ChimeraOS First Impressions - Linux Gaming for the Masses!?

ChimeraOS is a gaming oriented Linux based PC operating system that brings a lot of the same feature and advantages of SteamOS to platforms other than the Steam Deck. Is it worth considering? I've been using it for a couple of days, here are my first impressions.
Correction: One correction needs to be made, based on feedback from the actual developers of this project. ChimeraOS is not "based on" SteamOS, it actually pre-dates SteamOS 3 by a couple of years. It's only really "based on" Arch Linux and happens to include Steam big picture mode and Gamescope.
Note: All gameplay footage featured in this video was running on either ChimeraOS on the desktop PC or SteamOS on my Steam Deck. There are no Windows installations in our house at all.
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[@alkazar79]

Excellent video! Just a few things I wanted to clarify: - ChimeraOS is not based on SteamOS at all, other than we use Steam Big Picture Mode and gamescope for the UI, in fact ChimeraOS predates SteamOS 3.x by many years - Some of the things you attributed to the OS are actually part of the Steam client and thus are things we cannot change, such as the Steam Deck verbiage and the default game resolution (although we have recently found a hack to overcome the resolution issue that will be coming in a future release)

[@gerowen]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll definitely keep using it and make a later update video, 🙂

[@ChromeBreakerD]

When will the resolution „hack“ be release? Any way to use it right now?

[@bmqww223]

18:10 can you tell which app are you running at this section of this video?@@gerowen

[@gerowen]

@@bmqww223 That's the Sega Classics collection on Steam.

[@hagaming2609]

I have been using Chimera for about 10 months and I love it. I have all my steam games, my emulation games and non steam games. It is basically a PC console experience. Kudo's to the dev's and great job on the video !

[@lostyplayz2799]

Hey man, bout to hop on this os. How's the epic games looking? Is it working fine? I've been planning for a loooong time to switch on to this but, because of "linux", never did.

[@f-hgamingbangladesh6568]

00:03 Chimera OS is a gaming-centric Linux distribution. 02:19 ChimeraOS offers console-like experience for gaming PCs 04:30 Chimera OS offers a gaming-centric management for the screen display 06:44 ChimeraOS supports Xbox controller wireless dongles out of the box. 08:54 ChimeraOS allows easy access to non-natively supported Windows applications. 11:01 Chimera OS brings Steam OS to AMD desktop gaming PCs with added flexibility. 13:10 ChimeraOS allows for playing old game rips and offers a console-like experience with a controller-driven interface. 15:32 Chimera OS makes PC gaming console-like and user-friendly. 17:45 ChimeraOS provides a better gaming experience than Windows for PC gamers and steam deck owners

[@john_doe7059]

This is what I was looking for. Informative and straight to the point. 😎

[@matthewsankey817]

Great explanation of the softwares, exactly what I was looking for. I’m excited to try Chimera.

[@TriVoxel]

Nice review! BTW, that game-specific resolution setting is fixed now! Now games launch with the native screen resolution!

[@tzad2104]

exellent video!

[@BrianJones-wk8cx]

Lack of NVIDIA support for Gamescope is essentially my last looming reason for keeping my game rig on Windows 10. I’ve sidestepped a lot of the Windows headaches by swapping out the default shell for the OS from Windows Explorer to Emulation Station, making boot times almost instantaneous, essentially my own faux-Gamescope for Windows. I can still open Explorer via a shortcut in Emulation Station for file management, but once everything is set it makes it a pretty good console-like experience. Special K is a godsend for flakey Windows 10 HDR support as well, completing the package for my needs at the current time. The sooner Linux can meet all my of needs, though, the better. I love my Steam Deck and agree the SteamOS experience is second to none!

