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SteamOS Will Be Available For Download On December 13
sfcrazy writes "Valve Software, creator of Half-Life and Left 4 Dead, has announced that SteamOS will be available for public download on December 13. That's the day when the company will start shipping Steam Machines and Steam Controllers to the 300 selected beta participants. The company said, 'SteamOS will be made available when the prototype hardware ships. It will be downloadable by individual users and commercial OEMs. (But unless you're an intrepid Linux hacker already, we're going to recommend that you wait until later in 2014 to try it out.)"
Kind of want to try this in Virtualbox.
If you want to be seen, stand up. If you want to be heard, speak up. If you want to be respected, sit down and shut up.
Are they providing a sensible version of GNOME? I very want to shuck Ubuntu, and this would let me have my Steam games *and* a usable desktop system.
(I know there are GNOME alternatives, but I'm hoping for the easy way out.)
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
There's been a lot of hype and misconceptions about SteamOS within the gaming community especially. SteamOS isn't a desktop OS, it's a console OS and needs to be understood as such. It won't be a whole lot of use unless you're planning to set up a PC for use as a console.
I can't wait to not install it!!!
Gaming on Linux, FINALLY! ...If you're already an 'intrepid Linux hacker'.
just like always. rofl.
...if you're doing Linux gamedev or are already using Steam on Linux...you may well be ready for that.
Me?
BRING IT
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I browse Linux commit logs every now and then and these days there are surprisingly many various game controller patches flowing in. Good.
lighten up, it's just for games. who cares if a fun game runs on even a closed source console or whatever? they pull the plug on thing in a couple years, so what?
I cry and whine that no one cares that I don't like this and want it to go away
FTFY
can you run windows on it?
...if you're doing Linux gamedev or are already using Steam on Linux...you may well be ready for that.
Me?
BRING IT
If you're serious about gaming on Linux, you're probably already doing that, actually... with a standard system. Unless you weren't actually planning on hooking it up to a TV in the first place (I wasn't).
I can state, for example, that my USB XBoX controller works perfectly on Linux, and is supported by all but one or two of the games I have bought on Steam for Linux. It also works in Steam itself, for Big Picture mode. I also know for a fact that the HDMI out on my desktop/gaming system supports audio and 1080p to the TV. From there it's really trivial to set a desktop up to automatically login and launch Steam at startup, to launch Steam in Big Picture mode, and put it on a TV.
The beta is U.S. Only, and that's a shame. I was hoping for the world wide beta test. But I guess they had their reasons. But at least the SteamOS will be downloadable so I can build my own device. I probably won't be investing too much time or money into it. If I buy Antec ISK300-150 and make a ~400€ AMD APU powered indie game device it would probably serve its duty well (and afterwards be a nice tiny server box). You people can probably recommend something better if this idea seems bad. Or share suggestions for others to read.
Good to see who the mature one is(n't) here.
It'll be just as dead as HalfLife 3 by 2014.
Unless you really want to pony up for another console there is zero reason to ever run this garbage. Take whatever OS you like and run Steam. The game selection will be just as good on any of the big 3 platforms and you won't be tied into hardware that will doubtlessly be more expensive than buying a rig from NewEgg.
I fear I already know the answer to this but by chance is there a Netflix app?
Thanks, I wasn't aware that Freeciv wasn't derivative.
You are confusing the Free Software community with the Linux community.
I'm quite sure the Free Software community still has your ideals and you will probably find some like minded individuals there. Over the past few years, the "Linux community" now includes millions of people who accept locked bootloaders as standard and install closed source apps from an app store whose goal is to collect as much information about them as possible.
Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
I had to double-check this when I read it. So people are now happy to buy disposable software that may not be able to be run when a company goes under? Is the concept of buying and keeping a program for life no longer sacrosanct? Sure, software can ultimately "die" due to being too old to run under a modern operating system, but virtual machines will extend that ability indefinitely. DRM-protected software has no such luxury.
I can't believe that people consider gaming to be in the disposable pile of software (which is interesting because even with cheap sales, it all can add up to be pretty expensive) given there's still plenty of old games which a lot of people still play (Deus Ex is 12 years old, Doom is 20). Apparently if it's a game, it doesn't matter that you paid money for it if it might fail later due to a politically-enforced limitation. Yeah who cares, they're just games. Doesn't matter that once the trend is set it'll continue for other, more important programs like, I dunno, Adobe's now subscription-only Photoshop and Creative Suite tools.
