26 ms·

SteamOS

• xSwag 13y ago
  So what is the chance that Gaben will make everything proprietary? Releasing games for the SteamOS with license restrictions to make them unplayable on other Linux distros? What if he makes a deal with AMD/NVidia to make drivers only for SteamOS which won't be available to normal Linux users? I don't want linux to go towards that direction.
  • aahls 13y ago
    What reason does he have to do any of this? Valve makes money if you buy games on Steam on other distros too.
    • venomsnake 13y ago
      Also Valve is not scared of piracy. Steamworks have been a joke since day 1 and kept that way on purpose.
  • marcosdumay 13y ago
    That would turn their most vocal supporters into enemies, destroy their plans to make Linux a viable gamming plataform (and Valve needs Linux to be viable, for keeping MS from destrying them), assure that nobody ever uses their new SteamOS (people that don't care are already doing similar stuff with Windows), and alienate everybody that is selling specialized Steam hardware. Unless they get a MS-like world domination, the chances of that happening are near enough 0 that you'd better care about other problems.
    • hnha 13y ago
      in other words, they'll wait until they are fully embraced...;)
    • ihsw 13y ago
      Don't be ridiculous -- Canonical has taken control of Ubuntu development and now they have a reputation for being authoritarian and secretive. There are fewer ways to alienate the open-source community than that and yet Ubuntu's popularity soars. The more critical people are of Canonical, the more fervent Ubuntu supporters become. "How will they make money" will be parroted just as loudly, if not more-so.
      • Mikeb85 13y ago
        And Canonical has GPL'd everything they've done. What proprietary bits has Canonical added? Free software isn't some hippie co-operative - it's about the ability to freely modify software the way you see fit. If Canonical's changes were worthless, people wouldn't adopt them. But Ubuntu is #1...
      • throwaway2048 13y ago
        Ubuntus popularity is anything but soaring these days, mint has more or less taken over its former crown.
        • Mikeb85 13y ago
          Hah. I'd wager that in real world installs Ubuntu has at least 20x-50x the installs (Wikimedia statistics support this assertion), never mind Ubuntu server installs. How many people ever visit Distrowatch (the only statistic on the web that supports the idea that Mint > Ubuntu) once they settle on a distro?
        • freehunter 13y ago
          I've yet to see this anywhere but numbers on the Internet. I hear people talking about Ubuntu, I see people using Ubuntu, and I see computers coming pre-loaded with Ubuntu. I've never seen anyone using Mint, heard anyone talking about Mint, or see machines pre-loaded with Mint.
        • jdgiese 13y ago
          I love Ubuntu. So do the 20 or so other people I know that use Linux--I have not heard of a single person sticking with mint; a few have used it for a bit and gone back (not sure why---I should ask). I have never used Mint myself, maybe it is great, I am just reporting the numbers I have seen.
  • Mikeb85 13y ago
    Remember, Gabe used to work at MS. He knows how they work, and knows the pros and cons of the way they do business. Nowadays, you have companies like IBM, Oracle, Google, Amazon, and many others embracing Linux, none of them have ruined the 'open-ness' of Linux, they've all contributed. Gabe should be smart enough to know that all he needs is a platform on which his ecosystem can run. Chrome is a platform, Steam is a platform - it's in their interest to make their platform as portable as possible - in otherwords run on any Linux base...
  • skriticos2 13y ago
    Not much. They benefit a lot from the open image and maintenance model. Going proprietary on the platform side makes zero sense and would just increase the cost and bind a lot of resources better used for generating money with their core business.
• consider_this 13y ago
  I think this is Valve's answer to the chicken/egg problem of new platform/app availability. Build it and they will come.
  • venomsnake 13y ago
    I would say that a lot of people are there already. A lot of developers are switching to linux as desktop os. Except the games everything in the toolchain works better there and windows tools work fine. And the IT guys have long been the core of the PC gaming scene. So ... it was not a chicken and egg problem but a demand that needed answering.
• losethos 13y ago
  I have God. Mine will last 1,000 years. God says... store acceptable emptinesses elevated patience litigation diligently threats roses_are_red moon interest refresh self-confidence meant society faces presented outrages sumptuously conceive right-doing exuberance clasp solemnise exultation swine Somalia royalties perversion approved intermitting Enricher gentle exquisitely Mothers asterisk tamer deepness woot grossness plenty Guinea barked as_a_matter_of_fact females deem consulting FBI submitting forethink plant hung dispraise Singapore chiefest idleness buildings Guardian Already Catholics broughtest Only gates goest lucre garb Vermont presuming startles consider completely Readable expose Heaven shame inebriated Mexico
• edu 13y ago
  Looks great! I'm really looking forward to see the fist SteamOS device.
  • rodedwards 13y ago
    "SteamOS will be available soon as a free download for users" - you can build your own device!
    • pekk 13y ago
      You can run Steam on Ubuntu today, if that's what it comes down to. This is for manufacturers.
• phren0logy 13y ago
  Is it based on an existing distro?
  • siphr 13y ago
    Does not say.
  • L8D 13y ago
    It's either OpenSUSE or Ubuntu based.
    • jjcm 13y ago
      Most likely ubuntu as that seems to be their defacto test platform. If you download steam from their site it comes packaged in a .deb format. They have pretty significant investments in that stack, and even list it as their favorite flavor: "Not running Linux yet? Ubuntu is our favorite version of Linux." (at the bottom of this page: http://store.steampowered.com/about/ http://store.steampowered.com/about/)
      • fmoralesc 13y ago
        I hope not. Going Ubuntu will mean (long term) Mir instead of Wayland, which will suck for other distributions and projects.
    • siphr 13y ago
      Likely, but of course just a speculation at this point.
    • rocky1138 13y ago
      Likely, but do you have a source for that?
• sixdimensional 13y ago
  Open ecosystem (Linux, hardware) + gaming = well done Valve, sounds good, I like it!
  • antsar 13y ago
    Not open source, however. Not a dealbreaker, but an important distinction to keep in mind.
    • NotOscarWilde 13y ago
      Personally, I'm fine with Steam remaining closed-source, as this is both inevitable because of it being both a store and a DRM provider. The key question here is whether Valve's future extensions to the graphics subsystems (which seem to be advertised, to some extent) will be released as open-source and be admitted to the (free software) kernel and libraries that exist today.