[@naruhearts1]

I know this is old, but id consider maybe trying it out on a mini PC with like a 680m or something and just testing things out, I understand wanting Nvidia over AMD but id consider maybe getting a secondary AMD PC, to see how you feel about it. Im excited with the Prospect of something like ChimeraOS becoming the norm to use alongside or instead of windows

[@BrianJones-wk8cx]

@@naruhearts1 you read my mind, my friend! I was able to pick up a steal of a deal on a laptop with a 680m not long after this post, and have been enjoying Bazzite in exactly the manner you describe. My main rig remains Windows for now, but this little laptop is fantastic for fun with family at gatherings, both on its own and connected to a larger screen. While I can’t do what my RTX 3080 does, it’s still surprisingly capable and a really great experience! Thanks for your spot-on suggestion!

[@InnerFire6213]

i went full linux 2 years ago because of windows shenanigans too. i don't want microsoft telling me what to do with my hardware. my choice of linux is garuda. chimera looks quite cool. and i bet it runs leaner than garuda too. i might give it a try later

[@holyscience3763]

can u give us a comparison of garuda vs chimera? no one has done this

[@InnerFire6213]

@@holyscience3763 for me basically if you want an OS for your living room gaming pc and don't want a lot of fuss chimera is a good choice. There is only one version of chimera to choose from. Garuda is good for general use performance and gaming computer. There are a lot of desktop environments in garuda to choose from and you can even opt to download a lean version instead of the gaming version. You can customize a lot of stuff in garuda, just like a normal pc, and it's not as restricted as chimera where the changes you can do to your OS is minimal.

[@LinuxRenaissance]

I have a Steam Machine planned for my living room as well. But that may have to wait until I buy next-gen parts for my main PC so the old parts can make up a “console” then.

[@kingforkings]

Shader Cache is no thing anymore. Just leave it disabled and let the new proton versions do the up to 40000% improved shader cache improvements do its thing.

[@mietek7068]

Thanks. i’am watching Your video because i’am buying today used rx 580 to pair it to intel 4770k in my old pc to instal chimera os (currently gtx780). i’am only console gamer from NES times (ok, i played on C64) - just look what owning a Steam Deck does to nice upstanding gamer. ;)

[@cmdrdisulfiram]

ChimeraOS sounds amazing until you look up the supported games list from other platforms. GOG in particular has only 7 titles listed. Less than half my games are on Steam and most of what's on Steam is Humble Bundle padding games. I am waiting for my ROG Ally to arrive soon. Chose it over an OLED Steam Deck because it comes with windows and potentially will be better for my use case. Might give ChimeraOS a go at some point if I find windows 11 touch experience to be annoying.

[@AlexTM44]

Can you get Steam tinker launch installed? I have it installed on my Steam Deck, but I can't get it installed on my main PC running Holoiso, so I thought of installing a different OS but it's hard to give up on Steam OS, that's when I came across this Chimera OS. The problem is that I really like using the desktop mode as well on Holoiso, but the desktop in the Chimera it seems too different

[@has20100]

Hello, nice video what kind of GPU did you use, I have been having issues with my build chimeraOS so I gave up and went back to Windows I don't know what I did wrong

[@gerowen]

AMD RX-480

[@fikrirahmatnurhidayat4988]

I build my PC on Arch Linux + Dedicated Gamescope Session. I still need to thinker how "Switch to Desktop" works, so I can switch session easily between my Desktop and Gamescope.

[@MorpheusLoopYMCMB]

Great Video! Could I ask if you're able to play Red Dead Redemption 2? Thanks

[@gerowen]

I don't own RDR2 so I couldn't say, but if I had to guess, probably.

[@MorpheusLoopYMCMB]

@@gerowen thanks for the response, it’s just some people have said they’ve had trouble getting it to launch on Chimera

[@toinksboinks1]

What is the specs of your steam os desktop build ?

[@gerowen]

CPU: AMD FX 8370 GPU: MSI Radeon RX 480 8GB "Gaming" RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @1866Mhz

[@ThatOneDudeWhoPostsStuff]

I'm not familiar with Linux, but if you prefer KDE, could you replace Gnome with KDE or any other desktop interface?

[@gerowen]

I'm not sure; since I "think", like SteamOS, the root filesystem is immutable. You could of course change this and do what you want, but there's no guarantee that the next system update wouldn't just revert it back to Gnome.

