Last week I was on vacation, the kind of vacation where entire days have no particular plan. I had brought the ROG Ally
Things had changed for the better. I tried Bazzite, and after performing the typical Linux installation tasks (enabling the BIOS shortcut, disabling secure boot, partitioning), I had the Steam Deck-like experience I'd been looking for in this more powerful handheld. Since installing Bazzite, I haven't had to mess with drivers, connect to a monitor and keyboard for desktop mode, or do anything but play games.
Until Valve makes SteamOS officially available for ROG Ally and (maybe) other handhelds, Bazzite is definitely worth a look for anyone who thinks their handheld could do better.
Bazzite says you can swap an SD card full of games between two systems running Bazzite. This kind of teasing possibility is very effective on people like me. Credit: Bazzita
More gaming platforms, more customization, same Steam feel
There are some ROG Ally Bazzite integrates apps like Lutris, Heroic, and Junk Store, which Steam Deck owners often turn to to load games from Epic, GOG, itch.io, and other stores, as well as games with awkward Windows-only launchers.
Actually, you don't even need to get rid of Windows. If you're using a handheld like the ROG Ally X, with its 1TB of storage, you can dual boot Bazzite and Windows with a bit of partition shrinking. Of course, check to make sure your saved games are backed up first, but you can, with a little guide reading, venture into Bazzite without abandoning the games you need Windows for.
Perhaps most useful for the type of person who owns a gaming handheld and will also be installing Linux on it, Bazzite gives you powerful performance customization at the click of a button. Tap the ROG Ally's M1 button on the back and you can alter the thermal design power (TDP), set a custom fan curve, change the load limit, modify CPU and GPU parameters, or even choose a scheduler. I especially appreciated this for the low-power indie games I played, as I could set the ROG Ally below its standard 13W “Silent” profile up to a custom 7W without having to delve into Asus' Armory Crate.