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[GregLombardi]

Guys, Linux is not the play here, it's just the infrastructure.

It's what they do with SteamOS that will change the gaming world based on what I'm reading in the OP.

 

[pixlexic]

Or just not bothering to install a new OS. Just fixing usability issues won't bring it from 1% to 10% of users, imo.

There are also no steam box retail hardware.
This is more for non PC gamer than PC gamer.

that user base would increase tremendously with marketed steam os consoles.

 

[bankster]

If Steam is able to bring publishers and developers full-heartedly into Linux, and a flourishing of software will come available, I might again be interested in gaming on a PC. Dealing with Windows is such a horrible pain in the ass that it ruins everything.

 

[Grief.exe]

Antonio Banderas gif for a new generation

 

[Deleted member 10571]

I don't get it. Why would I use SteamOS when I have Windows/Mac/whatevs which runs Steam as well? Why would I buy a Steam "console" when all it is is a storefront for the Steam store which I can access on my PC? Why is it an "OS" and not just Steam software for Smart TVs?

I mean, okay, for a family household with 2-3 living rooms or whatever it's probably nice, but Apple has rich people covered.

This is all so strange to me.

 

[Ryaaan14]

big picture is a feature of the steam program running in windows. This is an announcement of a stand along operating system. You can build a gaming computer now and instead of figuring in windows for the budget you can just install SteamOS.

plus it has some streaming stuff for games that are already on your gaming windows PC.

Oh, I see. Hmm. Not sure if this is really relevant to me then. :_[

 

[Forsaken82]

I expect a Roku like device to be unveiled.

 

[danielcw]

2) Can be used by manufacturers of HTPCs (which will also incidentally make their products ~80 USD cheaper than were they running Windows)

Doesn't Microsoft have a good relationship with most complete PC manufacturers?
There is a reason why the theoretical price of Windows does not really matter in practice.

Less overhead.

Like?
What overhead is there?

- Independence from Windows at a company level; the biggest factor by far. With this, Valve are no longer entirely entwined in the fate of MS and whatever it is they're choosing to do with regards to Pc gaming this month.

Isn't that milestone already reached. Steam is on Mac & some Linux distributions.
Some games & their developers are bound to Windows technologies.
But Valve & Steam are already free.

 

[cyberheater]

I can see this killing Windows as a gaming OS eventually. I hope so. MS had so many opportunities to develop a slim gaming OS for us.

 

[Faustek]

Honestly, if they wanted to push Linux gaming, this was THE perfect way to do it.

PS4 running on Linux and a SteamOS running on Linux = a giant surge in Linux based gaming.

Nope, not really you see. The systems are very similar but very different at the same time.

Wheras Valve has the Linux kernel, and I assume their own environment to that PS4 has FreeBSD.

Now to compare these to in easy terms, prepare for a bad analogy.

Imagin you have a Car engine and a Car.
With Linux it's like you have the engine only(kernel) and all the other parts, wheels, body, etc etc aren't included wheras with FreeBSD you get the whole car.

And FreeBSD is really slow with their updates, you aren't allowed to submit your own code directly but instead you have to through a "registered" committer who will review your code and then submit it whereas in Linux, go Gungho dude, make and distribute your own Kernel if you want.

Anyone can modify FreeBSD to their pleasing but that is only for internal usage then, if they want those uses to be released they will have to go through that mentioned Committer.

So in other words, yes very much alike.
But FreeBSD is a complete OS,install from source, easy to modify to your own Tastes.

Linux, just the kernel mod as you want and release, rest of the OS, go Gungho and instal/mod and use any libs, install from any repo/source/whatever to try and make a complete OS.

Sorry for bad explanation, you can probably google a better answer, but remember that it's not the same.

 

[Prophet Steve]

I don't get the appeal of 2 separate machines at all. Why would you want to keep 2 machines up to date and have them sucking power when you can easily do it with just one machine?
Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man, but what is so difficult in having a 10m HDMI cable+10m USB hub going into the living room? I can easily switch, have 2 mice, 2 keyboards and no input lag.

