You've kinda got it wrong a bit.
Any usermode changes you make don't get reverted. Boot into Desktop mode, install whatever you want, and those stay.
Underlying OS changes won't impact that because usermode is seperated from the OS space.
this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2025
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Things like changing the desktop to cinnamon, for example?
If you really wanted to, yes. You'd have to be able to deal with the eventual inconsistency involved with overriding a distro default of sorts (Plasma), but it will run just fine and won't be overwritten.
Your particular wants have nothing to do with the distro being immutable, but more that it's a productized distro for a specific platform. Your complaint would also work for phones where you want to ditch Android for a stock Linux install. Sure, it'll most likely run, but you need to deal with what all that entails when not built for the specific thing the device is built for, which is why the entire product platform exists in the first place.
https://dev.to/fstanis/how-to-install-cinnamon-on-your-steam-deck-1boe
Yeah, I know is a hell of an unpoppular oppinion, but I have never liked KDE much.
And if i put cinnamon on it, I can copypaste the ricing of my laptop to it.
I use Cinnamon on my desktop too, but I do like KDE or more to the point I don't dislike it. I didn't care for it at first though because I was used to Gnome, it took some time getting comfortable before that impression faded. If you've given it a fair shot and just plain don't like it then you should use what you do like.
https://dev.to/fstanis/how-to-install-cinnamon-on-your-steam-deck-1boe
It's a little over 3 years old at this point but it's probably the same. Maybe reenable readonly after, that person skipped doing it.
OMG! Thanks!
If you really don't want a immutable distro, you could use Nobara. It's based on Fedora and lets you install/remove packages as needed. It is optimized for gaming and has a Steam Deck version available.
That being said, I think Bazzite would be a better option. It is immutable like SteamOS, but it also bundles a bunch of other options like Flatpak, Homebrew, and Distrobox.
I've used it personally yet, but I've seen CachyOS work well
Why everyone and their mom is suddenly obsessed with cachyos and omarchy??
Because there are a lot of people looking for not-immutable gaming focused distros that can be run on a steam deck? …Like you? 😃
Anyway, you can also just run Cachy with Cinnamon, it’s a choice in the installer.
Please don’t compare cachyos to omarchy. Cachyos is well-designed and has lovely devs, omarchy is a horrible pile of steaming shit
Cuz friendly Arch is desirable even though I think that defeats the purpose.
I would argue that the flexibility of Arch is what makes it a perfect base for other distros.
Full DIY is install Arch or Gentoo, get the cachyos-deckify or steamos-jupiter kernel (or patches if on Gentoo) for the sleep/resume support and audio output. Then install whatever software you want.
Bazzite is immutable but uses rpm-ostree which means you can install basically any yum/dnf system packages and have them persist. It should be used sparingly but it's much more flexible than SteamOS because of it. I customize my own Bazzite-Gnome image to layer in a few packages but I'd consider that pretty advanced.
ChimeraOS
CachyOS
Nobara
Just off the top of my head.
I'm using CachyOS on mine. It's a pretty good experience.