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I have been debating whether to write this up for a while, but here I am. I have completely ditched SteamOS in favour of Ubuntu Mate.

If you follow me on Twitter, you would have probably known this article was coming due to how frustrating an experience it has been for me.

I was spurred on due to the BoilingSteam website writing about it, and they echo some of my own thoughts and frustrations.

Recently I was sat with my son and wanted to play a point & click adventure game called Putt-Putt with him. SteamOS needed to restart to update, so I did and it just flashed into a black screen. We waited quite a long time to see if anything happened but nothing did. After rebooting, the system was completely broken with another black screen.

Oh god #SteamOS what have you done to yourself! pic.twitter.com/tQdzSuPuQs

— LiamLinux (@thenaughtysquid) August 20, 2016

I tried everything I could find to fix it. I trawled through the SteamOS help pages, ran their automated recovery scripts from the terminal and nothing worked, everything just resulted in the same black screen. Their help pages mentioned some recovery option that would reset SteamOS, but that doesn't seem to exist if you do the advanced install method (as I had multiple drives with other things on).

I'm not the only person this has happened to; I've seen quite a number of people have a "fatal error loop" requiring a re-install. That is the sort of thing that is going to put people off and already has in some cases. You can see a bug report here that was closed, but people are still having issues. There's another post here, another here and so on. Quite a few people get issues like this and it's not looking good.

That was the final nail in the coffin for my time with SteamOS. I don't have time to deal with such breakage.

That wasn't the first time SteamOS gave me a black screen. It has actually happened to me 3-4 times now, but this time it just didn't want to come back alive. A lot of hassle for something that's supposed to be console-like and be easier to work with to just load up and go. The whole thing feels like it's still in its infancy.

My PS4 has had problems before, so SteamOS certainly isn't alone in having issues, but the difference here is massive. On the PS4 I was able to boot into some sort of safe mode and essentially re-do the PS4 operating system. All achieved with a controller and without any terminals, no resorting to keyboard commands or anything of the sort.

My other issue is that, honestly, I feel like Valve themselves are doing very little for SteamOS to progress into something. Other than driver updates and security fixes they don't seem to be doing anything with it — not even talking about it anymore. I am hoping they have something planned for the next Steam Dev Days, but I'm not holding out hope for something SteamOS related there.

I feel like SteamOS is still missing even some of the most basic things that makes a console-like box attractive to a wider audience. Things like Netflix, Spotify and other simple but useful things like that. You may not agree with me, but everyone I know that owns a console uses a mixture of those two or both rather a lot.

They also missed an important feature of having a party-like system, where you can gather multiple people into a chat/voice chat easily on SteamOS. Something like that is rather essential for setting up games together. I tried it a couple times with Samsai and other people and the built-in voice chat never worked for any of us.

Hell, I feel Valve really missed the mark by not having any livestreaming options in SteamOS. They still haven't even put their own Broadcasting feature into the Linux desktop client nor the SteamOS build yet.

I later setup Ubuntu Mate and within about half an hour it was running solidly with Steam and everything was dandy. For someone like me with whom Linux is the norm, SteamOS is no better than a normal desktop distribution with Steam installed. Since you can have Steam boot directly into Big Picture mode it does seem a little pointless for me now personally. If Steam breaks on Ubuntu Mate, I can find ways to fix it on the same machine — and it won't take the whole machine with it like it will on SteamOS.

The Steam Controller is by far the most useful thing Valve has done recently. I will still happily play from my sofa on Linux thanks to this wonderful device. Thanks to it, I can stay on my sofa, come out of Steam Big Picture and still navigate to other things I want to do all without having to get closer to my TV with a keyboard and mouse.

I still believe SteamOS has its place though. On pre-built machines of course it is much easier (and likely more attractive to consumers) to have SteamOS sold on it, and it makes a good target for developers who use the line of "there's too many distributions". It has done a lot to help push Linux gaming, that goes without saying, but for me it's just not a good fit.

I don't think Valve plan to drop SteamOS any time soon nor do I think it has been a failure. A great experiment and something that has utterly catapulted Linux gaming to where it is now. If Valve ever do a big update to it, I may return to it to see if it's worth it, but considering the few minor updates it gets this may be a long ways off.

