In an exciting boost for the open-source community, Arch Linux has announced a direct collaboration with Valve, the gaming giant behind the Steam platform and the Steam Deck portable console.
This partnership aims to tackle critical projects that will greatly impact the Arch Linux distribution, benefiting both users and developers.
Specifically, Valve is generously providing support for two major initiatives: the development of a build service infrastructure and the creation of a secure signing enclave.
By backing these projects on a freelance basis, Valve enables the Arch team to focus on these essential improvements without being limited by the volunteer time constraints that often challenge open-source projects.
In the official announcement, Levente Polyak, Arch Project’s leader, said:
“This opportunity allows us to address some of the biggest outstanding challenges we have been facing for a while. The collaboration will speed up the progress that would otherwise take much longer for us to achieve and will ultimately unblock us from finally pursuing some of our planned endeavors.”
Considering Valve’s ongoing relationship with Arch, this collaboration is not entirely unexpected. Notably, Valve’s Steam Deckโa portable gaming console released in February 2022โruns on SteamOS 3.0, which is based on Arch Linux.
The projects funded by Valve will adhere to Arch Linux’s usual development and consensus-building workflows. RFCs will be created for any wide-ranging changes to ensure community involvement. Moreover, discussions on mailing lists and detailed planning in their GitLab repository will provide transparency and insight into the work.
Ultimately, this partnership is expected to enhance Arch’s performance, security, and reliability. As work progresses, both Arch Linux and Steam Deck users can look forward to the improvements this collaboration will bring.
For more information, refer to the official Arch’s announcement.
