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Hello, Linux Gamers! We are still around and we have a special episode in store for you!

A little reason for the delay on this particular episode: I had planned a trip to my home state back at the beginning of this month, when an opportunity came up. I found out that none other than The Linux Gamer from YouTube lived in the area.

So we arranged for the recording of this podcast to happen face to face, something of a rarity in our very digital age. So the topic we came to discuss was about Steam Machines and we ask the question: how should they be viewed, as a console or PC? So sit back and enjoy, while we talk about gaming on Linux.

You can also see the video portion on The Linux Gamer video.

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Note: Article edited by Liam. There seems to be some minor buzzing here and there for a second or two, but it goes as quickly as it comes. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: GOL Podcast
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About the author -
I have been a gamer since the Atari 2600. I have been a Linux user since the days of Mandrake. Now I am a gamer on Linux. Who would have though that day would ever come to pass?
See more from me
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dvd Oct 30, 2016
If it's a new thing, then you may need to configure it. This is not typical though, i rarely had to do it for any GNU distro i use. Also, "console" versions of games are usually dumbed down versions of the PC version of the game, or the PC version is a prettified version of the console game. Why would it be a bad thing that you can choose your own hardware in a steam machine? If you have some standard configurations and you can get developers to have a lighter version for those then it will work the same way as the other consoles. If you have a game that is "not compatible" with AMD, that basically boils down to the state of the drivers, which the developers will need to fix. I personally had very few situations when i "had to" crawl around in the command line to get something to work, everything works 95% of the time.
calvin Oct 30, 2016
1a. If you want a console (appliance) like machine, then things need to just work. If they don't, then you have failed.

2a. Steam Machines need simple options, otherwise, choice paralysis kicks in. Have you seen the options on the hardware section, especially before it was pruned down by OEMs pulling out? How, as a consumer, could you compare all those options, and determine what was compatible with what you wanted, let alone the value of the machines? Again, if you want choices, you could have bought a PC.

2b. A problem is now you need to guarantee that games will be compatible for the machine, and automatically pick the right graphical configuration. For the sake of simplicity in this argument, we don't care that the user can change them, either to fix them or "break" (go out of bounds of reason) them. Now you need to put this overhead on all titles for whatever range of machines you have, and probably for older games as well. If you have more than one specification level, then you need some way to distinguish between then, and that needs to be simple as possible while carrying the nuance. This is solvable, but hard, yet necessary if you want the appliance factor.

3. Of course drivers need to improve. But if you're suggesting users should drop to the shell to fix issues there, then you lose the appliance factor.
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