So, there ends my experimenting with SteamOS for now.

My final take on this whole experience is this: SteamOS is built for the people making systems and selling them, not for us in reality, Valve just provide it for us because they can. Valve only really care about the problems on the systems sold with it. So I would personally just steer clear of SteamOS unless you're buying it on a supported system.

How have you found your time with SteamOS? Have you also replaced it with a normal distribution like me? Let me know in the comments.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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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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102 comments
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liju Aug 30, 2016
Just to add my 5 cents to this valuable discussion: I have few PCs @home. All of them except so called sofa/console PC runs standard linux distro (mostly Debian) and thats fine for work and education.
But for a gaming SteamOS is just great for us. I had experienced the black screen and reinstall need, but it just needed to plug the USB and point the drive with games (custom install) to get it back with the library waiting for me where it was left.
Ofc I would like to have Netflix and other goods in SteamOS directly, but Kodi does the trick as well. My son (who is 8 now) picks up steam controller and does not really see the difference (beside the games catalogue) from the WiiU if it comes about usage. He can choose the game, start it and play as he wants.
So I am positive and I will support SteamOS. Its fast, and its natural and main target Linux OS for the devs for game development.
There are too important reasons behind the Valves decision to start SteamOS to resign from it - believe me.
We just need to wait for the devs to switch to Vulkan developments for their projects and we will see more and more games coming like a mushrooms after the rain. SteamOS will have to catch up and the whole Valves point of starting it and convince engines builders and other devs to invest in supporting Linux should ensure us it will happen. Acting differently would be just surrending to M$.


Last edited by liju on 30 August 2016 at 7:29 am UTC
mitcoes Aug 30, 2016
I understand your choice. I tried Steam OS and my Manjaro was better. But I also understand Steam must be working in snap and or flatpack packages for their distro.

Also as you can add even wine's Steam to the Linux Steam client as external program and use it from your couch I do not understand why you ask for programs that already exist and you can use from the big picture menu, even Chrome or Kodi or wine clients for those videos services you want to have at your TV set from the big picture menu. Unless you have not discovered the + button menu to add external programs to the library.


Last edited by mitcoes on 30 August 2016 at 7:52 am UTC
Grimfist Aug 30, 2016
Sad to hear that SteamOS is still in a problematic state, and Valve is still not willing to actively support self-build Steam machines. As I am a Desktop-focused user SteamOS was never an option for myself, I tried it more than a year ago on a separate partition, just for fun.
My main Distro is still Ubuntu, cause it just works, but I am more and more looking to the rolling release distros, the advantages appeal to me. Because if that, I recently tried Solus, which is a fantastic distro, blazingly fast compared to any Debian-based distro, but still missing 'critical' features for me ( some developer packages and most annoyingly no NFS support at the moment ).

My dream is still a self build LFS with Steam running on it, but well this is overkill :D
ZigZag Aug 30, 2016
Quoting: wvstolzingopenSUSE Tumbleweed is my favorite rolling distro.
*Way* more reliable than Arch in my experience; nothing arbitrarily breaks every two days.

I'm using openSUSE Tumbleweed too and am quite impressed how stable it is, I have many games and they just run without any problems, thumbs up for the good work, I like the fast progression Linux is doing these days :)
1mHfoksd1Z Aug 30, 2016
I am currently building a monster of a gaming PC and I considered installing SteamOS on it... but it didn't take long until I changed my mind about it and even asked myself "How could I even think of doing that?"... I will install a desktop Linux distro instead (Arch Linux with GNOME because that's my favourite combo), and this way I can have everything that SteamOS has to offer with the press of a button (the Steam button on the Steam Controller) and also everything that a desktop can offer, most importantly: productivity.
This way I can, as you said: watch movies, play music, browse the web, chat with my friends and start conferences with them, etc... Also I can have WINE for really those really old-but-gold games from my childhood, that I like to play once in a while... or even new titles that don't support Linux. Bethesda games are amazing IMO but they all only work on Windows... but thankfully they work well in WINE.
If need be I can even use console emulators to play some games but I'm not sure if I'm gonna do that (but who knows... I really love my Steam Controller so controller-based games would be welcome)

In short, a traditional Linux distro can do anything that you want it to. It is, IMO, a superior gaming device compared to Steam Machines.
The only way in which Steam Machines are better is convenience and comfort... They are easy to use and user-friendly (or at least they are supposed to be), and the kind of PC that I talked about previously requires technical knowledge and a lot of experience with that kind of stuff. However, after reading your article it seems to me that SOS does indeed deserve this abbreviation because it's in a dire situation, and if Valve does not do anything about it I'm afraid it is going to fall into obscurity... it's already kind of forgotten but it can still deliver it's promises and become a real competitor in the gaming industry.

