When comparing SteamOS vs Gallium OS, the Slant community recommends Gallium OS for most people. In the question“What is the best laptop OS?” Gallium OS is ranked 38th while SteamOS is ranked 55th. The most important reason people chose Gallium OS is:
Many things work out of the box that do not with other distros, such as touchscreens.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Native graphics processor support
The OS natively supports Nvidia, Intel, and AMD graphics processors.
Pro Streaming service integration (under development)
Valve is in talks with streaming companies such as Spotify and Netflix to bring their features to SteamOS.
Pro For entertainment, it just works
What media center software do for videos, it does for games (and later videos).
Pro Chromebook hardware support baked in
Many things work out of the box that do not with other distros, such as touchscreens.
Pro Chromebook specific OS
Gallium OS is engineered with Chromebook hardware in mind to make the best use of Chromebook CPU's, limited RAM, and storage limitations.
Pro Easy to install
Using chrx on Chromebook there are only two or three straightforward steps to get Gallium OS running.
Pro Lightweight
Based on Xubuntu and requires a low hardware spec. Thus it supports almost all Chrome OS devices.
Pro Dual boot
Installation option to dual-boot GalliumOS alongside ChromeOS.
Pro Battery life
Efficient in using the battery.
Cons
Con Hard to install
If you've installed Arch you're probably fine, but for those used to simple installs like (Ubuntu to name just one) you should prepare some patience, determination, and painkillers. Good news is, it's getting better (it's very young).
Con Not built around the desktop experience
SteamOS is, first and foremost, meant to act as a gaming console - it doesn't ship with even some of the most basic applications, such as a file manager or image viewer. As a result, using SteamOS as your primary operating system would require a fair bit of work.
Con Not updated since 2019
Con Bad speaker support
Speaker support is often broken, either no sound or lots of noise/distortion.
Con Not the best looking UI
It's not the best in terms of UI but you can always install themes.
Con Too large
Too large to install on chromebook.
Con Uses Xfce
Not realy useful for touchscreen devices.
Con Firmware update
Required opening the back and removing the firmware write-protect screw and running a script.