Valve announces SteamOS :D

[The Joker]

Living room & Steam

Finally, you don’t have to give up your favorite games, your online friends, and all the Steam features you love just to play on the big screen. SteamOS, running on any living room machine, will provide access to the best games and user-generated content available.


Fast forward

In SteamOS, we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level. Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases.


Cooperating system

Steam is not a one-way content broadcast channel, it’s a collaborative many-to-many entertainment platform, in which each participant is a multiplier of the experience for everyone else. With SteamOS, “openness” means that the hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they’ve been able to. Content creators can connect directly to their customers. Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want. Gamers are empowered to join in the creation of the games they love. SteamOS will continue to evolve, but will remain an environment designed to foster these kinds of innovation.

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

[Necuno]

I take it this OS is a fully open system?

[AlphaJohn]

I take it this OS is a fully open system?

Well I guess it will be Linux so yeah open it is?

[The Joker]

Well I guess it will be Linux so yeah open it is?

Yip Linux based.
Pretty awesome though.

Wouldn't it be wicked if we could get a gamers OS instead of having to run something like Windows

[AlphaJohn]

Yip Linux based.
Pretty awesome though.

Wouldn't it be wicked if we could get a gamers OS instead of having to run something like Windows

Joke is I see Windows a a Gamers OS and run Linux as my work desktop...

I just hope they did not use Ubuntu as base, but I have a feeling they did

[The Joker]

Joke is I see Windows a a Gamers OS and run Linux as my work desktop...

lol nice

Not a big linux fan but then again I haven't got all that much experience with it.

[Necuno]

Well I guess it will be Linux so yeah open it is?

Going to be kak funny if its locked down like ps3 after his little tantrum

Wouldn't it be wicked if we could get a gamers OS instead of having to run something like Windows

How would DX work... emulation? native? or are we going to see more OpenGL?

DRM?
Day one SteamOS DLC?

Lets see where this one goes

[The Joker]

Going to be kak funny if its locked down like ps3 after his little tantrum


How would DX work... emulation? nativ? or are we going to see more OpenGL?

DRM?
Day one SteamOS DLC?

Lets see where this one goes

Yeah thinking about it now, its not very realistic xD
Would still be awesome though, and I don't see why they can't stick to OpenGL.

[Necuno]

Yeah thinking about it now, its not very realistic xD
Would still be awesome though, and I don't see why they can't stick to OpenGL.

Weren't OpenGL better performance wise?

Heh are we going to kick that one up again

[HavocXphere]

This is great news - better than a steambox announcement. I'm just a hint wary of this part though:

SteamOS will be available soon as a free download for users and as a freely licensable operating system for manufacturers.

Can't say I'm exited by that word tbh. Sounds like it'll have a decent sized closed layer on top of open OS. Lets pray that they execute that with typical valve grace.

On the whole though - EXCITED. Many people including myself can see themselves bailing on windows....except for gaming. Realistically the majority of the crowd reading this spends all their time either in a game, in a web browser or watching a video. Linux has chrome & VLC so thats covered anyway.

Weren't OpenGL better performance wise?

Kinda. In specific tests, OGL was indeed faster than Windows based DX. One needs to keep one thing in mind: That was valve source running on an open source system - assuming they weren't using a closed driver that means the devs can see *all* the source from bottom up. Unlike windows where its "here are the API call specs...deal with it". Naturally that allows for quite a bit of optimizing stuff. Plus they needed a PR announcement...throw enough clever people at an open system & you can bet your socks its going to be fast.

Personally I think OGL is behind DX in pretty much all respects (except for nastiness). Meaning from what I can see its both slower and technologically behind. *However* it is just a hairs width behind...and its not closed MS tech, so I'm all for embracing it. If Valve pushes it then it won't be behind for long.

SteamOS, running on any living room machine, will provide access to the best games and user-generated content available.

Called it...well almost.

Well steambox is pretty much guaranteed to be one of the 3.

I'm thinking something linux related as the 2nd one.