Comment by giancarlostoro | Hacker News Reader

Comment by giancarlostoro | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if anyone will ever have the guts to enter the gaming console market using open source as a base. Linux support for GPUs has never been better than what it is today. I've spent the last 4 or 5 years gaming exclusively on Linux just to highlight how good it has gotten, and no I don't have to run around doing command line incantations. Linux has improved a lot, heck, even AI you have a drastically better experience working with AI on Linux than on Windows (which hearing this 10 years ago would have confused me given how many issues I had with my GPUs on Linux for YEARS).

All someone has to do is assemble a reasonable desktop that runs Linux, gives you access to GOG and Steam, and you've already got more games than most game consoles, the issue right now I suppose would be moreso hardware costs.

You would also want to make sure your Desktop Environment is fine tuned with a controller in mind.

If you can read games from discs, you'd be getting the attention of many people. The facts are that most people have always bought digital over discs but when you take that away, and it becomes clear that they could lose their games forever, everyone wants CDs back.

You're literally describing the steam machine/steam deck. Also, bazzite is an immuable distro based on silverblue that does pretty much exactly what you described.

I know there's some issues with big picture mode and Nvidia, but that's an Nvidia driver problem, not a limitation of the platform.

Steam says hi: https://store.steampowered.com/hardware/

Though one could argue that Linux GPU support is as good as it is because of Steam.

> I wonder if anyone will ever have the guts to enter the gaming console market using open source as a base.

It's definitely possible, but I suspect that Valve (or some other major player) must first prove the concept to be viable for a business.

e.g. The Steam Deck wasn't the first PC gaming handheld made, but it was the one that proved there was a viable market, which led to a bunch of competitors following Valve's lead.

The Steam Machine, unfortunately, botched the execution due to high pricing. If pricing had been good, I'm guessing that it too could have been the proof-of-concept needed to jump start the market.

Like the Steam Machine? Or do you mean open hardware too?

You can stream Big Picture with tools like Sunshine/Moonlight or their forks. Works amazingly well over a LAN if you have a server somewhere and stream to something connected to the TV. I have a headless server and an NVIDIA GPU so not sure what the sibling comment is referring to about compatibility.

Is this not the Steam Machine? Provides a console-like experience with its controller and SteamOS.

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