A brighter future for Bazzite

Bazzite
, ,
1

Work to be done
Work to be done1920×600 84.1 KB

Hi everyone!

We wanted to share an update on the future of Bazzite and where we’re headed next.

Some of you may have noticed that several of our repositories, such as our kernel and handheld input libraries, have recently been archived or sunset. The change reflects a broader effort: we’ve joined forces with other members of the Linux gaming ecosystem to build something more sustainable and more impactful for the entire community.

Introducing the Open Gaming Collective

OGC

The Open Gaming Collective (OGC) is a collaborative organization bringing together key projects in Linux gaming, including ChimeraOS, Nobara, Playtron, Fyra Labs, PikaOS, ShadowBlip, ASUS Linux, us here at Bazzite under Universal Blue, and more partners to be announced soon.

The goal of the OGC is to centralize efforts around critical components like kernel patches, input tooling, and essential gaming packages such as gamescope. Instead of each distro maintaining separate patches and fragmented hardware support, improvements can now be shared across the entire ecosystem. In short: a win for one project becomes a win for everyone.

The OGC’s kernel efforts operate on an upstream-first approach, meaning all patches shipped by the OGC will be at least in review for eventual inclusion into the Linux kernel.

This means better hardware compatibility, fewer duplicated efforts, and a more unified Linux gaming experience for everyone.

Upcoming Changes in Bazzite

As part of our joining the OGC:

  • HHD will receive no further updates and will be phased out in favor of InputPlumber, the same input framework used by SteamOS, ChimeraOS, Nobara, Playtron GameOS, Manjaro Handheld Edition, and CachyOS Handheld Edition.

    • Features you rely on (Such as RGB and fan control) will be integrated into the Steam UI, while features not supported by the Steam UI will receive a clean, streamlined overlay similar to the current HHD experience.
      • Don’t worry, if your specific hardware needs to stay on older libraries a little longer our rollback and pin system has you covered. We’ll be triaging issues as they appear.

  • Bazzite will adopt the OGC kernel, ensuring continued support for features like secure boot, expanded controller support, steering wheel support, and more; all maintained collaboratively within the shared kernel project.

  • We’ll be sharing patches we’ve made to various Valve packages with the OGC and attempting to upstream everything we can.

Lastly and on an unrelated note, we’ve also begun testing Faugus Launcher as a potential replacement for Lutris in our :testing branch. If we move forward with this change, we’ll provide at least six months of advance notice before removing Lutris so you’ll have plenty of time to migrate your prefixes.

We look forward to building a more unified, powerful, and open future for Linux gaming in 2026 together with this incredible community. Thank you for being part of the journey!

23 Likes
2

Stuff like this is why I love Bazzite and Universal Blue.

it was my first choice when I ditched windows 3 months ago and I’m excited to see how this evolves

keep up the great work :blue_heart:

1 Like
3

Oh, I’ve heard about swapping HHD for InputPlumber but didn’t know it’s part of a collection of other changes.

Is there any particular reason why HHD is being dropped, other than how everyone else uses InputPlumber (which seems like an early-mover issue to me - I recall Bazzite was very early coming in with HHD).

Also, Faugus Launcher? I’ve tried using it on my jank NixOS + Jovian + nix-cachyos-kernel setup, and idk if it’s down to my setup or something else, but it wasn’t able to call a desktop portal, unlike Bottles which was able to do so. I’m not too partial to any of them, as I use basically everything, but why not Bottles?

4

Bazzite is currently the only project in the entire Linux gaming space shipping HHD in any capacity, and it’s maintainer is no longer a part of this project. Moving away from it unifies everyone even without the OGC in place.

Faugus is in testing because it’s been shown to do a much better job than Lutris for things like battle.net and the EA Launcher and offers a much simpler UI. We’re evaluating it only right now and no decision has been made.

Bottles has no UMU support, is still missing needed dependencies, and only ships as a Flatpak meaning our patched Mesa doesn’t work for games launched through Bottles. It’s not something we could consider.

3 Likes