Gabe Newell says Linux is the future of gaming, new hardware to come out

It would solve the worlds biggest problem for gamers of not being locked into Windows.
You're generalizing waaaayyy too much; basing fact on some universal constant that all people think alike.
It's not so much as it's *fixing* *something* but rather adding an option for people who have different perspectives/wants/needs/stuff.
It gets Valve the money of console gamers/people who would never game in front of a PC.
Console gaming is deemed far more socially acceptable than PC gaming is - no matter how much PC gaming has grown in years past.

That's not what I mean. To sell something... to overthrow the status quo, you have to have a value proposition. You have to be abel to hold something up in front of the consumer and say, "look, you life will be easier/better/etc because our product [solves X problem]."

I'm not sure I see a problem with gaming right now. I'm not sure I know of many/any PC gamers that lament the fact that Windows is the OS in which their games run.

The immediate benefit is not for the customer, but for Valve. They don't own the infrastructure that they are dependent on, and it's not as if they can roll their own distro of windows. With MS's recent behavior, I would certainly feel more comfortable ( as a company ) if I owned the entire stack I used to make money.

Longer term, valve controlling the full stack allows them to provide the consumer with a stable environment, tailored to the specific needs of the platform.

This isn't a bid to replace windows, at least not yet. And I doubt that's the plan anyway; it's just a push to give them options should MS put them to the screw. Given that, last I heard, they were seriously considering putting Elop in charge...well, ya. I'd want as many lifeboat options as I could get, too.
Good points, and while I get them, and agree tbh, what about the consumer. Let's fast forward 365 days. Valve has 3 products on the market (good, better and best systems) all run by their new OS. They want you to buy said products.

As a PC gamer, with $1000 sunk into a gaming machine, and many times that in an extensive Windows-only game library, what is Valve's box going to do that makes your life easier? Better? etc. Sure, the streaming box for $100 is kind of cool for some games, and for $100, it's not bad. But for the price of the more expensive systems, you can roll your own and not have to worry about the hassle of Linux at all.

Put it this way What's Valve's one-liner advertising point that gamers can intuitively 'get?' After all, if no one buys in, this whole thing falls apart.

I'm not sure how successful it will be, but I think it's an interesting concept. If the games stream from your main computer, I'm curious how powerful the SteamOS box will actually have to be. Also, will other companies be able to make use of the same platform for their own games without going through Valve (like Android's various custom stores)?
TBH, I'm more concerned with the networking hardware required for decent streaming to work. Netflix alone has crazy issues with compression artifacting. Hulu too, and they are not close to the kind of imagry and data that would have to come through to stream a game. And i don't know about you, but I would not want to wire my entire home for ethernet just to do this...
 
Giving PC consumers a reason to buy a new PC isn't bad. Giving them a reason to buy a newer, faster, more robust wireless router isn't bad for the industry either. I bet Dell and them would love to sell custom living room consoles!

Having different monetary set points for entry into the SteamOS living room is a great idea. Nobody is hating on Google for making Chromecast for $35. :) If a boutique seller wants to sell a fully loaded PC with dual Titans running SteamOS, I'm not going to hate either as I can grab the free download and install it on my old clunker in the living room.

If you already have a separate PC for the living room that's fine. You can install SteamOS or not on it. You already have Steam installed on it I assume for the purpose of playing your current library. In the future you won't even need to sign out of your other PC to play in the living room as they are adding in that functionality.

What negatives do you see coming out of this announcement?
 
TBH, I'm more concerned with the networking hardware required for decent streaming to work. Netflix alone has crazy issues with compression artifacting. Hulu too, and they are not close to the kind of imagry and data that would have to come through to stream a game. And i don't know about you, but I would not want to wire my entire home for ethernet just to do this...

Valve is in a different situation here, though. The website refers to "in-home streaming". I don't think Valve is going to try and tackle streaming from Valve to you, but just your computer to your Steam box. Hopefully more of the nuts and bolts of it become available in 2 days.
 