      • throwaway2048 13y ago
        They have hired the head SDL developer and have greatly been moving the library forward, while keeping it open source, for instance. Valve in a lot of respects is a strange company, they are relatively small and employee owned, and have a massive per employee profit margin, well into the "Fuck you money" bracket. I think their main driving incentive at this point is to make better games for its own sake. Based on the platform the chosen I think that means contributing back in a big way. we are going to see a lot of really exciting stuff out of them
      • pm90 13y ago
        I don't see any reason why they would not. In fact, since they make money off the number of games sold, better graphics on all distros == more players == more $$. Unless they want to advertise the "only Linux which runs games best!!!". But that seems unlikely
      • bloaf 13y ago
        It'd be cool if Valve incentivized contributions to open source parts of their OS through Steam. E.g. if you fix a bug you get some sort of achievement, and if you fix several bugs you get something valuable like game coupons.
• bjorg 13y ago
  That's one hell of a smart idea if they can pull it off. As an OS, it can run on a VM or dedicated hardware, which gives us users the greatest flexibility. Well played!
• minimaxir 13y ago
  So the Streaming functionality will be in both SteamOS and the normal Steam client? For both PC and Mac? There might be a few interesting ways to utilize that. :)
  • xal 13y ago
    I really hope that this will be seamless. I would love to keep a beefy windows PC in the basement as a headless machine to run windows only games from and stream them to TV or Macs from there.
  • errnoh 13y ago
    Yeah, I see the streaming functionality as almost bigger announcement than the OS. It's quite possible that one could stream into any other machine including tablets, laptops and even phones. This would enable playing your full Steam library from anywhere with decent enough connection (on both sides), especially games where input lag is not that big issue.
• xSwag 13y ago
  Oh my god. This provides a genuine chance for year of the linux desktop in 2014, for gamers at least.
  • saraid216 13y ago
    Gaming is one of the last legitimate refuges of Windows dominance. There are a lot of us who wouldn't care about (read: would be willing to switch) their OS if not for PC gaming.
    • Heliosmaster 13y ago
      Or people that dual boot and keep Windows around just to game.
      • darkstalker 13y ago
        I'm waiting a LoL for linux so i can uninstall windows.
    • pathy 13y ago
      >Gaming is one of the last legitimate refuges of Windows dominance. What about pretty much all larger businesses in the world? Windows sure dominate the corporate space.
      • flyingbuttress 13y ago
        I think he meant in terms of being the best option available. You would have a hard time arguing that Windows is significantly better than competitors like RHEL in the corporate space. For gaming, on the other hand, no other OS comes close to offering the selection that Windows has, at least for now.
      • saraid216 13y ago
        The corporate space isn't dominated by Windows because there are no other options. The main reason for that dominance is change aversion. I'll put it a different way: When I buy a computer with an OS, I tend to pick Windows mainly because I intend to game on it. If I don't intend to game on it, then OS would stop being a major factor in my decision-making. I might spring for a Mac instead, or I might get a Linux box. It's no longer the point. If I were buying a computer for surfing the web, I can get what I want. If I were buying it for word processing, I can get whatever. If I were buying it for photo manipulation, I can get whatever. For Door #1, I'd be looking at network connection options. For Door #2, I'd probably be looking for compactness. For Door #3, I'd want graphics and RAM, I think. For none of these is my primary consideration, "Well, the program I'm going to want to run isn't going to be available unless I get Windows." That primary consideration exists for gaming. If I bought a replacement gaming rig today, I'd get a Windows box. Period.
• alisnic 13y ago
  The biggest benefit as I see it, is that the users won't have the hassle of setting something up: just install the OS and login. No drivers ppa, no recovery console, no xorg.conf patches. If this is true, Valve will do something very big for the gaming community.
  • dzddd 13y ago
    I don't believe that they'll even focus on users installing the OS, just like 99% of Windows users don't install their own OS. Valve will provide the reference SteamBox and encourage other manufacturers to release their own SteamOS-preinstalled boxes, giving users hardware options.
    • Mikeb85 13y ago
      This is the end goal - but for the time being, it does seem aimed at tinkerers - the kind of people who already have a PC hooked up as an HTPC...
      • shardling 13y ago
        Keep in mind that this is the first of three announcements that they've, err, announced: http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/ http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/ The second is in 48hrs, and almost definitely something related to the SteamBox. So it's too soon to speak of their intentions "for the time being".
  • dpacmittal 13y ago
    I think it's going to be more like what Google did with Android.
• antsar 13y ago
  If only it were open source... This is great nonetheless, though. It'll be interesting to see what directions this takes off in, both in terms of hardware and software.
• theschwa 13y ago
  "In SteamOS, we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level." I'm really interested to see the trickle down effect that this will have on other Linux flavors. Having a push for standardization from a big name company like Valve should provide a better Linux experience for everyone.
  • TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
    Valve are working on improving Linux debugging tools too, which is great for developers.
  • mikevm 13y ago
    What performance increases in graphics processing are they talking about? I'm with you thought, I do hope all of their work will be landed in mainline kernel so everyone could enjoy the benefits, and we could play games (through Steam or other methods) on most Linux distros, without much hassle.
    • ZeroGravitas 13y ago
      Phoronix has several articles about the work that Valve has done with Linux GPU drivers (open source and proprietary) http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=17823 http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=17823 That one is about how valve themselves got value out of debugging on open source GPU drivers.
    • deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    • qznc 13y ago
      This is the Valve blog port about that: http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/ http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/
• Eyes2design 13y ago
  The end is near! windows should shake in its tiny boots
  • leoc 13y ago
    I'm not sure if you're serious or not, but I am. Steam has already started to offer non-game applications. If SteamOS gets a large enough installed base and provides a good-enough platform for desktop/couch-side apps other than games then things could get interesting. EDIT: Of course, it would help if Valve had someone in charge with a record of success in desktop app platforms. Well http://www.computerandvideogames.com/172835/interviews/creative-minds-gabe-newell/ http://www.computerandvideogames.com/172835/interviews/creat... fancy that.
  • Apocryphon 13y ago
    What is it they say that caused Blu-ray to beat HD DVD? Gamers and porn.
  • zerohm 13y ago
    Yep. Windows 8 isn't very popular amongst gamers. Also, remember Steam in 2003? It wasn't great, but Valve stuck with it and kept making it iterativly better. Also, nowadays most people can get their day to day functionality out of web apps if need be.
• siphr 13y ago
  The idea itself is not novel as such. Just like every other company the difficulty is having to disassociate yourself from Windows. As it stands the store relies heavily on Windows titles. The real feat would be if they managed to get the whole catalog across to SteamOS by under the hood cross compatibility layer.
