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[Htown]

Steam announces an OS, and people go back to complaining that the unannounced box isn't for anybody.

 

[CheesecakeRecipe]

Step aside, microsoft.

Heisengaben out to play.

 

[Bluemercury]

You mean when I build my Gaming PC for the consumer version of the Oculus Rift next year, I may not have to bother with Windows 8? FUCK YES!

The less revenue I send Microsoft's way the better.

this.

 

[Minsc]

Wonder how many millions of downloads SteamOS will see in the first week it's released? I wouldn't be surprised to see around 20 million downloads with around 5 million activations.

 

[shadowstar]

So I don't really get this. How will I be able to play say the Witcher 3 on this? Wouldn't I still need my PC? If so, why don't I just play on my PC and avoid an extra purchase of an HTPC or Steam Box? Is this not aimed at gamers like me? Who is it for? Why is this better than buying a PS4 which has heavy developer support? Why would I choose to install this OS on a new PC versus Windows 7 so I can use office, adobe products, and have software support I'm already used to?

 

[fijim]

For everyone saying this is just for streaming games:

Hundreds of great games are already running natively on SteamOS.

I think Valve wants all of their games running natively on SteamOS going forward and will push that as hard as they can. This would likely mean more powerful "steamboxes" or build your own Steambox that will basically serve as a living room console that plays PC games.

So I don't really get this. How will I be able to play say the Witcher 3 on this? Wouldn't I still need my PC? If so, why don't I just play on my PC and avoid an extra purchase of an HTPC or Steam Box? Is this not aimed at gamers like me? Who is it for? Why is this better than buying a PS4 which has heavy developer support?

You would use it to stream the game to your TV. For some people this would be a really nice feature as the TV may be in a different room and it would be difficult to run a long HDMI cable and may be outside the wireless keyboard/controller range.

As for this over PS4? That would just depend on the games library and what you want. It's for people who want to play PC games on their TV, I think the goal is to have games running natively on the SteamOS and eventually more powerful Steamboxes.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

Nice, this could get me off Windows almost completely. Move my PC from my desk to my home theater equipment area (currently running a long ass HDMI to TV for PC gaming there). Replace PC functionality with Mac Mini.

 

[Teknoman]

I still want a black steam branded controller.

 

[Tempy]

If I wanted to play games, why wouldn't I use Windows? Larger supported library, both Steam and non-Steam, old and new games run fine, large collection of hardware drivers. Tons of great emulators. For dedicated gaming, how will Steam OS hope to be any better than Windows?

Start small, grow big. You'll still have to keep your Windows machine around for a while. Having a big company like Valve behind SteamOS will make it a bigger competitor faster than any other Linux distro could achieve.

 

[Giever]

So instead of somehow getting a long HDMI cable to your TV, you're going to choose to buy a far more expensive box, which is going to cause latency and compression artifacting?

Wouldn't you also have to, like, have a crazy long extension cord for whatever input device you are using, and run that through the house somehow as well? Seems kinda ridiculous. It's not like if you run the HDMI to your TV, you can just plug your mouse/keyboard/controller/whatever into the TV and control it that way.

 

[NinjaCatfish]

So instead of somehow getting a long HDMI cable to your TV, you're going to choose to buy a far more expensive box, which is going to cause latency and compression artifacting?

Well, yeah. Some people just won't tolerate a 20 metre HDMI cable snaking across the floor/under rugs, or be willing the spend the money to have it routed through the roof/walls.

None of us know how well the streaming will work, but I am (maybe stupidly) optimistic that this will be a solution for me.

I can also see the long term strategy. Gabe has clearly stated that he doesn't like the direction Windows is heading so Valve are making an OS to compete which will remain open, and with the backing of a software behemoth like Steam, they probably hope it gains enough traction that it looks like a real alternative by the time Windows 9 arrives, which I'm sure Gabe believes will be a super closed off OS.

 

[Jarmel]

I just don't see any advantage to this unless you are incapable or don't want to set up your PC on your TV.

 

[Anteater]

Wonder how many millions of downloads SteamOS will see in the first week it's released? I wouldn't be surprised to see around 20 million downloads with around 5 million activations.

Depends on the hats

 

[Gangxxter]

I tried to get Linux to work on my pc before.

I am incredibly stupid.

Didnt work for me.

Don't worry, there will be guides for this in the Steam Workshop soon.

 

[Exuro]

I'm wondering if the UI is going to basically be like BPM and if they're going to add in applications like word processors since we already have some things on steam like budget programs and such. Really hope they show off some concepts of what they are planning on it looking like.

