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SteamOS

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Re: SteamOS

#151

Post by bsimpson »

hamburglar wrote: post #121
rkalla wrote: post #26

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 portin…

I'm skeptical that they can convince regular people to put PC hardware in their living rooms. Microsoft and manufacturers made a ton of effort in this direction last decade, and it wasn't half bad: Windows Media Center was a pretty decent user interface for TV-watching, and lots of "living room PC" form factors popped up (remember the ubiquitous Shuttle case?). But nobody cares. It was just too weird and clunky for t…

AppleTV sells reasonably well, and GoogleTV would probably be thriving right now if the major networks didn't discriminate against its UA. I don't follow gaming that closely, but I believe most of the consoles released since the Dreamcast use a variant of the PowerPC chip that used to power Apple's computers.

Silicon is silicon; it's the UI that makes a difference. People have been paying money to have gaming systems in their homes since the 80s, and entertainment-center computers have been popular since TiVo in the 00s.

Moreover, these manufacturers are all working on "smart TVs," which is what has been keeping GoogleTV alive in spite of the entertainment industry's hostility towards it. With the right UI and licensing, I could see an LG or a Samung (or a Vizio for that matter) releasing a SteamOS-powered TV.

Re: SteamOS

#152

Post by jdc »

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.

Re: SteamOS

#153

Post by davexunit »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #142
davexunit wrote: post #91

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.

Presumably the GNU/Linux core is libre and Steam is freeware. Why would it be anything else?

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.

Re: SteamOS

#154

Post by xmonkee »

rkalla wrote: post #26

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 portin…

Consider all the PC-only titles. It's safe to assume that many of them make the vast majority of their sales via Steam. If steam promises massive takeup of SteamOS, then it's in their best interests to make them available for it.

From the demand angle, lots of games are console only because they fear piracy on PC versions. But if all these console users are offered a cheap new platform they can use just as easily as their consoles, it's safe to say that many of the users who buy a steambox would start buying games on it too. Console gamers aren't going to suddenly turn into torrent junkies because they wouldn't need to. This would make the PC platform profitable again. And if they start pricing games cheaper, like Steam games are liable to be, piracy would go down even further. Lots of indie PC titles are making money after-all.

Overall, I think once it hits a critical mass it would be a fantastic idea for all parties involved.

Re: SteamOS

#155

Post by Mikeb85 »

dzddd wrote: post #129
alisnic wrote: post #11

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.

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.

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...

Re: SteamOS

#156

Post by lelandbatey »

xentronium wrote: post #18

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.

Really, I'm more optimistic. It seems like SteamOS is just going to be a tuned distro, but marketed towards publishers and studios as a new platform. The "new platform" part makes it easier for Valve to get AAA titles on board, but I doubt Valve has the manpower or the desire to make an entirely new (incompatible) fork that damages the potential to distribute games on other platforms.

Basically, I think it's a sly way to get studios and publishers to start developing for Linux.

Re: SteamOS

#157

Post by cheald »

topbanana wrote: post #120

Most Steam games require keyboard and mouse. I don't see how that can work in the living room

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.

Re: SteamOS

#158

Post by DocG »

rkalla wrote: post #26

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 portin…

In-home Streaming seems to be backwards compility answer.

This means they don't start with empty plate like Android for example.

To keep cheap rig in living room for stream playing and media center, does not seem to be so bad idea. Most gaming will happen still whereever main rig is, but when you have friends over, you can just move to living room. And knowing steam(compared to others), I think it will be decently out of the box working thing.

Anyway, I support linux gaming, I would love to ditch windows at last.

Re: SteamOS

#159

Post by th0br0 »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #137
th0br0 wrote: post #109

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 p…

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.

Windows is closed source and offers some pseudo-"security" through that. Also, you can't just modify the kernel to suit your needs...

Re: SteamOS

#160

Post by throwaway2048 »

ihsw wrote: post #114
marcosdumay wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

Ubuntus popularity is anything but soaring these days, mint has more or less taken over its former crown.
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