I'm sorry, I thought you actually had questions and not just an agenda.

Metro LL & Project CARS say hello.

To make $.

It does not have a drop-in replacement for everything a typical Windows user would do with no more setup than Windows on the same common hardware. There are extreme caveats you are failing to mention.

The virus argument is from 10 years ago. Windows is stable and secure today. Your claim that Linux servers don't or can't get attacked is laughable

The questions were rhetorical, as if posed by an average consumer. That is the market Valve is trying to reach right? There are major problems if so.

If they wanted a niche option for some knowledgeable gaming PC customers, they have one. But it's not going places.

I didn't say that, I said common virus' can't attack them, they need to be custom hacked by an intellegent entity, not common windows virus' in the wild. 

Extreme caveats?  Christ, Linux comes with Libra Office, torrent clients, Gimp etc. pre installed with thousands of other pieces of software ready to be installed with the click of a mouse in the software manager.  I can barrely even use the terminal & get by just fine.

If running a system scan, taking the score & not buying games above that score is too much work, well,... they have a PS4 for that.

The purpose is to make a low cost but mighty powerful game/media machine to put pressure on Sony/Microsoft to upgrade their hardware sooner and to give Valve larger footing in the gaming/console wars. Also Gabe Newell (the guy that runs Valve which owns Steam) has some personal hate against Windows so he is promoting an alternative gaming Operating System for games that will be in the Steam Box. (Yes, much like DirectX, but in Linux not Windows based.)

Unfortunately, the first round, it doesn't look like that will happen. Any good Windows 8.1 machine is also a Steam machine. And you could tack on Windows to any Steam machine for @ $90. So it's roughly the same price for a similar performance of the PS4/Xbox One.

I see the big think is if they can pull of a new gaming/media operating system. It could be massive and boost performance and cause DirectX and OpenGL to push and upgrade their softwares more. Resulting in better games for everyone. And operating system is not an easy thing to make, especially if you have to support many different kinds of hardware (which is how the Steam Boxes are set up, with many different components and manufactures), so they have a number of big hurdles to climb.

No, not everything. However those apps are shifting to the cloud. Photoshop, office all those apps are moving to the cloud. Using native apps is 'old world thinking' especially for those tasks. So you basically need a browser,  Linux has multiple choices for that. So, it's not a big factor anymore. Desktop sales are partly declining, because of that. 

If you think LibreOffice is a drop in replacement for Office you've never done work for your university or  job with it.

If you think Gimp is a drop in replacement for Photoshop you've never done art for your university or job with it.

These programs can get the job done, but require considerable relearning, other programs to complement missing features. For example, the post-2003 Office format support for LO is abysmal.

How do these uninformed people know which replacement programs to go and find and install? Last time I tried to install functional MIDI playback it was a three day job.

Barely using the terminal = still alienates 95%+ of the potential market. You don't really get what I mean by mass market do you?

I'm not talking about game performance, I'm talking about game compatibility. The vast majority of well known PC games do not work as intended on Linux right now.

As to your last statement... so you're admitting they need a PC and a PS4, in addition to this. Good luck selling another device on top. It needs to seamlessly (and I mean seamless to the average consumer) replace either a PC or console and it does neither.

Last thing. The Steambox has no exclusives and a severely lacking library. What console has ever sold well under such conditions, no matter how cheap or how powerful the hardware? When will the exclusives arrive?

Hardware manufactures decide what OS will run on their systems. SteamOS is just the first OS. EA and Ubisoft are likely moving to those steam machines. Origin, Steam and Uplay will run side by side on a so called Linux machine. This is very interesting, because EA and Ubisoft will eventually prioritize for Linux machines instead of conventional consoles. It's all about controlling a storefront (which started with Apple). Can you imagine Battlefield 5 timed exclusive on a Linux machine because EA can earn a lot more through their own storefront?
This doesn't benefit Valve by any means and yet they still allow to run other OS's. Valve is basically leading the democratization of gaming and hoping to get a good chunk of it. Just like you can play any DVD on any DVD player. It's a little more complex, since games heavily rely on specs and DVD's are spec-wise just a standard.

Purpose of Steam Machine=$. Does nothing else. Hardware vendors trying to sell more product at inflated prices.