Steam Box

[LurzKesh1138]

I've been paying attention to what the "Steam Box" is and what they're going to be, but i'm not totally convinced yet. For one, it runs a heavily modded version of Linux. Now before someone points out that it's superior, I recognize that it may be in some applications, but for gaming I honestly can't see the benefits. Mainly, the lack of games available for Linux, because at the time of writing this, Steam only has 472 games for Linux. Moving on, I honestly don't know why a developer would want to spend the extra time and money to port it over to Linux. There's hardly any support for OSX, so I don't know why devs would develop for Linux. Lastly, and as far as I understand, drivers are not optimized for Linux in any way shape or form. People have to hack and mod their own drivers in just to get some functionality. 

 

TL;DR:Not enough games, poor support for Linux, more money to develop for it, no driver support. 

 

Opinions, thoughts, ideas are welcome

[Askew]

Linus has more distros than users, that's probably one of the problems.

 

I'm joking before you bite my head off.

[bobhays]

The problem is that there isn't much support YET (not sure if there ever will be or not). The idea was to make a massive push towards linux and make something more similar to a console experience (hence the steam controller and the interface), while also keeping important advantages of a pc such as the ability to upgrade and additional functionality. I personally wouldn't build a steam box for the sake of gaming, but would do it if it was a small form factor, budget pc, which I could use steam streaming from, and also use as a media box. In other words, its great if you need a media box and already have a good gaming computer, not so good strictly to build as a gaming computer.

 

Of course, other opinions and use cases will vary, just my $0.02

[LurzKesh1138]

The problem is that there isn't much support YET (not sure if there ever will be or not). The idea was to make a massive push towards linux and make something more similar to a console experience (hence the steam controller and the interface), while also keeping important advantages of a pc such as the ability to upgrade and additional functionality. I personally wouldn't build a steam box for the sake of gaming, but would do it if it was a small form factor, budget pc, which I could use steam streaming from, and also use as a media box. In other words, its great if you need a media box and already have a good gaming computer, not so good strictly to build as a gaming computer.

 

Of course, other opinions and use cases will vary, just my $0.02

I just feel you're right, but they're trying to market it like a gaming PC for your living room, which I think is HUGE mistake on their part.

[The Crazed Child]

I fully agree with the OP. Drivers are so unrefined in Linux, especially for AMD GPU's.

 

If one AAA-producing games company bites the bullet by making a Linux game, I see more devs cross-platforming.

[bobhays]

I just feel you're right, but they're trying to market it like a gaming PC for your living room, which I think is HUGE mistake on their part.

Exactly, if the linux supported more games (crazed child makes a great point), then it could have potential, but right now it doens't so I don't believe its viable (unless games you play are already supported).

[LurzKesh1138]

I fully agree with the OP. Drivers are so unrefined in Linux, especially for AMD GPU's.

 

If one AAA-producing games company bites the bullet by making a Linux game, I see more devs cross-platforming.

But what AAA company is big enough to make other devs want to take that big of a risk?

[The Crazed Child]

But what AAA company is big enough to make other devs want to take that big of a risk?

I should have added that if the game was successful on Linux. But Linux gamers are a minority, I would doubt it would have success.

 

Also devs are porting to Mac more frequently too. I only just realised that War Thunder was available on Mac too.

[Syntaxvgm]

Linus has more distros than users, that's probably one of the problems.

 

I'm joking before you bite my head off.

That is golden. Almost sig-worthy.