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Forums - PC Discussion - STEAM OS - What do you think?

cfin2987@gmail.com on 25 February 2015
walsufnir said:
Steam OS is Valve's attempt to bring Linux to the gaming community, right?
First of all they have to establish a meaningful library on Steam OS which is impossible to do with games relying on DirectX so only OpenGL would work here. Thus devs would have to make games that use OpenGL as rendering back-end and for Steam OS to be successful make it the only back-end.
-> I don't see this happening soon if ever.

Eh, they already have a pile of games on steam os. Like more than all the current gen consoles combined.



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walsufnir on 25 February 2015
cfin2987@gmail.com said:
walsufnir said:
Steam OS is Valve's attempt to bring Linux to the gaming community, right?
First of all they have to establish a meaningful library on Steam OS which is impossible to do with games relying on DirectX so only OpenGL would work here. Thus devs would have to make games that use OpenGL as rendering back-end and for Steam OS to be successful make it the only back-end.
-> I don't see this happening soon if ever.

Eh, they already have a pile of games on steam os. Like more than all the current gen consoles combined.


Yes, my PC back in 2000 already had more. Thing is - nobody cares. You know exactly that we are talking about the big AAA titles here. Don't have COD or Battlefield on Steam OS? No GTA? No Assassins Creed?

These titles won't hit SteamOS like ever. Of course, if you don't care for these games anymore, go with SteamOS. Nobody will stop you doing it. But this won't make SteamOS a big success.



Kerotan on 25 February 2015
walsufnir said:
cfin2987@gmail.com said:

Eh, they already have a pile of games on steam os. Like more than all the current gen consoles combined.


Yes, my PC back in 2000 already had more. Thing is - nobody cares. You know exactly that we are talking about the big AAA titles here. Don't have COD or Battlefield on Steam OS? No GTA? No Assassins Creed?

These titles won't hit SteamOS like ever. Of course, if you don't care for these games anymore, go with SteamOS. Nobody will stop you doing it. But this won't make SteamOS a big success.


Exactly.  I'm always baffled by the we have more games argument.  The games console gamers care about are either on or coming to consoles and sometimes exclusively. 



Bokal on 25 February 2015

What prevents game developers to write for the "Linux desktop" is most of the time the fact that supporting the different distributions, libs, environments is just too complicated.

What SteamOS is trying to achieve is to give them a unique and stable platform to develop on and maintain their games on.
It could be enough, or not. We'll see. If some AAA could run on SteamOS, I'd gladly skip on a PS4 to buy a more powerful and up to date steam machine.

Android and ChromeOS are two very successful Linux platforms. You wouldn't notice it's Linux, it's not one bit complicated, or require special skills. Why SteamOS couldn't be?



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Alby_da_Wolf on 25 February 2015

A frontal attack to Windows is clearly impossible, other strategies, synergically implemented, could work.
Amongst possible strategies:
1) A necessary step should be in any case to help making OpenGL more attractive than DirectX for devs, providing complete and updated libraries, dev tools, environments and kits, and possibly easy porting tools too
2) SteamBox
3) Possible synergies with Android, to make SteamBoxes and PCs running SteamOS an attractive higher-end evolution of current Android devices
4) Making Steam a true cross-platform gaming environment for as many architectures as possibe and viable
5) Proper marketing
6) Deceiving MS, not only never attacking it frontally, but also doing everything possible to make it perceive the threat as late as possible.



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RenCutypoison on 25 February 2015
walsufnir said:
Steam OS is Valve's attempt to bring Linux to the gaming community, right?
First of all they have to establish a meaningful library on Steam OS which is impossible to do with games relying on DirectX so only OpenGL would work here. Thus devs would have to make games that use OpenGL as rendering back-end and for Steam OS to be successful make it the only back-end.
-> I don't see this happening soon if ever.


There are already more games for Linux than Mac though

Edit : Checked, mb. About 75% as much, still much more than 2-3 years ago.



walsufnir on 25 February 2015
RenCutypoison said:
walsufnir said:
Steam OS is Valve's attempt to bring Linux to the gaming community, right?
First of all they have to establish a meaningful library on Steam OS which is impossible to do with games relying on DirectX so only OpenGL would work here. Thus devs would have to make games that use OpenGL as rendering back-end and for Steam OS to be successful make it the only back-end.
-> I don't see this happening soon if ever.


There are already more games for Linux than Mac though

Edit : Checked, mb. About 75% as much, still much more than 2-3 years ago.


And how did this help to get SteamOS to get any meaning in the business?



Kerotan on 25 February 2015
Bokal said:
What prevents game developers to write for the "Linux desktop" is most of the time the fact that supporting the different distributions, libs, environments is just too complicated.

What SteamOS is trying to achieve is to give them a unique and stable platform to develop on and maintain their games on.
It could be enough, or not. We'll see. If some AAA could run on SteamOS, I'd gladly skip on a PS4 to buy a more powerful and up to date steam machine.

Android and ChromeOS are two very successful Linux platforms. You wouldn't notice it's Linux, it's not one bit complicated, or require special skills. Why SteamOS couldn't be?


What about the next playstation running the steam os? Get it into 80 million homes while launching steam on playstation. 



walsufnir on 25 February 2015
Kerotan said:
Bokal said:
What prevents game developers to write for the "Linux desktop" is most of the time the fact that supporting the different distributions, libs, environments is just too complicated.

What SteamOS is trying to achieve is to give them a unique and stable platform to develop on and maintain their games on.
It could be enough, or not. We'll see. If some AAA could run on SteamOS, I'd gladly skip on a PS4 to buy a more powerful and up to date steam machine.

Android and ChromeOS are two very successful Linux platforms. You wouldn't notice it's Linux, it's not one bit complicated, or require special skills. Why SteamOS couldn't be?


What about the next playstation running the steam os? Get it into 80 million homes while launching steam on playstation. 


Huh? Because you don't have 80 million to start with. And Sony would have to port their libraries to Linux, making the before closed system wide open for anyone, including hackers. Won't happen



roborad on 25 February 2015

Honestly, I don't see it going anywhere.
They had some opportunities to make some dent with the introduction of steam machines a while back, but it just fell flat on its face. Poor choices, poor pricing, a diversity of machines that probably just confused potential buyers, and well, most gamers are on windows anyways. Not much incentive to move to Linux-based steam machines.