But you do not need two machines, only when you want the play the non-native games.

 

[MaximoffZero]

...if Apple with all its money and resources can't make it past 5% what do you think Valve can do??

Dunno, but it's not 3%

 

[Bboy AJ]

I don't get it. Why would I use SteamOS when I have Windows/Mac/whatevs which runs Steam as well? Why would I buy a Steam "console" when all it is is a storefront for the Steam store which I can access on my PC?

I mean, okay, for a family household with 2-3 living rooms or whatever it's probably nice, but Apple has rich people covered.

This is all so strange to me.

Valve is no longer beholden to MS.

 

[lightning2k3]

Depends, you can budget-build some nice PCs these days. And don't forget that Steam games are much cheaper than their console counterparts, money can be saved there.

You can't put together a pc with similar specs to a ps4 with an attractive case for 400 bucks. Maybe in a few years it will be the case, but right now at the beginning of the next gen, consoles with custom components sold at a loss will always be a better value. The games thing is true, but then you also lose out on the used games market on the steambox, so thats a wash.

 

[MrCunningham]

Windows gaming is dead is the funniest hyperbole today.

Yeah, you only need a Windows PC to play all your game sans Tux Racer in your living room. RIP Windows.

Only a gigaton like exclusive like HL3 could make a dent.

There's already Windows binaries for Tux Racer...

But yeah, I agree with what you are saying. This won't kill Windows gaming... but I think Gaben is preparing SteamOS as a back up plan just in case Microsoft makes some drastic changes to Windows in the future that could hurt Valves business model.

But in the here and now, I don't think there is any need to dual boot this with Windows (unless you're curious), it seems really cool, but at the point this seems more like it is geared towards set top boxes and cheaper PC like gaming devices for the living room. It's a pretty good idea and there's no royalty charges attached to using SteamOS for hardware manufactures.

Right now I have Mint 15 dual booted on my PC with Windows 7 Ultimate. I do boot into Linux a lot and it is fun to screw around with... I already have 40-something games playable in the Linux version of Steam, which is pretty nice. But I still do all my gaming under Windows 7 when I am on my PC.

I also have Linux installed on my laptop as the primary OS, because it flat out uses less resources than Windows. I don;t really use my laptop for gaming, though with Steam installed on it, I can now, and it is kind of nice.

 

[Proelite]

this is not the phone market or tablet market where you are reinventing the wheel(touch screen). This is the PC market which Microsoft has a strangle hold on, if Apple with all its money and resources can't make it past 5% what do you think Valve can do??

Apple don't work with OEMs.

Are OEMS happy with Microsoft's stranglehold on the PC market? You tell me?

Was there an viable alternative for consumers? Now there might be.

Valve might not even want OEMs to dilute the brand by putting out shit SteamOS boxes.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

Oh, I see. Hmm. Not sure if this is really relevant to me then. :_[

until Half Life 3 is steamOS exclusive.

lol please no.

 

[cyberheater]

Like?
What overhead is there?.

The millions of things windows does in the background that eats CPU cycles and isn't gaming related.

 

[AntiSwerve]

May have already been answered, will I need a SmartTV for this?

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Just because my machine can run SteamOS it does NOT mean it can run any games.
You still need the expensive hardware. You still need to upgrade. You can still buy a game and then have it run at 10fps because your hardware is outdated or because it just hates your PC for no reason.

This does NOTHING to help make PC gmaing easier or "more like consoles".

You do realise that a company that owns both the OS your machine is running and the storefront of titles you are looking to purchase is more than capable of being able to only show you titles t purchase that definitely run on your machine, right?

Google Play does this right now. This isn't sci-fi. It becomes even easier for a consumer if they're buying an off-the-shelf 'steambox' with identikit components too.

This is a great post that illustrates why valve is releasing the Steambox. However, it doesn't address the value add for your average consumers vs buying a console. The steambox wont be cheaper than a console if it wants to run similar games natively(not streaming) and people who have high end gaming pcs are a much smaller and niche market.