Valve is in a different situation here, though. The website refers to "in-home streaming". I don't think Valve is going to try and tackle streaming from Valve to you, but just your computer to your Steam box. Hopefully more of the nuts and bolts of it become available in 2 days.

Oh I know. The thing is, straming in my home sucks. My router is stuck in the basement (One of the drawbacks to fiber-to-the-house as opposed to to the box outside the house), and my home is a 3 story row-home. As is, I have a dual-band N router and streaming DVD rips is rough.
 
Would one of those signal boosters help? I think Amazon sells some.

Some of the Macgyver types on the forums here should be able to help you take an older router and use it as a signal booster without having to spend $70 on one from Amazon.
 
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Maybe BUT, I'm lazy, plus we'll be moving in the next 9 months anyway (apt to a house). Wherever I go, I'm going to run my own ethernet cable to every room. I'm not screwing around with wifi with anything but laptops from here on out.
 
For the majority of the population, however, that is much less feasible. Big Picture is a start, but Windows itself has no ten-foot UI. It isn't in any way designed for being used in a manner that Valve wants PCs to be used in the living room. If they want an easy way to get more gaming PCs into the living room, this is pretty much the route they have to take to do that. Hopefully OEMs are excited enough by the idea to come out with some reasonable systems, but I hold little hope for that.

This is the main thrust, I think. It makes all these PC devices couch friendly from startup. It probably echews a lot of the benefits of the convergence that having a real PC in the living room brings in exchange for a more specialized OS. It brings some coherence to the PC gaming market for those who simply won't hassle with running window in the livingroom.

The problem is, can you even run Battlefield 4 on this?
 
This is the main thrust, I think. It makes all these PC devices couch friendly from startup. It probably echews a lot of the benefits of the convergence that having a real PC in the living room brings in exchange for a more specialized OS. It brings some coherence to the PC gaming market for those who simply won't hassle with running window in the livingroom.

The problem is, can you even run Battlefield 4 on this?

I believe Valve is going to put the software out there and allow Dell, HP, etc, make their versions of the SteamBox. If you want dual Titans in your living room then I would assume that someone will build it for you. If you just want a streaming box that just displays what your main PC is doing then there's going to be a version for that.

BF4 I would assume would have to be streamed or a full PC built because it isn't on Steam currently or destined to be there in the future.
 
Oh I know. The thing is, straming in my home sucks. My router is stuck in the basement (One of the drawbacks to fiber-to-the-house as opposed to to the box outside the house), and my home is a 3 story row-home. As is, I have a dual-band N router and streaming DVD rips is rough.

That sounds like a problem you need to solve for other reasons, though. Home networks have had to continually advance to take advantage of different delivery methods, even in-home content streaming like your movies or DVR sharing. Your issue can be resolved but you'll probably have to reposition your router for better signal which means running CAT6 somewhere.
 
SteamOS is going to fuck pc gaming for at least the short term. Most users wont know what or how to dual boot and as that's going to be needed to play all pc games its going to be a mess. I can see valve releasing steamOS exclusives like the way they released half life 2 as a steam exclusive. So you want to play a microsoft or EA game like halo or battlefield 4 then you will need windows. Want to play Half life 3 then you will need SteamOS.

This is just going to fracture pc gaming in the short term if valve launches exclusives which it will need to do to make it viable. Iv nothing against a new OS for gaming but i don't believe having valve do it is a good idea as EA and others will avoid it.
 
That sounds like a problem you need to solve for other reasons, though. Home networks have had to continually advance to take advantage of different delivery methods, even in-home content streaming like your movies or DVR sharing. Your issue can be resolved but you'll probably have to reposition your router for better signal which means running CAT6 somewhere.

Yea, and that's not really possible, unfortunately. I've debated trying some of those powerline adapters, though. Just been too lazy and cheap to do it. Wouldn't help my wife up on the third floor, however.
 
I suspect the hardware itself is going to be a relatively tough sell, considering OEMs don't pay all that much per Windows license. It's not clear to me how things are going to shake out on the hardware side, but I'd expect Intel to at least be jumping into this fray a bit.
 
