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.
SteamOS
91–100 of 532 posts
Re: SteamOS
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
The announcement page claims all 3000 titles are available via streaming, similar to the OnLive service but only for your internal network, I'm guessing. Effectively working around the porting issue.
It seems to work like the nVidia Shield's streaming. Another computer on your home network handles the heavy lifting and streams the video output to your SteamOS box.
I've never had good luck with streaming a game, even on a local, wired connection. There's just way too much input lag.
Re: SteamOS
#93I'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
Re: SteamOS
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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.
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…
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).
Re: SteamOS
#95So 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.
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.
Re: SteamOS
#96Re: SteamOS
#97I'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.
not just hardware, it might also lead to game developers forcing people to use steam to get/play their games which otherwise would have been free.
Re: SteamOS
#98How long till we see the "SteamOS on Raspberry Pi" threads?
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.
Re: SteamOS
#99Can you sideload games that aren't on Steam?
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.
Re: SteamOS
#100The end is near! windows should shake in its tiny boots
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/creat... fancy that.