Quoting: Purple Library GuyThat Valve are choosing not to do much of this kind of stuff suggests they've got the Steam Machine, and Linux generally, on the back burner. Frankly, I think they've made their point to Microsoft now and they just want to keep those projects alive enough to restart at short notice, effectively saying to MS, "We're packing. We won't pull the trigger if you don't threaten our business model again."

Heheh, yep. This closely matches my leading conspiracy theory: path of least resistance for Valve. Spend a little effort to get Linux looking like at least a *potential* threat, with all the pieces in place to potentially explode - if Valve were to get unhappy and see no other choice but to fully back it again.

And if that gets MS playing nice with them again, Why put more effort into it than that? Valve can cruise indefinitely in their 95% market. Steady high profits, no extra costs, no extra risks. Save that Linux card for if MS ever decides to play not nice with them again.

It might not be what's really going on. But if it's not, it's one of those invalid theories that accidentally happens to match well with the observed data to this point X-)

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Quoting: wojtek88I agree with you. The problem is I need something that looks nice in my living room
For almost a year I look for a hardware, that is:
1) not overpriced,
2) looks nice,
3) is not bigger than PS4,
4) can run XCOM2 with stable ~45 fps on high settings
5) has upgradeable GPU

All the PC setups I can build are matching only points 1, 4 and 5. Alienware Steam Machine matches points 2, 3, 4. Alienware is closer because look and feel is important for me in living room, but it does not meet all the requirements.

To sum up - don't judge people who have other requirements than you do. Powerfull PC makes sense only if it's next to desk or you can hide it in a nice way but it still can exchange the air with the room.
I cannot imagine huge beast in the living room.

Agreed, the Alienware gives you the main advantage of a pre-built: compact design, that's actually attractive to look at on top of the table. I've listed several negative components - but there are also many things I like about it - like the form factor/attractiveness of the unit, and an excellent choice for a lot of low requirements Linux games that are still great games.

As far as meeting all your points, I think you're getting back to the main point of the original article: a little better hardware in the lowest end Alienware and/or Zotac SM models, and make those the only options for better gamer and developer clarity on what to target. But as of now, it's looking like Steam Machines may stall hard. So what is out now may end up being all there ever is. But I sure would like to be proven wrong on that.

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Quoting: aironeousSo now I have choices. Which one do I get.

1) Get the Zotac again but this time from amazon so if anything goes wrong they'll just replace it.
2) Get this Alienware steam machine you just listed (I kind of don't like it, that graphics card, the 1060 is about to come out for only $250)
3) Build my own following this http://tinyurl.com/jkr7uft [External Link] and wait for the gtx 1060 to come out.
4) Get this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015PYYDMQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2L77EE7U53NWQ [External Link] with a 2.5 hdd added this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MPWYLHO/ref=crt_ewc_title_dp_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1QGYAMZ8JLYH3 [External Link]
Oh wait just noticed that is 5400rpm hmm

If I get the laptop the purpose would be to show to friends at work at lunch time by placing various emulators on it that consoles are inferior to computers and then just have a few major steam games on it. Then I would build my own computer at a later date possibly better than that build but maybe not and I would play most of games at home on either Steam OS or Neon with steam installed.

5) Do something one of you suggests.
I don't want windows, I hate them for destroying Nokia and for r***** us with the windows 10 upgrade crap. I want a little bit of future proof.

Only get a laptop if you travel a lot and really need a laptop - otherwise, they are generally poor investments, especially gaming laptops.

You bring up a point that reminds me of another downfall in the current Alienware Steam Machines:

- Modest gaming hardware + Less optimized Linux ports of games

This is a death sentence for a gaming console.

I want to be a fan, and even I noticed it. As a test, I loaded up the ISO of Win 10 (runs as nag-ware) and several higher requirements 3D Steam games that were chugging on SteamOS, they all ran noticeably faster on the same Steam Machine w/ Win 10 loaded on it. So, I blew away Win 10 and re-installed SteamOS and love it!

But most people aren't going to do that.