Blah Blah blah, Steam OS, blah blah, ....linux....future of gaming... blah blah blah...

...no mention of Half Life 3.
 
Oh I know. The thing is, straming in my home sucks. My router is stuck in the basement (One of the drawbacks to fiber-to-the-house as opposed to to the box outside the house), and my home is a 3 story row-home. As is, I have a dual-band N router and streaming DVD rips is rough.

What kind of fiber do you have? I've got Verizon FioS, and it comes into the basement box, but from there it goes to the rest of the house through coax cable. My router & modem combo is in the office hooked up to one of these connections. Is yours hooked up right to the box? :confused:
 
What kind of fiber do you have? I've got Verizon FioS, and it comes into the basement box, but from there it goes to the rest of the house through coax cable. My router & modem combo is in the office hooked up to one of these connections. Is yours hooked up right to the box? :confused:

ATT Uverse. Comes right into an APC box on the wall, ethernet out from there to the ATT box. Problem is, that box is in the basement, so the main ATT Box has to be there too. From there, it's coax to the third floor, but whoever built the damn place put the main floor coax by the fireplace, and my TV is across the room. So we use the wireless ATT cable-box for that. But the HTPC thus has to be wireless too.
Also, there is no Ethernet cable run anywhere, and since I'm renting, I'm not going to poke holes in the walls or anything like that. FINALLY to add insult to injury, the coax cables that run from the ATT box up through the house don't do so straight, plus they run via some kind of metal piping/conduit. So running ethernet would be nearly impossible anyway.
 
ATT Uverse. Comes right into an APC box on the wall, ethernet out from there. Problem is, that box is in the basement, so the main ATT Box has to be there too. From there, it's coax to the third floor, but whoever built the damn place put the main floor coax by the fireplace, and my TV is across the room. So we use the wireless ATT cable-box for that. But the HTPC thus has to be wireless too.

Look into Powerline adapters - not as good as MoCa or just ethernet - but it can be better than what you are getting on WiFi now.
 
Seamless XBMC integration will seal the deal for me.

I think I would rather SteamOS do what XBMC does instead of running XBMC on SteamOS. XBMC has "add-ons" you can install/download for the app; so why not get rid of XBMC and have those add-ons install directly onto the SteamOS with it's UI?
 
I think I would rather SteamOS do what XBMC does instead of running XBMC on SteamOS. XBMC has "add-ons" you can install/download for the app; so why not get rid of XBMC and have those add-ons install directly onto the SteamOS with it's UI?

I think you're on the right track, especially given Valve's hint about bringing "streaming services people know and love" to SteamOS - presumably thats Netflix, Hulu, maybe Amazon. Netflix and Hulu have never been interested in supporting XBMC - clearly for DRM reasons and because there's no single point of accountability - no corporation to hold liable if their property is abused, but SteamOS changes that and would put them at ease that someone's not going to come along and create a "Netflix video downloader" plugin.

In any case it shouldn't take much to add XBMC as a plugin available off the main Big Picture screen, if SteamOS doesnt simply offer its own integrated codecs and video playback module which they probably will.
 
I think you're on the right track, especially given Valve's hint about bringing "streaming services people know and love" to SteamOS - presumably thats Netflix, Hulu, maybe Amazon. Netflix and Hulu have never been interested in supporting XBMC - clearly for DRM reasons and because there's no single point of accountability - no corporation to hold liable if their property is abused, but SteamOS changes that and would put them at ease that someone's not going to come along and create a "Netflix video downloader" plugin.

In any case it shouldn't take much to add XBMC as a plugin available off the main Big Picture screen, if SteamOS doesnt simply offer its own integrated codecs and playback module which would be surprising if they didn't.

That is exactly what I am hoping for. I have been experimenting with XMBC the past couple days and while I like the overall UI layout; I hate that I have to jump hoops just to get Amazon to work and even then, it's not even fully integrated. Which I believe is more Amazon's fault than XBMC and for that reason I sent Amazon an email on the matter. I have yet to get Netflix to work though. I will probably play around with that tonight.
 