  • rocky1138 13y ago
    It would be an amazing boon to Linux and gaming on Linux if Valve bought (or heavily funded + added resources to) Crossover/WINE.
    • siphr 13y ago
      Exactly what is going through my mind :)
  • skriticos2 13y ago
    That's not going to happen any time soon. Wine is in active development by very talented people all the time and they get a lot of the latest AAA stuff running, but generally there are so many corner cases that it would be a support nightmare and financial suicide to attempt this as generic service. Plus they'd probably get some brain-dead software patent lawsuits.
• speeder 13y ago
  wOOOOOOOOOO!!! If that works on normal machines (like, my laptop), I will kick Windows for good finally!
  • toblender 13y ago
    Yeah I hear you, I thought that this announcement would hurt M$oft stock, but I guess Valve isn't on the radar at all in the mind of investors.
• xentronium 13y ago
  I'm somewhat disappointed. While perfectly logical for Valve, it might end up being not very beneficial for other distributions. In worst case scenario, hardware manufacturers cherry pick specific devices ("steambox") and software ecosystem to support (SteamOS) while totally neglecting all other linux distributions.
  • NotOscarWilde 13y ago
    My thoughts exactly. Currently, gaming on Linux was fairly on the rise, since Steam supported Linux as one target platform and advertised it fairly substantially. If Steam renames all "Linux" entries as "SteamOS" and pushes general Linux to the sidelines, all that progress is lost.
    • jcastro 13y ago
      "Linux" isn't a platform, "SteamOS" is though. Having an undefined "general Linux" is impossible for them to support, especially since there's no real definition of a platform, just a kernel.
      • NotOscarWilde 13y ago
        On Steam, the games are labelled as "supporting Linux", by which they usually mean some version of Ubuntu, which Steam runs on now. Other distributions often work too, usually with some small tweaks that can be googled. If "SteamOS" becomes a target in the Steam app, this general "Linux" label may be pushed to the sidelines, and since SteamOS may contain more proprietary parts than general Ubuntu does, we may find it much more difficult to run the games on any distribution other than SteamOS itself. That was my point.
        • Mikeb85 13y ago
          Steam seems to install Linux games in such a way that it'll run on any Linux distro. I know Steam works on Arch-based systems, openSUSE, Ubuntu-based systems, and likely more... Also, from the sound of the announcement, Valve plans on keeping the OS bits open, so I see no reason they'd break compatibility with other Linux versions (and it wouldn't be in their interest since Linux is becoming more and more significant).
• StevenXC 13y ago
  The rumors of a Steam Box based on Linux have been circulating for a while now, but earlier Valve came out to say they had no plans to enter the hardware business. I love this solution. Those of us comfortable with building our own Steam Box can do so easily, and manufacturers can also build their own models. In every case, the Steam store will certainly be sewn into the very fabric of the box, and Valve emerges a big winner. This is what I've been waiting for to build an HTPC/PC gaming battlestation... I've (personally) always preferred gaming with a controller while sitting on a couch.
  • bluepnume 13y ago
    Valve, at one point, came out to say they had no plans to support linux. Now they don't just support linux, they're using it to stage a mini coup against microsoft.
• Glyptodon 13y ago
  The streaming of other OS games from your other OS systems seems like a pretty compelling and surprising feature. I wonder if it will work with all games.
  • redthrowaway 13y ago
    I can't see how they'd manage to get twitch games like online FPSes to be playable with the addition of another layer of latency between the player and the game. A 100ms delay between input and response is death for games like that.
    • stormbrew 13y ago
      If you have 100ms latency on your LAN you have some serious problems.
      • lnanek2 13y ago
        There's latency for pings and latency for sending moves to a multiplayer server, those are going to be low on the LAN. Then there's user experienced latency for sending high frame rate HD graphics to another machine every frame and the input back from that other machine. That is not going to be without hiccups, even on a LAN. In reality, most consoles are hooked up by WiFi nowadays which will make things even worse. Android manufacturers have struggled with smooth display mirroring over WiFi for a long time and the only time I've seen it work good enough for gaming is WiFi Direct connections via Miracast or wired connections via MHL.
        • asdasf 13y ago
          Latency is a measure of the time it takes for a packet to travel to its destination. No part of ethernet networks cares what the payload in those packets are. You don't magically get more latency because the data in them can be interpreted as frames of video.
          • 13y ago
• rkalla 13y ago
  This is effectively the software-only equivalent of a console launch. Is anyone else skeptical that they can motivate publishers to spend time/money porting their games to the Linux platform? Valve certainly has a better chance than most at pulling this off (and likely enough user/market data to make this seem like a valid investment) I am still super skeptical that these publishers are going to spend the time porting their AAA releases to this platform. A good chunk of the console games barely make it to PC/Windows as it is, let alone a PC/Linux platform... seems like a tough sell. If the goal is an entertainment OS with streaming and DVR capabilities in addition to the few Linux compatible games on Steam, that's a bit different of a story but not a huge commercial win I don't think (unless they having some amazing partnerships planned with Netflix/Amazon/Vudu/Hulu for streaming that I am not thinking of). If the goal is to make Steam into an entertainment platform (not just games) it is interesting to watch all these platforms converge on this "entertainment delivery pipeline" solution.
  • corresation 13y ago
    http://store.steampowered.com/search/?os=linux http://store.steampowered.com/search/?os=linux Valve has been planning this for a while, and has had pretty good success motivating a lot of smaller publishers to target Linux, even though the base isn't there yet, and of course have moved their own incredibly valuable games to Linux. Major game engines (Unreal 3D, Unity, among others) already support Linux as an equal target.
    • rkalla 13y ago
      Dennis, maybe you are right... this is a long-game and they are just getting ahead of the inevitable (engines supporting Linux natively, eventually more and more releases for the platform). I suppose this is the curse of the first-mover, it always seems to be risky/nonsensical until it isn't... then we all see it as an obvious move in hindsight ;)
      • ebertx 13y ago
        Yeah, this reminds of the initial launch of Steam back in 2003. At first it seemed like an annoying hoop to jump through. As the years went by and it got more dependable, more games, and more features, it became easier and easier to forget how annoying it was in the beginning. I wonder if the same thing will happen with SteamOS. At best it will initially seem like a novelty, then 10 years from now a huge group of customers will have forgotten what it was like to never have had it.
• rufugee 13y ago
  I sincerely hope the release the streaming client for use on other Linux dists as well. This would mean a welcome end to my current dual-boot setup.
