Bazzite, the Fedora-based distro looking to compete with SteamOS

Announced the launch of the new Linux distribution "Bazzite", which it develops as a specialized build of Fedora 38, which is optimized to run games on both PCs and Valve's Steam Deck portable gaming device.

Bazzite It boasts of being a fully targeted and optimized distribution for games, since initially it has a first execution assistant that allows the user to be able to install additional applications and change settings. For example, the pre-installation of NVIDIA proprietary drivers, plus you can configure CoreCtrl to change system settings in relation to applications and GreenWithEnvy to overclock NVIDIA video cards.

Another of Bazzite's characteristics is theto inclusion in the System76 automatic optimization service Scheduler, which dynamically configures CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) task scheduler parameters and changes process execution priorities to reduce latency and ensure maximum performance of the process the user is currently working with.

In addition to that Bazzite has Waydroid enabled by default, This opens up possibilities for running Android apps on the Steam Deck, increasing its versatility and potential for extended functionality.

Regarding the development of the Bazzite variant for Steam Deck video consoles, in which Steam and Lutris are pre-installed, it is noted that the interface is used by default Game Mode, the administrator Gamescope Composite and Modified Mesa Pack.

Build components such as drivers, firmware, cooling management utilities, and specialized packages are ported from SteamOS (ported from the evlaV repository), plus the package includes utilities to control Steam Deck voltage, change the frequency of the screen and limit the battery level.

On the part of the ported fixes, mentions the use of Btrfs file system on an SD card, has the tools to Gamemode interface to update the system, flatpak packages, ZRAM, amd-pstate, and the BFQ I/O scheduler are enabled by default.

Of the other characteristics that stand out from Bazzite:

• Support hardware accelerated H264 video decoding.
• Full support for the AMD ROCM OpenCL/HIP runtime.
• Full support for DisplayLink, allowing for easy setup of multiple monitors.
• Inclusion in Valve's KDE skins for SteamOS.
• Inclusion in the base distribution of LatencyFleX, vkBasalt, MangoHud and OBS VkCapture layers.
  Engine support (KDE only).
• Inclusion in the base Distrobox distribution with prepared images based on Arch Linux with Steam and Lutris.
• duperemove service to reduce disk space by deduplicating redundant environments for Wine.
• Enables Google's BBR congestion control algorithm for TCP by default.
• Inclusion in the base distribution of the Input Remapper application to customize the behavior of input devices.
• As an option, the ability to use the Nix package manager is provided.
• Inclusion in the xpadneo controller for Xbox One wireless controllers.
• Inclusion in the i2c-piix4 and i2c-nct6775 drivers to control the integrated backlighting on motherboards using the OpenRGB package.
• Inclusion in the GCAdapter_OC driver to overclock Nintendo Gamecube controllers to 1000hz.
• Support for Wooting keyboards.
• Delivering the KDE environment and enabling the Wayland protocol by default for systems with Intel and AMD GPUs (X11 is used for NVIDIA).
• Ability to load into the Big Picture interface of the Steam client, such as when used on set-top boxes.
• Choice at the stage of installing an image with a GNOME-based environment.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that if you are interested in being able to learn more about it, you can consult the details In the following link.

Download and get Bazzite

For interested in being able to test this distribution, They should know that installation images are offered for the x86_64 architecture with a weight of 685 MB and can be obtained from the following link

During the boot you must select the variant appropriate to your equipment (PC or Steam Deck)

• bazzite: This is the general desktop image of the AMD/Intel GPU intended for most personal computers.
• bazzite-nvidia: it's bazzite, but for PCs running Nvidia GPUs, since they include their proprietary drivers in the image.
• bazzite-deck: is a special Bazzite Steam Deck image. More details on that here.
• bazzite-gnome: it's bazzite, but instead of using KDE Plasma as the desktop environment, it uses GNOME.
• bazzite-gnome-nvidia: it's bazzite-gnome, but for PCs running Nvidia GPUs, since they include their proprietary drivers in the image.
• bazzite-deck-gnome: it's bazzite-deck, but instead of using KDE Plasma as the desktop environment, it uses GNOME.