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SteamOS available

NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
in Hardware

http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/

 

http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/13/5207426/valve-steamos-now-available

Valve has made its SteamOS available to all — and barring server issues, you can download it right now. The Linux-based operating system weighs in at 960MB, and will be used to power the company's Steam Machines game platform. Today Valve is also shipping out prototype units to 300 lucky testers. The free download is only really for the most dedicated among us, however. "Unless you're an intrepid Linux hacker already," Valve says, "we're going to recommend that you wait until later in 2014 to try it out." If you're feeling brave, you can grab it at the source link below — though of course you'll have to wait to play around with the fancy new controller.

Update: Valve has published a SteamOS FAQ, including installation instructions. Note that Valve says installation will erase everything else on your machine. According to Valve, SteamOS is a fork of Debian Linux, with the first version based on Debian 7.1. Presently, it only works with Nvidia graphics cards, as AMD and Intel graphics drivers are still a work in progress, though you can run the OS with your choice of Intel or AMD processors. The OS is designed to automatically update itself from the latest repositories.

Update 2: Valve has offered a new download site.

Update 3: SteamDB, a site that is not affiliated with Valve, has started this unofficial torrent if you wish to try an alternative download mechanism. Checksums are also available.

Update 4: Valve now has a friendly user-facing website explaining just about everything.

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Comments

  • IncomparableIncomparable Member UncommonPosts: 1,138

    And will the steam OS will be something that is more dedicated to give pc machines on med., low and even high end a perfomance boost in gaming?

    What are the benefits of using this interface? Security wise, driver support wise, loading time wise, again performance wise, and all other benefits on a range of systems?

    I am confident in valves security, and customer service. So i am very interested in knowing the potential.

    My pc is getting old, and i could certainly try to use some help. Also i have no problems turning it into a steam box only...but is it possible to use two different hard drives and thus two OSes? The reason woild be to use the same machine for work and using excel etc.

    “Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble”

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531

    Steam OS is basically a new distribution of Linux.  Its major advantage over WIndows is that you get to skip paying $100 for a Windows license.  Or for pirates, you get to skip Microsoft's efforts at breaking your system.

    While it will be more secure against typical real-world malware and such, that's only because nearly everyone uses Windows, and so nearly all malware targets Windows.   If Steam OS were to someday rival Windows in market share, it might not still be more secure than Windows, and could easily be less secure.

    Driver support will be much, much worse than on Windows.  Hardware vendors tend to put more effort into writing Windows drivers than Linux, because that's what most consumers use.  Furthermore, Microsoft puts a ton of effort into writing Windows drivers for hardware that they didn't make; Valve isn't going to do likewise.  This is a major part of what you're paying for when you buy Windows.

    Note that the Steam system requirements require an Nvidia video card at the moment, for example.  Or perhaps more subtle is the requirement of UEFI support, which for desktop motherboards, basically means released in 2011 or later.  It also requires a 64-bit processor, which excludes Intel Atom.  Steam OS is making no effort at being backward compatible to ancient hardware the way that Windows does.  That said, if the support for the hardware you have is there, this could be fine.

    I'd expect loading time and performance to not be much different from Windows.  Game performance might be a little worse because AMD and Nvidia don't put the same effort into optimizing for Linux or even OpenGL, but it usually won't be a big gap when the game works.  But "when it works" is a huge caveat; DirectX is not available on Linux, so many games won't run at all.

    You can install both Steam OS and Windows on the same computer.  You can probably do it on separate partitions of a single hard drive, even, though I haven't looked into Steam OS in very much detail.

    But you'd probably find it much easier to move your work stuff over than gaming.  A lot of productivity software is already available for Linux.  While Microsoft software isn't available for Linux, there are alternatives.  For example, you can't run Excel, but you can get LibreOffice Calc--and free.  But most commercial games use DirectX, and that isn't available for Linux at all.

    -----

    Ultimately, if all goes well, what Valve gets out of it is two things:

    1)  People using an OS that pushes Steam means more people using Steam.  Steam OS will push you to use Steam for gaming in roughly the sense that Windows pushes you to use Internet Explorer.  Or perhaps in the sense that Windows 8 pushes you to use the start screen.  You don't absolutely have to, but it will be set up as the default, and so a lot of people will use it who wouldn't otherwise.

