In time for the weekend Linux gamers, Valve last night released the first preview of SteamOS 3.9 for the Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and other devices. This early preview comes with some exciting software updates.

SteamOS 3.9 Preview updates its Arch Linux package base. Among the notable software upgrades is the SteamOS Desktop Mode now running on KDE Plasma 6.7.3 compared to the dated Plasma 6.4.3 version it had been using. In turn this fixes many bugs and other improvements for the desktop experience under SteamOS.

SteamOS 3.9 Preview is also running on the Linux 7.2 stable kernel for newer hardware support, better performance, and other improvements over the existing Linux 6.16 LTS usage.

The SteamOS 3.9 Preview also switches over to WPA_Supplicant for better WiFi handling, preliminary support for system hibernation but not yet exposed via the Game Mode UI, improved support for running SteamOS as a guest VM with VirtIO graphics acceleration, and other improvements.

More details on the SteamOS 3.9 Preview release via SteamPowered.com.