It's an unfortunate catch-22. I don't notice the higher end Linux ported games being less optimized on my main gaming PC so much. But on more modest gaming hardware, like the Alienware SM, inferior Linux ports become distinctly more noticeable :-/

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Quoting: HalifaxWe've already had good gaming love, but I mean real gaming love. Like most AAA titles come out for Linux as day 1 releases that are as optimized or better than the Windows version kinds of gaming love. Like Valve slaving away making SteamVR be all it can be on SteamOS, instead of absolutely ignoring it for months after release like some kind of red-headed step-child. That kind of gaming love.

Grand visions of what might be aside though, and not to be alarmist - but Valve has at this time mostly abandoned further work on SteamOS 2.0, now. Sure, they might start up working on SteamOS 3.0 again, because we all know Valve can count to three, right? Like Half Life 3, Portal 3, oh, sorry... X-)

We might be screwed, guys. For all I can tell from Valve, after months of nothing, they have one guy working on a rough alpha level SteamOS patch, that was highly mis-labeled as a "beta" update. A "beta" that was mostly bricking other community people's PC's he asked them to test it on. And it's a very modest patch at that, just a few minor system updates, nothing grand like SteamVR or Netflix/Hulu streaming added, etc.

With all of Valve's billions, they are replete with cash flow, and they don't even consider it worth their time to contract out a few 100k for more corporate level beta testing and higher quality updates of their own OS? I am starting to think they are now going to take the approach of, "We gave Linux a little bit of a leg up, now it's up to Linux to sink or swim on its own as a gaming platform". And they are not going to be actively promoting or developing for it any more than that already have.

EDIT:
Notice it's only fans like us talking about the future of Steam Machines, not Valve anymore - they've mostly gone incommunicado on the subject - much less, showing up at major game conferences pitching them to the media.

When Valve goes mostly incommunicado on a subject - well... The future of SteamOS + Steam Machines may be transitioning to Valve Time now. A time scale largely based on the science behind cryogenics. The Steam Linux client and the games that have ported may be all we end up left with - which is a lot! But it's not a future very bright for Steam Machines.

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Quoting: redshiftWho's exactly the target audience for Steam machines? Windows people? Since, I assume, most of them games on their desktop machines, I don't see why would they change from "all-in-one" desktop to "games-centric" one, Windows or SteamOS. Console gamers? Maybe they are, but that price point... Which is why I agree with the article that price should be at least somewhat competitive with console market. PC market is desktop-centric, which is why Steam machines should be competing with consoles users, who's accustomed with using console mostly for gaming. I don't see the point in switching to SteamOS neither from PC/Win nor from PC/Linux, so it shouldn't be about that.

For more widespread adoption, it has to be console gamers they are targeting. That's not to say there are other niche markets they are already catering to:

- Indie gamers who also want a living room couch + controller experience
- Weirdos like me, using a Steam Machine as a modest gaming oriented Linux desktop

But those markets most likely won't sell enough units to matter. If Valve could make Steam Machines actually appealing to existing console gamers, they could start moving units by the millions then, and Linux gamers might start seeing real game love, then.

We've already had good gaming love, but I mean real gaming love. Like most AAA titles come out for Linux as day 1 releases that are as optimized or better than the Windows version kinds of gaming love. Like Valve slaving away making SteamVR be all it can be on SteamOS, instead of absolutely ignoring it for months after release like some kind of red-headed step-child. That kind of gaming love.

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Quoting: Mountain ManI'm always amused by the premise that Valve, arguably the most successful company in the video game industry, doesn't know what they're doing.

It happens, no one is immortally smart on everything - even the few lucky mortals who - only in hind sight, mind you - made some good calls.

Sony had the Walkman, and blew their monumental industry lead by not continuing on with it and letting Apple make the iPod instead. On and on and on, Valve is perfectly capable of screwing things up even after all their hindsight successes to date ;-)

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Lots of good points, Steam Machines need to compete at the console level, have a common low priced baseline unit.

