Torvalds: SteamOS Will 'Really Help' Linux On the Desktop

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday October 23, 2013 @06:14AM from the year-of-linux-on-the-steambox dept.

nk497 writes "Linus Torvalds has welcomed the arrival of Valve's Linux-based platform, SteamOS, and said it could boost Linux on desktops. The Linux creator praised Valve's 'vision' and suggested its momentum would force other manufacturers to take Linux seriously — especially if game developers start to ditch Windows. Should SteamOS gain traction among gamers and developers, that could force more hardware manufacturers to extend driver support beyond Windows. That's a sore point for Torvalds, who slammed Nvidia last year for failing to support open-source driver development for its graphics chips. Now that SteamOS is on the way, Nvidia has opened up to the Linux community, something Torvalds predicts is a sign of things to come. 'I'm not just saying it'll help us get traction with the graphics guys,' he said. 'It'll also force different distributors to realize if this is how Steam is going, they need to do the same thing because they can't afford to be different in this respect. They want people to play games on their platform too.'"

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Not happening by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-23 06:18 · Score: 0, Troll

Sorry not happening. Desktop Linux != SteamOS.
At best it will force the hand of Intel, nVidia and AMD to make it so their drivers work on Linux, but everyone else, unlikely.
Nobody is going to ditch Windows for Steam OS and then only play games on it. There is already 3 expensive toys that do this. No nobody is going to buy steam OS and then use Open Office on it... unless Steam somehow starts being the "app store" as well, and cloud-saving extended to it.