Made up of several Linux-focused development projects, the Open Gaming Collective (OGC) is an initiative that looks to consolidate development efforts across the Linux gaming ecosystem, focusing on improving shared components.
Bazzite's Kyle Gospodnetich shared this development via a Discourse post.
More details below. 👇
Open Gaming Collective: What's Cooking?
In terms of what's to be worked on, the collective aims to unify developmental efforts surrounding important components such as kernel patches, graphics and display tooling (Mesa, Vulkan, and Wayland), hardware enablement for gaming peripherals, and gaming-focused packages like gamescope.
The founding members consist of known names like Bazzite (as part of Universal Blue), PikaOS, ASUS Linux, ShadowBlip, and Fyra Labs. They are supported by strategic partners like ChimeraOS, Nobara (led by GloriousEggroll), and Playtron.
The OGC operates under a "Lazy Consensus" governance model, where proposals are made publicly and given 72 hours for community objections. If nobody raises concerns in that timeframe, the proposal moves forward. Any objections must include legitimate reasons and be open to healthy discussion.
They are also committing to an "Upstream First" policy, under which any code that the OGC comes up with or improves must be submitted to the original upstream projects rather than living on as a permanent patch or fork.
One example of this is the OGC Kernel, their gaming-focused Linux fork.
Of course, custom kernels aren't something new. We already have Liquorix with Zen tuning and a 1000Hz tick rate, XanMod with ThinLTO optimizations and BBRv3 TCP, Zen Kernel providing the foundational interactive tuning patches, and CachyOS Kernel offering multiple schedulers like BORE and EEVDF with CPU-specific optimizations.
For Bazzite users specifically, Kyle has shared that they will be switching to InputPlumber, moving away from HHD (Handheld Daemon). Features like RGB lighting and fan control will be directly integrated into the Steam UI.
The project will also adopt the OGC Kernel and contribute their patches to the collective, which will then work on getting them merged upstream.
My Two Cents
I was already optimistic about Linux gaming getting bigger in 2026, and this move only makes me more confident. On paper, this looks like something that brings a large group of gaming-focused projects with a very grounded approach.
It will be interesting to see how this collaborative effort plays out, especially with their commitment to pushing improvements into mainline Linux rather than keeping the work to themselves.
Suggested Read 📖: Linux Gamers Are Finally Getting Their Own Browser
Sourav Rudra