Right now, de-facto that is the $450 Alienware Steam Machine. Dell tried really hard to make this the baseline Steam Machine to compete at the console level, and IMO, they did a damn fine job of it. It's not only 4GB RAM, since it also has 2GB video card RAM, so technically the $450 unit comes installed with 6GB total RAM...

Agreed that the upgrade path for the Alienware SM's is very wonky, not something that makes you feel good as a consumer - having to pay a lot more money for a "package deal" with unwanted features added just to get the one feature you did want, like more RAM.

Lack of AAA titles already mentioned by several, and I agree. The few AAA titles we have are all victories, but they are still few and far between, and many of those were retroactive ports vs. day one releases, which is what console gamers expect: day one AAA title releases to get all excited about on their console.

Another factor no one in this thread has touched on: uniform controller support across all console games. This is still a *huge* problem with SteamOS. If you just buy a $450 Alienware SM, plug it in and grab the included Steam Controller - that should be it. Period. F***ing Period! Every native title you load up on your new console should work flawlessly and with very little effort on the included Steam Controller. That is a console baseline going back decades - since consoles began, actually.

Valve, in their pursuit to be "different", has broken that sacred console trust any and every console gamer will expect to be 100% honored.

Sometimes the Steam Controller works with a linux port, sometimes it doesn't.

Ex: Euro Truck 2, Escape Goat 2. Load a clean SteamOS, load those two games up, grab your controller to play, and have... SS$$hpplLLlll! Yep, bug hit the windshield, it's a trainwreck right out of the gate.

The problem is one of the genius features of the Steam Controller is 360 controller emulation mode. In Windows Steam, any game that recognizes a 360 controller will also see the Steam Controller as a 360 controller. Every one - every single Steam game in Windows, that works, and it works brilliantly.

Linux ported Steam games? Not so much. Some Linux ports correctly see the Steam Controller and the 360 controller they are demanding you use or you ain't playing our game with the intended profile.

So, you're left with keyboard/mouse emulation with no actual keyboard or mouse, just a ton of config options to wade through. Console player says: waaaaat???? This isn't a console....

So, Valve says handy user profiles will organically fix this. Have you tried some of the "top rated" user profiles for a game when it trainwrecks due to the recommended profile the dev made not working since it assumes 360 emulation works, which now doesn't due to their bad Linux port?

I have tried some of the "top" user profiles. Trainwreck again. The users *also* often assume 360 emulation will just be working for all games, and/or, the lopsided choices they made for the "best way" to play the game will most likely be like trying to learn the Mandarin Chinese language to you. Hard hard fail there, that is not solving any Steam Machine adoption problems for existing console users.

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Quoting: Segata Sanshiro

Quoting: meraco750$ for a sub-par gaming PC.

I can't believe I'm agreeing with Meraco for once.

I bought the $450 Steam Machine when they first came out, and added an extra 4GB RAM to it. Very happy with it from a hardware standpoint. I thought the i3 CPU would be under powered for gaming, but it's a newer 4 logical core CPU (via hyperthreading) that seems to run most games just fine.

Sexy and small form factor, runs quiet and has a well behaved sleep/resume on the Alienware power button.

I mainly just run it in Desktop mode in my PC room, and it runs the vast majority of my 132+ Linux titles just fine - I didn't buy it for fast AAA gaming, I already have a main PC for that.

In SteamOS, the sleep/resume is fast and very stable - all my open GNOME 3 desktop apps don't dork out on me even after many many sleep/resume cycles. I use the sleep/resume extensively, it's my day-to-day Linux desktop. Especially during the work-week when I don't feel like booting up my main gaming PC just to mess around for an hour or two before bed.

In short, I consider it $450 well spent - only caveat is Valve needs to be keeping SteamOS itself more up to date, if not sexy new features AT LEAST on graphics and OS driver updates.

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I've only been reading your site for about a year, so the first six years don't count :-)

JK, gratz, it's a good website!

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KDE Plasma 4 in Debian 8.4 "Jessie" is the only DE worth using. Why, oh why, did Plasma 5 have to suffer a group brainfart and think "streamlining" the goodness of Oxygen down to the devolved Breeze theme was a way forward? X-)

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