is a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021.
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I’ve long dreamed of doing all my gaming on PC — a single platform that’s easily upgradeable and lets me play my overstuffed Steam library wherever and however I like. The Steam Deck is a fantastic handheld, but for my living room, I want something more powerful that works as well on my TV as it does at a desk. Believe me, I’ve tried. Gaming laptops are noisy and awkward, desktops are too chunky, and Windows is annoying to navigate without a keyboard and mouse. I had hoped that Valve’s Steam Machine experiment was my ticket, but it crashed and burned long ago. Nothing’s ever been as easy as a PlayStation 5.
But I’m newly optimistic. I’ve spent the past couple weeks using the Framework Desktop with a clever Linux distro called Bazzite: an open-source take on SteamOS. It’s a lot like installing the Steam Deck’s game mode and Proton compatibility layer for playing Windows games, and you can still optionally access a desktop for work too. It took me less than an hour to set up, and I’m now able to play PC games on my TV at 4K / 60fps — on a box that is smaller than a PS5, doesn’t get too noisy, and can be woken up from my couch with a gamepad.
This combo matches the simplicity of a docked Steam Deck, but it’s so much more powerful. And while a Framework Desktop isn’t as portable as a handheld — or even a laptop — it’s easy to move from room to room. I’ve even taken to working from it at my desk during the day, then moving it to the living room for after-hours game time. Sometimes you don’t want to play games in the same place you just worked for nine hours.
I so very badly want this to be the future of PC gaming.
It’s the year of Linux on the desktop in the living room.
The Framework Desktop is an ideal vessel for a Steam Machine-like experience. At 4.5 liters, it’s much smaller than most living room gaming computers, and much more powerful than your average home theater PC or streaming box. It’s way more expensive than a PS5 Pro — the Desktop starts at $1,099, or $1,999 for the AI Max+ 395 version I tested here with 16 CPU cores, 40 graphics cores, and 128GB of RAM — but it’s also much more than a gaming console.
I loved the Framework Desktop as a full Windows PC when I reviewed it earlier in August. And Bazzite is one of the easiest and most user-friendly desktop Linux incarnations. Bazzite makes it easier than ever to break away from Windows if you’re boycotting Microsoft, looking for an escape from Windows 10 before it’s cut off from updates in October, or just tired of Windows 11’s incessant pushing of services you don’t care about and attempts to extract recurring revenue from your wallet. The installer is easy, there’s a very capable OS if you switch over to desktop mode with a mouse and keyboard, and if you still need Windows for specific apps or games, you can always dual boot, like I did.
The Framework Desktop makes a nice fit in a TV stand with a Switch 2 and PlayStation 5. Most people are not going to move a PC back and forth from the living room to the office, but this convertible setup works great with the Framework.
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