A new section of Steam's website has opened with a countdown that will end on Monday with the first of three announcements for Steam in the living room.
Pretty exciting to think about what this will all really mean for Linux and a Steam Box. If they don't announce a Steam Box then I think everyone will be pretty surprised.
It does beg the question though, will you be buying an official Steam Box for your big screen TV when it comes out, when you already have your PC/Laptop?
What are your thoughts?
SteamLast year, we shipped a software feature called Big Picture, a user-interface tailored for televisions and gamepads.
This year we’ve been working on even more ways to connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living-room.
Soon, we’ll be adding you to our design process, so that you can help us shape the future of Steam.
Pretty exciting to think about what this will all really mean for Linux and a Steam Box. If they don't announce a Steam Box then I think everyone will be pretty surprised.
It does beg the question though, will you be buying an official Steam Box for your big screen TV when it comes out, when you already have your PC/Laptop?
What are your thoughts?
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
Quoting: liamdaweI highly doubt they will make it lose compatibility with mainstream desktop distro's.
Games would need to be recompiled for them yet again if they did an Android type of thing later on, if they where going to do that they would do it from the start.
They already have their own locked down store - Steam itself, they don't need to lock out the OS later on when they have the store that everyone has to use for Steam games anyway.
they would not need to recompile if they keep on a linux based OS but they can customise gfx drivers, sdl libraries etc to get the best out of that box. it can easly becomes its own eco system. They can not remain compatible with mainstream desktops for long once Mir on one side and Wayland on the other side will replace X
anyways, been thinking a bit more and got 2 options:
- a box with a linux based OS but sort of locked and going its own way in the end so its a fixed thing against which big AAA publisher can work again.
- a box which is like the Vita TV, a small boxed (in this case on a linux based OS) which you hook up to our tv and it will stream your steam games to that, that would solve the issue of windows users losing all their games as you basicly still play on you pc no matter what it will be.
a well time will tell.
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I just don't see them locking out desktop Linux, they would lock out their newest customer base by doing that.
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To had to the comment of philio550c, there is a tutorial to install the "Steam Desktop" to your Ubuntu platform:
Unfortunately it's a french ubuntu wiki. There is a command line to execute that will add a Steam Icon in your lightdm login desktop selector:
Take a look at #4:
http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/steam
or
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thor27-gmail/steam-desktop && sudo apt-get update --quiet && sudo apt-get install steam-login --quiet
This is just a cut&paste of what you will find in #4 of the wiki.
It will let you login directly in BigPicture Mode. Considering the fact that Unity is not running in the background and the fact that it's faster than unity, your in-game fps should go up a bit. :)
Go Steam go!
Unfortunately it's a french ubuntu wiki. There is a command line to execute that will add a Steam Icon in your lightdm login desktop selector:
Take a look at #4:
http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/steam
or
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thor27-gmail/steam-desktop && sudo apt-get update --quiet && sudo apt-get install steam-login --quiet
This is just a cut&paste of what you will find in #4 of the wiki.
It will let you login directly in BigPicture Mode. Considering the fact that Unity is not running in the background and the fact that it's faster than unity, your in-game fps should go up a bit. :)
Go Steam go!
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Quoting: MohandevirTo had to the comment of philio550c, there is a tutorial to install the "Steam Desktop" to your Ubuntu platform:I tried it some time ago and couldn't make it work (after login it would just display the blank desktop without launching Steam).
[...]
Anyway, I guess that Valve will release a distro (custom Ubuntu with their own repos) and/or a tutorial for creating a "SteamBox desktop environement" in addition to the machine itself.
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Android is Linux based too and every day uncountable games come up for Android.
Are they playable on desktop Linux? no.
I don't think portable gaming is any good for desktop Linux.
Linux is being used right now by big companies like google or valve and they take all the good stuff and make it closed source to gain profit but don't give anything back.
I really liked Valve for its Linux support but as time goes by you can see what Valve was really planning.
I would really love to be proven wrong in the future.
Are they playable on desktop Linux? no.
I don't think portable gaming is any good for desktop Linux.
Linux is being used right now by big companies like google or valve and they take all the good stuff and make it closed source to gain profit but don't give anything back.
I really liked Valve for its Linux support but as time goes by you can see what Valve was really planning.
I would really love to be proven wrong in the future.
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It's going to be awefully ironic if Gabe Newell gives the LinuxCon keynote talking about how PC gaming is out-innovating consoles because the hardware is much more open, saying that closed systems are not the future of gaming, bringing up open source Linux as being able to unify the PC/console gaming experience with an allusion to the upcoming Steambox ... and then Valve comes out with a locked-down Steambox that only runs ValveLinux TM.
Is Gabe Newell known for making public announcements that make him look like an idiot? Not to my knowledge! I think Liam is right to be optimistic about openness of at least the first couple generations of Steambox. Not "Free" as in FSF, but open as in normal Linux gaming hardware with binary graphics drivers.
Is Gabe Newell known for making public announcements that make him look like an idiot? Not to my knowledge! I think Liam is right to be optimistic about openness of at least the first couple generations of Steambox. Not "Free" as in FSF, but open as in normal Linux gaming hardware with binary graphics drivers.
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Quoting: abelthorneI tried it some time ago and couldn't make it work (after login it would just display the blank desktop without launching Steam).This is sad... I'm using it on 3 systems and the only problems I had were all related to AMD videocard drivers. I mean I was able to get it to work, but you have to find the right catalyst version.
I don't want to start an AMD vs Nividia vs Intel discussion here. This is just my observation based on my personal experience. Hopefully it will give you some hints to help you fix your problem, if you're willing to give it a try.
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Quoting: Mohandeviroh, I was just trying it as a test, didn't expect anythingspecial from it. Besides, I think that was not long after it was released so might have been a bit buggy. If I really wanted to have a Steam session, I'd do it myself (but using OpenBox). ;)Quoting: Quote from abelthorneI tried it some time ago and couldn't make it work (after login it would just display the blank desktop without launching Steam).This is sad... I'm using it on 3 systems and the only problems I had were all related to AMD videocard drivers. I mean I was able to get it to work, but you have to find the right catalyst version.
I don't want to start an AMD vs Nividia vs Intel discussion here. This is just my observation based on my personal experience. Hopefully it will give you some hints to help you fix your problem, if you're willing to give it a try.
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Not sure if somebody already linked to this (I haven't read all the comments):
http://steamdb.info/blog/24/
http://steamdb.info/blog/24/
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Source 2 is a possibility as well after all they need an a new engine and what a better time to announce one?
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