A second company has come forward to announce they are no longer doing a Steam Machine, and this time it's Falcon Northwest.
I was hesitant to write about it after hearing about it in our IRC, but with lots of other sites picking it up and noting the weirdness I noticed I decided to cover it.
Venture Beat are the ones to originally cover it.
They aren't saying they will never do one, but right now SteamOS has issues for them:
What annoys me about their article is this section they wrote:
Nothing is more annoying than things like we have heard, as it usually means it's a load of rubbish they wrote themselves. There's nothing more annoying than secret sources of information for something that doesn't need to be a secret like this, especially since SteamOS is an open platform anyone can go and check it.
I have personally installed SteamOS myself, and if you weren't able to have more than one hard drive it wouldn't ask you where you want your boot-loader installed, it would just do it for you. With that said, I can't verify it myself as my Steam Machine is only setup with the single spare drive I had. If any one else in the comments would like to verify it, please do as it sounds very odd to me. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I was hesitant to write about it after hearing about it in our IRC, but with lots of other sites picking it up and noting the weirdness I noticed I decided to cover it.
Venture Beat are the ones to originally cover it.
They aren't saying they will never do one, but right now SteamOS has issues for them:
Quote“We met with Valve about our reservations concerning the limitations of SteamOS with high-end PC builds, and they agreed they were not issues that could be overcome in time for us to launch a Steam Machine this year,” said Kelt Reeves, president of Falcon Northwest in Medford, Oregon. “But they were genuinely interested in working to address them in future SteamOS builds. So the option for us to produce a Steam Machine is still open, and our Tiki PCs have been in production for years as Windows systems and are always ready. But for now, we’ve put our plans to offer a Steam Machine on hold.”
What annoys me about their article is this section they wrote:
QuoteReeves declined to go into specific reasons why. But we have heard that there are some technical challenges with the SteamOS, which is targeted at simpler machines where the number of options for expansion are limited. Right now, for instance, you can only use one graphics card with the SteamOS. And users also can’t use more than one hard disk drive in a system with the SteamOS. Valve is said to be working on adding support for more options, but that isn’t happening fast enough.
Nothing is more annoying than things like we have heard, as it usually means it's a load of rubbish they wrote themselves. There's nothing more annoying than secret sources of information for something that doesn't need to be a secret like this, especially since SteamOS is an open platform anyone can go and check it.
I have personally installed SteamOS myself, and if you weren't able to have more than one hard drive it wouldn't ask you where you want your boot-loader installed, it would just do it for you. With that said, I can't verify it myself as my Steam Machine is only setup with the single spare drive I had. If any one else in the comments would like to verify it, please do as it sounds very odd to me. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
0 Likes
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
The Steam Link undermined the utility of a Steam Machine to the average consumer. Worse still, those who don't give a toss about Linux have seen the performance numbers, and will want to stick with Windows.
This isn't looking good for SteamOS in the long run. I just hope Valve doesn't abandon it altogether by the end of next year.
This isn't looking good for SteamOS in the long run. I just hope Valve doesn't abandon it altogether by the end of next year.
2 Likes, Who?
Luke_Nukem Nov 16, 2015
I think Valve is pinning a lot of it's future on SteamOS, and ultimately wants to diverge away from Windows.
So it is in their best interests to fix any/all issues that crop up.
So it is in their best interests to fix any/all issues that crop up.
3 Likes, Who?
Watching the release of the Steam Machine unfold, I don't know what to think. Part of me feels like I'm watching these pitiful little eggs and the incubator light is blinking on and off with lousy wiring and I'm just thinking "Come on, come on, you lousy piece of &^%!, just hold out long enough to hatch me some chickens!!!" and getting this sinking feeling that it won't.
Another part is starting to feel like rather than a release, I'm basically watching a huge beta. Which maybe means they'll be gathering info on what people felt was missing (IMO polish, multimedia) and they're going to roll out the upgrades and when Alienware's next generation is ready they'll basically do a relaunch.
