Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

blog.zarfhome.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 127 posts

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#71

Post by esseph »

foo12bar wrote: post #69
esseph wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't make any sense. They use the OS in multiple products. Tons of people run it on their own hardware. They could probably not update a single thing on there and it wouldn't matter, the games themselves are mostly running through an emulation layer anyway and will continue to work.

So what are you saying? They can do this single limited release and then discontinue it and everyone is going to be happy about it? People will just flock to the next version when it comes out and not feel burned by what happened? Not many people run games on linux, only about 5%, amd of those nearly all keep a windows OS around to handle edge cases and upgrading firmware, etc. This is what the fight is about. If Ste…

You don't understand how Steam works, the culture around it, or why people are excited about this.

> So what are you saying? They can do this single limited release and then discontinue it and everyone is going to be happy about it?

They're selling a gaming console, of which in their case the hardware is the least important part and a means to an end. It is commodity hardware. No integrated memory. No special sauce.

These are hardware drivers that are a part of the Linux kernel.

What they are selling is a portal (grin) to their ecosystem, and an experience that is different from their competitors. One that unlike many of their competitors, doesn't require a monthly fee to be a part of (multiplayer). AND access to it is now scarce. A limited premium product.

> Not many people run games on linux, only about 5%

You're going to find a bunch of those on this website, myself included. No windows PC laying around though.

I game on Fedora 44 w/ Steam.

> Releasing the Steam box at this price is not helping their cause. They have to recover from this now.

You just don't get it.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#72

Post by miyoji »

slibhb wrote: post #14
everdrive wrote: post #8

"Nothing is safe, nothing is reliable, and I am looking at the extremely real possibility that I am already unemployable if I have to go back on the market." Anyone I know who has needed to look for work has had a hell of a time with it. It's a scary world out there.

In the US, unemployment is at 4.3%.

That has nothing to do with the fact that the hiring market for software engineers sucks right now.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#74

Post by gos9 »

topgrain2 wrote: post #38
bigyabai wrote: post #3

Okay? You can wipe off your tears and go buy a cheap gaming PC off Craigslist. Toss Bazzite on it, and you're good to go. I'm not sure what type of sympathy people want to court with the "woe is me" narrative around how they need a third gaming device. The selling point of the Steam Machine is the software. Nothing about the bespoke hardware is worth crying over, it feels like object fetishism for the sake of it.

End-to-end (hardware, OS, UI software) support from a single vendor for a narrowly-configured gaming PC, with actual serious support in terms of software updates and such, not just "we'll maybe honor the warranty if it breaks", including for TV-attached use cases where PCs (windows or Linux, either) tend to be kinda wonky[0], was appealing enough to me that I planned to buy it day-1 if it was under $700, and probably…

Do you want to buy it to play video games on or do you want to buy it as a display/bragging rights piece?

What games do you play now that this specialized piece of hardware would better?

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#75

Post by gos9 »

gabes wrote: post #7
bigyabai wrote: post #3

Okay? You can wipe off your tears and go buy a cheap gaming PC off Craigslist. Toss Bazzite on it, and you're good to go. I'm not sure what type of sympathy people want to court with the "woe is me" narrative around how they need a third gaming device. The selling point of the Steam Machine is the software. Nothing about the bespoke hardware is worth crying over, it feels like object fetishism for the sake of it.

The entitlement of the gaming “community” is next to none. I did what you said last year and it’s been a delight.

Jensen getting gamers to buy CUDA devices on the backs of their endless Reddit induced hardware lust was an incredible move

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#76

Post by gazebo2 »

slibhb wrote: post #31
satvikpendem wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't count those who've given up on looking.

If you want more detailed numbers, go look them up. BLS publishes them. Unemployment is nearly at historical lows. But don't let data distract you from the same tired "everything is terrible" line that's every other post here.

Pretty massive difference between "being employed" and "being employed with a decent wage". Yeah, there's plenty of low-wage service industry or gig economy work available to take you out of the unemployment statistic -- there's a lot less employment available that enables you to live a decent lifestyle (i.e. live somewhere without 4 roommates or raise a family)

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#77

Post by narrator »

elzbardico wrote: post #51
homebrewer wrote: post #4

I've long wished for rich western societies to run extensive student exchange programs with low income countries. Living even one year in most of the world will change your outlook for the rest of your life.

Usually the people in low income/developing countries that engage in student exchange programs are upper middle class and beyond and have lives no much different from their peers in developed western societies. People in western societies tend to ignore that developing countries are not merelly poorer but also generally marked by extreme wealth and income inequality. The rich and the upper middle class for all practi…

Dhaka, Bangladesh, it's not a nice place to live no matter how much money you have compared to developed countries.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#78

Post by gaws »

foo12bar wrote: post #18

At this price point they should have never released it, they should have waited. Everywhere I see reviews of it on the internet, come along with forced smiles and talk about how they agree with the philosophy behind it and they should be commended for fighting against Windows. But ultimately no one recommends this to the general public. The writing is on the wall. This thing is going to flop. Only thing they can do n…

> The writing is on the wall. This thing is going to flop.

No. They've made just enough to sell out and drive demand.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#79

Post by foo12bar »

esseph wrote: post #71
foo12bar wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what are you saying? They can do this single limited release and then discontinue it and everyone is going to be happy about it? People will just flock to the next version when it comes out and not feel burned by what happened? Not many people run games on linux, only about 5%, amd of those nearly all keep a windows OS around to handle edge cases and upgrading firmware, etc. This is what the fight is about. If Ste…

You don't understand how Steam works, the culture around it, or why people are excited about this. > So what are you saying? They can do this single limited release and then discontinue it and everyone is going to be happy about it? They're selling a gaming console, of which in their case the hardware is the least important part and a means to an end. It is commodity hardware. No integrated memory. No special sauce.…

I think you're too cloae to take any criticism. Any result seems like it'd be a success to you.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#80

Post by drdexebtjl »

retired wrote: post #49
smcg wrote: post #29

The Steam Machine was $250 less before all of the price increases from hardware buyouts. Go complain to Big Tech. You can install Steam on almost any Linux device. The Steam Machine is great for those who want a portable console-like device. Have you ever tried to build and maintain a shuttle PC yourself? It's obnoxious. This makes the goal of high quality portable gaming much easier.

> Have you ever tried to build and maintain a shuttle PC yourself? It's obnoxious. The benefit of a SFF PC you made yourself it that it doesn’t use proprietary hardware like the Steam Machine, is easily repaired and easily upgraded.

This is very true. I had a Ryzen Mini PC up until a couple of months ago, when it broke. Low quality VRMs, needed board repair.

Support says I need custom molds to reapply the liquid metal thermal compound, or it would 100% leak. Regular thermal compound just isn’t good enough. It was true. I could send it to China and they would fix it for free, but it would take 60 days and I would have to pay tariffs.

I just cut my losses and harvested the RAM and SSD for something more dependable.

Post reply on HN