The entire market is getting faster and smaller and using less power, and Moores Law doesn't show any signs of slowing.

In 5 years time, a PC the size of a couple of DVD cases stacked on top of each other with a maximum target output resolution of 1080p (your TV) is going to be able to pump out simply phenomenal image quality.

Also, there's a lot of high selling PC games that don't come to Steam. Things like World of Warcraft, Diablo, The Sims, Battlefield, Titanfall will all be on Windows only, how many PC gamers are going to give up these games (and others) just to use SteamOS? A small percentage I'd say.

Do you think Blizzard / EA / Ubisoft et al are - as corporations - 100% happy and loyal to being "on a micorsoft platform" that they would never consider putting a client anywhere else, even on a proven 'gaming only' open source platform with a userbase of n million?

 

[Jaded]

Since the earliest days of my participation in pc gaming i have always wanted a pure gaming OS, is this the day? I hate the fact that whilst i run games, windows is still running all this other shit that is limiting the potential of my gaming or am i just thinking wrongly on this?

 

[pixlexic]

I don't get it. Why would I use SteamOS when I have Windows/Mac/whatevs which runs Steam as well? Why would I buy a Steam "console" when all it is is a storefront for the Steam store which I can access on my PC?

I mean, okay, for a family household with 2-3 living rooms or whatever it's probably nice, but Apple has rich people covered.

This is all so strange to me.

this question comes up every page !! Lol

It's not a windows replacement it's more for the non PC gamer and eventually the dedicated PC gamer when the library builds up.

 

[greatnorthern]

Dave Snider was right all along. They're going to make HL3 free - and it won't be able to run on Windows.

 

[Guy.brush]

But you do not need two machines, only when you want the play the non-native games.

Which for the forseeable future is like 98% of games. And I still would need to have a second machine if I want to do some doc sheets, Adobe work, 3d modeling, etc anyway.

If Valve is so keen on making us all into content creators, why separate the machines?

 

[SkeletonJelly]

May have already been answered, will I need a SmartTV for this?

you do not. just a machine connected to your TV

 

[Zombie James]

How does streaming work? Is the Windows PC or the Seambox running the game?

If the Steam Box were running the game you wouldn't need to stream it.

 

[Mugatu]

I don't get it. Why would I use SteamOS when I have Windows/Mac/whatevs which runs Steam as well? Why would I buy a Steam "console" when all it is is a storefront for the Steam store which I can access on my PC? Why is it an "OS" and not just Steam software for Smart TVs?

I mean, okay, for a family household with 2-3 living rooms or whatever it's probably nice, but Apple has rich people covered.

This is all so strange to me.

I don't think Valve expects everyone to switch over immediately or toss their Windows machines into the garbage, but eventually you'll upgrade and get a new PC and for me, I don't want anything to do with Windows 8 and W7 will eventually go unsupported and become too old to use so why not use an OS that is made for gaming (assuming it's mature enough by then)?

Short term I think many people will just dual boot to try it out.

 

[Tacitus_]

There are also no steam box retail hardware.
This is more for non PC gamer than PC gamer.

that user base would increase tremendously with marketed steam os consoles.

Minsc was talking about downloads / users installing it on their existing machines.

 

[Metrotab]

Valve is no longer beholden to MS.

But as a consumer, I will be beholden to Valve instead, while losing my old Windows library. What's the benefit?

I'm starting to think this isn't for PC gamers at all.

 

[jj984jj]

Surely the opposite of open, this thing will be less open than Windows. Unless you expect there to be other 'app' stores running on there.

Also a hint of hypocrisy if Gabe doesn't allow Microsoft to put up a marketplace on there

It's Linux. Why wouldn't Microsoft, or anyone, be able sell what they want?

 

[vasametropolis]

HL3 SteamBox/SteamOS exclusive? Yeah, no chance.

