jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.

Linux Kernel getting prepped for the Steam Deck
While it's already known that the Steam Deck will ship with Valve's own SteamOS 3 based on Arch Linux, what about running more standard Linux distributions? It will get easier in a future version of the Linux Kernel.
Add a driver exposing various bits and pieces of functionality
provided by Steam Deck specific VLV0100 device presented by EC
firmware. This includes but not limited to:
- CPU/device's fan control
- Read-only access to DDIC registers
- Battery tempreature measurements
- Various display related control knobs
- USB Type-C connector event notification
This should be rolling into the Linux kernel 5.18 that's due for release later this year. What this means is that there will be more "out of the box" functionality (eventually) with different Linux operating systems. Not sure why exactly you'd want to install Ubuntu on this instead of SteamOS, but I guess that'll be an option soon enough without jumping through a ton of hoops!