Honestly, the Steam Deck has done more for gaming on Linux than just about anything in recent years. Not least because it spurred significant improvements in the software that allows you to run Windows software in Linux (Proton, which is a fork of Wine), since a big chunk of the Steam library doesn’t have an actual Linux version.
Like Android, iOS and MacOS, the core conceit of Steam OS is emphasizing usability on a particular set of devices (in this case gaming handhelds, but presumably eventually consoles too since the whole thing is designed around controller inputs as a central UX concern) for a system whose guts are ultimately built on Linux or Unix, but with the worst of the fiddly bits abstracted away and hidden from most end users.
Honestly, the Steam Deck has done more for gaming on Linux than just about anything in recent years. Not least because it spurred significant improvements in the software that allows you to run Windows software in Linux (Proton, which is a fork of Wine), since a big chunk of the Steam library doesn’t have an actual Linux version.
Like Android, iOS and MacOS, the core conceit of Steam OS is emphasizing usability on a particular set of devices (in this case gaming handhelds, but presumably eventually consoles too since the whole thing is designed around controller inputs as a central UX concern) for a system whose guts are ultimately built on Linux or Unix, but with the worst of the fiddly bits abstracted away and hidden from most end users.