Open ecosystem (Linux, hardware) + gaming = well done Valve, sounds good, I like it!
Not open source, however. Not a dealbreaker, but an important distinction to keep in mind.
SteamOS
21–30 of 532 posts
Re: SteamOS
#22The 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.
Re: SteamOS
#23Is it based on an existing distro?
It's either OpenSUSE or Ubuntu based.
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/)
Re: SteamOS
#24"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.
Valve are working on improving Linux debugging tools too, which is great for developers.
Re: SteamOS
#25Re: SteamOS
#26This 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.
Re: SteamOS
#27Lovely - 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 ?
Re: SteamOS
#28Since 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.
Re: SteamOS
#29[deleted]
Re: SteamOS
#30I'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.
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.