 

[eot]

Not only do I not particularly care, but I'm also not confident in Valve's ability to release/support a good distro. What happens when nobody "feels like" working on it? I'd like to depend less on Valve, not more.

 

[skdoo]

Steam app incoming for the PS4? If so, it is over for MS.

 

[EatChildren]

As someone who uses a Mac as their primary PC, and therefore has a small Steam library, I'm unclear on whether this will immediately help give me access to games that I didn't previously have access to without using Bootcamp or something?

Or would I still be dependent on future games being developed for SteamOS and older games being repurposed / ported / whatever?

You would still need to use Bootcamp, I think. You could, in theory, use Bootcamp to run a partition install of SteamOS, and then run SteamOS games natively through that. As a Mac user specifically you wont get any bonuses, much like Windows users. SteamOS is it's own thing, mostly.

I think Valve wants all of their games running natively on SteamOS going forward and will push that as hard as they can. This would likely mean more powerful "steamboxes" or build your own Steambox that will basically serve as a living room console that plays PC games.

I guaranty not only will Valve's games going forward run natively and perfectly on SteamOS, they'll also perform better on SteamOS OpenGL versus Windows DirectX on the exact same hardware. I also expect, like Valve says on the webpage, a lot of developers have already got their games up and running as SteamOS supported.

 

[ascully]

How does a Linux OS run windows games? not sure I get it.

 

[kutthoat5150]

have they said anything about letting us use our 360 pads to navigate through the OS? I'm guessing they probably have a new controller announcement that lets us do this better than a 360 controller

 

[Hoo-doo]

Not interested in streaming shit, but the OS sounds decent.

If I could, i'd drop the Windows ecosystem like a hot rock. It has been garbage for years.

 

[eot]

Wonder how many millions of downloads SteamOS will see in the first week it's released? I wouldn't be surprised to see around 20 million downloads with around 5 million activations.

What? You're crazy.
I wouldn't expect them to get 1 million.

 

[Wiktor]

I must say I'm getting a bit worried with how powerful Valve is growing.particularly in indie gaming. Steam is basically killing the whole idea of indie games slowly, replacing the old publishers as gate keeper.

Still better than having to rely solely in Microsoft I guess.

 

[Foxyone]

It made it kinda sound like the Steam OS would increase graphical performance in games. Is that doable?

 

[Einbroch]

Steam app incoming for the PS4? If so, it is over for MS.

Would be completely idiotic for Sony to have a Steam app on the PS4. A steam login where you share friendslists, screenshots, and so on? Sure. But an app where you can buy and play Steam games on you PS4?

No way. Why put a competing store on your closed console?

 

[Klyka]

So the only thing that really,in any way matters, is the streaming stuff, which I bet there is already hardware/software out there to stream your PC to the TV anyway.

And the "steambox" I mean,really? it will be a PC and it will be outdated and you will have to upgrade it for new games because unlike console only games,they will not be made for the same set of hardware for years,they will progress like normal PC games and your steambox will run like shit in 2-3 years and people will shout "WHY DO I NEED TO UPGRADE MY STEAM CONSOLE?"

it's so DUMB.

 

[c0de]

have they said anything about letting us use our 360 pads to navigate through the OS? I'm guessing they probably have a new controller announcement that lets us do this better than a 360 controller

I doubt they will block certain hardware ids...

 

[kittens]

Sounds awesome. I'm excited to hear announcement #2 and #3. This might be what finally gets me into PC gaming.

 

[Marty Chinn]

How does a Linux OS run windows games? not sure I get it.

It doesn't unless you have another PC running Windows which you can stream them from. We'll have to wait and see if the streaming is any good.

 

[yami4ct]

So they can just buy a Steambox and start building their own game collection, of course.

Only the people who have an existing Steam collection will have reason to be confused by what is and is not compatible.

I don't agree. Say this takes off and a bunch of OEMs start making various steam boxes with differing amounts of power. A consumer goes in and sees a hundred different options, picks one and takes it home only to find the one they happened to can't play some of the latest games being a low power box. Once it's in their homes, a person will know what's compatible and not. In store, where it's most important to sell people, it'll be super confusing. They'll see all the options and go with a traditional console instead.

 

[noire]

Interesting news, but I have a hard time trusting the Valve team to make a controller-friendly OS when they're still kicking me over to a browser to do so much in BPM/

 

[googleplex]

What if Valve worked out a deal with Sony to at lest bring a Steam Streaming app to the PS4? That way you could stream your PC steam games to your PS4.

 

[imBask]

I really don't see Valve taking over Windows as our main OS, some of you guys are crazy. As much as I love Valve, the only company that could actually try that shit with a minimum chance of succes right now is Google

 

[skyboss]

A slingbox with SteamOS won't be more than $99. $49 if they want to be aggressive.