    2)  Skipping the $100 Windows license means more people looking for a budget gaming system will see a desktop running Steam OS as a viable alternative to consoles than would see a more expensive Windows system that way.  On a $1500 budget, the Windows license doesn't make that big of a deal.  But on a console-like $500 budget, you can get much better hardware if you don't need an OS license that eats up $100 of your budget.  More gamers using PCs rather than consoles likely means more people buying games through Steam.

    -----

    Steam OS could end up being hugely disruptive to the market and claiming considerable market share.  Or it could completely flop and be just another Linux distribution--and not necessarily even a relatively good one.  I'd regard the latter as being more likely than the former.  But the former is likely enough that Microsoft should be very worried.  They've already lost tablets and cell phones to Linux (Android), though Google had the advantage of attacking a market where there wasn't a long-entrenched incumbent.  If anything, the dominant OS was iOS, but Apple was kind enough to ensure that all iOS devices would be very expensive, which gave Google a lot of space to undercut on price.

    But if Steam OS gets considerable market share, game makers will build for it.  If that happens, more and more gamers could easily decide that Linux is good enough and they don't need to pay $100 for Windows.  If that happens and people also decide that Libre Office is a good enough alternative to Microsoft Office, Microsoft's two big profit streams could well dry up.  I'm not predicting that that will happen soon, but it's plausible enough that Microsoft should worry.

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910

    Awww, you beat me to it.

    Well, keep in mind:

    1) No dual booting. It'll wipe everything on the machine.

    2) Only works with Nvidia cards for now.

    3) It has a desktop mode, so regular Debian packages can be downloaded and used.

    4) No streaming yet.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • IncomparableIncomparable Member UncommonPosts: 1,138
    Originally posted by Quizzical

    Steam OS is basically a new distribution of Linux.  Its major advantage over WIndows is that you get to skip paying $100 for a Windows license.  Or for pirates, you get to skip Microsoft's efforts at breaking your system.

    While it will be more secure against typical real-world malware and such, that's only because nearly everyone uses Windows, and so nearly all malware targets Windows.   If Steam OS were to someday rival Windows in market share, it might not still be more secure than Windows, and could easily be less secure.

    Driver support will be much, much worse than on Windows.  Hardware vendors tend to put more effort into writing Windows drivers than Linux, because that's what most consumers use.  Furthermore, Microsoft puts a ton of effort into writing Windows drivers for hardware that they didn't make; Valve isn't going to do likewise.  This is a major part of what you're paying for when you buy Windows.

    Note that the Steam system requirements require an Nvidia video card at the moment, for example.  Or perhaps more subtle is the requirement of UEFI support, which for desktop motherboards, basically means released in 2011 or later.  It also requires a 64-bit processor, which excludes Intel Atom.  Steam OS is making no effort at being backward compatible to ancient hardware the way that Windows does.  That said, if the support for the hardware you have is there, this could be fine.

    I'd expect loading time and performance to not be much different from Windows.  Game performance might be a little worse because AMD and Nvidia don't put the same effort into optimizing for Linux or even OpenGL, but it usually won't be a big gap when the game works.  But "when it works" is a huge caveat; DirectX is not available on Linux, so many games won't run at all.

    You can install both Steam OS and Windows on the same computer.  You can probably do it on separate partitions of a single hard drive, even, though I haven't looked into Steam OS in very much detail.

    But you'd probably find it much easier to move your work stuff over than gaming.  A lot of productivity software is already available for Linux.  While Microsoft software isn't available for Linux, there are alternatives.  For example, you can't run Excel, but you can get LibreOffice Calc--and free.  But most commercial games use DirectX, and that isn't available for Linux at all.

    -----

    Ultimately, if all goes well, what Valve gets out of it is two things:

    1)  People using an OS that pushes Steam means more people using Steam.  Steam OS will push you to use Steam for gaming in roughly the sense that Windows pushes you to use Internet Explorer.  Or perhaps in the sense that Windows 8 pushes you to use the start screen.  You don't absolutely have to, but it will be set up as the default, and so a lot of people will use it who wouldn't otherwise.

