Can Someone Tell Me Why SteamOS is Good?

[themodernagenb]

Still don't understand why this exists other than for profit. Why not bring your PC into the living room? That will save you a bunch of money ($100-$400 for a SteamBox - guessing but from the rumors I hear, it's going to be around that price range). But what if you have a HTPC in your living room already? Then why can't you STILL bring your PC into the living room? I think that's a better option than streaming most of your games to the SteamOS because it cant play 90% of the games you own already (those games are developed for Windows and not Linux). It just doesn't make any sense. Buying the SteamOS means you can only play some of the games in your Steam library, then you will have to stream the rest - a very very very very inelegant solution. This line of thinking falls directly in line with most PC users ideologies - they don't even like WIFI, always saying ethernet is the only way to go, yet streaming to another console is okay? Logic makes no sense. You can't afford Windows you say? If you can't find a way to get that for free, then you are doing it wrong. And if you don't want to go that route, all you need is a friend in college, or if you can't even do that, then it's only $80 - if you're spending more, then you're doing it wrong.

Please tell me the "real" benefits to this OS. All I see is fragmentation, slower input, more money, less options (SteamOS can only play games and watch TV/Movies, and music, which BTW they haven't fully discussed how they are going to do that - so I'm still skeptical about that implementation as well). Why would anyone want to buy this? It's like buying Windows RT, a stupid idea because there are no legacy programs and limiting support. Windows does everything better, and with DirectX does gaming better as well.

[Joe3417]

[tristan1035]

Because the Almighty Gaben blessed us with this creation!

[LifesCompanion]

I personally see no benefit in having  SteamOS but the DirectX argument is debatable (then again, Gabe is all about open source software; heaven forbid people trying to make money off software by putting a license on it). There are going to be massive porting issues unless they can create the OS from unicorn blood. 

I agree with your point of fragmentation, I like Windows (and other mainsteam OS) simply because it's easy to find solutions to small problems and what not, which is slightly harder when there are different iterations of the said OS. I am aware of the Nvidia Shield esque feature, however, not all households will have 802.11.AC modem routers, heck, 802.11.N modem routers are still expensive (at least in Australia). 

Conclusion? 

I see no benefit, however, it'll be interesting to have as a secondary boot option 

[NeutronGTX]

 

Still don't understand why this exists other than for profit. 

 

you do realize SteamOS is free for everyone right?

[Guest GRRigger]

 

 Logic makes no sense. 

Especially this one. So I am not even going to bother arguing about it. 

[SMURG]

Why not move your PC into the living room? Well idk about you, but the amount of time I'm gonna want to play games on the TV is pretty limited, and my PC weighs a tonne. It's a full tower, with 2 liquid cooling loops and a whole host of hardware; it's really not ideal to move around, but a few times a year I do bring it down the stairs and out into the garage for LAN parties. It's a pain, but I do it.

Now take into consideration that I now might (we don't know what the required specs are like) be able to put this SteamOS onto something like a Raspberry Pi, and simply move my monitor, keyboard and mouse out into the garage for said LAN parties instead of moving my ridiculous main desktop. Or, I could leave said "SteamPi" plugged into my TV so if I want to sit on the couch and play Civ V for a bit, I can, but then I can just walk on back upstairs and play L4D2 at my desk instead - without all the faffing around of unplugging my desktop and lugging it back up there. As far as I've seen so far, the streaming functionality is going to be incredibly useful.

You also seem to have missed the part where streaming does not have to be wireless, it can be over ethernet. A free OS that can stream games from Windows is excellent, because it increases your flexibility. $80 is $80, if you want to be able to play your games in 3 different places, that's $240, whereas if you just have 1 Windows PC able to stream to 2 SteamOS boxes in the other 2 places, you've saved yourself $160 and you'll be getting a better experience if you're using a gamepad and you won't have to move the Windows PC around at all.