• sandGorgon 13y ago
  Lovely - this is what I had discussed more than a year back [1] This same OS can be repackaged for the desktop. I would think superb hardware compatibility, driver support and fundamental media library innovations would make it a compelling base on which to layer on a desktop UI. I wonder what packaging format will they use for their games ? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3888472 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3888472
• Sukotto 13y ago
  Since I spend most of my time in front of a computer screen and not a tv, I hope they also roll out some improvements to the steam client as well. Things like the ability to tag my games with multiple categories; To see trailers and descriptions of the games I "bought and forgot"; Pause the game and read the user manual; and the ability to actually PLAY a game right now instead of being forced to wait for hours while it downloads and applies updates to itself and the game I already have downloaded, installed, and partly played.
  • bigdubs 13y ago
    I'd settle for < 4 second load times on the pages within their shitty web based interface. The old steam was snappy and fast, new steam is a bloated pile of garbage by comparison.
    • lelandbatey 13y ago
      That's cause the new steam browser uses a customized chromium engine, while the old steam just used the trident (internet explorer) engine that's part of windows.
    • sliverstorm 13y ago
      That's very possibly the least important thing about Steam to me. When I want to browse the store, I just launch Firefox...
  • drivers99 13y ago
    "being forced to wait for hours while it downloads and applies updates to itself and the game I already have downloaded, installed, and partly played." The default is to keep the game updated, I believe. Do you have it set to not do that? But then, I also have steam set to start on boot up. If you rarely start the steam client then it's going to need to apply updates. Do you have it set to start steam on boot up?
  • mahyarm 13y ago
    You just have to click 'store page' on the right to see trailers and such for games you've bought and forgot.
• deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
• deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
• skizm 13y ago
  Can I still browse the internet?
  • TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
    Yes. Steam's Big Picture mode has its own web browser, as does Steam itself.
    • skizm 13y ago
      Sweet. I wonder how it will compare to XBMC. I'm looking to buy/build a media center PC within the month and been checking out operating systems for it. This is now a contender.
• programminggeek 13y ago
  Building their own linux is the right move to create the kind of end user experience it will take for the living room PC to work. Think about the XBox 360 and the XBox One. They are both basically a windows kernel with a totally custom UI designed for the living room. It's about creating the best possible experience for the end user. You can already get steam client with big picture mode on Linux, what this does is creates something analogous to ChromeOS, but purpose built for gaming instead of web browsing. If linux gaming is going to have a mass market chance, SteamOS or OUYA a similar approach is going to be how it gets there.
• JonSkeptic 13y ago
  How long till we see the "SteamOS on Raspberry Pi" threads?
  • johndavidback 13y ago
    Ha, the first thing I searched for on this thread was "raspberry". I just got mine last week. However, there's no way in the world that thing will be able to run modern games.
    • div 13y ago
      I have a spare Pi laying around, and I'm hopeful at least. According to the SteamOS page there's a streaming mode where you basically do the processing on your Desktop / Server, and SteamOS just takes care of input and streaming. Fingers crossed !
  • jimmcslim 13y ago
    Or SteamOS inside a Docker container! ;-)
    • pekk 13y ago
      Why not, each distribution/DRM platform can go in its own sandbox... ;)
    • frio 13y ago
      This actually isn't a terrible idea. It's been a _long_ time since I've gamed on Linux, but I remember playing Tribes 2 in aeons past, and had to patch a decent chunk of the libraries in my distro to get it working. Using something like Docker/LXC to define the runtime environment of a game would probably help to make life a lot easier.
      • jimmcslim 13y ago
        As long as the use of containers didn't impact on performance too much, which ideally they don't compared to virtualisation. (I say having not personally had any significant experience of the different performance characteristics).
• siphr 13y ago
  The success and effectiveness of the console, I believe, is dictated by the following statement: "Watch for announcements in the coming weeks about all the AAA titles coming natively to SteamOS in 2014. Access the full Steam catalog of over nearly 3000 games and desktop software titles via in-home streaming." To me this suggests that they are actively trying to get developers to port and they have had some success. Also I believe that a lot of developers will not port and to handle those cases they've introduced the home streaming functionality so that you could stream your windows game to the steam box via a windows steam client running somewhere.
• lesbaker 13y ago
  Some responses say SteamOS is not open source, in the press release, it says "Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want." So I'm guessing if not open-source, the user would download a disk image, then go in and change the configuration, install media-center front-end software, etc, after the fact? Regardless, I'm very interested, but just curious how easy and flexible it will be.
• david_otoole 13y ago
  Can you sideload games that aren't on Steam?
  • rocky1138 13y ago
    Current Steam lets you add non-Steam games. No word yet (AFAIK) on whether or not that will continue when it becomes its own OS.
    • david_otoole 13y ago
      I sort of worry about that. As a userspace client Steam could never have hoped to lock out non-approved games, but as an OS it probably could. The HN commentariat probably skew pro-curation, but I for one think it would be bad for the future of Indie games if Steambox did not support side loading.
      • officemonkey 13y ago
        OTOH, I can totally see Steam allowing me to stream Minecraft (not available on Steam) to my TV simply to encourage me to use Steam for gaming.
• mladenkovacevic 13y ago
  This effectively gives traditional desktop OEMs a relatively cheap and easy entry into the living room, and a new category of product to sell effectively and compete against Xbox, PS4, and the mobile OSs who will be trying to gain entry into the living room soon.
• RyanZAG 13y ago
  This is basically a similar approach Android took for phones. It leverages off Linux while replacing user facing pieces to give the user a simplified and consistent environment that they expect. However as with Android, that isn't enough to get it to take off. Android had huge traction problems to start with until they managed to get the big device makers to train users and market the devices. SteamOS is going to have the same rough and long launch period, but the ultimate payoff is very big as the tech is all there and it's just a matter of getting the big game publishers to join up. As with mobiles and Google, if anybody can succeed in the gaming industry, it's Steam. So I definitely wouldn't write this one off, I think it will take off in a few years time if they can get the big players - both software and hardware - to join up.
  • snotrockets 13y ago
    I suspect that like Android, they're going to leverage Linux-the-kernel, but have a user space that is alien to the one common in current Linux servers and desktops. I can understand: I'd say good riddance to some parts of the userspace myself coughX windows systemcough, but having a few different userspaces is like having the UNIX wars all over again. PS "The UNIX wars" has a modern space opera ring to it, like something out of an Orson Scott Card book (or JMS script. Or maybe your-favourite author. I don't read enough Sci-Fi to know). And now I have an urge to write a comics^W graphic novel adaptation of the UNIX wars. It'll be glorious!
