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Valve Has Announced The SteamOS Built On Linux UPDATED

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As we’ve been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the conclusion that the
environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself.
SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen.
It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines.

This is very interesting a true gaming orientated version of Linux for the living room, the OS is completely free and freely licensable for manufacturers enabling anyone to make a SteamBox (they already said they would do that previously).

What is interesting is that it notes it can stream games from your PC to your SteamOS box:
QuoteYou can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too. Just turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have - then your SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your TV!

Note Linux isn't listed, the question is does Linux need this option? I don't think so since anything that works directly on the SteamOS should I hope work on desktop Linux.

The problem is though, this still doesn't give an incentive for bigger developers to publish for Linux/SteamOS since they will now say, "just stream it to a SteamBox", it just lines up another reason not to do a Linux version. Unless they really care about SteamOS+SteamBox itself, if it's popular and people start using it as an actual console, then they will need to start porting, so it remains to be seen how it will pan out for us all!

The next announcements will probably be:
  • 2) The first SteamBox from them directly
  • 3) A controller for SteamOS, possibly even with dedicated buttons for things like friends lists


I think for a SteamBox direct from them it would need to be partnered up with a big manufacturer to ensure it meets demand.

The big question for us is how well will they support the stand-alone Linux client after all this? They have put in a lot of work so far, will it continue? I really hope so they have done some great work so far, they do have different teams working on different things after-all so I hope it continues.

The next announcement is scheduled for two days time, so stay tuned on Wednesday to see if we're right on what they next two will be!

What are your thoughts? Could this be dangerous for the desktop Linux client?

UPDATE: So games targetting SteamOS will work on desktop Linux, looks like my fears for now can be laid to rest, AAA games here we come!
QuoteGot a response from Valve about games and the normal Linux distros:
My question:
I was wondering about the SteamOS and if games that work on it will also work on normal Linux distros (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc)?
And the response:
Yes.

Source Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Steam
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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69 comments
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philip550c Sep 23, 2013
For streaming its likely something like how the NVIDIA shield streams through the geforce experience, something built into the steam client that just sends compressed video out and sends control signals.

Did anybody else get excited when they heard this? "Hundreds of great games are already running natively on SteamOS. Watch for announcements in the coming weeks about all the AAA titles coming natively to SteamOS in 2014. Access the full Steam catalog of over nearly 3000 games and desktop software titles via in-home streaming."

Says all the AAA titles coming NATIVELY to SteamOS. Were going to get suprised soon, lots of AAA titles. Metro Last Light is just the beginning. Because of the little hints being dropped since march, I would not be suprised to see InfinityWard's Call of Duty game.
philip550c Sep 23, 2013
Quoting: adolson
Quoting: Quote from Sabun
Quoting: Quote from QuoteCould this be dangerous for the desktop Linux client?
To me it sounds like another Linux distro, except it's aiming for the desktop aggressively (like Ubuntu) and has financial backing from Valve. I'm actually pretty excited to try it out once it's downloadable.
Desktop? You mean television, right? Ubuntu isn't aggressively targeting the TV last I checked.
They do have plans for TV as well. http://www.ubuntu.com/tv
FoH Sep 23, 2013
You, liam, always finds the negative or FUD in a story :) I mean, couldn't you also turn this around and ask if it was a threat for the Windows client and the OS X client? After all, Valve could just tell people to install their free OS instead of making a client for those OSes! The Linux client will not be hurt by this, there must be vast amounts of code shared between the Linux client and the SteamOS Steam client. They have no reason to not keep the Linux stand-alone client.

If anything, this ought to be a strength for the Linux desktop. Other services will have an incentive to support SteamOS, and if they manage that, it's not far to support other distributions.

Sure, streaming might be a reason for some or even most developers to hold of on porting games to Linux. But what is the alternative? You can't demand that they port their entire back catalogue of games. Most likely they would want to target the native experience, streaming is not yet a viable alternative for every game and certainly doesn't suite hardcore gamers. I'm thinking streaming will make it easier for everyone to adopt SteamOS and Steam Boxes, and future games will support SteamOS/a Steam Box.