People really don't think about the future and long-term ramifications of things anymore it would seem. Must be a luxury in our fast-paced, time-poor society.
No, seriously. I can totally justify spending around $350 for a HTPC with gaming to experiment with. Cheaper than my wife's purse.
$150 - AMD A10-6800K (with mobo over at Microcenter). Yes, I know Intel is faster and it's not the fastest GPU either but for $150 it's hard to beat the combo.
$80 - 8GB of RAM
$100 - 3TB hard drive
and I have a bunch of old ATX cases and power supply.
It's Linux, if I don't like it I can always put something else on like Mint.
Did they pick that out or did it just fall that way.
Except... pulling the plug in a couple of years would be corporate suicide.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
You can always make your casino sim and your fishing sim and try to get them greenlit
Why not get yourself a new midrange graphics card for your Linux box and just install the desktop Steam client?
Because it's not always convenient to run long HDMI cables and a bunch of USB hubs from the computer desk through a wall to the TV. Or because one's existing Linux box is a laptop or small-form-factor desktop that doesn't take graphics cards.
Applications were called apps for short long before iOS 2 introduced the App Store. See, for example, Unleashing the Killer App by Downes and Mui, first published in 2000.
I also know for a fact that the HDMI out on my desktop/gaming system supports audio and 1080p to the TV. From there it's really trivial to set a desktop up [...] and put it on a TV.
I've said this on Slashdot for years. But often, I've been told that the majority are unwilling to build or buy a second computer to dedicate to the TV. Whether computers that ship with SteamOS will change this is still unknown, but OUYA (an Android/Linux-based game console) hasn't made much of a dent.
If you're serious about gaming on linux, you recompiled the kernel with a scheduler more suitable for gaming. Do you think one scheduler is equally good for smart phones, desktop users, gamers, and servers? Steam OS kernel is probably better tuned than your distro's kernel.
If you use a normal PC, nothing but inertia prevents the system from dual booting steamos and the desktop of your choice.
If anything, running steamos beside a desktop linux with a shared /home would offer a great many perks.
Just pick a default, and roll with it. When you want the other, just press one of the arrow keys on the grub(or whatever loader you like best) menu, then press enter.
The purpose of steamos is not to replace the desktop; it is to replace a dedicated windows install, that exists only to play games on, but still eats up ginormous amounts of disk, requires constant mothering to protect it from malware, and does not play well with chained bootloaders.
A stripped down linux for games only, akin to a console grade OS, would eat up considerably less disk than a windows partition, would not require the MS tax, would benefit (theoretically) from the improved securty *nix offers, and as a bonus could use the same data volume for /home as the desktop distro it dual boots beside.
I play windows games with Wine on my Mint running i7 in the living room all the time. If I could keep my linux desktop more or less "clean" from wine and other library clutter, i'd be totally down with it. Having a maintained distro specifically for that purpose makes keeping it running well an easier task.
If you use a normal PC, nothing but inertia prevents the system from dual booting steamos and the desktop of your choice.
And it is inertia that makes it so inconvenient. I mean this literally: a desktop computer at rest stays at rest unless acted on by an outside force, such as by being carried into another room. Most people don't want to have to move a desktop computer from the desk to the TV to play a game and then move it back to surf the web.
my Mint running i7 in the living room
You happen to have your computer desk in your living room. Not everybody else does. Some people keep the computer desk in another room in order to preserve some level of peace and quiet.
I've been using Linux a long time (15 years) and as my only desktop for the past 10 years. While I like and prefer the Freedom part, I much more prefer the stability, the free part, the plethora of apps that actually behave and just do what they are supposed to do, etc. IOW, I'd probably be a Mac user if you take monetary cost out of the calculation.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
and when I want to use a computer on "me time", I prefer the recliner.
I want to agree with you. For a while, I ran my PC through an HDTV and put the keyboard on a tray table. But if your family's primary PC uses the living room TV as its monitor, then you can't watch TV while your kids are doing typed homework.
Valve's Steam OS/etc. is the epitome of DRM ridden software on the market... I do not see why anyone in their right would want to continue funding these people by buying games on their platforms.
They legally shouldn't even be calling it "buying games" on Steam... you're buying LICENSES only.
