Steam Beta Update Fixes Slow Linux Installs & Adds Quality-of-Life Tweaks

Valve just pushed out a new Steam Client Beta update, and there’s a small but important win for Linux users. If you’ve been watching your updates crawl at a glacial pace whenever Steam itself needed an upgrade—good news. That’s now fixed.

Faster updates for Linux users, finally

According to Valve, the patch dramatically improves update installation times on Linux. Previously, some users had to wait several minutes just to get the client updated. That process should now take only seconds, which is what it was always supposed to be.

It’s a timely fix too. The May 2025 Steam Hardware & Software Survey showed Linux usage rising to 2.69% overall. But there’s a twist—SteamOS, the system powering Steam Deck, dropped to its lowest share in two years at 30.95%.

Other fixes in this beta

Beyond the Linux improvements, Valve’s cleaned up a few odd behaviors across the board:

• Spoiler sections now show properly in library events
• Blurred images in adult content games will actually appear blurred
• Desktop chat links will skip the Steam browser and open directly in your desktop browser

On the overlay side, a bug causing periodic lag in Vulkan games when the overlay was disabled has been patched. SteamVR also gets a crash fix related to exiting VR mode, and Big Picture mode now stops mistaking buttons for mouse input on the Store.

To try the beta, open Steam, go to Settings > Interface > Client Beta Participation, and select “Steam Beta Update.” You simply have to restart, and you’re done.