Steam funding a Linux-based gaming OS became inevitable as soon as Microsoft started selling games in the Microsoft store. The message was clear from that point: If you stay stuck to a single OS, they can always shut you down whenever they feel like it.

Context:

Back in 2018, Philip Robohle (doitsujin) developed DXVK because he wanted to play Nier Automata on Linux.

Valve hired him to work on it full time, then they released Proton (Wine + DXVK) a few months later. Proton likely would never have existed if it weren’t for DXVK, and by extension the Steam Deck either wouldn’t exist or would use Windows instead, and all the other cool Linux-related stuff Valve have worked on since probably wouldn’t have happened.

Desktop Linux’s marketshare rising is obviously not exclusively because of the gaming improvements, but it’s for sure a huge boon. Good enough for a dumb meme like this, lol