 

[solarus]

Node 304 small form factor windows gaming pc under my tv, it can play everything, I already have the ultimate steam box.

 

[model13]

I think one of the biggest hurdles to mass adoption of living room gaming pcs is the inability of controllers to compete with kb/m players in multiplayer FPS. If they solve this problem, watch out.

 

[Shalashaska161]

I always figured that this is where Valve was going with it's Linux talk. Microsoft really scared them with their whole Metro app store, and having an environment that they can control will only benefit them in the long run.

It still doesn't solve their content problem though. Valve games + a few random indies isn't going to sell systems, and things aren't likely to improve in the future. Hell, OSX can barely get ports and it has a much larger percentage of the desktop market than Linux does. It's going to be one hell of an uphill battle for Valve to get this thing off the ground, but I'm very interested in seeing them try.

 

[Future PhaZe]

dual boot lul

cmon now

 

[Ardvent]

So no magic wrappers that make your entire library available there.



Some sort of Linux distro.

99% Ubuntu / Debian based since that's what the Steam Linux client focus is.

I can't wait to poke around and root my way into the file system.

 

[walking fiend]

Can you explain that ? I thought the linux kernel is being updated very frequently.

Just look at its support for hybrid graphic cards on laptops, as something very relevant to gaming; the hardware has been around for years, and yet you need workarounds to get linux [any distro] working on those devices; and the support is still limited.

Now community applications, like LibreOffice, Gimp, etc. they are SO behind the curve, there's no point in discussion.

The difference, however, is that Kernel simply fails and is really unstable; while applications work, though with limited functionality

 

[Felix Lighter]

What if Valve worked out a deal with Sony to at lest bring a Steam Streaming app to the PS4? That way you could stream your PC steam games to your PS4.

I would be shocked. That goes against the whole idea of developing a locked down closed system box.

 

[Krusenstern]

How does a Linux OS run windows games? not sure I get it.

It doesn't. I can only stream it from another windows PC. Games need to be ported to OpenGL to be natively supported by Linux. That's the only gripe I currently have with this.

If more any more games get Linux support, I'll switch.

 

[StuBurns]

Wouldn't you also have to, like, have a crazy long extension cord for whatever input device you are using, and run that through the house somehow as well? Seems kinda ridiculous. It's not like if you run the HDMI to your TV, you can just plug your mouse/keyboard/controller/whatever into the TV and control it that way.

A PS3 pad works through multiple walls and though floors without an issue, and that tech is really old now, I'm sure it's possible to have a wireless tech that's even better now.

And it doesn't seem like this is for keyboard/mouse, but yeah, I guess that could be an issue.

 

[Opiate]

Android is not a community project; do people really believe Valve has even a fraction of the resources that google has for OS development?

Let's backtrack for just a second and discuss the implications of your response to me.

1) You suddenly seem to agree that yes, Linux is not "simply dead," as you claimed. Now you're implicitly admitting it's alive, but perhaps Valve can't support it as comprehensively as Google does.
2) You also made no mention of Linux based servers, presumably because you personally know very little about them, or perhaps because you're aware that the comparison would be less flattering. Somehow Linux maintains dominance in the server and mainframe market with no central operator!

My direct answer to you would be: yes, it's entirely possible that Valve won't be able to competently support an OS of their own, just as any company may fail to support its products adequately at any time. It happens. This was not your original argument, however.

 

[maniac-kun]

It made it kinda sound like the Steam OS would increase graphical performance in games. Is that doable?

Less overhead.

 

[thunder_snail]

If this distro's good enough and they have kde in the repository, I just might switch to it from openSUSE when it's out.

 

[Einbroch]

What if Valve worked out a deal with Sony to at lest bring a Steam Streaming app to the PS4? That way you could stream your PC steam games to your PS4.

Like I said above, absolutely not. No way. Why encourage people to buy games from a semi-direct competitor and play them on your machine? Sony makes bank off PSN games and their cut from Playstation games bought from retail.

They could totally put in a way to share friendslists and such, but no way will they let Steam games be played on their console.

 

[Dennis]

 

[Timeaisis]

There's no way I'm going to bother dual booting SteamOS on my current machine. And buying another device (steambox, I guess) with SteamOS is just stupid for me, as I have a very capable PC at the moment. I don't really understand who this is for.

I guess, it seems like it's for:
a) those who really want to stream games to their TV from their PC
b) those who don't play PC games already and want to get into them on the cheap end

Other than that, I'll stick with Win7. There's no reason to switch to a Linux OS.

 

[strafer]

So second announcement tomorrow?