SteamOS Manager is supposed to be a standardized way for Linux distros to interact with the Steam Deck’s hardware features. Should help with other distros supporting the Deck’s hardware.
It also mentions a “download mode”, which is a low powered mode for downloads. It’s not clear if this is a work in progress feature or something that’s already on the deck, but it definitely sounds like something that users have been requesting a long time.
Download mode is definitely not a thing yet.
One of the things that’s a bother with the deck is having to leave it on and probably on the charger, if you want to install a couple hundred gigs of games.
Once that’s done, updates don’t take long on my connection so they haven’t been a problem.
But even better if they can pull off a mode where it can do updates while near-sleeping.
It’s not a thing in game mode, but in desktop mode it can kinda do this already.