    • fps 13y ago
      That seems really unlikely. Steam for Linux runs on Ubuntu as it's platform of choice, and installs via apt-get. They're already running all their games under X and the standard Ubuntu userspace tools, with BigPicture, it would be very surprising for them to fork the platform at this point. Android made sense because standard linux/X windows applications didn't work on a multi-touch mobile device for a whole host of reasons. PC games work fine on Linux and X.
      • snotrockets 13y ago
        X has a lot of baggage. And by lot, I mean a few metric tons. The protocol can do things you wouldn't believe, and do that in the most cumbersome way (it was all the range in the Eighties, or so I'm told). Most of Steam and Steam games don't really use X as anything but a bootstrap for GL, and run full screen, so they could be easily ported to FB+GL (consider that there's already a GTK backend that renders to FB, no X involved).
• ijk 13y ago
  Even if this never gets majority traction compared to consoles, I suspect it will be worth it for Valve. Ever since Microsoft tried to cut them off with the Windows Store, Valve has been working to have an independent platform. Having alternative platforms gives Valve room to maneuver.
• davexunit 13y ago
  I don't like that Valve says that SteamOS is "freely licensable". They must know by now that the word "free" often means "libre" in the GNU/Linux community, but they've made no indication of what the license terms will actually be.
  • TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
    Presumably the GNU/Linux core is libre and Steam is freeware. Why would it be anything else?
    • davexunit 13y ago
      The point is that Valve is using confusing language to claim that they are "open", instead of saying what they are really doing: writing proprietary software that sits on top of a free software operating system.
      • TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
        The word "open" (well, the derivative "openness") is only used once on the page, and the context is clear: It's not locked to any hardware (like Windows) but is freeware (like Android).
        • warfangle 13y ago
          Free as in beer; not speech.
  • deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
• emehrkay 13y ago
  I've been asking for years why someone just doesn't make a XBMC-like os for gaming on commodity PC hardware. Glad to see it finally happening. I'm very excited for this. My son who is 11 will be too
• jknt1164 13y ago
  I'm not a software dev, so this might be a really dumb question, but how hard is it to port/co-develop Windows/Mac games to Linux? From what I can find out, PS3 is based on FreeBSD and WiiU is a heavily modified version of Linux, possibly Android. XBOX obviously Windows. Would it be that much harder to also have a SteamOS version in the mix too.
  • venomsnake 13y ago
    According to John Carmack its a few weeks worth to port, and maybe even less to extend wine. But that is like saying that according to Superman going to the moon is a few minutes of flight.
    • munchor 13y ago
      And while Superman might be a hell of a Super Hero, what he said doesn't mean much. Its heavily dependent on libraries/frameworks/engines and technologies used to make the game. If you use something like C++ and SDL it shouldn't be too hard (if not automatic), but if you use something like C#/XNA it could be harder (if not impossible?), but anyway I think (hope) most C# game developers and ex-XNA users use MonoGame these days.
  • aryastark 13y ago
    I don't think porting is the main issue, with Linux adoption. It's always been support. You extend to another platform, you're instantly responsibly for all the tech support of your game on that platform. IIRC, id Software pretty much had a "you're on your own" type of deal, with people using Linux. They provided the Quake binary, gave a README and some FAQs, and then you're on your own. Likewise, Blizzard does not allow people to run World of Warcraft on platforms other than Windows and OS X. They know people run under WINE and could prevent them. But they don't. They just don't support it. It's win-win for them. More users without doing anything. Porting is pretty easy if you target OpenGL and keep everything (sound, input) generic. SDL also works on many platforms.
• mrinterweb 13y ago
  I wonder if they will white-list any games are not natively ported to linux that have good wine compatibility. SteamOS could manage the wine configurations for those games. With enough platform adoption, this should help game companies to start targeting linux natively.
• th0br0 13y ago
  As someone who's had a lot of fun writing game hacks for ET:QW and QuakeLive back in the days and while I greatly enjoy seeing this move to Linux, I'm quite worried about game hacks on SteamOS. There are so many attack vectors on Linux and, currently, VALVE's Anti Cheat (VAC v3) does not, as far as I know, cover any of those. You can still inject your hack via LD_PRELOAD + detouring dlsym/dlopen. Even were that not possible, you could have fun with, e.g., ptrace. I'm looking forward to seeing what VALVE's done to fight this, especially as I expect SteamOS to eventually be repackaged to run on any distribution...
  • viraptor 13y ago
    Is there even an expectation that anti-cheat utilities can work? They're worse than DRM - unless the anti-cheat software is certified and your system can do hardware trusted execution, it's going to be worked around. (it's most likely also possible in case of trusted execution...)
    • th0br0 13y ago
      They do have some limited success at deterring "script kiddies" and similar, however I think that this is far more difficult to do on Linux than Windows. Back when there were a few games around on Linux that used PunkBuster (America's Army, Enemy Territory), PB offered almost no real protection and, e.g., ET's mod developers decided to build in some anti cheat protection of their own into the mods which was superior to PB's. (Which, of course, also got bypassed eventually)
      • asdasf 13y ago
        >however I think that this is far more difficult to do on Linux than Windows You are mistaken.
  • throwaway2048 13y ago
    exactly the same sort of tricks are possible on windows via debugging hooks and process injection. I don't see how Linux is any more problematic on this front.
• msy 13y ago
  Add in Netflix (or a competitor) integration and you've got the potential to put all 3 major consoles on the ropes in a few years. Given Halflife 2 launched steam my bet is HL3 will be used to launch this.
  • josh2600 13y ago
    Please... No more HL3 fake launch announcements. Please. If HL3 comes out as a SteamOS exclusive; well that would be quite the coup.
    • deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    • nemo1618 13y ago
      Kind of crazy to think that Valve has the power to make 2014 the fabled "Year of the Linux Desktop" simply by making HL3 a Linux exclusive.
      • 1qaz2wsx3edc 13y ago
        In Gaben we trust.
• webwielder 13y ago
  At last, all the unresponsiveness, bugginess, and ugliness of Steam in OS form!
• leefrank 13y ago
  up to I looked at the draft for $5082, I did not believe ...that...my friend was like actualey earning money in their spare time on their laptop.. there moms best frend has been doing this for less than eight months and as of now cleared the loans on their villa and purchased a new GMC. look at more info big57.CoMONLY
• topbanana 13y ago
  Most Steam games require keyboard and mouse. I don't see how that can work in the living room
  • cheald 13y ago
    You'd be surprised at how many don't. I have a little Windows box connected to my TV right now, with a $10 Xbox controller wireless receiver. Steam runs in Big Picture mode, and I'd say that somewhere between a third and a half of my games play great with a controller. I've been doing most of my gaming that way lately, and it's a very nice experience.
