Windows Was The Problem All Along
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters cite it as reviewer evidence that games run faster and with better battery life on Linux/SteamOS than on Windows on identical hardware.
What it is
Dave2D reviews the Lenovo Legion Go S running Valve's SteamOS instead of Windows, calling it the first true competitor to the Steam Deck. He compares handheld gaming performance and experience across the two operating systems.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2025 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Cites hinkley · 2025-06 · on “Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds”
This story has been floating around for weeks already. I’ve seen two different videos talking about this already including one claiming Microsoft has already stated they are working on it. It’s not just that the games run faster but that battery life is also better. On a handheld system battery life will change minds more than frame rates. Correction: it’s been a month and they had both devices: [this video] And it’s $130 cheaper.
Cites dijit · 2025-10 · on “Windows Subsystem for FreeBSD”
What you’re saying doesn’t align with what PC reviewers are stating outright though. The Legion GO being the most prime example[0]. Some games work better on Linux, some worse, but largely comparable[1]. I don’t believe that reviewers are paid to promote this view. [0]: [this video] [1]: [LINK]
Cites simoncion · 2025-11 · on “Bazzite: Operating System for Linux gaming”
> Handhelds and desktop PCs can perform differently. The handhelds we're talking about are -essentially- a low-power [0] laptop in a tiny case. Again, we're talking about exactly the same hardware, that provides substantially worse performance when Windows is the OS than when Linux is the OS. For reference, here's one instance of the original coverage of the phenomenon about which I spoke: < [this video] > [0] But higher power than one might naively expect!
Cites craftkiller · 2025-12 · on “Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm”
That is why I bought a steam deck: to financially support Valve's Linux efforts. I barely play games anymore but thanks to the Wine devs, CodeWeavers, and Valve, I no longer have to listen to the knuckle-draggers claiming that "Linux sucks because it can't play games". In fact, now it is the opposite: Linux is outperforming Windows[0]. [0] [this video]