Didn't Half-Life 2 require Steam when it came out? No stretch of the imagination to think that HL3, if it even exists, will be a SteamOS exclusive. It's a great title for driving install base.

 

[MaximoffZero]

Since the earliest days of my participation in pc gaming i have always wanted a pure gaming OS, is this the day? I hate the fact that whilst i run games, windows is still running all this other shit that is limiting the potential of my gaming or am i just thinking wrongly on this?

I have been wanting this too, brother. But rejoice! For this day is that day!

 

[-tetsuo-]

lol@ Half-Life 3 or any valve game being SteamOS exclusive. Please stop.

 

[Orayn]

Since the earliest days of my participation in pc gaming i have always wanted a pure gaming OS, is this the day? I hate the fact that whilst i run games, windows is still running all this other shit that is limiting the potential of my gaming or am i just thinking wrongly on this?

Well, this won't be purely gaming, but yeah, you're not alone in that sentiment.

 

[Mihos]

I would imagine most people will do what I will do.

Set up the current system to dual boot and slowly over time realizing I spend more time in the second partition than the first, especially if it is quicker and easier to do so. A few deep disounts on the Linux variant wouldn't hurt either.

I don't expect it to be a quick transistion, but Valve would be stupid to expect Windows to not evolve into a more tightly controled ecosystem.

 

[maniac-kun]

Doesn't Microsoft have a good relationship with most complete PC manufacturers?
There is a reason why the theoretical price of Windows does not really matter in practice.



Like?
What overhead is there?




Isn't that milestone already reached. Steam is on Mac & some Linux distributions.
Some games & their developers are bound to Windows technologies.
But Valve & Steam are already free.

Windows drivers / DirectX.

 

[Jarmel]

But as a consumer, I will be beholden to Valve instead, while losing my old Windows library. What's the benefit?

I'm starting to think this isn't for PC gamers at all.

For the most part it's not. You will still need your Windows OS for other publishers that don't use Steam or view it as a competitor.

 

[Minions]

So, remind me, how would this increase number of games that support Linux/Unix?


Can't get through a single floor in my house... (nothing fancy, Wi-Fi works just fine)
Actually it's bluetooth so it isn't even supposed to.

No idea, my bluetooth headset (Sony PS3) works through 3 walls and down the stairs.... then it cuts out. If I walk under where my room is it reconnects without issues. I have kept playing FFXIII (and XIII-2) from the bathroom by spamming X while on the toilet. Pretty crazy how easy that game is to play without even looking at the TV. . . .

 

[Kacho]

I'm not sure why and if I want this, especially in the near future. BUT I'm excited and intrigued. I hope this turns into something big.

 

[AntiSwerve]

But as a consumer, I will be beholden to Valve instead, while losing my old Windows library. What's the benefit?

I'm starting to think this isn't for PC gamers at all.

Im pretty sure they have a way to run it inside of windows itself, valve wouldnt just leave their most likely largest user base out to hang like that

 

[Blackthorn]

Does this mean, theoretically, Valve could release Steam apps for the next gen consoles that allow Steam games to be streamed over the network and played via said consoles controller?

Because I would like that.

 

[kartu]

Oh god, just struck me, this better NOT be aimed at yet another "play on cloud" thing...

 

[Maztorre]

Both Rome and Football Manager are pretty terribly not suited for living room big screen comfy couch gaming.

I'm assuming that mouse-driven titles are included in the promotional material specifically because Valve's controller is built to allow mouse-like input from various sources (such as trackball or touchpad) described in their patent here:

A game controller is provided. One or more main control input interfaces consist of generalized sockets. A variety of modular input interfaces can be plugged into these sockets. Hardware specific to the input type of the modular input is contained within the modular input itself, and plugged in via an interface. This allows for dual analog sticks, a combination of analog and trackball, or further any combination of touchpad, directional pad, or additional components

Those of you who have an Oculus Rift should also be familiar with this, but Valve's own instructions for best use of VR for Half-Life/TF2 mention turning off elements like Aero in Windows that introduce display latency. The fact that Valve mention latency and performance improvements repeatedly when talking about OpenGL, Linux ports, their controller hardware and now the SteamOS is notable in that they are making an OS which is likely better designed around future VR compatibility than Windows. VR is a major growth opportunity for gaming/entertainment oriented PCs over the next few years, if SteamOS is a de facto first choice purely from a performance standpoint then that is a major source of long-term ongoing support.