[@voodoovinny7125]

I would love to have a Chimera OS setup so I can put in the closet and use the intel iGPU HVEC (H.265) stream using Sunshine/Moonlight and play this on my Firestick and Bluetooth controller from whichever room I want.

[@LessThanPeachy]

Wait were you able to run MCC multiplayer on Chimera? I thought it just wouldn't work because of the anticheat.

[@gerowen]

That issue has been fixed for some time now so you can play the multiplayer and get achievements in single player.

[@AlexTM44]

The Halo MCC works just fine on Steam Deck, it should work on any Linux OS though, and I choose the anti cheat option when starting the game for the first time. I already played 1 to 3 and now finishing Reach, playing on sequence

[@SuperDpunisher]

Can i dual boot it to a different hard drive

[@Aoitori365]

nobara os is another good distro that is like steam os

[@mravg79]

I will be honest if Valve released Steam Console (like a small factor PC with more power than current gen consoles) I would buy it. I love my steam deck OLED it replaced my old windows laptop. Dock+keyboard+mouse+display and steam deck works like a charm. Also great in portable mode for my backlog.

[@dagoelius]

Any issues installing/running mods?

[@ivanm10]

So then would this OS allow to run and play games with Anticheat like PUBG, Fortnite, etc.? Because with steamdeck games are limites unless u put Windows on it

[@catgarcia2238]

no

[@kangerer8886]

Can EA games run on it as I only use EA for Jedi fallen order and survivor

[@gerowen]

You could install Bottles, then use the included script inside Bottles to set up EA games and just add Steam shortcuts either to bottles, or to the individual games themselves. I've done this before with games like Overwatch before it came to Steam on its own.

[@pauIinhoo]

no HDR and VRR is a deal breaker

[@kingforkings]

its a thing now and it just takes little longer

[@Xray_OS]

Bazzite

[@protocetid]

welcome to Linux!

[@WatevaMelon]

Too bad doesn't work with vanguard, can't play league of legends or other games that use vanguard I'm guessing

[@gerowen]

Basically if they don't already run on Linux or SteamOS they won't run on this. So anything that requires a rootkit style anticheat with kernel level permissions is out of the question.

[@SnowyRVulpix]

Eh. Personally, I'd recommend Linux Mint or PopOS for gaming.

[@aru3]

If you want a controller-friendly, console-like experience, ChimeraOS is better than Mint and PopOS. Regular Linux distros are better for a typical gaming PC, where there will be lots of desktop usage. But if you want a dedicated console box, chimeraOS is much easier to manage

[@gerowen]

I prefer Debian for regular PC use and gamed on it for a while, but even in Steam Big picture mode there were occasional bugs from not having Gamescope installed. That said, it's entirely possible to install it. I noticed the other day that Gamescope is in the Debian repos, so if you wanted to build a Debian/Ubuntu based alternative to ChimeraOS it's definitely possible.

[@ZombieFartDev]

no sir it is broken as hell, the steam console part is perfect but as soon as you use desktop mode you realize you ruined your system, it is non immutable meaning anythinig you add will just change back on every update, just get garuda os dragonized gamer and it is like a steamdeck, kde plasma with arch base steam installed by default

[@grtitann7425]

C'mon man, you seem to be very knowledgeable about Linux, so don't sugar coat the reason why ngreedia GPU are not supported. But the reason is rather simple, ngreedia doesn't have nor care in releasing proper open source drivers because they hate Linux and FOSS. So as Linus Torsvad himself said " F. U. Ngreedia."

[@protocetid]

he didn't call them Ngreedia, though he should've

[@grtitann7425]

@@protocetid if he did, the "children" will abandon his channel 😂

[@protocetid]

@@grtitann7425 true, but I was talking about Linus Trovalds

[@hollyc5417]

serves your wife well for playing such a crappy game.

[@mexicanhalloween]

my god, what is Lucia going to do with 1000 gold? she's so spoiled