Summary

	ChimeraOS	SteamOS 3.x	HoloISO	Nobara	Bazzite
Based on	Arch Linux	Arch Linux	Arch Linux	Fedora Linux	Fedora Atomic
Desktop	Gnome	KDE Plasma	KDE Plasma	KDE Plasma	Gnome/KDE Plasma
Atomic updates	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:	:heavy_check_mark:
Read-write root filesystem	:x:	:x:	:x:	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:
Custom partitioning	:x:	:x:	:x:	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:
General hardware support	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:
Up-to-date base packages	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:	:x:	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:
Remote app installation	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:	:x:	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:
Built-in EGS & GOG support	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:	:x:		:heavy_check_mark:
Built-in emulation support	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:	:x:		:x:
Additional game tweaks	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:	:x:		:heavy_check_mark:
Additional artwork	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:	:x:		:x:
Built-in GE Proton	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:	:x:	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:
Full source publicly hosted	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:	:x:	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:

Details

ChimeraOS

• Arch Linux based.
• Uses Gnome for desktop mode.
• Uses an A/B atomic update system for stable updates.
• Uses a read-only file system with an option to temporarily switch to read-write mode via a terminal command.
• Does not allow for custom partitioning.
• Works on almost any PC and has specific support for many handhelds.
• Regular releases that use Arch Linux based packages.
• Includes the ability to remotely install software without using desktop mode and manually adding Steam shortcuts.
• Includes out-of-the-box support for Epic Games Store and GOG.
• Includes many pre-installed emulators.
• Includes automatically applied game tweaks for additional game compatibility.
• Includes functionality to automatically download missing artwork for Steam games in Gamepad UI mode.
• Includes GE Proton out of the box.
• All code is available in the GitHub repositories.
• All infrastructure is automated and hosted on GitHub making it trivial to fork, build and install a custom version of ChimeraOS.

SteamOS 3.x

• Arch Linux based.
• Uses KDE Plasma for desktop mode.
• Uses an A/B atomic update system for stable updates (differs in the underlying implementation).
• Uses a read-only file system with an option to temporarily switch to read-write mode via a terminal command.
• Does not allow for custom partitioning.
• Currently only works on the Steam Deck.
• Often includes stale software with many patches to base Arch Linux packages.
• Additional software must be installed from desktop mode and added to Steam manually.
• No out-of-the-box support for Epic Games Store and GOG.
• No pre-installed emulators.
• Missing Chimera provided game tweaks.
• Has missing artwork for many Steam games in Gamepad UI mode.
• No GE Proton included.
• Source code for many components does not appear to be hosted on any public repositories.
• May require additional infrastructure to fork or customize, including your own build system and hosted Arch Linux package repositories.

HoloISO

• Arch Linux based.
• Uses KDE Plasma for desktop mode.
• Uses the SteamOS A/B atomic update system.
• Uses a read-only file system with an option to temporarily switch to read-write mode via a terminal command.
• Does not allow for custom partitioning.
• Works on almost any PC with an AMD GPU.
• Often includes stale software with many patches to base Arch Linux packages.
• Additional software must be installed from desktop mode and added to Steam manually.
• No out-of-the-box support for Epic Games Store and GOG.
• No pre-installed emulators.
• Missing Chimera provided game tweaks.
• Has missing artwork for many Steam games in Gamepad UI mode.
• No GE Proton included.
• Source code for many components does not appear to be hosted on any public repositories.
• May require additional infrastructure to fork or customize, including hosted Arch Linux package repositories.