SteamOS


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They haven't said yet. The current Steam client for Linux is targeted at 12.04 LTS. It also will run on plain Debian.

 

My bad. I thought I had read it was based off of 12.04. They would be crazy not to, in my opinion. They will need that kind of long term support to woo developers.

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My bad. I thought I had read it was based off of 12.04. They would be crazy not to, in my opinion. They will need that kind of long term support to woo developers.

 

Going with (rather staying with) Ubuntu is probably a bad idea in the long run because of Mir and etc, I get the feeling that even if they have used 12.04 as a base - they've probably tinkered with and replaced a number of components.

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speaking of bad linux drivers and install problems. I just installed mint 15 on my old laptop with an nvidia card(since my new one needs to go in again, it's an Acer and I got the monday model apparently...) the OS based on the same os SteamOS will be based on. go into the easy to use one click driver manager. click the Nvidia -310 recommended driver, and click apply changes. it works for about a second, then finished and the checkbox is back to the POS xserverblablablabla-nouveau driver....

 

easy peasy ;)

 

The "easy" Canonical's jockey app (although now that's not a standalone app I'm not sure if it's still called jockey) is unfortunately quite lacking.

It's not that it doesn't work but that it usually gives zero feedback about what's going on. Ie. if your driver is installed then fine, but if it isn't it doesn't really tell anything usefull about what the hell happened.

 

The easiest method that actually both works and tells you if things went right or wrong is installing the nvidia-current package from Synaptic.

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As cool as this sounds, one of the issues i can see some people having with SteamOS is, why would they want to connect a 2nd pc device to the electrical outlet and run up their electrical bill just to be able to stream their windows/mac games, when they could just stream there games directly using windows to their t.v running just one pc. Basically more green friendly and cost effective.

 

Also someone mentioned earlier about other pc builders would be able to build different SteamOS specs, but wouldn't that just confuse the average consumers, they won't want to deal with having to buy the right SteamOS PC build, so that it would be able to play this so called game or have to deal with upgrading the system again just to play a newer title that requires a stronger pc. Furthermore, if there will be tons of different SteamOS builds, it won't be any different with how it is with windows, since developers would still have to program the game and optimize it, so that it would have to run effieciently across all the different builds. Where as with consoles, deveopers don't have to worry about that.

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As cool as this sounds, one of the issues i can see some people having with SteamOS is, why would they want to connect a 2nd pc device to the electrical outlet and run up their electrical bill just to be able to stream their windows/mac games, when they could just stream there games directly using windows to their t.v running just one pc. Basically more green friendly and cost effective.

 

Also someone mentioned earlier about other pc builders would be able to build different SteamOS specs, but wouldn't that just confuse the average consumers, they won't want to deal with having to buy the right SteamOS PC build, so that it would be able to play this so called game or have to deal with upgrading the system again just to play a newer title that requires a stronger pc. Furthermore, if there will be tons of different SteamOS builds, it won't be any different with how it is with windows, since developers would still have to program the game and optimize it, so that it would have to run effieciently across all the different builds. Where as with consoles, deveopers don't have to worry about that.

Lets say you have a nice big TV in the living room, but your gaming PC is in your bedroom. It would be nice to be able to play controller-friendly games on the couch on your big tv without having to lug your pc around. I could see how this could be useful and I might end up getting one if the price is right.

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Starting to,get annoyed with Gabe and Valve. They're hyping up a gaming machine where users can choose the parts and OS? Is this a ######ing joke? That's a PC. I can put Linux on my PC any time, I don't need Valve for this. This is the dumbest idea. At least consoles offer an alternative: they're PCs where you DON'T have to tinker.

And what's with the hostile attitude from Valve lately? Windows is bad, Mac OS is bad, consoles are bad...and Valve will reinvent the living room with overpriced shuttle PCs and an Xbox controller clone with added touch.

Hey Gabe, you and Valve only exist because of the millions you made working for Microsoft. Steam became a success thanks to the 95% of your customers that use Windows and Mac OS. Now shut the ###### up.

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Hey Gabe, you and Valve only exist because of the millions you made working for Microsoft. Steam became a success thanks to the 95% of your customers that use Windows and Mac OS. Now shut the **** up.

Man, you are really angry

 

Think clearly: If MS was not the dominant OS in terms of popularity, Valve will not program Steam to work on windows..

 

I agree to you by the way.There is not much innovations in valve 's new announcements 

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Like they wouldn't make it work on a distro of a sub 2% market niche OS, and of those 2% only a fraction would have any interest on gaming on it you mean ?

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neoadorable, on 07 Oct 2013 - 01:33, said:neoadorable, on 07 Oct 2013 - 01:33, said:

Starting to,get annoyed with Gabe and Valve. They're hyping up a gaming machine where users can choose the parts and OS? Is this a ****ing joke? That's a PC. I can put Linux on my PC any time, I don't need Valve for this. This is the dumbest idea. At least consoles offer an alternative: they're PCs where you DON'T have to tinker.

And what's with the hostile attitude from Valve lately? Windows is bad, Mac OS is bad, consoles are bad...and Valve will reinvent the living room with overpriced shuttle PCs and an Xbox controller clone with added touch.

Hey Gabe, you and Valve only exist because of the millions you made working for Microsoft. Steam became a success thanks to the 95% of your customers that use Windows and Mac OS. Now shut the **** up.

