Discord is finally adding comprehensive Linux support thanks to the Steam Deck

In a cheekily titled new YouTube video, 'Year of the Linux Desktop,' which refers to the longstanding meme that everyone will ditch Windows for Linux, Discord announced a comprehensive, massive update to the popular social platform for PC gamers. As the name suggests, it's all about improving Discord on Linux with official support by adding much-needed overhauls and upgrades.

As part of the update, targeting Debian, Fedora, and Arch distributions, dedicated hardware video encoding is now supported on AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA graphics cards. In addition, there's Gamescope Vulkan support, developed by Valve and popularized on the Steam Deck, for screenshot and gameplay capture, which significantly reduces hardware costs. Best of all, the app now feels native on Linux with automatic updates.

In the video, Discord makes special mention of the Steam Deck, citing the new update as improving handheld performance and battery life, and reducing overhead when using Discord's various chat, video, and capture features. The Steam Deck, which runs a custom Arch Linux SteamOS build, is widely viewed as the gold standard for PC gaming on Linux, thanks to its robust console-like interface and ability to run full-featured apps in desktop mode.

SteamOS has helped popularise Linux in recent years as a valid platform for PC gaming and a real alternative to Windows. And with the Steam Machine's release on the horizon and multiple custom gaming-focused Linux distros out in the wild, Discord going all-in on the operating system is great news. Although the latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey results show only 4.52% of PC gamers on the platform, with around 150 million monthly active users, this still represents millions of gamers.