Steam on a Chromebook could be closer than we think, with an AMD dGPU model coming

Chromebooks are already great as they are. They're cheap and they can do everything a generalist user need for a tenth of the price of an Apple counterpart.

But if they also start to support steam libraries then there might be a case for buying the premium versions. They would still be cheaper than premium Apple counterparts and able to run more games.

If might help "pure" Linux popularity as well if Chromebooks start to educate people that you don't need to be ripped off by Apple to have a portable pc that actually works. Though, at the same time, ever since Chromebooks I find it harder to justify installing an Ubuntu on a relative's pc given their use case. As opposed to the times when you just had to replace windows with Linux to fix every issue a year old notebook could have, with Chrome OS things just works. In my opinion there are little reasons to "upgrade" to Linux from Chrome OS if your a generic user, gaming being probably the only one until borealis takes it away.


Last edited by Mal on 15 July 2021 at 2:10 pm UTC

I've always said hardware is what we need. Hardware on shelves in stores and in more well-known online shops, it is the missing key.

Not just hardware in shops, although that is very important. Getting prospective customers to already have familiarity with the product so that they'll want to buy it is also very useful. Microsoft did it with business machines, so people bought the same thing to use at home. Apple and Microsoft have both tried to get a stranglehold on the education market at various times and, at the moment, Chromebooks are dominant there. With more other reasons to use them it's more likely that the cheap Chromebook they got from school could translate into a more premium Chromebook model, or a Chromebook as their own first computer, later. Google doesn't really care if it's a premium model or a cheapie, but the manufacturers will be after the higher margins and more sales. If Chromebooks expose sufficient Linuxness then the users might not be scared away from upgrading to a full Linux machine in those circumstances, since they'll already be familiar with it.

For these "Steam on (device)" things I hope they have some sort of certification thing going so that people using Steam on these devices can easily tell which games work.

I've always said hardware is what we need. Hardware on shelves in stores and in more well-known online shops, it is the missing key.

Not just hardware in shops, although that is very important. Getting prospective customers to already have familiarity with the product so that they'll want to buy it is also very useful. Microsoft did it with business machines, so people bought the same thing to use at home. Apple and Microsoft have both tried to get a stranglehold on the education market at various times and, at the moment, Chromebooks are dominant there. With more other reasons to use them it's more likely that the cheap Chromebook they got from school could translate into a more premium Chromebook model, or a Chromebook as their own first computer, later. Google doesn't really care if it's a premium model or a cheapie, but the manufacturers will be after the higher margins and more sales. If Chromebooks expose sufficient Linuxness then the users might not be scared away from upgrading to a full Linux machine in those circumstances, since they'll already be familiar with it.

An interesting point that, and I do agree fully that familiarity sells often and quite well so if more people end up sticking with Chromebooks and it pulls more onto the Linux version of Steam - still a net win for us overall.

I'm wondering if SteamPal's futur OS isn't going to be ChromiumOS based... Just a tought.

I'm wondering if SteamPal's futur OS isn't going to be ChromiumOS based... Just a tought.

Nope, absolutely not. It will be a new version of SteamOS, of that I'm 100% certain ;)

Edit: told you |:P


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 15 July 2021 at 6:15 pm UTC

An interesting point that, and I do agree fully that familiarity sells often and quite well so if more people end up sticking with Chromebooks and it pulls more onto the Linux version of Steam - still a net win for us overall.

It was something that Microsoft exploited ruthlessly (as well as when they were starting out) during the netbook era, funding PR saying that Linux was too confusing for inexperienced users, and extending the life of XP and making it free, to starve of oxygen any low-cost competition to their desktop dominance.

Android is the most widely-used consumer OS these days, so Microsoft don't have the muscle that they used to, but people are still people so the same dynamics will apply. Sauce for the goose.

I'm wondering if SteamPal's futur OS isn't going to be ChromiumOS based... Just a tought.

Valve won't want to be beholden to Google any more than they want to be beholden to Microsoft.