 

It will allow them to have a much more integrated solution along with auto install of drivers, etc in comparison to just a Steam app installed in a Linux distro. User's can have a practical, console like UI with less overhead directly from boot minus the complexities that often confuse and lead new users away from wanting to use Linux.

 

Naturally, all this is completely optional, so there is no reason to fuss, Windows Steam will still be there but it is important they branch out. MS is going through some changes, they aren't doing that great in the consumer market and they don't tend to do too well in general with keeping pace in trends, especially mobile trends. So there is always the chance that MS's dominance will continue to thin over time depending how the next CEO plays his cards so Valve starting a Linux Distro now, will have some maturity, possibly a lot of maturity by the time that may happen and it's something more to fall back on. It's impossible to know where the gaming industry will take us over the next decade as consumer minds and the trends they latch onto can change on a dime. In the late 90's, I never thought Cell phones would be used by consumers like they are today so who knows about PC gaming but I don't think Valve is trying to start a revolution, I think they are just wanting a gradual evolution.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Medhunter and Athernar: angry because I don't like hypocrites. We have to be hypocritical to survive, but this is taking it too far. Gabe and Valve aren't just offering an option or something new, which is great, they are actively attacking those things that made them. Which is terrible.

NightScreams, again, options are great. Indeed who knows where things will go. But being obnoxious to everything that you used to become what you are is wrong. I don't like that.

Besides, Valve have been all over the place lately. What happened to trading cards? No talk of those anymore after all the hoopla. This is one example. I love Valve and Gabe, but they are becoming something I may not be able to support as much.

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Medhunter and Athernar: angry because I don't like hypocrites. We have to be hypocritical to survive, but this is taking it too far. Gabe and Valve aren't just offering an option or something new, which is great, they are actively attacking those things that made them. Which is terrible.

NightScreams, again, options are great. Indeed who knows where things will go. But being obnoxious to everything that you used to become what you are is wrong. I don't like that.

Besides, Valve have been all over the place lately. What happened to trading cards? No talk of those anymore after all the hoopla. This is one example. I love Valve and Gabe, but they are becoming something I may not be able to support as much.

 

The only company/individual Valve owes it's existence to are iD and John Carmack for licensing the Quake engine back in the day. Microsoft don't have anything to do with it.

 

Your trading cards example makes no sense, it's an implemented system. What do you want them to do, re-announce it every week?

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Valve was founded because Gabe left Microsoft a millionaire. They became famous making Windows PC games and nine out of ten of their paying customers are Windows users. And trading cards were such a big deal, every new game had "with cards" on it. Not anymore. Its only been four months. Heck they put achievements on the home page of every game, but not the cards. I don't like this new Valve, you can't even email Gabe directly now. I thought he was one of us? Checked every email? You can defend them, that's fine. And I'll still buy from them, for now, but I don't like this change.

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Medhunter and Athernar: angry because I don't like hypocrites. We have to be hypocritical to survive, but this is taking it too far. Gabe and Valve aren't just offering an option or something new, which is great, they are actively attacking those things that made them. Which is terrible.

How are they actively attacking those things that made them? That would only happen if Valve canned support for Windows...which isn't going to happen. Plus going for SteamOS saves a little money as you don't have to pay for a Windows license, which will help to keep the cost of the Steam Box that little lower.

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Lower the costs? Build your own Linux PC, it'll be even cheaper! And believe it Gabe would drop Windows if he had the balls...but he doesn't. Instead he acts all passive aggressive by calling it a catastrophe, closed system, bad for gaming...Windows is bad for gaming on PC? Really? Guy has no decency or respect left, guess becoming a billionaire does that to some people.

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And I may agree with you on the cards Hawk, I liked them as I thought they would evolve into a gamerscore system which is cool, but now that Valve is too busy bashing everything it stood for in the past, they don't have time for trifling matters, so the cards have been left to quietly be forgotten. I guess I'm angry because this is the polar opposite of the Valve I came to appreciate.

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Lower the costs? Build your own Linux PC, it'll be even cheaper! And believe it Gabe would drop Windows if he had the balls...but he doesn't. Instead he acts all passive aggressive by calling it a catastrophe, closed system, bad for gaming...Windows is bad for gaming on PC? Really? Guy has no decency or respect left, guess becoming a billionaire does that to some people.

So you think everyone who plays games knows how to build a PC and install Linux? Gabe knows how much of his customer base uses Windows...he's too smart to drop it.

 

At the end of the day, Valve are a busiess and businesses grow.

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Valve was founded because Gabe left Microsoft a millionaire. They became famous making Windows PC games and nine out of ten of their paying customers are Windows users. And trading cards were such a big deal, every new game had "with cards" on it. Not anymore. Its only been four months. Heck they put achievements on the home page of every game, but not the cards. I don't like this new Valve, you can't even email Gabe directly now. I thought he was one of us? Checked every email? You can defend them, that's fine. And I'll still buy from them, for now, but I don't like this change.

 

You need to brush up on your history, Microsoft owes it's existence to a number of entities it has later "attacked". For you to defend them on these grounds is mind-blowing.

 

You're also completely wrong about trading cards, even a cursory search of the Steam community group will show you new card sets are being added regularly.

 

As for emailing Gabe, gaben@valvesoftware.com - knock yourself out.

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