    2)  Skipping the $100 Windows license means more people looking for a budget gaming system will see a desktop running Steam OS as a viable alternative to consoles than would see a more expensive Windows system that way.  On a $1500 budget, the Windows license doesn't make that big of a deal.  But on a console-like $500 budget, you can get much better hardware if you don't need an OS license that eats up $100 of your budget.  More gamers using PCs rather than consoles likely means more people buying games through Steam.

    -----

    Steam OS could end up being hugely disruptive to the market and claiming considerable market share.  Or it could completely flop and be just another Linux distribution--and not necessarily even a relatively good one.  I'd regard the latter as being more likely than the former.  But the former is likely enough that Microsoft should be very worried.  They've already lost tablets and cell phones to Linux (Android), though Google had the advantage of attacking a market where there wasn't a long-entrenched incumbent.  If anything, the dominant OS was iOS, but Apple was kind enough to ensure that all iOS devices would be very expensive, which gave Google a lot of space to undercut on price.

    But if Steam OS gets considerable market share, game makers will build for it.  If that happens, more and more gamers could easily decide that Linux is good enough and they don't need to pay $100 for Windows.  If that happens and people also decide that Libre Office is a good enough alternative to Microsoft Office, Microsoft's two big profit streams could well dry up.  I'm not predicting that that will happen soon, but it's plausible enough that Microsoft should worry.

    Very informative. Thank you sir.

    I think Valve has a good chance since they already have a presence in the gaming genre for the PC. They can get some devs to jump in, but of course it becomes a business decision for them to help valve to help them.

    Its a big risk, and I hope it pays off, since it seems it will help a lot of people looking for mid range PCs/ mid range steam boxes that have good hardware for the budget price but are PC's and not consoles.

    “Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble”

  • UhwopUhwop Member UncommonPosts: 1,791
    Originally posted by Incomparable

    And will the steam OS will be something that is more dedicated to give pc machines on med., low and even high end a perfomance boost in gaming?

    What are the benefits of using this interface? Security wise, driver support wise, loading time wise, again performance wise, and all other benefits on a range of systems?

    I am confident in valves security, and customer service. So i am very interested in knowing the potential.

    My pc is getting old, and i could certainly try to use some help. Also i have no problems turning it into a steam box only...but is it possible to use two different hard drives and thus two OSes? The reason woild be to use the same machine for work and using excel etc.

    Steam OS is geared more towards your living room and less towards your desktop.  This is more to do with Valves entrance into the "console" marketplace.  They're not trying to replace windows, they're trying to get your steam library into your living room where you can sit on a couch and play with a controller in hand. 

     

    The number of games that will be available, initially, will be limited as the games need to be ported over to run on Linux.  However, you'll be able to stream your games from your PC steam library over the Steam OS and play them that way. 

     

    If you're familiar with stuff like Xbox live, and playstation network market places, this is pretty much what steam is doing.  It's an OS built around steam, and playing your library of steam games, in the living room; not for competing with Microsoft and replacing Windows. 

  • zevianzevian Member UncommonPosts: 403

    Steams os/box success relies on the game programmers success in making games that support Linux. (and the big business behind them seeing a profit there)

     

     

    Hopefully we see some development on that end,   if not be prepared to have 2 pc's in your house.  1 steamos box, and 1 windows box to stream those game to your steambox.

  • UhwopUhwop Member UncommonPosts: 1,791
    Originally posted by Incomparable
    Originally posted by Quizzical

    Steam OS is basically a new distribution of Linux.  Its major advantage over WIndows is that you get to skip paying $100 for a Windows license.  Or for pirates, you get to skip Microsoft's efforts at breaking your system.

    While it will be more secure against typical real-world malware and such, that's only because nearly everyone uses Windows, and so nearly all malware targets Windows.   If Steam OS were to someday rival Windows in market share, it might not still be more secure than Windows, and could easily be less secure.

    Driver support will be much, much worse than on Windows.  Hardware vendors tend to put more effort into writing Windows drivers than Linux, because that's what most consumers use.  Furthermore, Microsoft puts a ton of effort into writing Windows drivers for hardware that they didn't make; Valve isn't going to do likewise.  This is a major part of what you're paying for when you buy Windows.

    Note that the Steam system requirements require an Nvidia video card at the moment, for example.  Or perhaps more subtle is the requirement of UEFI support, which for desktop motherboards, basically means released in 2011 or later.  It also requires a 64-bit processor, which excludes Intel Atom.  Steam OS is making no effort at being backward compatible to ancient hardware the way that Windows does.  That said, if the support for the hardware you have is there, this could be fine.

