I mean, I can't of course prove anything, but uh.

I used to work for MSFT.

I very much doubt thet are capable of meaningfully streamlining Windows.

And uh also no, no, the SteamOS Benchmarks came out less than a week before this announcement.

This announcement means they have been working on this project for a year or so, at least, and just haven't publically mentioned anything definitive untill now.

They already have the whole thing designed and agreements worked out with all the mfg partners involved.

You don't do a public announcement for a release in a few months unless you've got the assembly line and logistics systems in place ready to start cranking these things out after maybe a few more weeks of minor touchups.

You don't just have a single big meeting and then BLAM! That is not how this works.

Most likely, around the time the SteamDeck OLED came out, as in you can buy one now, came out... thats around the time MSFT had at least some higher ups and teams start brainstorming making their own, and then at some point about a year ago, they decided to actually do it.