In my case, I already have PC, a laptop and a gaming handheld, all running Linux, but I still want to buy a Steam Machine just to support Valve, and also to increase the market share statistics - even if it's just by one count. We need to buy these to show the world that there is a market for Linux gaming devices, and who knows, maybe some day the market will grow big enough for publishers like Epic to admit they can no longer ignore Linux.
They will keep ignoring Linux, because SteamOS plays Windows games, and everyone seems to appreciate being a second class user, that only gets to play thanks to Proton.
Even though Unreal supports Linux, studios will keep using Windows workstations, targeting Windows gamers, using kernel drivers, and let Valve do whatever they need with Proton to make it work on SteamOS.
Now if Valve actually made studios care about Linux, then yes, SteamOS would be interesting.
> Now if Valve actually made studios care about Linux, then yes, SteamOS would be interesting.
But that's exactly is what is happening - albeit at a small scale - but it's happening nonetheless. I recall Marvel Rivals for instance name-dropping Bazzite in their changelogs not too long ago[1], which was a first. I can't recall any major game mentioning a small distro, ever. Another big name is Baldur's Gate 3 - not only did they explicitly add support for Proton initially, they even released a native Linux version[2]. There's a bunch of other examples as well, but you get the drift.
We can only expect to see more such examples with the release of the Steam Machine. These are exciting times for any Linux gamer, and also Windows gamers looking to part ways with Microsoft.
