Two big reasons for me are: pleasant desktop experience, and no upselling/ads shoved in my face. If the Ally or Legion could just run SteamOS…

Meh. Now I’m a dyed in the wool Linux zealot, but this list is crap.

1. Everything you need, nothing you don’t

Phoey, even the description for this point talks about how much Valve had to build to make the deck possible.

2. Better performance, lighter overheads
   Windows is a pretty bloated OS

Honestly don’t know enough about Windows to say anything on this one definitively. I still doubt it though…

3. A hidden desktop experience
   You never need to use it if you don’t want to

This has nothing to do with windows vs linux, Valve just did a good job on their ‘not-desktop’ side of things.

4. Never worry about drivers

Do the windows consoles not come with drivers installed? Also, can you point out where I can download all the Linux drivers from Valve without exacting them from a full OS recovery image? (Actually kinda honestly asking on that last one. Or have they just upstreamed everything already?)

5. Modify it to your heart’s content
   Linux puts tools in your hands

This is a choice that Valve made. They absolutely could have given this thing secure boot that only lets you run official software with no hooks for mods. I was tangentially involved with doing exactly this for the SmartThings Hub V3, it’s not particularly hard.