Valve Has its Own Operating System Now in SteamOS

Keep it cheap to the point of being almost disposable, or at least tradable, like consoles but at a handheld price point.

Whether you buy a new box, or a new thing that swaps into the box, it's all the same if it's cheap enough. Make consumers think less, and you'll get more sales. It just backfired on Nintendo because people thought Wii U was an expansion. But I own at least 4 versions of Nintendo handhelds, even though there's a certain amount of backward compatibility.

I have no idea what these mysterious "living room machines" are but I'd be interested in using this for my PC.

I have no idea what these mysterious "living room machines" are but I'd be interested in using this for my PC.

"SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux..."

ROCK-SOLID?!

Calling this "just another Ubuntu distribution" is grossly understating the potential all this could have.
Even if SteamOS and a "Steam Box" start out only being streaming clients, for a Windows gaming PC somewhere else in the house, this is still great news.

Long term Valve can keep on strengthening the Linux support, they have enough experience on the Hardware level to do some magic with the graphics API, not much to support out there anyway, Nvidia and AMD. I've always waited for Valve to take exactly that step, having it all based on Linux makes way more sense then trying to build something new from the ground up.

Linux gaming support has been on the rise for quite a few years and this is gonna help pushing it further.

Too bad about you not being able to fullscreen the Steam interface, that sounds like something really really critical that's massively impacting your ability to use Steam, so it's really a wonder that Valve hasn't gotten around fixing such an non-issue.

Streaming never worked out for OnLive - but SteamOS removes the internet from the equation. You're simply streaming from another PC on your network, instead of bouncing all over the internet and adding potential weak links between the source and your steam box.

Using SteamOS in a box that purely streams could be very affordable ($100 or less) for people who own a gaming PC but dont want to put it in their living room, or want to keep their current setup for some games. It also opens the door for lower end media center PCs being able to also stream games from a gaming PC elsewhere in the home.

Not everyone has a TV hooked up to their gaming PC. My gaming PC, for example, is in my office. I have HDMI over Ethernet extenders going to the living room to my 70" screen, along with a USB over ethernet extender as well.

The problem here is that the extender creates a strange resolution conversion and will only use 80" of the screen. Zooming makes it too big, yadda yadda. Also, video/audio extender takes 2 network cables. So that PC is using up 4 network cables. Whereas, putting SteamOS on my already decent HTPC and streaming the content over the network should fix my resolution issues as well as free up 3 of those network cables!

Plus, if someone at the XBMC community were able to create an add-on that pulls up my Steam library and I could start a game from within XBMC itself instead of having to jump over to Big Picture Mode, that would be boss.

Not you. You actually just ran around in a circle and contradicted yourself. You said it's redundant for you install, yet it is somehow directly targeted at people like yourself.

No, this seems more targeted at people that have an HTPC in the living room and would like an easy way to stream their games into said space. Build a Gaming Rig Server, and play from any room in the house. Maybe even from anywhere in the world, depending on the robustness of the streaming application.

I think it should be noted that the SteamOS is mostly regular Ubuntu. When you look at the valve repo, there are very few packages in the repo.

I anticipate that it would be something along the lines of Lubuntu or Xubuntu where it's mostly the same OS as Ubuntu but configured to be lean and only ship with the packages that are needed to accomplish its goal, which is to get you to Big Picture as soon as possible after pressing the power button. I figure the ISO when it is released will be very small.

Also since it would be mostly the same as Ubuntu, I think you would be able to turn the default SteamOS into regular Ubuntu relatively easily and Steam Desktop can be treated like another desktop environment that sits alongside Ubuntu's Unity or LXDE.

To educate the non-Linux users: Desktop Linux supports multiple desktop environments. A desktop environment is a different user interface. So when you get to the login screen you normally login to Ubuntu's default Unity which is the one that looks like MacOSX with the dock on the left hand side. But it is really easy to install a lighter one like LXDE and then you can just choose it at login.

I imagine that since it's a Linux distro and will be relatively open, Big Picture will be the default desktop environment on a standard Ubuntu but with no Ubuntu or Canonical branding anywhere, and it would be trivial to add the Ubuntu Unity or any other desktop environment to it and just switch back and forth.

I think that's what people are confused about. The interface is going to look console-y, but it will still be a PC OS. I think you'll be able to do all the stuff that you can on any other PC operating system, like install packages, install desktop environments, run a browser, install VMs, run a server, all that nerdy stuff.

And as for the people who think that there aren't PC gamers that want a console-like experience, I can't speak for other people, but for me, the older I've gotten the lazier and wearier I've gotten. I want to have the option of upgradeability and maintainability that comes with PC gaming, but I don't want the hassle of actually having to take care of the PC. I want something in-between console and PC. I think there's a space for this.

And the valve approach makes sense, take the most tinkerable OS in Linux and like Ubuntu, make up the difference in the ease of use department, but take it to another level for gaming than Ubuntu would.

I love how so many people are excited...

...but I remember the Steam launch as well.

We'll see how it goes whenever the thing is released.

finally we kinda get the best of both worlds. kinda...

I predicted the future.

This how I feel right now:

I don't really "get" the point of needing a Steam OS. I mean, I guess I kinda do if you're playing in the living room? But does it bring any benefit at all to normal PC users or like big picture mode is it just a better UI for your tv?

So does this mean that steam games will run more smoothly on this OS? Also can Linux users finaly play games that they couldn't before? Like Call of Duty, ect

@markwahlberg: He means that the OS is built for big screens, hence what you would have in your living room. Well if your that lucky.