Go with GOG.com or even Origin as you would get a hell of a lot better customer services, refunds, and you wouldn't be buying licenses but the actual games themselves, at least in the case of GOG.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROX-r_kHPks
Thankfully [the netbook] is a niche that many workplaces have a need for
Thank you for finding that Toshiba netbook. I'm glad to know that more than just a minority of hardcore geeks have a use for an ultraportable 10" laptop like the Dell Inspiron mini 1012 that I'm typing this comment on, even if it does compromise CPU power. And no, I don't have a problem running LibreOffice on Xubuntu on this netbook. But what worries me on that page is the word "Used". What happens once all the still-working used netbooks on Amazon are bought up?
Buy a computer to dedicate to the TV? The only reason I HAVE a TV is to have a bigger monitor for my already existing computer... Why else would anyone own a TV in 2013 anyway? To pay $100+ a month to cable companies for a pathetic selection of material to watch (interspersed with commercials every 5 minutes)?
Though, thinking about it now, if one WERE to still be paying for cable, I see how dropping a few hundred bucks on an extra computer would be out of the question...if you're lucky, after paying the average cable bill, you can also feed your kids...
Steam's ok for the cautious buyer, but featuring pre-alpha quality titles full of bugs at AAA game prices won't fly with Joe Average.
I expect Linux is largely an irrelevance here since most of the games are going to be streaming from somewhere else. Of course Valve might encourage game devs to port their game to Linux to benefit from cheaper hosting fees if they release a cloud based platform and that might trickle down to native versions of those same apps.
I'm a linux user and a free software supporter... i try to install everything as free as possible, even the graphic card drivers.
I try to use FLOSS games (and there are many that are fun!) but also play closed ones. If i have the game without DRM (from humblebundle or desura), i will prefer it, if not, the steam DRM isn't that bad... It would be better without any DRM, but steam is very transparent and most users will never see that it even exists.
Right now it's better to have DRM games than no games at all. Going from a totally closed platform (windows and other consoles) with DRM to a open platform with DRM is a step in the right direction. After people/games start ditch windows, the DRM problem can be fixed, specially by the "wallet voting" (ie: stop buying DRM games)
Anyway, game jump from windows to linux is important enough to allow some slack, specially if the main problem is the transparent steam DRM
Higuita
Fuck this shit. I'm still playing Super Mario on my 8-bit Nintendo!
Not to mention Nethack being a Rogue clone, and Star Control 2 being a sequel. Nothing derivative whatsoever.
[citation needed]
for i in `facebook friends "=bday" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f 3-`; do facebook wallpost $i "Happy birthday!"; done
Gaming is kiddy shit (sorry) and it's naive to expect much idealism from from the core audience.
Not that you're not a known troll, but there are now more adult gamers than juvenile ones*, and gaming now brings in more money than movies.
For Linux to reach a larger audience means catering to portions of that audience who just want free stuff.
Oddly, it also means catering to the portions of that audience who just want to give away free stuff.
* According to a 2007 Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, more than half (53 percent) of American adults play video games, and about one in five adults (21%) play every day or almost every day.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Over the past few years, the "Linux community" now includes millions of people who accept locked bootloaders as standard and install closed source apps from an app store whose goal is to collect as much information about them as possible.
Users have outnumbered developers at least since Slackware. Build a bridge, and clamber over it awkwardly.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
so you get a big monitor for you pc
And furniture to sit on, compared to the existing sofa in the room with the TV.
a problem. I must have missed people hating on their Xbox, Playstation, Wii and more generally pc's.
Being a kernel developer I am interested in what there kernel tree looks like. I assume that it is just a recent 3.10 stable or something with some extra drivers and the odd patch in the arch.
But I am curious/hopeful to see if they have done any fine tuning/performance enhancements.
Why else would anyone own a TV in 2013 anyway? To pay $100+ a month to cable companies for a pathetic selection of material to watch (interspersed with commercials every 5 minutes)?
Because live professional and collegiate sports tend to be blacked out online.
Are the eighth-generation consoles also friendly to community-produced game mods, or is the publisher of a game the only entity allowed to make mods for that game? Without Half-Life modding there would have been no Counter-Strike.
The one advantage of the steam OS vs. regular OS + steam client:
Pared down dependencies ( RAM / CPU cycles "wasted" on non-gaming stuff) and ( probably ) up to date MESA / video drivers with the latest performance boosts.
Possibly kernel tuning for games as well - scheduler, frequency polling, interrupt-able / pre-emptable ETC.
"SteamOS Will Be Available For Download On December 13"
Still no SteamOS :(
Did I miss it since it's no longer the 13th? I can't seem to find a download link anywhere.