    I'd expect loading time and performance to not be much different from Windows.  Game performance might be a little worse because AMD and Nvidia don't put the same effort into optimizing for Linux or even OpenGL, but it usually won't be a big gap when the game works.  But "when it works" is a huge caveat; DirectX is not available on Linux, so many games won't run at all.

    You can install both Steam OS and Windows on the same computer.  You can probably do it on separate partitions of a single hard drive, even, though I haven't looked into Steam OS in very much detail.

    But you'd probably find it much easier to move your work stuff over than gaming.  A lot of productivity software is already available for Linux.  While Microsoft software isn't available for Linux, there are alternatives.  For example, you can't run Excel, but you can get LibreOffice Calc--and free.  But most commercial games use DirectX, and that isn't available for Linux at all.

    -----

    Ultimately, if all goes well, what Valve gets out of it is two things:

    1)  People using an OS that pushes Steam means more people using Steam.  Steam OS will push you to use Steam for gaming in roughly the sense that Windows pushes you to use Internet Explorer.  Or perhaps in the sense that Windows 8 pushes you to use the start screen.  You don't absolutely have to, but it will be set up as the default, and so a lot of people will use it who wouldn't otherwise.

    2)  Skipping the $100 Windows license means more people looking for a budget gaming system will see a desktop running Steam OS as a viable alternative to consoles than would see a more expensive Windows system that way.  On a $1500 budget, the Windows license doesn't make that big of a deal.  But on a console-like $500 budget, you can get much better hardware if you don't need an OS license that eats up $100 of your budget.  More gamers using PCs rather than consoles likely means more people buying games through Steam.

    -----

    Steam OS could end up being hugely disruptive to the market and claiming considerable market share.  Or it could completely flop and be just another Linux distribution--and not necessarily even a relatively good one.  I'd regard the latter as being more likely than the former.  But the former is likely enough that Microsoft should be very worried.  They've already lost tablets and cell phones to Linux (Android), though Google had the advantage of attacking a market where there wasn't a long-entrenched incumbent.  If anything, the dominant OS was iOS, but Apple was kind enough to ensure that all iOS devices would be very expensive, which gave Google a lot of space to undercut on price.

    But if Steam OS gets considerable market share, game makers will build for it.  If that happens, more and more gamers could easily decide that Linux is good enough and they don't need to pay $100 for Windows.  If that happens and people also decide that Libre Office is a good enough alternative to Microsoft Office, Microsoft's two big profit streams could well dry up.  I'm not predicting that that will happen soon, but it's plausible enough that Microsoft should worry.

    Very informative. Thank you sir.

    I think Valve has a good chance since they already have a presence in the gaming genre for the PC. They can get some devs to jump in, but of course it becomes a business decision for them to help valve to help them.

    Its a big risk, and I hope it pays off, since it seems it will help a lot of people looking for mid range PCs/ mid range steam boxes that have good hardware for the budget price but are PC's and not consoles.

    As per Valve, if you install steamOS on a PC, it's wiping everything else on that PC.  Steam is not intended to replace your windows as a new operating system, it's intended to be installed on a box that you sit your living room, plugged into your TV, to allow you to play your steam library someplace other than your computer desk. 

    It's simply an OS dedicated to running steam games, in much the same way that Xbox and Playstation have an OS dedicated to running their games.  Unlike Xbox and PS, you can't download their OS onto an empty PC you have laying around and play the games, you can with the Steam OS. 

     

    Again, it is not a replacement or alternative to windows, it's an OS dedicated to running steam and their library of games in their living room.  It's a "console" OS that you can install on a PC. 

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531
    Originally posted by lizardbones


    1) No dual booting. It'll wipe everything on the machine.
     

    Valve's instructions will install Steam OS only and wipe everything else, but I'd be surprised if it's completely impossible to dual boot at all.  That's handled by the BIOS before any OS is loaded, isn't it?

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531
    Originally posted by zevian

    Hopefully we see some development on that end,   if not be prepared to have 2 pc's in your house.  1 steamos box, and 1 windows box to stream those game to your steambox.

    If you were going to do that, then why not just use the Windows box and skip the steambox since it isn't adding anything besides latency and cost?