Valve do not need to "beat" Windows in short-term marketshare among PC gamers to score a win here, their goals are either:

a) simply gain just enough marketshare to make the SteamOS userbase financially worth targeting in the long term (and if they have the tools to make porting as trivial as possible the financial cost of support will drop significantly), or

b) build up a completely separate userbase of new customers who didn't take part in Windows desktop gaming before, but are interested in new form-factor HTPCs or a gateway device to VR.

In either case they will have successfully built an open, Android-like platform that cannot really be ignored by publishers. The presence of a viable open alternative will also help keep Microsoft in check against further walling of their platform in anticompetitive ways.

Also, to those of you complaining that you already have a great Windows PC to play Steam on: That's great, Valve already has your custom. The goal isn't to spread the OS but to spread Steam. Do bear in mind though, in the long term you are likely to see more and more SteamOS-oriented builds popping up on PC building threads when you do your next build in a couple of years.

Can't wait to see what kind of support this will have among the XBMC and emulation crowd, very enticing to have a system with a gaming-focused OS that boots directly to Steam and then potentially my Dolphin library directly with a controller.

 

[Zombie James]

lol@ Half-Life 3 or any valve game being SteamOS exclusive. Please stop.

They made it so you couldn't play Half-Life 2 without Steam when it launched. if Valve is serious about SteamOS I could see this as a possibility.

 

[grkazan12]

Excited to see where Valve takes this in the future. The independence gained from this move could be enormous in further developing the PC gaming market.

I was wondering if anyone here with experience in developing could answer this question. Looking at the large library of Steam games (including legacy games, AAA games, indie games etc.).

1. Would it be hard for developers to port all, if not most of these games to SteamOS?

2. Will porting games like Thief, HL1, San Andreas, Soul Reaver to an OS that's suitable for the TV/Living Room be possible? Feasible?

3. Will porting a new game like Watch Dogs be fast or will it take some time?

I know I'm asking a lot without even knowing most of the details yet in terms of porting, but I was just curious.

 

[Dunlop]

But as a consumer, I will be beholden to Valve instead,

This part is funny because it is true.

Don't get me wrong I am hoping this is announced in the really short term so I can cancel my PS4 order but Valve will have a whole lot of control. Let's hope Gabe plays nice

 

[inm8num2]

Another random musing - if Steam wants to move away from Windows because it's a closed platform, and they develop their own StamOS, can't that be considered a closed platform as well?

The difference would be it's Steam's OS, so it's 'open' to them. But how do gamers and developers see the benefits of using StamOS?

Genuine questions. I rather like the concept, but I'm not sure I understand all the ins and outs.

 

[antiloop]

Valve taking the first step leaving the sinking Windows ship.

 

[Shard]

One announcements down, two to go.

 

[Minsc]

I don't get it. Why would I use SteamOS when I have Windows/Mac/whatevs which runs Steam as well? Why would I buy a Steam "console" when all it is is a storefront for the Steam store which I can access on my PC? Why is it an "OS" and not just Steam software for Smart TVs?

I mean, okay, for a family household with 2-3 living rooms or whatever it's probably nice, but Apple has rich people covered.

This is all so strange to me.

From their webpage:

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. Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases.

That sounds promising enough to keep an eye out for, if nothing else. You know how a lot of people complained about the choppiness in The Witcher 2 even at 60fps? Maybe in SteamOS they are able to remove that uneven delay between frames that makes it stutter in so many games. Just for lower input latency and performance increases alone though, that's not bad.