That doesn't stop people from making support requests, though, which is the entire problem OP is talking about.

TBF isn't this going to happen no matter what? As a linux user I have absolutely no problem with the OP saying "we don't support that distro, sorry" and closing the ticket.

I don't think so. If Linux isn't natively supported, even if it runs fine via Proton, you're much less likely to receive bug reports directly, because there's less of an expectation that things work without issues. And closing tickets doesn't help with negative reviews—in fact, some users may use that as a reason to give you a "thumbs down" on Steam.

Maybe but he’s talking about having to deal with the requests. Since Steam only supports Ubuntu LTS you can push the blame on them and say something like, “Sorry we develop for Linux via Steam and they only support Ubuntu x.04, feel free to open a ticket with them if you have further trouble.

Which is the sane thing to do.

Valve should just partner with Canonical and release Ubuntu support.

Let the other distros figure out how to get it working there.

Please not Canonical. OG Steam OS was Debian, which was a wiser choice.

Ubuntu is the most common, most widely used Linux based OS. It's the "Windows" of Linux, for good or ill.

Most hardware and software vendors primarily target it.

It might not be hip, but it's what everyone knows.

From the company that leaked data to Amazon through ads in your search? Yeah, no, pass.

Valve could probably buy Canonical outright if it wanted.