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910

    Originally posted by Quizzical
    Originally posted by lizardbones 1) No dual booting. It'll wipe everything on the machine.  
    Valve's instructions will install Steam OS only and wipe everything else, but I'd be surprised if it's completely impossible to dual boot at all.  That's handled by the BIOS before any OS is loaded, isn't it?

    Unless something has changed in the way BIOS works, which is possible as I haven't built a new machine in years, the BIOS looks for the bootloader on the provided list of drives, and then the bootloader handles loading the OS or OSes.

    I would say it's definitely not impossible to dualboot SteamOS. If the bootloader that comes up will boot into multiple OSes, then the user can boot into whatever is there. It really depends on their installer. If the installer repartitions the drive, it might be tricky, but if another OS is on another drive, it should be fairly trivial by installing a different bootloader or modifying the configs for the provided bootloader.

    I just don't have an extra machine to nuke right now, so I have to wait for the Youtube videos to show up.

    **

    Valve is just covering their butt.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910

    Originally posted by Quizzical
    Originally posted by zevian Hopefully we see some development on that end,   if not be prepared to have 2 pc's in your house.  1 steamos box, and 1 windows box to stream those game to your steambox.
    If you were going to do that, then why not just use the Windows box and skip the steambox since it isn't adding anything besides latency and cost?

    People won't have a full tower case that won't fit in an entertainment center sitting next to their television.

    People can stream games to a laptop that isn't capable of playing games well.

    People might want to sometimes play games in their game room, and sometimes in their living room.

    **

    Edited for clarity. The paragraph thing just wasn't working for me.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • HulluckHulluck Member UncommonPosts: 839

    I just don't see the point of this currently.  Seems liked they are rushing to get it out there half working. As of right now there is zero reason for me not to just unplug my machine from where it is and use an HDMI to have it set up in the living room if that's what I choose.  For that matter I could buy a 50 ft hdmi or longer fairly cheap. Run it under the carpet / through the walls and not move my pc.  (Edit: Would have to find extensions I guess for controllers or whatever,  if they make them. Partially  thought that through.)

    Is their main goal eventually to tap into the console market? Other than having an os that is extremely limited what is the purpose currently or even in the future? Definitely feels rushed (which could leave a bad taste in peoples mouth). Support for one gpu type, crazy? What does it solve other than being free? I read Quiz's post and it's a good read. Seems like there's nothing there other than something to tinker with for those that like that sort of thing.  I'm sure this will change.

    On the up side. Maybe this will help unify linux developers? That would be nice. Competition is always good and Microsoft could definitely use some real competition. 

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910

    Originally posted by Torvaldr
    What is the advantage of using SteamOS instead of installing Steam on Mint or your favorite distribution?

    I installed Steam on Ubuntu and it seems to work fine. There is some low level stuff that Valve could do with a distribution that they couldn't do with an installed application though.

    Picking a specific window manager because the way the wm is optimized works better for games and loading specific kernel modules and throwing out unnecessary ones are two things that might benefit from a distro versus an application.

    I suppose it's the difference between an OS that does gaming first and other stuff second versus an OS that does general stuff first, and gaming second.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • scholesscholes Member UncommonPosts: 75

    You should be able to install it onto a virtual PC - ie Oracle VM Virtualbox.

    You need to have a ISO file of the install disc.

     

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    Originally posted by scholes
    You should be able to install it onto a virtual PC - ie Oracle VM Virtualbox.You need to have a ISO file of the install disc. 

    The UEFI BIOS requirement may nix the VM option. That and video card drivers, since VM's tend to use custom generic SVGA drivers, and not allow the host to talk directly to the video hardware.

    VirtualBox has "experimental" EFI Bios support. https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#efi

    I do encourage you to try it though and let me know how it goes. There's a chance it ~may~ work, after all.

  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,414

    Looks more like a console alternative than an OS alternative. I would more than likely dual boot it if I had the option.

  • NitthNitth Member UncommonPosts: 3,904

    Cant see this working out well on so many levels.

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    TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development

  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,414
    When you are developing a game for anything other than Windows and Xbox, you are pretty much developing it for some Linux Distro. As a developer, deploying through a Steam OS is much more beneficial than other platforms because of licensing fees. As a customer its more convenient to dual boot Steam OS instead of buying a console.
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