Facebook deploys the Steam Deck’s Linux scheduler across its data centers — Valve’s low-latency scheduler perfect for managing Meta’s workloads at massive data centers

When Meta went looking for a better Linux CPU scheduler for its massive server fleet, it didn’t start in the data center. Instead, it started with a handheld gaming PC. In a recent technical talk at the Linux Plumbers’ Conference in Tokyo, Meta engineers detailed how they’ve been deploying SCX-LAVD, a low-latency Linux scheduler originally developed by Valve for the Steam Deck, across production servers running everything from messaging backends to caching services. The surprising conclusion: a…