How do you figure? ANYONE can publish software to Windows without any input from MS.
NOBODY can publish anything to Steam without the approval of Valve. How is going to a Valve OS for gaming going to be an improvement? :hmm:
More like dumping one proprietary locked down DRM system for one open-source locked down DRM system. So it's still an improvement.
I don't see it taking the world by storm though.
And..lol@HDMI cable for $50.
And by the way...the BUNCH of HDMI cables I bought of ebay, various lengths...were as far as I remember...PENNIES or maybe a buck or two. If you buy HDMI cables for $50....something must be obviously wrong.
How do you figure? ANYONE can publish software to Windows without any input from MS.
NOBODY can publish anything to Steam without the approval of Valve. How is going to a Valve OS for gaming going to be an improvement? :hmm:
Outside of the fuck Microsoft ability, what's the draw for this? Outside of getting off of MS I'm just not seeing the pull here for either consumers nor devs. This is one of those times I swear I'm missing something here. If they go the console route with it, that puts them in even a worse place as what's the draw going to be then? Get away from MS? The PS has that on lock. A limited catalog of games? NES (mostly kidding). Outside of love of Valve and the Fuck MS platform I'm just not seeing the point...
How do you figure? ANYONE can publish software to Windows without any input from MS.
NOBODY can publish anything to Steam without the approval of Valve. How is going to a Valve OS for gaming going to be an improvement? :hmm:
I'm thinking Steam box is actually a PC streamer for the living room so you don't need to have a PC hooked up to the TV. A good PC streamer that comes with a controller (and works with others) could bring PC gaming to the living room in a easy way as there really aren't any good easy cheap solutions out there for the average person. Turn it on and it launches Steam on your PC and is in big picture mode.
Because it's quite likely that you'll be able to run it (or at least the core components of it) on other Linux distributions, giving one a lot more freedom. Steam for Linux has been available for some time on multiple distributions, I fail to see why (or easily how, given that it's Linux based) they would lock it down and force people to use SteamOS.
With Microsoft you are locked down and tied into some variation of Windows. Period.
As for requiring Valve's approval, I'd say they've done a pretty good job of things thus far; and if they can push gaming into the linux domain alternative sources will pop up just like they have for Windows (GoG and such).
At the absolute minimum SteamOS is potential competition, and more competition is always better for the consumer in the end.
Why would Valve allow competition to publish openly onto their SteamOS when the whole point of this Gabe-Linux love story is to avoid competition with Microsoft's app store?
Just because you slap Linux on something doesn't mean it's an open orgy of free.
"SteamOS will be available soon as a free download for users and as a freely licensable operating system for manufacturers," Valve said.
I'd have to agree with nintendesert on this one. The only people who like this idea are the silly "F*** M$" crowd, aside from that Windows is completely fine for gaming. The bottom line is that valve doesn't want competition from the Windows digital store and that's all there is to it. I personally don't see myself switching to any steam OS, as it doesn't really make sense - unless Valve is using it for a steam box. But then their competition will be with consoles and I can't see that going over awfully well.
That's a terrible solution in practice.
You have to power down, disconnect, move, and get on your hands and knees and crawl behind entertainment centers and all that jazz... hell no - not just to play a game for a little while and then reverse that process to reassemble the full computer desk.
I think Windows is a great OS, but in many ways, I love Linux even more. In fact I would very likely migrate over to Linux if it supported all of my Steam games...
...which is a problem. It's a big problem. If I move to Linux, 90% of my Steam library will become unusable. Yes, I know Valve is making big strides to support Linux, and more and more developers are jumping on the Linux bandwagon, but that doesn't change the fact that literally ~700 of the titles already in my library are going to be utterly non-functional in an OS they weren't made for.
Right now, in Windows 8, I can safely say that pretty much all of my games work flawlessly out of the box. It's not something I'm even concerned about. Even a lot of the old stuff, like XCOM, Fallout, Gothic, etc, etc, all work with no tweaking required. Which is the way it should be, no?
If I move over to Linux, then I will be abandoning that. This has got to be the biggest elephant in the room. Some newer games will be patched to include Linux versions, yes; and Valve can certainly put pressure on devs to start building Linux games; however, there is absolutely nothing Valve can do to convince an old studio (possibly one that doesn't even exist anymore) to go back to a game from 2003 and re-tool it to run in Linux. It's just not realistic at all.
And no, I shouldn't have to deal with the headaches of running WINE. If I want to play a game in my library, I want to be able to press "Play" and leave it at that. Not worry about Linux support.
It'd be idiotic for Valve to tie themselves to MS, people need to understand that. Would you chain your multi-billion dollar business to the whims of another large coporation that may or may not act in your best interests? Hell no you wouldn't, you'd look to secure you own future. What's to stop MS from shoving more of Metro down our throats? Years from now they could decide that all apps have to come through their store, and that means they get a cut of everything that sells. Thankfully people seem to be rejecting Windows RT for now, but why risk billions on that? The naysayers are acting like extremely defensive Windows fans and they need to realize that Windows gaming isn't going away, Valve is just looking to branch out to more than just Windows.
It'd be idiotic for Valve to tie themselves to MS, people need to understand that. Would you chain your multi-billion dollar business to the whims of another large coporation that may or may not act in your best interests? Hell no you wouldn't, you'd look to secure you own future. What's to stop MS from shoving more of Metro down our throats? Years from now they could decide that all apps have to come through their store, and that means they get a cut of everything that sells. Thankfully people seem to be rejecting Windows RT for now, but why risk billions on that? The naysayers are acting like extremely defensive Windows fans and they need to realize that Windows gaming isn't going away, Valve is just looking to branch out to more than just Windows.
It has nothing to do with being a Windows fan, it has everything to do with not liking the direction Valve is taking because they want to maintain their digital monopoly. This directly affects all of us that have literally hundreds of games bought through Steam that we have no legal way to resell if Valve decides to go full retard and start screwing us over. They have us locked into their ecosystem and we are subject to their whims if we want to maintain control over our game libraries. If Valve decides to dedicate itself to SteamOS and drop support for Windows what do we do? We get forced into an ecosystem we don't necessarily want.
i'm sorry, but for all the hype this announcement garnered its underwhelming at best and "i dont give a crap" at worst.
whats wrong with the current process of firing up steam on windows, and buying and playing games? this reeks of anti ms "year of the linux desktop" BS i've been hearing for the last 10 years.
this announcement reminds me of all those other announcements that "promise to change the future of gaming" like that lame razer gaming laptop- much ado about nothing, or straight up vaporware
It has nothing to do with being a Windows fan, it has everything to do with not liking the direction Valve is taking because they want to maintain their digital monopoly. This directly affects all of us that have literally hundreds of games bought through Steam that we have no legal way to resell if Valve decides to go full retard and start screwing us over. They have us locked into their ecosystem and we are subject to their whims if we want to maintain control over our game libraries. If Valve decides to dedicate itself to SteamOS and drop support for Windows what do we do? We get forced into an ecosystem we don't necessarily want.
Which again is what they're asking me to do when I drop Windows to use it.