Windows or SteamOS on a PC handheld?

SteamOS is the more livable experience for most people: a controller-first UI, reliable sleep/resume, and power management that earns real battery gains, with Proton covering a large share of the Windows library. Windows is the compatibility hammer — every launcher, every storefront, and the kernel-anti-cheat titles Linux cannot run — at the cost of gamepad-hostile menus and worse standby. Choose by library: if a must-play game lives behind a launcher or anti-cheat SteamOS refuses, that decides it; otherwise SteamOS is the quieter, longer-lasting default.