Valve announced today that they've added the Steam Deck OLED 512GB and 1TB models into their Valve Certified Refurbished program, so you can grab one a bit cheaper.
Linux is free, and pretty much all hardware is compatible. AMD GPUs have a small advantage with their open source drivers, but Nvidia cards still function 99.9% of the time as far as I’m aware. You don’t need to worry about it. Just install Linux and you’re likely good to go.
SteamOS is not modern. It isn’t what the Deck is using. (This may change soon and they may open it up.) I use Garuda and I really like it. It’s what I’d recommend for anyone looking to do gaming. It comes with a bunch of gaming stuff pre-installed and a tool to quickly install anything extra you may need.
Linux is free, and pretty much all hardware is compatible. AMD GPUs have a small advantage with their open source drivers, but Nvidia cards still function 99.9% of the time as far as I’m aware. You don’t need to worry about it. Just install Linux and you’re likely good to go.
SteamOS is not modern. It isn’t what the Deck is using. (This may change soon and they may open it up.) I use Garuda and I really like it. It’s what I’d recommend for anyone looking to do gaming. It comes with a bunch of gaming stuff pre-installed and a tool to quickly install anything extra you may need.