Software Alternatives & Reviews

SteamOS VS LibreELEC

Compare SteamOS VS LibreELEC and see what are their differences

SteamOS logo SteamOS

We've been hard at work to deliver on our promise of a new kind of living room entertainment environment - one that is accessible, powerful and open. In making SteamOS available to you, we're excited to take the next major step towards that goal.

LibreELEC logo LibreELEC

LibreELEC is ‘Just enough OS’ for Kodi, a Linux distribution built to run Kodi on current and...
  • SteamOS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-18
  • LibreELEC Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-06

SteamOS videos

SteamOS Revisit - Valve Strikes Back!!!

More videos:

  • Review - What is SteamOS Explained ft Linus' Steam Machine

LibreELEC videos

LibreELEC Raspberry Pi 1 2 3 Or Zero Quick Look Kodi For Raspberry pi

More videos:

  • Review - Raspberry Pi 4B on LibreELEC 9.2 with Kodi 18.3
  • Review - Kodi Compendium [Part 3]: Raspberry Pi OS Selection, Comparison, Performance Test LibreELEC vs OSMC

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to SteamOS and LibreELEC)
Linux
100 100%
0% 0
Video
0 0%
100% 100
Operating Systems
100 100%
0% 0
Media Player
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare SteamOS and LibreELEC

SteamOS Reviews

9 Best Linux Gaming Distributions in 2021
SteamOS is not your usual desktop operating system. It is tailored for playing games via Steam on your machine. You may choose to run common Linux applications as well – but I’d suggest you to test it out only if you want to use Steam as your preferred platform for gaming.
Source: itsfoss.com

LibreELEC Reviews

Top 10 Best Linux Media Server Software
LibreELEC also has special builds for single board computers like Raspberry Pi. You can install this special operating system on your Raspberry Pi and get a media center device ready in minutes.
Source: itsfoss.com

Social recommendations and mentions

LibreELEC might be a bit more popular than SteamOS. We know about 66 links to it since March 2021 and only 56 links to SteamOS. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

SteamOS mentions (56)

  • Is it possible for a PC to only run steam and steam games and nothing else?
    SteamOS exists but may limit the games that could be played since it's a Linux based OS. Steam itself also has a web browser so no matter the way you do it have to research how or if you can disable that. There's also ways you could clamp windows down a lot but that's a lot of work. Source: 5 months ago
  • So about SteamOS and ChimeraOS...
    I'm a bit confused about SteamOS. Is this the offical version for desktop devices? If so, why do people use ChimeraOS if there is already an offical version of it? Or is it not complete. Source: 6 months ago
  • An L bois
    Closest you'll get is with SteamOS which can be run on a PC: https://store.steampowered.com/steamos. Source: 11 months ago
  • Install on Steam Deck?
    I know I could install Dungeondraft on my Steam Deck when running Windows, but is it possible to install Dungeondraft on my Steam Deck when in "Desktop Mode" of the SteamOS? I know Dungeondraft specifically says "Ubuntu" as one of the OSes it supports, but SteamOS is based on Debian Jessie. I've tried to research how much different Jessie is from Ubuntu, but I'm not having much luck. Source: 12 months ago
  • Why do reviewers still say that the Steam Deck can't run Windows?
    It’s literally a Debian distro…. https://store.steampowered.com/steamos. Source: 12 months ago
View more

LibreELEC mentions (66)

  • Raspberry Pi 5
    - Two LibreELEC (https://libreelec.tv/) mediaplayers in house (yes, one is not enough in my big family). - One for hosting low usage applications at home network (Unifi controller and some more). - Octoprint (https://octoprint.org) connected to the 3d-printer. - One on my desk for hardware hacking – mostly as just a PC with GPIO. - Some Raspberry Pi Zeros as security cameras. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Plex to block all servers hosted at Hetzner
    You might be interested in the https://libreelec.tv/ project. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Looking for a distro to replace Roku Stick
    I'm aware of solutions such as LibreELEC but that (if I understand it) is just a Kodi thing. Source: 11 months ago
  • Watch Jellyfin content on non-smart TV
    Kodi is a media client as it provides a UI for you to browse, search for and view media. I have it running on my Raspberry Pi as LibreELEC. It connects to the same media sources that Jellyfin uses via SFTP. They support the same scrappers and folder structures so they can share the same media sources. If you're not adamant about using Jellyfin on the Raspberry Pi, this could be an option. Source: 12 months ago
  • Does anyone know why Kodi will not continuously run on a windows 11 machine?
    Thats not a Kodi issue... It is a Windows and hardware issue... If the only job of the pc is Kodi then use LibreELEC's Kodi... 1000 times better! https://libreelec.tv/. Source: almost 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing SteamOS and LibreELEC, you can also consider the following products

Ubuntu - Ubuntu is a Debian Linux-based open source operating system for desktop computers.

Kodi - Kodi is an award winning free and open source media player that got its start on the Xbox console.

Pop!_OS - A developer-focused minimalist Linux distro from System 76

OSMC - OSMC is a free and open source media center built for the people, by the people.

Arch Linux - You've reached the website for Arch Linux, a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple. Currently we have official packages optimized for the x86-64 architecture.

OpenELEC - OpenELEC, which stands for Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center, is a Linux operating system that makes the host computer a Kodi media center. The software was the winner of the Swiss Opensource Award in 2014.