SteamOS, the Valve-made Linux distribution that was originally for the failed Steam Machine initiative has gradually vanished into the sidelines but it seems it won't be forever.
A while ago, we did see indications that Valve would work on SteamOS 3.0 "Clockwerk" back in 2018 but they've still been very quiet on it since apart from a few minor package updates to SteamOS 2 "Brewmaster".
Valve have been extremely active on other fronts though of course. As a quick bit of history: for Linux they put out Steam Play Proton, the ACO shader compiler for AMD, this new Steam Linux Runtime container system, the micro-compositor Gamescope and there's more with people working on all sorts under contract for Valve to improve Linux.
Still, SteamOS though, what are Valve going to do with it? Sounds like when they go back to it eventually, it might not be Debian-based. In a GitHub issue on the SteamOS page about it "languishing", another user replied with an email from Valve developer Pierre-Loup A. Griffais:
Yes, definitely lots of work still going on. Right now the focus is on core technology itself rather than distributing it, but we intend to get back to that in the future. I wouldn't expect much more movement on Debian-based Brewmaster at this point, however.
"Debian-based Brewmaster"—huh? Speculation here, but that sounds like they might be looking at a different base for whatever SteamOS 3.0 turns into.
One day then, we can clearly expect to see some movement on SteamOS once Valve get all the pieces of the Linux gaming puzzle into a state where they're truly happy with properly pushing it again. Perhaps, this will be after we finally find out what the heck Steam Cloud Gaming(#1, #2) turns out to be? Whenever we find out, we will of course let you know.
Thanks for the tag, mdeguzis.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Mohandevir Mar 25, 2020
But, and there is a big BUT... Please... Please... Please... Valve, stop advertising games on SteamOS, that are only playable on Windows. It doesn't make any sense.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 25 March 2020 at 1:08 pm UTC
Quoting: GuestWhats all that talk about Debian vs Arch? We all know Valve will base the next SteamOS on Gentoo :PMwahaha!
Honestly, not the worst idea, as they can then generate the exact binaries they want to. Gentoo makes it easy to generate a slimlined OS.
But probably not.
rustybroomhandle Mar 25, 2020
Quoting: grigiAll in all, they could still base it on Arch and provide their own repos for "sensitive" stuff for which they want to have more control over.Exactly. They might even use their own repos for everything. Nobody's suggesting they'll just ship stock Arch with Valve branding. We're talking about basing it on Arch (or Gentoo, or something else): either taking a snapshot of the repos every so often and thoroughly testing it, like Canonical do with Debian, or using the Arch tools - ABS, pacman, etc. - to build their own distro from scratch.
Of course, we don't even know if they are dropping Debian. Maybe Pierre-Loup misspoke. Or maybe they're moving to Ubuntu, to bring it in line with the runtime (that always seemed strange to me; why use an Ubuntu-based runtime environment, but “standard” Debian for your distro?). But basing it on Arch wouldn't be the craziest thing in the world.
Quoting: scaineIt could a rolling release under the hood, but it'll still be controlled by Valve, assuming they do it "the console way".I think something like CoreOS or RancherOS is more likely. Just download a minimal OS image as a single blob and overwrite the whole thing. No dependencies, no update breakage. Just like flashing firmware. They are already working on containerizing the games, so they can ship all the dependencies alongside the game, and not have to worry about system dependencies.
Another possibility is using Steam itself for downloading system files. They already have a way to quickly and reliably download large chunks of data, and Proton downloads are "system" files in a way already. There is nothing preventing them from writing data to /usr instead of your home directory. Well, you'd have to tweak the security model, but there are solutions for that like SELinux.
This is all speculation. A semi-educated one.
Quoting: GuestWhats all that talk about Debian vs Arch? We all know Valve will base the next SteamOS on Gentoo :P
Agreed :)
ChromeOS uses Gentoo, so maybe Valve is looking at a similar approach (Steam Cloud and all).
Mohandevir Mar 25, 2020
Quoting: scratchiQuoting: GuestWhats all that talk about Debian vs Arch? We all know Valve will base the next SteamOS on Gentoo :P
Agreed :)
ChromeOS uses Gentoo, so maybe Valve is looking at a similar approach (Steam Cloud and all).
Which comes to this... Again:
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-is-coming-to-googles-chrome-os/
Why not?! :)
(that's how I remember it, so don't quote me on that)
They also said about future SteamOS being possibly image-based (not apt/etc) for better control and consistency, so whatever distro will be based on won't likely be a plain Arch/Debian/whatever with an "SteamOS" sticker slapped on it.
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me