  • dragonwriter 13y ago
    > Most Steam games require keyboard and mouse. I don't see how that can work in the living room If the issue is "how do you get control devices that work for that use case", wireless keyboards and mice with suitable range for living room use exist (I've seen them mostly used in large conference rooms, but the requirements aren't very different.) If the issue is "how do you use control devices in that environment since they call for surfaces", lapdesks, coffee tables, etc., are frequently found in living rooms. If people want to play their existing keyboard-and-mouse focussed Steam games in their living rooms, its not hard to see how they can. But I think that -- as with other consoles -- the games that are playable with more traditional "gaming controllers" will be more popular for the livingroom role than keyboard-and-mouse driven games. But plenty of PC games have, for years, been very similar to console games and support game controllers (even though they usually had KB/mouse support since that's what you could count on users having on the PC platform), so I don't think this is going to be much of an issue.
  • Apocryphon 13y ago
    Keyboard/mouse peripherals have been sold as add-ons for game consoles as early as the original Playstation, if not earlier.
  • lotyrin 13y ago
    As a male 20-something tech enthusiast that is friends with others of the same, I don't visit many living rooms which don't have a keyboard and mouse as permanent fixtures.
• xpose2000 13y ago
  "In SteamOS, we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing". I assume they mean in comparison to other Linux OSs. Beating windows drivers seems a bit far fetched?
  • dfbrown 13y ago
    I think they mean in comparison to Windows. They have previously reported getting better performance using OpenGL on Linux than DirectX on Windows[1] 1: http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/ http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/
  • Simucal 13y ago
    Valve has reported better performance in Linux than in Windows 7 for at least one of their titles [1]. [1] http://www.zdnet.com/valve-linux-runs-our-games-faster-than-windows-7-7000002060/ http://www.zdnet.com/valve-linux-runs-our-games-faster-than-...
    • pekk 13y ago
      Depending greatly on your hardware. And there's the rub. And there's the reason it could be really nice to have Steam boxes and certification of hardware for SteamOS
  • Mikeb85 13y ago
    Nvidia Linux drivers are very good, and are at feature parity with Windows drivers. And in general, OpenGL is quicker than DirectX...
• deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
• jdc 13y ago
  What if SteamOS were released to a group of perspective and current gaming hardware manufacturers à la Android? The DirectX platform may be incumbent on the mid to high-end x86 PCs, but if Valve were to target the Wii/smartphone gaming demographic they'd stand a decent chance at commoditizing consoles.
• jdc 13y ago
  What if SteamOS were released to a group of perspective and current gaming hardware manufacturers à la Android? The DirectX platform may be incumbent on the mid to high-end x86 PCs, but if Valve were to target the Wii/smartphone gaming demographic they'd stand a decent chance at commoditizing consoles.
• jdc 13y ago
  What if SteamOS were released to a group of perspective and current gaming hardware manufacturers à la Android? The DirectX platform may be incumbent on the mid to high-end x86 PCs, but if Valve were to target the Wii/smartphone gaming demographic they'd stand a decent chance at commoditizing consoles.
• jdc 13y ago
  What if SteamOS were released to a group of perspective and current gaming hardware manufacturers à la Android? The DirectX platform may be incumbent on the mid to high-end x86 PCs, but if Valve were to target the Wii/smartphone gaming demographic they'd stand a decent chance at commoditizing consoles.
• kgp7 13y ago
  They never seem to define what a Living room machine is ? I wouldn't consider a desktop be a living room machine.
  • portmanteaufu 13y ago
    If only Valve would provide us with an exemplary device!
• jdc 13y ago
  Valve doesn't need all the AAA titles initially. What if SteamOS were released to a group of perspective and current gaming hardware manufacturers à la Android? Despite the DirectX platform being incumbent on the mid to high-end x86 PCs, if Valve were to target the Wii/smartphone gaming demographic they'd stand a decent chance at commoditizing consoles.
  • pdxnative 13y ago
    I would disagree here. Nobody likes fragmentation. If Valve can't deliver AAA on linux right away, then this will likely go the way of Ouya. The most interesting thing here is the streaming which could act as a bridge until we see native Linux AAA games. Lastly, DirectX is so widely used in game engines. I haven't seen any hard evidence (not coming from Valve) that OpenGL can meet or exceed DirectX capabilities. I'd love to see real data on this.
  • nemothekid 13y ago
    The Wii/smartphone demographic proved terrible for Nintendo and ouya. A dedicated box cannot compete with iPads and iPhones, no one wants to play Angry Birds on their 40"
• BigChiefSmokem 13y ago
  This needs to be marketed to consumers the same way Windows was in the 90s and iOS/Android is today or else it has no chance of gaining any real... Steam. The Linux or tech community alone will not make this happen. They need to do a Windows/iOS/Android and push this out on marketable hardware for the masses or else it will just be another niche tech product. No cool commercials, no chance.
  • Fuzzwah 13y ago
    Exclusive period for HL3 on SteamOS. Done.
• jason_slack 13y ago
  So, this means I could build a PC with SteamOS, hook it to my TV, XBox controllers and play all the same games in our living room. Am I thinking about this right?
  • matt_r 13y ago
    If you want to play any non-linux games, you have to have a capable-enough PC to stream the games from, it sounds like. But other than that, yeah.
• Jaecen 13y ago
  Having a machine boot into Steam will have an interesting effect on other similar services like Origin and Desura. It will no longer be sufficient to request customers install yet another download manager/DRM platform; instead customers would have to boot in to a different OS to play their Origin games.
  • pekk 13y ago
    So much the worse for Origin, which was a stupid idea anyway. Desura runs on Linux.
    • Jaecen 13y ago
      Desura runs on Linux, but assuming SteamOS is akin to "boot to Stream Big Screen," users won't have a Gnome or KDE desktop to install it to. In such a case, Desura's existence on SteamOS depends on either inclusion in Valve's marketplace or users' willingness to venture off the map.
• Mikeb85 13y ago
  This is the best thing to happen to Linux since Steam came (which itself was the best thing ever). This gives developers even more incentive to use cross platform tools, to develop on OpenGL, and to make things work with Linux.
• bryanh 13y ago
  Let's hope they don't got the route of Android, which is perhaps the most successful consumerization of Linux to date, wherein they allow hardware vendors bog it down with crapware...
