Would kind make sence, or does it vary?
SteamOS is Linux, so the short answer is yes.
Steam os is just a distro based on Ubuntu (i think), so the games are compatible with any other linux distro as well.
according to
- http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown
- http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=steamos
it is based on Debian
i think it started out as an Ubuntu derivative & then got switched over to Debian.
Here somebody is speculating about the reason for the switch:
- http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/01/valve-based-steam-os-debian-ubuntu