Valve, please do something about this. Take care of your product. Don't waste your investments. Please don't rely on luck and don't make a gamble out of this.
Beamboom Aug 30, 2016
... And this - THIS - is the reason there's no hype around the "Steam Boxes" yet. This is why there's no promotional activities, no marketing, no stack of boxes competing for attention, all silence. To all of you that in other articles have complained about the lack of marketing and promotional efforts from Valve and 3rd parties yet:

THIS is why. There's nothing to push to the mass market yet. It's Not Ready.


Last edited by Beamboom on 30 August 2016 at 1:16 pm UTC
liju Aug 30, 2016
Quoting: HoriThe only way in which Steam Machines are better is convenience and comfort... They are easy to use and user-friendly (or at least they are supposed to be), and the kind of PC that I talked about previously requires technical knowledge and a lot of experience with that kind of stuff.

This. I have already too little time to even try a small part of Steam Linux library. And the SteamOS machine I have build is dedicated for gaming just like a console. I do not have any mouse or keyboard overthere. For other purposes I have normal Linux PCs or a Linux server. I believe this kind of setup is not that rare. I do not need to do any other stuff than pure entertainment on my Steam machine and for this SteamOS + Kodi is really doing its job already.
Quoting: HoriValve, please do something about this. Take care of your product. Don't waste your investments. Please don't rely on luck and don't make a gamble out of this.
Yes. I second You, but _maybe_ Gabe is smarter than both of us here? What if the quiet SteamOS development is planned. What if he is just waiting for the more AAA titles and most of the devs targeting Linux (with ease thanks to Vulkan) just in order not to tease M$ too much now? Imagine we have perfect SteamOS system today, with current library it would not convince windows users to move onto our side. Nevertheless once the game develompent is based on Vulkan api and so the amount of new games on Linux is on par with windows and/or consoles with even better performance? This is the goal and speeding up on SteamOS user experience may just not be the priority now.
Pangachat Aug 30, 2016
Quoting: liju
Quoting: Pangachat(thanks god Victor Vran local coop incoming :D ).
Do You maybe have any more info on this? I was one of the ppl requesting local coop from devs and I know they have several times stated they are working on it, but it was soo long ago. No new info so far so I guessed they just resign from local coop for this game..

Local Co-Op is coming!
Community Announcements - Captain Hindsight
Greetings Hunters! Our latest update brings preparations for the long awaited Local Co-Op, which will be out in mid-September (no later than the 16th).

On Steam.

Sry for the off :P
Mountain Man Aug 30, 2016
Quoting: boltronics
Quoting: wolfyrionpfft... just install a rolling release distro...
I cant imagine myself working with a non rolling release distro. Once you experienced it you will never go back to ubuntu like distros...
I used to be a massive fan of Gentoo. Even ran GentooX on the original Xbox back in the day. These days I just run Debian and have started to use GuixSD, although I am thinking of toying with Parabola also since I backed the EOMA68.
Gentoo is fun, but needing hours to update KDE is a bit of a pain. Once I tried Kubuntu and realized how painless updates were, I never looked back.
Mountain Man Aug 30, 2016
Quoting: liju
Quoting: Pangachat(thanks god Victor Vran local coop incoming :D ).
Do You maybe have any more info on this? I was one of the ppl requesting local coop from devs and I know they have several times stated they are working on it, but it was soo long ago. No new info so far so I guessed they just resign from local coop for this game..
Developer is saying mid-September.

http://steamcommunity.com/games/345180/announcements/detail/981043976159858946


Last edited by Mountain Man on 30 August 2016 at 1:36 pm UTC
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