• toblender 13y ago
  I wonder if history will repeat itself, will Valve be the next Apple? Apple took FreeBSD and makes it into OSX. > Valve takes Linux and makes it into SteamOS. Apple makes iTunes for music, unifying digital music download > Valve makes Steam for games, unifying digital game download Apple make IPOD for digital music playing > Valve make (SteamBox?) for game playing Damn I wish I could own some Valve stock...
  • Symmetry 13y ago
    The differences in licensing between the BSD license and GPL are designed to prevent them from doing all of what Apple did with FreeBSD.
    • GalacticDomin8r 13y ago
      > what Apple did with FreeBSD Please tell us what Apple did with FreeBSD.
  • quiesce 13y ago
    > Apple took FreeBSD and makes it into OSX. No, they took NeXTSTEP and made it into OS X. However much they may now have in common, the history of the codebase goes back years prior to the existence of FreeBSD.
    • GalacticDomin8r 13y ago
      Let's try again with facts: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-advocacy/2008-August/003674.html http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-advocacy/2008-Aug...
• mmanfrin 13y ago
  I really, sincerely hope they will get rid of the block that allows only one computer to be signed in at a time. I don't like the idea of having to relogin every time I switch computers (as is the case now).
  • BuckRogers 13y ago
    Set your secondary machines to start in offline mode. That's what I do unless I want to chat.
  • TomNomNom 13y ago
    Given the streaming feature they've mentioned I think it would be safe to assume that you'll at the very least be able to have two machines signed in.
• BuckRogers 13y ago
  The way for Valve (if you're reading this) to make SteamOS/Linux the top gaming platform overnight? Make HL3 Linux-only. Don't do a Windows/Mac port for 2 years. Watch all of us gamers scramble to dual boot at minimum, if not see the writing on the wall and do a wholesale swapout on our Windows gaming boxes.
  • johnward 13y ago
    As evil as this sounds, exclusivity works for the other consoles.
• mikevm 13y ago
  Given the current high-end game engines that seem to support all the popular platforms out of the box (Windows, Mac, consoles), how difficult is it really to ship a game with Linux support?
• leokun 13y ago
  Will this be a game only platform or can I do work on it too?
  • matt_r 13y ago
    According to The Verge, SteamOS will boot straight into Steam with Big Picture mode, and you wont see linux at all "unless you want to" [1]. So... for whatever that's worth. [1] http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/6/3958162/valve-steam-box-cake/in/3514777 http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/6/3958162/valve-steam-box-cak...
• rlu 13y ago
  What I'm curious of is most of Steam's users are probably avid PC gaming fans that prefer PC gaming over console gaming At least that's true for me and various of my 'internet friends'
  • NoPiece 13y ago
    I am with you, but I am a PC gaming fan, not necessarily a Windows gaming fan. WHat I like about this is not the ability to put a Steambox into my living room, but to replace windows with SteamOS on my PC.
  • m_mueller 13y ago
    If I had a console with sane controls and games that fully support those controls (e.g. mouse / keyboard for first person games), I'd totally dig replacing my gaming PC with a console. Unifying your gaming PC with your living room hardware gives you a nice advantage in that you can maximize your budget for a nice HD TV / HiFi sound setup instead of buying all that stuff twice.
• philjackson 13y ago
  How open will this be? Will game developers have to licence the right to develop for SteamOS? If not, it'll potentially be huge!
• vitd 13y ago
  I have to say - after trying to simply play a 2-player game of Portal 2 with a friend over the Internet and having so much go wrong, I don't have a lot of faith that they'll be able to maintain an operating system. We see constant problems just trying to download the same map. Sometimes the game just shoves us over to a screen with no options and the game has to be force-quit to exit it. Other times it crashes during loading. It won't download to both of our computers at the same time, so it downloads to one first, then, only after the first one has finished, to the other. On those rare occasions that we actually get into the game, there are lots of glitches. I mean, when it works it's really fun, but the number of problems that occur along the way is just phenomenal. It's like using software from the 80s again. It's terrible.
• samograd 13y ago
  Yay, the 80s UNIX wars all over again: http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/wars.html http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/wars.html
• jmomo 13y ago
  How is "Windows 8" NOT found on this discussion??? It is very unlikely, had Microsoft not decided to go nuts and release a dead-end train wreck of an OS that thew it's passengers/users into the ravine in the name of chasing MacOS and touchscreens that everyone wanted with the same enthusiasm as to 3DTV, that Valve would be so scared of the future on Windows that they would need their own Linux-based platform. Not to mention Mac support. I am a huge Linux advocate, but this is much more about Valve being scared and running away from Microsoft Windows than it was the greatness of GNU/Linux. I wonder how Steve Ballmer being fired will change the direction of Microsoft and it's products. What will be the future of Windows? If they keep trying to actively throw their users off the train with wildly backwards-incompatible user experiences, you can expect even Microsoft Office to start supporting GNU/Linux for fear of the future of Windows.
  • kinnth 13y ago
    So long as this box will play hl2 engine games, most notably DOTA2 it's going to be fine. DOTA2 in 2014 is going to skyrocket it's going to be the next WOW and it will secure valves revenue. This box is really just gabe saying fuck you to Microsoft and Sony - let me keep my TV open!
• ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
  GTA:V Bundled Editions sold quite nicely over the past week. Seems like bundling your own console with your own game just became a reality. Valve just got every major publisher to take a serious look at what they are doing.
• goggles99 13y ago
  What qualifies as a "New" operating system? This is slightly modified Linux, with a slightly modified UI. Is that really considered new? How about calling it a new Linux variant rather than a new Operating System.
  • maxmcd 13y ago
    marketing
  • lotyrin 13y ago
    Because most of their target audience isn't pedantic existing users of Desktop Linux, it's people that are using Steam on Windows. Furthermore, for most people an "OS" is not a collection of general purpose kernel and userspsace as components, it's a vertically integrated and holistic product + experience.
• Cyranix 13y ago
  Here's hoping that this effort is where they've been concentrating some of their non-game devs. There have been longstanding issues with Valve-produced UX once you look beyond the in-game aspects. TF2 server list couldn't sort properly on the first update for years, the Steam browser is often dog slow, etc. -- things that are front-and-center pain points for me. A perfect initial release isn't a reasonable goal, but I do hope that they'll be able to polish the out-of-game experience better than they have in the past.
• pippy 13y ago
  The first circle is SteamOS, the second will likely to be the Steambox: http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/ http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/ There's also a third circle there...
