Why Should I Care About SteamOS?

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

So like everyone else I seem to be more interested in the fact that Nixie has come to the Escapist than I am in discussing the topic she has put forward to us. But my thoughts on Steam OS....

VALVE!!!! Y U NO MAKE FOR PC????????

Wat.

Like... actually wat.

Can... can you please explain what you're asking? As is, it appears that you're asking the equivalent of why Alienware isn't supporting Intel products, even though it is...

OT: I quite liked the video. Welcome to the Escapist!

Yes Valve makes games for PC, and yes Steam itself is designed for PC, but SteamOS or Steam OS (I am not sure if we are supposed to include the space or not) is designed for their steambox console thing that will be coming out... NOT a stand alone OS to be run on the PC in place of something like Windows.

faceplam

Please show me where it says that Valve isn't going to release SteamOS for free for people to do what they want with it.

Yes it is designed for SteamBoxes and living room PC's that doesn't mean you can't install it on your tower that sits in your bedroom.

SteamOS, running on any living room machine...

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

 

[Jadak]

The streaming feature baffles me. Why on Earth would I want a second computer to act as a streaming connection point to put my games on my tv? How about I just skip that purchase and use the tv directly? If I ever get a Steam machine, it's sure as hell going to playing the games itself.

 

[MorganL4]

So like everyone else I seem to be more interested in the fact that Nixie has come to the Escapist than I am in discussing the topic she has put forward to us. But my thoughts on Steam OS....

VALVE!!!! Y U NO MAKE FOR PC????????

Wat.

Like... actually wat.

Can... can you please explain what you're asking? As is, it appears that you're asking the equivalent of why Alienware isn't supporting Intel products, even though it is...

OT: I quite liked the video. Welcome to the Escapist!

Yes Valve makes games for PC, and yes Steam itself is designed for PC, but SteamOS or Steam OS (I am not sure if we are supposed to include the space or not) is designed for their steambox console thing that will be coming out... NOT a stand alone OS to be run on the PC in place of something like Windows.

...You're literally the first person I've met that has ever come to this conclusion.

As long as it's a Linux distro, it will run on your PC in place of Windows. I'm not sure you understand what the Steam Machine even is, seeing how they're nothing but custom computers.

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

"SteamOS will be available soon as a free download for users and as a freely licensable operating system for manufacturers."

It doesn't get much clearer than that!

So like everyone else I seem to be more interested in the fact that Nixie has come to the Escapist than I am in discussing the topic she has put forward to us. But my thoughts on Steam OS....

VALVE!!!! Y U NO MAKE FOR PC????????

Wat.

Like... actually wat.

Can... can you please explain what you're asking? As is, it appears that you're asking the equivalent of why Alienware isn't supporting Intel products, even though it is...

OT: I quite liked the video. Welcome to the Escapist!

Yes Valve makes games for PC, and yes Steam itself is designed for PC, but SteamOS or Steam OS (I am not sure if we are supposed to include the space or not) is designed for their steambox console thing that will be coming out... NOT a stand alone OS to be run on the PC in place of something like Windows.

faceplam

Please show me where it says that Valve isn't going to release SteamOS for free for people to do what they want with it.

Yes it is designed for SteamBoxes and living room PC's that doesn't mean you can't install it on your tower that sits in your bedroom.

SteamOS, running on any living room machine...

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

2nd to last paragraph

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128065-Valve-Reveals-SteamOS

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

2nd to last paragraph

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128065-Valve-Reveals-SteamOS

So you're disproving our quotes from the official announcement webpage with a news article about the announcement webpage?

 

[MorganL4]

2nd to last paragraph

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128065-Valve-Reveals-SteamOS

So you're disproving our quotes from the official announcement webpage with a news article about the announcement webpage?

"...You're literally the first person I've met that has ever come to this conclusion."


Now you know where I got my information...... Apparently our favorite site for video game news is capable of making mistakes in regards to video game news.... Seeing as it's a website made by humans (who are flawed by definition) I'm not exactly surprised.

 

[lacktheknack]

2nd to last paragraph

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128065-Valve-Reveals-SteamOS

I have no idea how you interpreted that to mean "It's not going to be available on PCs". It said "the OS isn't going to replace Windows", which it won't any more than any other Linux distro has.

As I said:

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

"SteamOS will be available soon as a free download for users and as a freely licensable operating system for manufacturers."

It doesn't get much clearer than that.

Taking your interpretation of a paragraph with multiple possible meanings from an Escapist article over the official Valve site? Please tell me you're not doing this.

 

[StHubi]

The video is really well made and informative.

I already heard a lot of things about SteamOS and the Steam Controller and I am still not sure how this will perform on the market. But I can only judge this from my point of view: I do not feel any need to use it, as I already have a quite powerful Windows machine which I can also use for a lot of other stuff. Gaming is just a side effect this machine enables me to do and I do not need the "living room comfort" for playing games.

First and foremost I believe Valve tries to get independent of Windows, as they did not seem very happy about Windows 8. If their fears come true, all software will be sold via Windows App Stores and thus Microsoft gains money by every sale. At least that is the nightmare vision, you can come up with. It is the business model of the Apple Store which seems to impress Microsoft...

 

[proghead]

I do not need the "living room comfort" for playing games.

It's been said that games can run faster on SteamOS, probably because they stripped out everything that isn't required for gaming. But if you're not interested in playing games from your couch, then this is not for you, indeed.

First and foremost I believe Valve tries to get independent of Windows, as they did not seem very happy about Windows 8. If their fears come true, all software will be sold via Windows App Stores and thus Microsoft gains money by every sale. At least that is the nightmare vision, you can come up with. It is the business model of the Apple Store which seems to impress Microsoft...

That's certainly one of the reasons. The interesting bit here is how open Valve will make their OS. I'm a bit worried that they will end up doing the exact same thing which caused them to turn their backs on Win8 - making them the biggest hypocrites one could imagine. After all, if you want to publish your game on Steam right now, you have to pay Valve some fees for every sale AFAIK.

 

[StHubi]

It's been said that games can run faster on SteamOS, probably because they stripped out everything that isn't required for gaming.

Unfortunately "run faster" is a real weak statement when you ask: Compared to what? I have a really powerful machine and I am convinced most games will not really "run faster" on other systems Additionally not all games are available for Linux and currently I cannot believe that the game developers will start to migrate to Linux just because of SteamOS. But that is only guessing and we will have to wait and see how the industry and the customers react to this new platform. In the worst case we will see the "Atari Jaguar Edition 2014"

 

[Arina Love]

you don't, it's for Gabebots that will eat up any crap he will shit out.

 

[Extragorey]

I think the SteamBox will be a huge success, because Valve will make HL3 its launch title (and most sheeple will be like, "must get SteamBox to play HL3!" even though you could also just get it for your regular PC). Well, I can dream.

Gotta say though, I'm definitely excited to see how this controller pans out (pun possibly intended?). Valve's using "haptic feedback" like an undeserved buzzword, but that said, what they're doing sounds pretty cool.

 

[fredorpaul]

If SteamOS still needs a windows PC streaming games to it, its a waste. If SteamOS uses some wine like program to allow running of all the games in their library with some incentive(IE performance) to program for linux this is a win win for every one. Yes even the steam haters out there, if steambox/OS can take a significant portion of the PC and console crowd, then writing games for linux vs windows becomes the more cost efficient means for game developers to expand the reach of their product, and that means more games independent of steam as well.

Of course this means linking up with a more complete linux distribution and actually running those games on that machine. If its just a living room linux frontend for windows PCs, its a waste.