This FUD need to stop, it's so tireing!
Liam Dawe Sep 23, 2013
Quoting: FoHYou, liam, always finds the negative or FUD in a story :) I mean, couldn't you also turn this around and ask if it was a threat for the Windows client and the OS X client? After all, Valve could just tell people to install their free OS instead of making a client for those OSes! The Linux client will not be hurt by this, there must be vast amounts of code shared between the Linux client and the SteamOS Steam client. They have no reason to not keep the Linux stand-alone client.

If anything, this ought to be a strength for the Linux desktop. Other services will have an incentive to support SteamOS, and if they manage that, it's not far to support other distributions.

Sure, streaming might be a reason for some or even most developers to hold of on porting games to Linux. But what is the alternative? You can't demand that they port their entire back catalogue of games. Most likely they would want to target the native experience, streaming is not yet a viable alternative for every game and certainly doesn't suite hardcore gamers. I'm thinking streaming will make it easier for everyone to adopt SteamOS and Steam Boxes, and future games will support SteamOS/a Steam Box.

This FUD need to stop, it's so tireing!
You need to look up the meaning of FUD, where have I lied exactly? I am not spreading dubious information at all, I am posting legitimate concerns, if you don't share them that doesn't make them FUD.

Comments like this need to stop it's "tireing".
Turn me Sep 23, 2013
QuoteThe SteamOS will probably be a minimal Ubuntu that launches Steam Linux in Big Picture, so the new functionalities would be added to Steam Linux, not to SteamOS specifically IMO.
Frankly, Steam hasn't been putting much work into Linux.  To me it seems a convenient reason for them to not work on it.
n30p1r4t3 Sep 23, 2013
Quoting: Turn me
Quoting: QuoteThe SteamOS will probably be a minimal Ubuntu that launches Steam Linux in Big Picture, so the new functionalities would be added to Steam Linux, not to SteamOS specifically IMO.
Frankly, Steam hasn't been putting much work into Linux.  To me it seems a convenient reason for them to not work on it.
They're a gaming company. How much work do you expect them to do on the kernel? I believe their influence on companies like AMD and Nvidia to beef up their drivers is enough.



And someone's legitimate concerns can be interpreted as illegitimate ones. I agree that this poses no threat at all.
hallo Sep 23, 2013
Valve has put lot of work into Linux. They have the steam-runtime and they are working on SDL2 among other things. And they have surely sorted out myriad of random gotchas for game developers.
abelthorne Sep 23, 2013
Quoting: km3kI hope they do Steam Linux to SteamOS streaming. My main gaming PC runs Steam on Arch Linux. I want to be able to build a super cheap PC to run SteamOS on and stream from Arch Linux to that. I'd love to be able to stream to something like a Raspberry Pi running SteamOS. Chomecast support would be awesome too.
Well, SteamOS will be an Linux OS that runs Steam. I doubt you'll see Steam Linux compiled for ARM anytime soon, which would be required for the Raspberry Pi...
adolson Sep 23, 2013
Quoting: adolson
Quoting: Quote from Sabun
Quoting: Quote from QuoteCould this be dangerous for the desktop Linux client?
To me it sounds like another Linux distro, except it's aiming for the desktop aggressively (like Ubuntu) and has financial backing from Valve. I'm actually pretty excited to try it out once it's downloadable.
Desktop? You mean television, right? Ubuntu isn't aggressively targeting the TV last I checked.
First I've heard of it. Can't be that aggressive. :P
But it does look totally different, and the main point was TV+couch vs "desktop." I don't think SteamOS wants to be a desktop OS at all. It's got "living room" on the page like eight times, not to mention the URL.
Anonymous Sep 23, 2013
I din't read all the comments, just my thoughts
with the "play windows and mac per stream" they just say that u can play your other plattformtitel "on" the linux system
i can't see any danger for linux as a desktop, because steam os will be a desktop system, and valve will sell its own console for it too.

and don't miss the sentence that they will be AAA titels announced in the next weeks for the steambox, and as we all know, top developer were recruting linux based programmer. and the epic ceo just wrote on twitter that he saw an amazing piece as he visited nvidia. and don't forget all the other developer like Chris Roberts that don't like windows
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