steamtinkerlaunch VS winesapOS

I haven't used it myself but steamtinkerlaunch is definitely your best bet. It lets you easily set up Mod Organizer 2 or Vortex directly on your Deck. The quite extensive wiki will provide more information than I possibly could.

For any problems, suggestions and contributions you might have, please use the issue tracker (which was the preferred way already before)

Tinker Launcher is the easiest way to do it. There is also a third party Linux "port" of MO2 you can install. Tinker Launcher is my preferred method. ProtonupQT is not where you get it from. https://github.com/frostworx/steamtinkerlaunch/wiki/Installation

Another app / set of scripts I have found is https://github.com/frostworx/steamtinkerlaunch.

https://github.com/frostworx/steamtinkerlaunch/tree/mo2-overhaul branch.

Yes you can use mods/mod managers with Steam Tinker Launcher

I run winesapOS[0] which is based on SteamOS and was able to repurpose an old Toshiba notebook for my kids, running Freddy Fish* and other games. Windows 10 doesn't run smoothly (even though it came with Windows 10) and I'm not going to run anything older than that.

* Yes, ScummVM is available for Linux but the Steam Linux distribution included an old ScummVM which wasn't able to load some libraries. Running the Windows version through an compatibility layer was easier than modifying shell files to run the latest ScummVM through flatpak.

[0]: https://github.com/LukeShortCloud/winesapOS

HoloISO and ChimeraOS no longer support Nvidia so you'll need to use winesapOS.

If the BIOS isn't locked try booting winesapOS off a flash drive.

Context: winesap seems to be a spin of SteamOS3 with KDE, somehow optimised for gaming. It's meant to be used as a live distro?

My understanding is that Valve intends to release SteamOS 3 for install on other machines at some point, and it will likely include support when that happens. In the meantime, there a modified version of it available on GitHub here which claims to support NVIDIA GPUs, but I have not tried it.

Unofficial SteamOS 3.0 (steam deck) build for PCs, with a graphical installer

Currently I am planning on running a VM with winsapeos

https://github.com/LukeShortCloud/winesapOS - it is a simple image, ready made, with a lot of software installed. There is almost no configuration needed. However, this means that the image will contain a lot of software that you don't need. From a gaming perspective, you could even game on this and it's already set up - but as it is running from a SD card, I prefer to just reboot into the standard OS.

If you want something similar to HoloISO, but it has everything you need out of the box, there is WinesapOS. It is also based on the Steam recovery image, but with a bunch of apps and changes for desktop gamers. For an advanced user it would be too bloated, but for a beginner it means you will not need to install or setup apps for any of your game launchers, antivirus software, Chrome, Wine, etc. It also features Intel Mac support, which is pretty cool.