distrobox

Yes I agree in the vast majority of cases distrobox is the way to go, I made a short post on the “List Of useful tools” post that I might as quote here.

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Here is a guide to installing and using distrobox on the Steam Deck. The usefulness of using distrobox is that distrobox sets up little mini environment you can install programs too that is outside the context of the immutable SteamOS operating system. Thus, after updates, software or setups you install in a distrobox environment will remain the same. Distrobox is more than just a simple bifurcation between the main SteamOS and a virtual environment, it provides tools to set up the ability to connect programs between the two for advanced setups (though you can ignore this stuff and just use the defaults).

What Distrobox does (quote) Guide For Installing Distrobox On The Steam Deck

github.com/89luca89/…/steamdeck_guide.md

Quckstart Guide

github.com/89luca89/distrobox/blob/…/README.md#qu…

Distrobox Guide Homepage

github.com/89luca89/distrobox/tree/main/docs#read…

note because distrobox is a process that can be run by command line, you could presumably launch distrobox in a terminal window in Gaming Mode and keep everything for that session within that steam Big Picture window no problem. I am gonna have to keep experimenting with this, I will update with progress.j