It's not an official Amazon plugin though - it's in no way their fault or their job to support it. You really think they should manage their backend around a third party developed unofficial plugin?
 
Want to play Half life 3 then you will need SteamOS. This is just going to fracture pc gaming in the short term if valve launches exclusives which it will need to do to make it viable.

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It's not an official Amazon plugin though - it's in no way their fault or their job to support it. You really think they should manage their backend around a third party developed unofficial plugin?

You're just proving my point.
 
Please explain, it must be going over my head then. Because it just seems to me like you feel XBMC should be entitled to it because that's just what you happen to use.
 
Please explain, because it must be going over my head then. Because it just seems like you feel XBMC should be entitled to it because that's what you happen to use.

Amazon is not on XMBC because Amazon does not support XBMC. How is that hard to understand?
 
Amazon is not on XMBC because Amazon does not support XBMC. How is that hard to understand?

So then why get mad when your unofficial plugin breaks - there should never have been one in the first place. You blamed Amazon for breaking your plugin - that anger was unjustified was what I was getting at. Like I said and you implied - they didn't break it - it doesn't even factor into anything they do; and there is no one to be upset at that whatever plugin you were using broke.

Now if you want to be upset there is no official plugin to begin with; then go right ahead and keep asking them to support it officially is all I will say in regards to that.
 
Just for the sake of feedback... how would you envision this seamless integration?

Drop in, no muss no fuss. Something always comes along and breaks part of XBMC every few months.

I'd be fine with a Valve version of XBMC also.
 
So then why get mad when your unofficial plugin breaks - there should never have been one in the first place. You blamed Amazon for breaking your plugin - that anger was unjustified was what I was getting at. Like I said and you implied - they didn't break it - it doesn't even factor into anything they do; and there is no one to be upset at that whatever plugin you were using broke.

Now if you want to be upset there is no official plugin to begin with; then go right ahead and keep asking them to support it officially is all I will say in regards to that.

I'm not mad nor angry. I never got a chance to use the "old" plugin anyway. All I know is the new plugin sucks because Amazon doesn't officially support XBMC which is Amazon's fault, not XBMC.

Saying I have no entitlement to be mad about a solution that worked fine and then stopped working because of Amazon's changes is dumb. I have an opinion and a right to express it.
 
Of course Amazon don't want you using XBMC as a front end. They don't control the experience and won't be able to push ads/content. All content providers hate front-ends like XBMC.
 
SteamOS is going to fuck pc gaming for at least the short term. Most users wont know what or how to dual boot and as that's going to be needed to play all pc games its going to be a mess. I can see valve releasing steamOS exclusives like the way they released half life 2 as a steam exclusive. So you want to play a microsoft or EA game like halo or battlefield 4 then you will need windows. Want to play Half life 3 then you will need SteamOS.

This is just going to fracture pc gaming in the short term if valve launches exclusives which it will need to do to make it viable. Iv nothing against a new OS for gaming but i don't believe having valve do it is a good idea as EA and others will avoid it.

I disagree. Valve previous moves don't indicate they are trying to fracture anything. They've spread to platforms instead of contracting. They've moved previous properties over to other platforms just to promote their existence on those platforms. I think that Valve wants you to run Steam no matter what platform you are on and play their games on each one of those platforms. Making exclusive games for just one would fly in the face of every move they have made so far.

So, SteamOS isn't going to hurt PC gaming at all. Steam is going to be used to promote this box that Valve intends to be a separate device that can also stand alone, if need be. Valve wants to move into the living room market and they are doing it by giving you access to your other games at the same time.

Also, Half-Life 2 was not a steam exclusive. It came out for consoles as well.
 
Of course Amazon don't want you using XBMC as a front end. They don't control the experience and won't be able to push ads/content. All content providers hate front-ends like XBMC.

Without the front end, it isn't much of an HTPC. :p

Amazon should work with XBMC, having a dozen + apps can make UI navigation a hassle with a remote.
 
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