Someone got Apple’s macOS running on Valve’s Steam Deck

This is the latest edition of, just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should.

Following up news that Apple could plan to bring macOS to the iPad, it looks like someone was able to get Apple’s desktop operating system running on a Steam Deck.

Why would someone do this? I’m not entirely sure.

Reddit user Lampa182 posted several images of macOS Catalina running inside of a VirtualBox virtual machine on Valve’s handheld gaming device. To be clear, this isn’t macOS natively running off the Steamdeck and instead is a bit of operating system inception. Still, it’s interesting someone put effort into making it happen.

According to Lampa183, macOS’ performance on the Steam Deck is mostly normal, but “some animations are laggy” and booting up the operating system (OS) “takes 2 to 4 minutes.” Further, the touchscreen is only “partially” working and “sound, GPU and (for some reason) security settings” still aren’t running on Valve’s portable.

With all of this in mind, it doesn’t seem like there’s a real purpose to getting macOS running on the Steamdeck beyond proving that it’s something you can do.

It’s possible to install Windows on Valve’s Steam deck, complete with official driver plugins supplied by Valve, thanks to SteamOS’ Arch Linux-based operation system. This opens the Steam Deck up to additional accessories and, more importantly, installing titles outside of the Steam ecosystem on the device from stores like the Epic Game Store and the Xbox Store.

macOS, on the other hand? Well, it doesn’t really open up much of anything for the Steam Deck.

For more on the Steam Deck, check out my in-depth story about the PC-like handheld.

Image credit: Reddit (Lampa182)

Source: Reddit (Lampa182) Via: DigitalTrends