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What is the point of a Linux based console? Traditional consoles had fixed hardware which could be exploited through vendor specific APIs. If this is just goin
by sacheendra 9y ago
What is the point of a Linux based console?
Traditional consoles had fixed hardware which could be exploited through vendor specific APIs. If this is just going to run games programmed with OpenGL, this is not different from any other Linux PC.
Given the introduction of APIs like Vulkan which bings the programmability of PCs even closer to consoles, I don't see a use case.
The only market I can think of the niche of Atari fans.
- kbenson 9y agoWell, throw steamOS on it and you have a cheap (cheapest?) steam machine. $249 is much more palatable than $400+, and it would likely play quite a few of the hundreds of Humble Bundle games I have in my library.
- sleepychu 9y agosteam link is probably a better fit for you then
- deftnerd 9y agoMy main workstation is powerful enough to play Steam games, and a Steam Link would allow me to stream them to my living room TV. Where that fails is when I have work to do on my desktop and my kids want to play games. To solve that, I had to build a dedicated living room PC. I didn't go nuts, so it ended up being about $500. If I could replace that with an handsome Linux powered gaming system for less than $300, then I think it's a no-brainer... especially if it can run third-party marketplaces and apps like Steam or Plex.
- eikenberry 9y agoWhy would you build a living room PC instead of building each child their own Personal Computer? Then they could hook it up to the Link if they wanted as it is their PC.
- Fnoord 9y agoBecause the child's personal computer resides in their room. This means less room (no pun intended) for control over active times, more costs involved because of computers not being shared, and also enforces the child to be excluded from social environment. It is a double edged sword. Both options have their pros and cons, and none is ideal.
- eikenberry 9y agoWhy would it be in their room. We have all our computers in one room, our family office. A shared, social environment.
- cat199 9y agoYou're right. This seems like a hard problem, esp. since OP is so emphatic that $300 is preferrable to $500. Let me see if I can figgure this out for us both. 1 child x $500 = $500 1-or-more x $500 = $500-or-more Oh! That must be it! This solution would be more expensive to implement, and therefore, since cost is a factor, this solution would be less preferable! Glad I took the time to work this one out, I certainly was very confused as well.
- eikenberry 9y agoMoney isn't always the primary factor.
- dkersten 9y agoWhat does the living room PC get used for? If just games/movies/music then what was the logic for getting that over a console? (PS4, XBox1, Switch are around the same price point or below) Just curious, not suggesting that a console would have been better.
- jpalomaki 9y agoI bought Steam Link. To my slight surprise the hardware worked fine and graphics were smooth (in wired LAN). Where it fell short was the overall experience. Most games are of course not designed for this. In PC you always have the keyboard, there are things that are tweaked through Windows. Also it felt that I had to regularly run to the PC to sort out some issue. Disclaimer: I tested just with few games and at least 6 months ago.
- beefsack 9y ago> Atari says it’ll offer a “full PC experience” for your TV I feel this is a significant part of the appeal.
- Feniks 9y agoWithout Windows?
- Sir_Cmpwn 9y agoOh, hush. Linux is perfectly capable of providing a full desktop PC experience. It's a great idea to land hackable Linux PCs in living rooms - most people are going to get everything they need from their web browser and the kids who dig a little further are introduced to the world of open source.
- Feniks 9y agoThe year of Linux.
- pjmlp 9y agoCheaper to develop for them as they don't have to develop an console OS from scratch.
- godzillabrennus 9y agoNot only that but if they partner with Steam they stand half of a chance at attracting more than Atari nerds who remember the 2600 fondly to purchase these.
- pjmlp 9y agoA quick Google search shows that the few surviving shops that still try to sell Steam Machines, do it at the comparable price or higher as Windows gaming rigs. So not sure if it would generate any considerable profit.
- nippples 9y ago> What is the point of a Linux based console? Let's break it down > What is the point of a console? Very predictable hardware specs & setup. > What is the point of the console being Linux-based? Reduction of brand-new OS development costs; potentially zero need for writing drivers depending on hardware setup; very extensive presence of compilers / interpreters / libraries that can be freely usable out of the box.
- Feniks 9y agoToo bad Linux still doesn't play nice with most games. SteamOS was a failure.
- pjc50 9y agoSteamOS is a "fleet in being", or nuclear deterrent. Its purpose is to make sure that Valve can survive if Windows decided they wanted to "Windows Store" their platform and force every game to pay Microsoft a 30% cut. Until Microsoft do that, it's not actually very necessary. But it might become necessary at short notice.
- loup-vaillant 9y agoDid you mean "Too bad most games still don't play nice with Linux"? If you didn't, what makes game development more difficult on Linux¹, compared to the alternatives²? [1]: More specifically, mainstream GNU/Linux distributions [2]: Windows and MacOS
- ido 9y agoOne thins is that Linux users often have suboptimal graphics drivers installed (probably cause the open source drivers tend to be incomplete/buggy and the official drivers from AMD/nvidia aren't installed by default on most linux distros). Another is that it's just generally a lot more heterogeneous than windows and mac (lots of different distros with variously up to date libraries, drivers, etc).
- 9y ago
- eloisant 9y agoThey can have it open while still have fixed hardware and vendor specific APIs (in addition to open apis commonly found in Linux).
- mtgx 9y agoIt may (should) use Vulkan, which should give closer to console performance, once developers know to target a specific Vulkan machine.
- Zardoz84 9y agoThe same that running a BSD or Windows based console.... Oh, wait! Playstation & Switch uses BSD and XBox runs a striped down Windows! - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4_system_software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4_system_software - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Switch_system_software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Switch_system_softwar... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_One_system_software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_One_system_software And add to the mix that Playstation and XBox actually are using PC hardware...
- boomboomsubban 9y agoI still haven't seen anything showing the Switch is using a FreeBSD kernel, just that the Switch ships with the licence from the kernel. That's all that any of the English Wikipedia references show, and a copy of that license doesn't prove much.
- Retr0spectrum 9y agoCorrect, FreeBSD code is only used in parts of the network stack.
- boomboomsubban 9y agoFrom what I can tell, that idea came from some HN users' guess when the licence matter was posted here.
- Retr0spectrum 9y agoThe Socket service on the switch is called bsd:u. That's a bit of a giveaway. IIRC if you use nmap's fingerprinting feature, it thinks the switch is running FreeBSD (i.e. the switch is definitely using the FreeBSD network stack) http://switchbrew.org/index.php?title=Sockets_services http://switchbrew.org/index.php?title=Sockets_services http://switchbrew.org/index.php?title=Services_API#Service_List http://switchbrew.org/index.php?title=Services_API#Service_L...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- la_oveja 9y ago> If this is just going to run games programmed with OpenGL [...] dude, we're riding the Vulkan wave now!
- nikcub 9y ago> Traditional consoles had fixed hardware which could be exploited through vendor specific APIs. Atari know that - they tried it with the Jaguar
- shmerl 9y agoWhy not make it Linux based? Developing a new OS isn't something they want to do I assume. Leveraging Linux and established APIs (Vulkan / OpenGL) and etc. sounds like a pragmatic solution. "Traditional" consoles used lock-in not because it was good to do, but because they were either too weak and required very close to the hardware APIs (and no portable APIs like that existed), or because vendors were just lock-in inclined.