, and clean OS that just seemed to work.
