[noahadavis]

Android started off being its own thing, except for the kernel. The Steam Deck is built on desktop Linux tech, so they would have to start over if they wanted to move away from that. That doesn't make their path guaranteed to be the same in the future, but it does make what you describe less likely.

[prash_ant]

They may be bought by someone bigger and then shutdown to protect the existing wild gardens. There are many analogies. Astrid[0][1] and Wunderlist[2] come to my mind.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrid_(application)

[1] https://github.com/tasks/tasks

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wunderlist

[throwaway2048]

Valve is a privately held company (owned by its employees) that makes ridiculous amounts of money, has no real incentive to sell, and Gabe Newell has publicly stated many times in the past that Valve selling out is extremely unlikely, and some kind of hostile takeover is virtually impossible.

Newell said that there was a better chance that Valve would “disintegrate,” its independent-minded workers scattering, than that it would ever be sold.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/technology/valve-a-video-...

The difference here between Valve and most all of the infamous tech buyouts of history is Valve has no VCs looking to cash out who get final say, or public investors looking to maximize returns.