According to a German site Golem.de the full reveal for Steam Box is set somewhere in 2013. It has also been confirmed by Valve employees speaking at the recent EHSM 2012 conference that Steam Box would run on Linux.
This move by Valve is not entirely unexpected, especially when taking into account Gabe Newell's anti-Windows sentiments. Furthermore, Linux has been enjoying increasing popularity amongst Steam users, despite its status as the new kid on the block in regard to Steam support. How beneficial it would be for gamers though, remains to be seen, especially noting the fact that Steam for Linux is still in beta. Nevertheless, optimism for the upcoming "console" is running high, with most of the gaming community exhibiting hopeful anticipation. It seems that we are coming closer to achieving dominance in both the bedroom and the living room, and the penguin may just be the way to grab it. Wow, that last line just managed to sound incredibly wrong. Anyway, what do you think of this move?
Posted 08-01-2013, 08:23
Gabe has been pretty outspoken about his disliking for Windows and in particular some of the choices they made with Windows 8. It is clear that Microsoft is trying to restrict the platform rather then promote its openness, which is not a good thing for consumers nor gaming companies that operate on PCs. Thus why Valve is now looking at Linux and Mac for a backup in the future, in case Windows goes completely insane.
Posted 07-01-2013, 17:26
@SynapseR - MS never knew that. MS is mainly catering towards business clients and don't give a rats ass about private ones (my wife used to work for Microsoft so we still have friends there). The only division that cares about gamers is Xbox...and they only care about Xbox. So as long as they don't see a big impact in sales loss they wont care if you play on Linux or Windows.
Posted 07-01-2013, 17:10
I'm still on the fence. Moving to an open source OS is great for everyone, except Microsoft. There's virtually no difference between OpenGL (Linux) and DirectX (Windows), except for the driver support from the GPU manufacturers.
Gaming is one of the main reasons people use Windows, but Microsoft seems to have forgotten that, so I would like a turn of events.