Most handhelds won't be able to handle Win11 properly and it will also be a drive space hog of an OS as well.

You can check the games on ProtonDB or look at their SteamDeck rating on their store page to see if they would function ok on SteamOS. Most things will usually run fine on SteamOS. The primary challenge / issue are competitive games that use some form of anti-cheat that they don’t want to implement for Linux.

I’d wait to see what the pricing is like on the ROG Xbox ally’s; but don’t bother with the lower-end version of that. It is essentially the same APU of the SteamDeck and the SteamDeck OLED models will have better performance. The higher-end version is significantly more powerful and could be worth it if the pricing isn’t absurd.

I’m not sure I’d be looking for a hand held currently as other than the higher end version of the ally, most of the other options are about 4 year old tech that is long in tooth and will be on the cusp of struggling with new games.

While not all games will work on Linux most, and I reeaaaalllly do mean MOST games will.

Not all of Steam's catalog will be tested as theres simply too many games and not enough people posting but the rule of thumb is a game is only really going to have issues if the game has an anticheat that blocks Linux and thats not exactly too common game number wise.

And before anybody starts the rage chime theres a reason people name the same handful of games over and over.

Games like newer CoDs and BFs as well as Fortnite and siege are examples of games that block Linux. If you play them maybe Linux might not be for you but if not you wont really have an issue.

Out of the top 1000 most popular Steam games only 3% don't work and they are oldly anime games mostly going by pure number.

Personally I don't even check protonDB, I just buy games and play and havent had an issue in the 3+ years I've been Linux exclusive.

Infact the most annoying thing about using Linux is hearing people attempt to clown on me every time a new game comes out or people I know start playing a game saying they feel bad I'm not able to play games that I've already played.

Like for real that has so far been the only annoying thing thus far for me. "Sorry you can't join our D2R play throughs" to me with an 89 sorc. "Too bad you can't help spread democracy" he texts while I'm fighting bugs. Or the post on the PCMR mocking Linux users not able to play Payday3 that I saw after closing Payday3.

Most games (like, the vast majority) for Linux (SteamOS), will work under Proton even if they're for Windows. That's the whole point of Proton.

http://www.ProtonDB.com to check game compatibility. Usually though, unless it's super niche and old or kernel anticheat (Battlefield, etc), it'll work under Linux.