PlaytronOS Alpha 2 brings expanded NVIDIA support, more handheld PC support and much more

Playtron continue building up their PlaytronOS / GameOS (they don't seem to have settled properly on a name yet) alternative to SteamOS and Windows with a second Alpha release out now.

If you're just joining us and have no idea what PlaytronOS actually is. It's a Linux-powered distribution (specifically it's based on the Fedora Silverblue family of Atomic Desktop distros) that aims to play games from Steam, Epic Games, GOG and other platforms out of the box with a sleek interface and everything built-in so you don't need any external launchers. A good idea for handhelds, and they will support desktops and other devices too.

Here's all that's new:

Hardware Support

• NVIDIA support for Turing (GeForce GTX 1600/2000 series) and newer cards
• Support for dual-GPU systems such as desktops and laptops
• OS upgrade from Fedora 40 to Fedora 41
• Support for portal-based Wi-Fi connections
• These devices have been tested by Playtron and are known to work:
  • AYANEO 2 and 2S
  • ASUS ROG Ally
  • Lenovo Legion Go
  • Valve Steam Deck LCD (NVMe only)
  • Valve Steam Deck OLED

New & Updated Features

• Full cloud save support with conflict resolution for Epic Games Store and GOG.com games
• App details page with game metadata and actions
• Full support for mouse and keyboard input
• New sound effects
• Basic avatar system
• Select custom game input configurations some text
  • A limited selection of inputs are provided by the Playtron team as part of the Alpha 2 launch
  • Input configuration creation will be one of the features of our upcoming tool Playtron Labs
• Timezone support
• Up to 2x battery usage improvement in OS
• Over 100 bugs identified and fixed

I'm keen to see where they go with it, but they need to settle on a name properly and stop flip-flopping between PlaytronOS and GameOS whenever they talk about it. That, and their earlier marketing was quite silly, but they do seem to have cleaned up their website quite a lot. My other concern is how locked down they will keep it, as per their FAQ:

At first, only the operating system code will be open source. We have plans to open source more and release API documentation to allow developers in the community to contribute and build their solutions using Playtron.

Since it's Linux, it will have all the same anti-cheat problems that SteamOS has on Steam Deck too. They still say they're "working with interested partners to enable anti-cheat services" but until they have a proper release with more hardware, I don't see anything changing there. Valve have sold multiple millions of Steam Decks now, and we still see companies newly blocking it like GTA Online and Apex Legends. You can keep up to date on our new anti-cheat page (more info in my forum post).

The only device that has been announced with it so far is still the weird SuiPlay0X1, a $599 handheld from a web3 / blockchain company that talks about NFTs and crypto.

You can download Alpha 2 from their website.