Here's how this goes for 95% of the market.

Playstation 4. It says it's super powerful and that it's way better than the other guy.

Xbox One. It says it's super powerful and way better than the other guy.

Steam Machines. It says it's a "GX 771-A Correlon". Is that good? Why does this other one have a different thing? Which is more powerful? What will be able to play console games on full blast? For how many years? What else do I need?

This is not the mass media product some may have been anticipating.

At what point do you just buy a new PC and stick it in your living room? Those prices are pretty crazy for a gaming machine.

Also the Zotac is just a router, DON'T BE FOOLED!

I agree with this completely.

Yeah, I agree. The fact that they're putting specs on these things when "marketing them" makes me not interested.

I thought the whole point was to make it easier for people, like you buy a steam box and you're set. This kind of just looks like the graphic card mess all over again. I thought it would be targeted at people who normally purchase pre-built computers but who want one cheap and specifically for gaming.

As someone who knows how to put a PC together, I'm at a loss. I don't know who this is for. Instead of "buy this thing and you're set - it's okay, we got this specification stuff down" it's "which steam box should I buy, which one is good?" which will lead to "help me I have 2 frames per second playing a game on my steam box".

I still don't like the idea of a trackpad-based controller. But beyond that, the price disparity between the various manufacturers and models is ridiculous. I think this is less about offering up a true living room Steam alternative than it is just finding a way to start seeding SteamOS into as many homes as they can.

@joshwent: I'm not saying anything bad about Valve. I just think they're forgetting how to game company.

I'm not sure about camps 2 and 3. Those tired of Windows have had Linux as an option for ages. Why wait for Valve to make an OS that is currently in beta when there are other Linux distros that are much more feature complete. I also don't see how a person who is perplexed by Windows be completely down with trying out a completely new OS. Even if you aren't into PC gaming you probably know how Windows works (small subset of OSX users aside).

I've tried out Ubuntu as a desktop replacement aswell, worked fine until i tried to install GPU-drivers and got a gaming itch. SteamOS is all about fixing those issues from what I've read, but it'll take some time.

And with the work Valve is putting into gaming compatability on Linux, sounds like will be beneficial to the rest of the Linux community. Both tech coming from the collaboration Valve is having with GPU-manufacturers and gamedevs like Dice with their Mantle-project.

SteamOS is just a debian distribution, with "big picture mode" installed and booted by default. All the functionality you get from regular debian distributions are avalable just by closing down that fullscreen app.

Question is if enough games will be platform agnostic (windows/linux) fast enough for SteamOS not to just run out of steam.

I think the biggest reason for Linux not catching on as a windows replacement yet, is the fact that gaming isn't there yet. Valve seems intent on making that change.

@babychoochoo: lol, so who is this for again? Hard core PC gamers who already have a PC and like gaming in the living room, but won't move their PC to the living room because is not stylish enough (like any of those steam boxes are pretty at all hee)... seriously not trying to be mean.. but NO CLUE WHO IS THIS THING FOR