I'm wondering if SteamPal's futur OS isn't going to be ChromiumOS based... Just a tought.

Valve won't want to be beholden to Google any more than they want to be beholden to Microsoft.

You are probably right (Liam seems to have insights that I don't ), but that's why I wrote ChromiumOS, not ChromeOS. It's the fully open source version of ChromeOS.

Edit: I tried Cloudready's version on a couple of old laptops. Quite lean, reactive and efficient, for what it does. It lacks the official Google Store support, though (for good or bad, depending on your perspective).

Edit2:

I'm wondering if SteamPal's futur OS isn't going to be ChromiumOS based... Just a tought.

Nope, absolutely not. It will be a new version of SteamOS, of that I'm 100% certain ;)

Based on (SteamOS)?

To make it clearer, I still remember PLGriffais mentionning something similar to: "We are tired of dealing with Debian tooling." on his twitter feed, if I remember correctly. So what will SteamOS "3.0" be based on?


Last edited by Mohandevir on 15 July 2021 at 4:01 pm UTC

I think this is a huge win for linux gaming. To be honest i think that the chance linux have on the desktop is with on ChromeOS. It's already industry supported, comes from a recognized brand, has a bigger market-share than mac-os already, compatible with android apps and every laptop sold with it is very well optmized.

Need Steam on VCS :)

'gaming laptop' is already an oxymoron, we're going to need a new descriptor for 'gaming chromebook'.

'gaming laptop' is already an oxymoron, we're going to need a new descriptor for 'gaming chromebook'.

Ha ha! yeah whenever I hear Gaming Laptop, I think "so an overly large chunk of laptop, that you can't ever upgrade, and will be obsolete in a year or two, assuming it doesn't overheat and die sometime before that."

'gaming laptop' is already an oxymoron, we're going to need a new descriptor for 'gaming chromebook'.

Ha ha! yeah whenever I hear Gaming Laptop, I think "so an overly large chunk of laptop, that you can't ever upgrade, and will be obsolete in a year or two, assuming it doesn't overheat and die sometime before that."

and that costs 50% more than a equivalent desktop... pretty much it.

Chromebooks are already great as they are. They're cheap and they can do everything a generalist user need for a tenth of the price of an Apple counterpart.

But if they also start to support steam libraries then there might be a case for buying the premium versions. They would still be cheaper than premium Apple counterparts and able to run more games.

If might help "pure" Linux popularity as well if Chromebooks start to educate people that you don't need to be ripped off by Apple to have a portable pc that actually works. Though, at the same time, ever since Chromebooks I find it harder to justify installing an Ubuntu on a relative's pc given their use case. As opposed to the times when you just had to replace windows with Linux to fix every issue a year old notebook could have, with Chrome OS things just works. In my opinion there are little reasons to "upgrade" to Linux from Chrome OS if your a generic user, gaming being probably the only one until borealis takes it away.

My wife has a Chromebook. And indeed, for her use case it is generally just fine. But a cheap real-Linux box would probably be better. (In theory you can probably stick Linux on my wife's Chromebook, but it looks like it's rather tricky--not like wiping a normal Windows laptop and sticking Linux on it, at all)
The reason has to do with Google's insistence on controlling the experience . . . and the files. This is occasionally irritating in normal use; Chromebooks will let you put a file on the machine itself or into a USB stick or whatever, but they don't want you to and they don't make it easy. Google wants you to be using Google Docs and keeping all your stuff on their cloud. They want you to barely realize your files are anywhere, they certainly don't want you to be controlling them.
This becomes a much bigger problem if something goes wrong . . . which seems to be happening increasingly as the machine gets older and Google want you to buy a new one. A while ago my wife basically lost all her files. The machine had been saying that there would be no more upgrades to the Chrome version on her machine (so she should get a new one), but then something went wrong, and in recovering there was, ironically, some kind of forced upgrade or something, and when the dust settled it had lost her files. They probably exist somewhere on some Google server, but Google said it wasn't able to restore her access or something, so for practical purposes, gone.
There are also occasional annoyances when my wife wants to do something her way rather than Google's way, or wants to do something that's not obviously part of the limited set of things Google has laid out for you to do. This doesn't come up often, but even someone who normally just browses the web, does email and creates a few documents will sometimes want to do something else. On Linux, that means either it's already installed and you check the menus, or you fire up the Software Centre or whatever and install something that does that. On a Chromebook, that means you shrug and do without what you were hoping to do.

