Playtron, the company attempting to build a Linux gaming distribution to take on Valve, Microsoft and others have released GameOS Alpha 3 with a bunch of new features. This includes a new fancy open source tool named GameLAB. It was originally called PlaytronOS but they've now settled on calling it GameOS.
As a reminder: the idea of PlayTron's GameOS is to bring a Linux-powered system that runs games from Epic Games Store, GOG.com, Steam and more directly out of the box.
The major changes in Alpha 3 include:
New & Updated Features
- GameLAB
- A new program for Linux, macOS, and Windows
- Remotely manage a Playtron device for power users
- Configure and submit custom launch configurations
- Configure and submit custom controller input configurations
- Requires Playtron GameOS Alpha 3 or newer on the remote Playtron device
- Improved Steam support
- Full Cloud Saves support
- More reliable game downloads
- Faster and more reliable steam game launching
- More reliable offline support for Steam
- QR code login using the Steam app on Android or iOS
- Touchscreen support
Bug fixes
- Non-Steam Deck touchscreen controls are not completely supported
- Progress bar does not work when updating
- ASUS ROG Ally is not receiving inputs from the touchscreen
- Some Steam games fail to download at 100% progress with error code 57
- Sometimes Playtron GameOS will boot into a black screen when using slow storage media
- Steam Cloud Saves can get corrupted
- Steam Cloud Saves have no conflict resolution
Speaking over email, Luke Short, Director of Linux Engineering at Playtron gave a little more detail about this new GameLAB tool and their plans for it. Luke Short said it "revolves around community submissions" and that it's "similar to Lutris in how you can create custom installation scripts". In the short-term they want to get their fixes put back into protonfixes, so GE-Proton and the like can benefit from it directly. Long-term they want to "make all of our fixes easily accessible to everyone. Possibly with a conversion tool between different providers (protonfixes, Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris, Phoenicis, etc.)".
The only device currently planned to ship with it is the weird crypto device SuiPlay0x1, but there's hints that something else may be on the table soon. I'll be keeping an eye on it.
You can learn more and download from their website.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
fenglengshun a day ago
The more I hear about this totally-not-a-scam project, the less I wish I heard about it.
R Daneel Olivaw a day ago
GameOS... definitely one of the names of all time.
The more I hear about this totally-not-a-scam project, the less I wish I heard about it.
BUT ... BUT ... IT HAS CRYPTO BRO. Listen, this device is going to train state-of-the-art algorithms, build cognitive frameworks, predict algorithmic tensor transformations, and absolutely dominate the market with blockchain integration at the NFT level with gen ai frameworks.
If you'll excuse me, I have to return to my sewer, so I'll just leave you with our investment opportunities form and bertcoin payment link. See ya bro!
The dev who seems to contribute to playtron OS also seems to contribute to open-source project. (mostly launcher stuff)
playtron-os (I guess gameos, but it's call playtron-os on GitHub), seems to be base on Fedora, use ostree, and is mostly compatibility tools for linux.
To give them credit where it's due, If I had to make a gaming base distro, and had some money to invest in it, I guess I would use the same strategies. (but use an Arch base distro because I use Arch BTW).
I would have love to see them contribute to mesa, wine and Linux kernel, but I guess it's not something easy to do for a small company, and maybe if they grow bigger they will contribute more to those projects.
The marketing and w3m stuff are kind of a turn-off though, but maybe they just take money from peoples willing to give them, and are really trying to make a good Linux-base distro for handheld.
Maybe the project is a scam, but they give money to open-source dev to improve Linux compatibility with launcher, and this is still a good thing.
Last edited by Uso on 22 Feb 2025 at 10:43 am UTC
Patreon
PayPal
How to set, change and reset your SteamOS / Steam Deck desktop sudo password
How to set up Decky Loader on Steam Deck / SteamOS for easy plugins
See more from me