Steam Machine Thoughts

Scarymonkeys · June 15, 2015

Before I start this thread, I want to acknowledge that I know that Steam Machines have already been posted about. I know this thread has been done before more than likely, but I just want to post my view of Steam Machines. Feel free to post your opinions below!

Alright, so first off I'll about my opinion on the uses. A lot of people say they don't know why use a PC as a console, but sometimes it's nice to be able to sit back with an easy interface and play a game, relaxed. As the same time you could dual-boot with Windows or the such for web browsing if you needed it instead of using an XBOX One for games and having to buy a $200 laptop or something just for web browsing.

On that topic, no, there isn't every game in the world on the SteamOS/Linux. But there is a nice selection of games out currently such as Dying Light, Left 4 Dead 2, Don't Starve, Torchlight 2, CS:GO, XCOM, Civ, etc. Not to mention tons of AAA games, survival games, etc. such as Shadow of Mordor, ARK: Survival Evolved, Batman, and Grid are coming out really soon. (Take a look at the games being announced. It's taken a turn for sure.) Sure, some ports such as on games like Dying Light aren't fantastic, but they're playable for the most part, and they're being worked on constantly. Look how far Dying Light has come since it first launched on Linux. A lot of games on Windows don't have great ports either.

Drivers have come a long way. I use Ubuntu on my GTX 960 as a main OS and the drivers perform not as well as on Windows, but they're far from bad. They're being improved every day, and so is AMD's, though AMD isn't the greatest quite yet.

While OpenGL isn't as efficient yet, Vulkan is going to be a ton better, and it'll probably improve a lot.

I think Steam Machines will be a big boost for Ubuntu, though they're not as stable yet, they'll be pretty good for it. Linux is growing, and I use it every day. I even record with it. (I use SimpleScreenRecorder, Audacity, and Gimp and my videos definitely aren't bad quality. OBS is also available as of recently.) I'm not fan boying in any way, but just stating what I truly feel. You can tell I'm not fan boying as I'm buying a Windows partition to dual boot future games like Just Cause 3 and Battlefront 3.

elfensky · June 23, 2015

I feel like going with Linux limited the market by a BIG margin for Valve. I fully agree on the simple interface idea and console like experience. I have a good gaming laptop, but still prefer my PS4.

TBH instead of going the Linux way of things, I'd just create a new shell/soft for windows and run it ontop. Would make thinks a lot easier for a lot of people. And then just give it admin rights to handle all the updates and similar stuff, thus not bothering the end-user with the UAC prompts.