One of the best operating systems for handhelds now supports even more models

While Microsoft has done its best to make an impact in the handheld world, we’ve seen evidence time and time again that the best thing people can do with their brand-new Windows 11 handheld is to, well…uninstall Windows 11. From there, you have a few choices, such as grabbing SteamOS and slapping it on your device. However, if you’re a big fan of Fedora Linux, you also have the option of grabbing Bazzite.

We recently took a peek into just how much Bazzite helps handhelds when someone noticed drastic improvements over using Windows 11 on the ROG Xbox Ally. This was especially true with the quick resume button, which put the system to sleep and woke it up nearly instantly, versus Windows 11’s 40-second delay. Well, with the release of Fedora Linux 43, Bazzite has been updated to include the new version, plus full support for some more handheld models.

The Bazzite Fall Update brings the ROG Xbox Ally into the fold, and more

Over on the Bazzite Fall Update patch notes (thanks for the spot, How-To Geek!), you can see everything that got added with the new update. The big star of the show is the upgrade to Fedora Linux 43, which was released just a few days ago. Unfortunately, for KDE fans like myself, version 6.5 of KDE Plasma wasn’t included with this update, as the good folks at KDE are still ironing out all the creases. However, it shouldn’t take too long for it to be released.

There’s also some good news for people with previously-unsupported hardware. This new update now brings the following handhelds into the fold:

• ROG Xbox Ally
• ROG Xbox Ally X
• Lenovo Legion Go 2
• OneXPlayer X1 Air
• SuiPlay0X1

Each handheld has its own separate patch notes, so if you’re planning on installing Bazzite on any of the above, be sure to check out what the devs had to say about the update. One of the more interesting ones for me was for the ROG Xbox Ally, which shines a little bit of light on that sleep mode goodness:

This update adds full support for the Xbox Ally, mirroring the one we have for the original Ally and Ally X units (RGB, fan curves, back buttons, you name it). For this to happen, we had to coordinate with AMD to fix sleep (as it uses the same chip as the Steam Deck), tweak the amplifier driver to drive these new amazing speakers, and fix some RGB quirks caused by the dynamic lighting feature in Windows.

If you want to give it a spin, head over to the Bazzite website and grab it via the “Download Bazzite” button at the top-right.