As for the rest, it's a bit meh for me, but seeing as it can stream the gameplay AND do all that multimedia stuff, my question would be "why would you use anything else for a HTPC?". I don't care what you say, the Windows experience on a HTPC is frankly terrible. The only part which works AT ALL is the media centre, and even that is clunky as hell.

[Warcony]

You also seem to have missed the part where streaming does not have to be wireless, it can be over ethernet.

 

This right here! I hate streaming over my wireless and ethernet works much better and is more reliable.  SteamOS is good.  Will it make a radical change? No. But it will shake things up a little.

[legopc]

why steamos is good? .... wel eh i dont know we will have to wait 

[themodernagenb]

Pretty informative video. Thanks.

[Godlygamer23]

Reality is we don't know if Steam OS will be good. It's not out yet in any form.

[themodernagenb]

Gabe talked about having a $300 console that is as good or even better than the next gen consoles. I just don't see it, unless they make it themselves. Sony is losing money at $400 but they can make it up with software sales. No hardware manufacturer will/can sell it at that price. Which means, Valve would have to sell the console themselves. But what is there target audience? What will make the average consumer pick up a SteamBox over a PS4/XB1? Are they going to have exclusive games? If so, wouldn't that be bad for the PC/Mac users who are on Steam already? Is streaming to your living room from your PC that important to the average consumer. How many of these "consoles" would they have to sell to break even?

 

Do we really expect PC manufacturers to sell a PC with just SteamOS? Sounds like it will be really hard to market. They have a hard enough time as it is to sell normal PCs, now they are expected to sell an unknown product to an even more niche group. How many OEMs will be okay with this?

 

There's just too many questions left unanswered. 

[mooommo]

what are the other 3 big announcements? 

[SMURG]

what are the other 3 big announcements? 

The other two announcements have yet to be announced

It's a pretty solid bet that the second will be a Steambox though. As for the third... I've heard lots of speculation from it being a new controller (Gabe has been on about biometric controllers for a while now) to a new set of features for Steam to go with the new SteamOS and Steambox (splitscreen for games etc.) to a full-on game release *whispers HL3*. We'll just have to wait and see really

[Joe3417]

what are the other 3 big announcements? 

they haven't announced them yet lol

[Matsy]

what are the other 3 big announcements? 

 

Steambox and half life 3 ofc.....duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[MdX MaxX]

Here's what people don't understand: this is not for us.  I know technology evolves quickly and changes at a moment's notice, but this truly isn't for us.

 

We are not expected to drop everything and run over to SteamOS.  We've got our big game collections on Windows, and we can't just leave them.

 

Console gamers aren't expected to drop everything and buy a Steambox.  The ecosystem isn't there.

 

This is for future gamers.  People who will be playing games when Bioshock Infinite is 10 years old.  People who will be playing games when you can get most AAA titles on Linux.

 

The stage has to be set at some point.  Valve is setting the stage; Valve is laying the foundation for a future where 10-year-old major titles will easily be found on Linux, where a Steambox will be just as compelling as any console from Sony or Microsoft.

 

Of course there will be early adopters.  We'll quickly see Linux purists embrace this and do their gaming exclusively on Linux.  But for most, it's not going to happen tomorrow.  Valve knows it's not going to happen tomorrow.  But it all has to start somewhere.

[silencerbob]

Why is steamOS good? Good question. It doesn't exist yet but its not hard to imagine.

If the reference streambox is just a streaming device ( like the shield ), via Ethernet or WiFi.. Then it can't cost a whole lot.. If its comparable to a NUC or a BRIX then I'd see it quite popular.

If a reference steambox is more pc-like hardware wise, then its simply ambitious Gabe.

[Osprey]

Truthfully we don't know whether or not it's good, nor will we until it's released.

 

I can say though that from a technical perspective OpenGL *can* outperform DirectX since it offers more access to the GPU than DirectX, at the cost of compatibility being more difficult since there are many GPUs.

 

Additionally, if SteamOS uses X11 (Linux's de facto windowing manager right now) then they will be in trouble. It tends to have very bad performance in games. But, I suspect that they will use Wayland which avoids those problems.