  • galaktor 13y ago
    I'm surprised yours is the only comment I saw pointing out the incremental approach to this "living room" goal Valve has been using. The steam box will obviously require some OS to run, and it seems perfectly reasonable to ship the OS, get feedback for it and it's features (i.e. streaming), and have it production-tested once the inevitable steam box is ready. Why take the risk of shipping all-new-everything when you can do it in smaller steps?
• wnevets 13y ago
  the 3rd circle will be HL3
• scottmcleod 13y ago
  Will we see a USB device for Smart TV's later this week?
• otikik 13y ago
  To me the big thing is "Music, TV and Movies". If they are able to get rid of the "This Show is not Available in Your Country" thing, that would be huge.
• jebblue 13y ago
  Is it just me or does Valve still rock? These guys really keep powering along, steady pace, good going guys, best wishes with your new platform!
• evanmoran 13y ago
  As someone mentioned this is just the first announcement of three: http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/ http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/ Announcement 1, SteamOS: is just a fancy way to say you can create custom Steam consoles by just installing some software. Make the box as good or a cheap as you want and everything will just workPretty awesome, but definitely this will be dwarfed by... Announcement 2, people are guessing is a Valve distributed "SteamBox": a console that is presumably very cheap and linux based. This would give Xbox One and PS4 a run for their money and with the social aspects of Steam built-in, this could be a break out hit with a price of 50% all the other consoles. Announcement 3, is the large unknown here. We don't know what it is, but if it is bigger (or equal to) SteamBox this could be a huge deal. Nothing really makes sense here. We know: * SteamBox will support streaming from your windows/mac machine so it will be able to run every game at launch. * SteamBox will likely have lots of publishers signed on. Probably as many or more then on xbox one / ps4. If they are already using an engine that targets multiple platforms (Unreal or Unity) they are definitely going to try to support it. * SteamBox will likely support all the features of steam with friend lists, chat, voice, purchasing over the cloud, etc. So the + might mean sharing, but a new kind? * SteamBox supports game sharing at a friends or family level. I see this as a kind of Netflix-like persona idea: an account gains separate personas that each have different friends lists and achievements. Very powerful and necessary once Steam hits the living room and multiple people are using the same box / account. What it could be: * LAN play for SteamBoxs on the same network (announced in Dota, this could explain the circle + circle graphic). Maybe you share the game between friends, and stream to the other boxes? That would be pretty awesome. * Game streaming from other people's SteamBoxs? This would be an awesome way to share a game. It is like onlive but for distributed for everyone (seems unlikely. That kind of streaming would stop your friends from being able to play). * A launch title like Half-life 3 (seems unlikely with the circle + circle logo implying you need multiple SteamOS instances). * A new kind of social experience, maybe a built in way to be a part of the game creation process or improved social network experiences on Steam (seems unlikely to be big enough to be the final announcement) * A new kind of hardware like a VR headset(seems unlikely, as cheap will be a big feature of this box) This is marketing at its best. They hooked us good.
  • bobbles 13y ago
• bfigares 13y ago
  This is easily the most groundbreaking news I've heard as a gamer (and from the point of view of an engineer/business geek) in the past four years or so. This will be a really tough blow for the windows platform since the gamer demographic drives a lot of spending. Also it points to a very deep strategic move by valve, vertically integrating the distribution channel and controlling a la Apple which and how games are experienced. I wouldn't be surprised if valve built strong partnerships with hardware providers to provide a fully vertically integrated, key-in-hand gaming platform experience. It is worth mentioning that valve also sells other types of programs through steam... and that it seems this will eventually mutate into it's application store, centralizing the money management for steamOS in general and fully capturing the platform value. A new apple but instead of "think different", the idea will be "play different"
• bobbles 13y ago
  Does mac bootcamp only work with windows, or is it any OS? Id love to have a macmini as a 'steambox'
• programminggeek 13y ago
  The other thing SteamOS will end up doing that is super interesting is get good controller support on Linux/PC games, which can many times be real lacking.
• charonn0 13y ago
  I told you so https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5186806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5186806
• alexmat 13y ago
  Speculation from over a year ago: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/16/heres-a-thought-what-if-valve-were-making-steamos/ http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/16/heres-a-thought-w...
• ffog 13y ago
  If you want to see that third announcement icon a little more clearly, the lit version is already up. http://cdn3.store.steampowered.com/public/images/promo/livingroom/glyph_03_b.png http://cdn3.store.steampowered.com/public/images/promo/livin...
• mathgladiator 13y ago
  Now, if Halflife 3 becomes a SteamOS exclusive, then we might have a shot of a linux gaming environment.
• Yuioup 13y ago
  I'm guessing that o+o means split-screen gaming on the t.v., streaming from two separate Windows machines.
• deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
• fredsanford 13y ago
  I find it ironically funny that, after all of these years of having a near monopoly Microsoft is losing out to the open source it tried so hard to sabotage in the late '90s and early 2000s. Then, while the MS boat is leaking and sailing haphazardly across the computing landscape, along comes Valve to put a stake in the heart of the MS gaming division... Could this truly be the beginning of the end of this giant leech on the computer industry? The combination of this "story" and this one from slate (http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/09/23/microsoft_surface_2_surface_pro_2_tablets_for_people_who_hate_fun.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/09/23/microsoft...) makes me wonder...
  • fredsanford 13y ago
    I see the drive by spineless downvoters are showing up here too...
• daemonk 13y ago
  Are they looking to sell their own hardware? How good are graphics card driver support in linux?
• z3phyr 13y ago
  It would be good for valve to project Rustlang as their programming language of choice :)
• CmonDev 13y ago
  So they are using an open OS foundation to build an OS that will allow them to effectively lock users into their store/environment? And geeks are happy?
  • olalonde 13y ago
    Still an improvement over the other consoles which are completely proprietary and locked down. I think it's great that Linux is gaining a wider audience regardless of whether it's due to commercial, technical or ideological reasons. Some people will never be happy...
• Mikeb85 13y ago
  By the way, anyone who's sceptical of Linux gaming needs to get on Steam, and see what's available for Linux - right now. There are plenty of AAA quality titles already, with many more to come. Or, for anyone with an Nvidia card and the Nvidia drivers, just download a Unigine demo...
• JVIDEL 13y ago
  If valve couples this to a reasonably priced htpc and sell it they could get nearly every game available on steam ruining on it using wine. That's easy because like with consoles you have only one hardware configuration so getting a game to run properly on wine or even better than on windows would be a walk in the park compared to porting it. Of course this trick won't work with the millions of hardware combinations in today's PCs.
• leccine 13y ago
  Since when did we start to call Ubuntu skins operating systems?