SteamOS - So how does this work?

[PoolCleaningRobot]

The OS is free, so it will probably have ads

LOL wut? It's Linux. Gabe didn't invent Linux, he and Valve just made new flavor of it. Not to mention even if they had adds, it says on Steam's website that every part of the OS can be changed. The idea is that people can take this new version of Linux and since it's open source, anyone should be able to make their own version of it. It would give Valve a ton of influence by making it free just like how Android is free and open source so anyone can make a modified rom of it but it's given Google a huge amount of influence on mobile phones.

It's awesome and I wish I could do the same thing on a desktop but unfortunately Windows has all the compatability on desktops while Android has the most on mobiles. Hopefully, by making a gaming centered Linux more people can move over to it and it will grow

As for streaming, I'm not a 100% about that aspect. I've streamed through a lot devices and it typically works well through my own wifi network but I've never tried to play a serious 3D game other than Shadow of the Colossus HD from my ps3 to my vita which worked with minimal lag but noticeable artifacts. There's always duel booting

 

[Maxtro]

The big questions for SteamOS are, Will it have the games you want to play, and, Does it run those games better than Windows?

As for streaming, I wonder if it would be possible to stream videos and music from my computer.

 

[Flames66]

The OS is free, so it will probably have ads. More than there allready are on Steam? They allready make my blood boil. I can't help it, I have a short fuse for those kinds of things.

I'm not sure I follow that logic. My understanding is there will be a box you can buy, but the software will be free. Also what adverts on steam are you talking about?

The OS is light, it will be capable for streaming and displaying videos, music, games and will have local and most certainly, online social features. An OS needs a lot of things to enable these all of the time and seeing how Valve made the Steam-client allready this clunky, I'm not sure how they will make the OS good without pouring years and years of optimisation in it. But does that even matter? Because streaming.

Steam was first released in 2003 and has been incrementally built on and added to since. There are bound to be some parts that don't fit together as intended. This steam box thing will be an entirely new system so won't have that problem.

 

[LAGG]

People are mistaking the streaming feature that's just a freebie as if the whole idea of the OS is about it.

How would they have ads on Linux? It's not "free", it's open source. Valve doesn't own it. They just needed one and it didn't exist, so they went and made one and took the marketing opportunity to call it SteamOS and make it already come with Steam integrated, since they did the hard work. Besides that Steam itself doesn't have any ads.

It's still Linux, probably a variation of Debian, they don't need years of optimization, it's already optimized, and they're making it gaming-dedicated. The same games running on it will have better frame rate, graphics, input response and loading times than the same games running on the same hardware on Windows or OSX.

It's also a protection from the future Windows versions, starting with Windows 8, for developers, publishers and consumers.

It's just that: a gaming focused OS. Because Valve wants to release hardware and it needs an OS, so they made it so you can also use the OS without having to buy their hardware, which is good for you because it'll have better performance, and good for them because if you use it for gaming you'll be counted as the install base of the OS, which will make more publishers and developers release more games for it, which will make more people buy their hardware. It's that simple.

 

[nuttshell]

I mean, come on, your assumptions were so warped, you may as well be talking about a different company and a different product.

The Xbox One could have worked well and it did have some decent ideas behind it, but then Microsoft started screwing around with it to the point where they hit the point of no return. I think Valve will fair much better with it though...

You're probably right and I'm just being paranoid. I just get very suspicious when I hear praising phrases for products that aren't even available yet, like this: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128078-Notch-SteamOS-is-Saving-the-Entire-Gaming-World
But Valve isn't Microsoft.

 

[The Enquirer]

I mean, come on, your assumptions were so warped, you may as well be talking about a different company and a different product.

The Xbox One could have worked well and it did have some decent ideas behind it, but then Microsoft started screwing around with it to the point where they hit the point of no return. I think Valve will fair much better with it though...

You're probably right and I'm just being paranoid. I just get very suspicious when I hear praising phrases for products that aren't even available yet, like this: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128078-Notch-SteamOS-is-Saving-the-Entire-Gaming-World
But Valve isn't Microsoft.

That's exactly it. It is possible for it to turn out to be a crappy OS, but Valve typically is very good about fixing those sorts of things. They seem to care what people think about them, which is sadly becoming less and less present in gaming these days.