Steam now warns desktop Linux users when a game is known not to work with Proton
Steam will now tell you before you install a Linux-unfriendly game on a desktop PC, not only on a Steam Deck. Valve’s October 13 client notes say that "On Desktop Linux we will now show the SteamOS unsupported dialog when installing games that are known to not work with Proton".
Valve published the change in its October 13 Steam client notes. Image: Valve
A second warning travels with it. Valve says "The SteamOS compatibility dialogs will now show in desktopUI when installing games not verified for that HW", which moves the Deck Verified style of warning out of Big Picture mode and into the ordinary desktop client.
Both arrive in the stable client, which Valve says "will be automatically downloaded".
Valve pushes the Deck’s warnings onto every Linux desktop
Until now the compatibility warnings were part of the handheld and living-room interface, which is the one a Steam Deck or a Steam Machine boots into. A desktop SteamOS install, or any Linux PC running Steam, could take an order for a game that Valve’s own data says will not start.
Valve does not say whether the dialog blocks the install or only interrupts it. The ratings behind those warnings are not fixed either, and three of the top 100 sellers went from Unsupported on Steam Deck to Verified on Steam Machine on Valve’s own published figures.
The compatibility tool picker stops hiding
The same Linux changes make the "Select compatibility tool" dropdown "always visible", and let you choose an alias such as "Proton Stable" from it rather than a numbered build.
Also in the stable client is a line Valve’s beta channel shipped earlier this month: "Windows binaries registered as non-steam games will now run in Proton by default." Mixed News reported that from the beta note Valve titled October 7th, where Valve gave no date for the stable release. The date turned out to be October 13.
Valve has fixed "a case where non-steam games would fail to launch after changing the Target binary via the Browse button", which is the other half of adding a Windows program to a Steam library by hand.
The hardware survey starts reading os-release
Valve says its hardware survey now collects distribution information "preferring data from /etc/os-release", the file a Linux distribution uses to name and version itself. That is the survey Valve publishes every month and that everyone else uses to argue about how many Linux gamers there are.
One more Linux entry is plain plumbing: Valve says it has improved "download speeds on high latency connections". Outside the Linux list, the experimental Pyrowave codec reaches the stable client too, after Valve warned on the beta channel that its highest bitrates cost latency.
Most of the Linux changes alter what Steam tells you before a download starts rather than what Proton can run.