So yeah, I think there's still a case for putting a "generic user" on Linux rather than ChromeOS.

That said, this news is still a Good Thing.

I'm wondering if SteamPal's futur OS isn't going to be ChromiumOS based... Just a tought.

Nope, absolutely not. It will be a new version of SteamOS, of that I'm 100% certain ;)

Isn't it about time they hired the GamerOS ChimeraOS people?

Chromebooks are already great as they are. They're cheap and they can do everything a generalist user need for a tenth of the price of an Apple counterpart.

But if they also start to support steam libraries then there might be a case for buying the premium versions. They would still be cheaper than premium Apple counterparts and able to run more games.

If might help "pure" Linux popularity as well if Chromebooks start to educate people that you don't need to be ripped off by Apple to have a portable pc that actually works. Though, at the same time, ever since Chromebooks I find it harder to justify installing an Ubuntu on a relative's pc given their use case. As opposed to the times when you just had to replace windows with Linux to fix every issue a year old notebook could have, with Chrome OS things just works. In my opinion there are little reasons to "upgrade" to Linux from Chrome OS if your a generic user, gaming being probably the only one until borealis takes it away.

My wife has a Chromebook. And indeed, for her use case it is generally just fine. But a cheap real-Linux box would probably be better. (In theory you can probably stick Linux on my wife's Chromebook, but it looks like it's rather tricky--not like wiping a normal Windows laptop and sticking Linux on it, at all)
The reason has to do with Google's insistence on controlling the experience . . . and the files. This is occasionally irritating in normal use; Chromebooks will let you put a file on the machine itself or into a USB stick or whatever, but they don't want you to and they don't make it easy. Google wants you to be using Google Docs and keeping all your stuff on their cloud. They want you to barely realize your files are anywhere, they certainly don't want you to be controlling them.
This becomes a much bigger problem if something goes wrong . . . which seems to be happening increasingly as the machine gets older and Google want you to buy a new one. A while ago my wife basically lost all her files. The machine had been saying that there would be no more upgrades to the Chrome version on her machine (so she should get a new one), but then something went wrong, and in recovering there was, ironically, some kind of forced upgrade or something, and when the dust settled it had lost her files. They probably exist somewhere on some Google server, but Google said it wasn't able to restore her access or something, so for practical purposes, gone.
There are also occasional annoyances when my wife wants to do something her way rather than Google's way, or wants to do something that's not obviously part of the limited set of things Google has laid out for you to do. This doesn't come up often, but even someone who normally just browses the web, does email and creates a few documents will sometimes want to do something else. On Linux, that means either it's already installed and you check the menus, or you fire up the Software Centre or whatever and install something that does that. On a Chromebook, that means you shrug and do without what you were hoping to do.

So yeah, I think there's still a case for putting a "generic user" on Linux rather than ChromeOS.

That said, this news is still a Good Thing.

Ouch! This is the main reason why I will never trust saving my files to a cloud, and treat it more like a backup than where I would store things. Even then, I prefer to backup to my NAS. Also why I woyld never buy a chromebook, and prefer to just buy cheap thinkpads and throw Linux on them.

Edit: told you |:P

Lol! Fair enough... And the answer came much faster than I expected. Never been happier to be proven wrong.

Ha ha! yeah whenever I hear Gaming Laptop, I think "so an overly large chunk of laptop, that you can't ever upgrade, and will be obsolete in a year or two, assuming it doesn't overheat and die sometime before that."

and that costs 50% more than a equivalent desktop... pretty much it.

... and, maybe the most important, doesn't even work unplugged (for more than say an hour). ;)