Still another part thinks "Hell, for all we know despite all the tepid press, lack of big PR and bits of bad news like this, actually the massive Steam sales channel is quietly doing its magic and in the end sales will be quite big."
Just don't know what to think.
Another part is starting to feel like rather than a release, I'm basically watching a huge beta. Which maybe means they'll be gathering info on what people felt was missing (IMO polish, multimedia) and they're going to roll out the upgrades and when Alienware's next generation is ready they'll basically do a relaunch.
Still another part thinks "Hell, for all we know despite all the tepid press, lack of big PR and bits of bad news like this, actually the massive Steam sales channel is quietly doing its magic and in the end sales will be quite big."
Just don't know what to think.
5 Likes, Who?
Kimyrielle Nov 16, 2015
I guess they are going through a long process of fine tuning and gradual improvement, like any other Linux distro ever released. At least I have never seen one where the 1.0 was any good. Windows 1.0 was garbage too, btw. ;)
2 Likes, Who?
ZekThePenguin Nov 16, 2015
Meh. Good riddance to Falcon. Wasn't planning to buy their overpriced garbage anyway. They want to stick out as fair-weather partners too? Pretty much guarantees I'll never buy a rig from them.
3 Likes, Who?
Segata Sanshiro Nov 16, 2015
A lot of these companies seem to misunderstand the basic premise of a Steam Machine. It's not supposed to be something that costs upwards of £1000 with two graphics cards... With that kind of outlook I really don't think they would have done too well anyway.
Regardless, with the current offerings I don't see much that can compete with consoles in terms of price or performance. They're mostly either underpowered or overpriced. The Zotac one is the closest thing I've seen to what I think a Steam Machine should be, but it's way too expensive. While the Syber one is in the right price range, but underpowered.
They're still being built with PC gamers in mind, overspending on pointlessly overpowered CPUs or massive HDDs where the bulk of the money should instead be focussed on the graphics card.
Regardless, with the current offerings I don't see much that can compete with consoles in terms of price or performance. They're mostly either underpowered or overpriced. The Zotac one is the closest thing I've seen to what I think a Steam Machine should be, but it's way too expensive. While the Syber one is in the right price range, but underpowered.
They're still being built with PC gamers in mind, overspending on pointlessly overpowered CPUs or massive HDDs where the bulk of the money should instead be focussed on the graphics card.
5 Likes, Who?
ElectricPrism Nov 16, 2015
Falcon Northwest? I don't know who that is. Subsequently I've gone from maybe caring about who they are to not caring. Doesn't hep them at all. My cash will definitely not enter into their wallets now.
Also, no way to add a second hard drive? LOL. I guess no one told them to pre-format the drive and that said drive will auto-mount to /run/...my-user/my-drive/
Anyways Less is More, 3 Primary Steam Machine Manufacturers is plenty for me.
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 16 November 2015 at 8:47 pm UTC
Also, no way to add a second hard drive? LOL. I guess no one told them to pre-format the drive and that said drive will auto-mount to /run/...my-user/my-drive/
Anyways Less is More, 3 Primary Steam Machine Manufacturers is plenty for me.
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 16 November 2015 at 8:47 pm UTC
2 Likes, Who?
MurderousMincePie Nov 16, 2015
Really hoping that Valve stick with SteamOS. They should just have had the Alienware machine and a couple of others honestly and advertised the crap out of them. Granted I've got no marketing experience but I've seen no advertisements for these machines so I doubt people outside of the PC gaming loop will even know they exist.
1 Likes, Who?
It's clear now, Valve have been too kind in thrusting the existing manufacturers, thinking that since they have an enormous interest in the success of Steam Machines and even in the success of alternatives to Windows they would look farther than the short future. These manufacturers are too dumb to save themselves, they prefer to drown their market in PC Master Race dumbsh*t and look at it diminish year after year because people are sick of it and prefer to go to consoles and even tablets than to deal with this. We need something new, I think Alienware get it, but it's not enough, think are not going to change by themselves, we need people to stand up and tell things that need to be told, and neither Alienware nor Valve are doing that right now.
4 Likes, Who?
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me