My last phone cost me 9 €. I'm not interested in VR equipment. You're saying there's a connection?

In some ways that kind of proves my point. We don't NEED 700-900 dollar phones, but they're popular enough that people still buy them. I've wanted a VR setup for 20+ years (ever since Atari announced the VR headset for the Jaguar but was never released).

I had already pre-ordered it, but when I asked HTC Customer support if SteamOS would be supported, this is the response I got from a Ben-Hur with HTC:

QuoteThank you for contacting HTC Vive support.

For now, HTC Vive only works with Windows platform. There is a big possibility that it will work with SteamOS in the future but we can not confirm that as of today.

Let me know if I have successfully answered your question

Needless to say, I quickly asked how to cancel my order and promptly cancelled. I have to say, I'm really disappointed with HTC for not supporting SteamOS or for having a customer support group that is misinformed:

QuoteFor the cancellation of your order, please contact our Online Store at 888 216 4736 and make sure to have your order number ready.

Let me know if I have successfully answered your question,

I wouldn't buy anything until it will be confirmed that it's not tied to Steam. Controller already got busted on this front, and some say that Vive will have the same problem.

Well, I'm mostly buying it for Elite, which isn't currently on Linux anyhow. But I'd be surprised it if didn't work on things that already support some head tracking features, like Euro Truck simulator, but maybe I'm 100% wrong there.

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/htc-vive-plans-linuxsteamos-support-for-day-1.5794/page=2

There was this, maybe the person that replied just didn't know?

Also, there is a package within Debian unstable called 'steam-devices' which adds udev rules for the steam controller and the HTC Vive.

cat /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules
# Valve USB devices
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"
# Steam Controller udev write access
KERNEL=="uinput", SUBSYSTEM=="misc", TAG+="uaccess"
# HTC Vive HID Sensor naming and permissioning
KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bb4", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2c87", MODE="0666"

http://www.roadtovr.com/valve-steamvr-mac-linux-best-vr-web-browser-video/

Another article stating that the Vive has Linux support. It's just a matter if the games want to support it, when looking at SteamVR supported games that run natively in Linux, I currently only have Descent: Underground listed and of course the SteamVR application listed. But I believe ARK also has VR support, it's just not listed under SteamVR as yet.

That's what I thought as well (day 1 support for SteamOS), but the customer support guy wasn't even unsure in his answer. He sounded pretty definitive.

In the store.steampowered.com page, though, the following are the games listed using "SteamOS/Linux" and "HTC Vive supported" filters:

Crystal Rift
Spermination
5089: The Action RPG
Descent: Underground
World of Diving
4089: Ghost Within
'n Verlore Verstand
Caffeine
Marble Mountain

So definitely quite a few, but perhaps there was an issue with the Vive driver development?

Anyway, it's too bad. I would've been an early adopter.

I've recently searched on this site about OSVR and the Razer headset, but nothing came up. Do any Linux gamers care about this open source competitor?

The price point is much lower than its competitors, but I can't find much information about its actual performance.