I am not clear, why would someone who owns a working windows running steam, install a linux distro from scratch to play exactly the same stuff he already does?
http://www.steamforlinux.com/?q=en/node/74
Do not underestimate the lengths gamers will go to get to 60 fps.
If Steam ran on Linux, that's one less operating system I have to buy.
It's no secret that Valve is worried about Microsoft's strategy with Windows 8, but Microsoft should be batshit terrified of Valve's strategy. They could lose ground in both the console gaming and consumer OS spaces if they aren't careful.
Whatever happens, in any contest between Steve Ballmer and Gabe Newell, I know who my money's on. If Ballmer were smart he would look to what made Microsoft successful in the first place, and choose incompetent enemies.
But it's the sort of thing that Microsoft would do well to think about as they move to lock down the Windows platform in the face of increased competition.
As a company, Microsoft has always been possessed of the peculiar conceit that their users run Windows for its own sake. (Hence their insistence on branding their cell phones 'Windows Phone X'.) They don't seem to understand that Windows hasn't been a consumer brand since the Windows 95 release, and is unlikely to become one again in the future.
Since Win98 I think.