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Comment by RyanZAG | Hacker News Reader

This is basically a similar approach Android took for phones. It leverages off Linux while replacing user facing pieces to give the user a simplified and consistent environment that they expect.

However as with Android, that isn't enough to get it to take off. Android had huge traction problems to start with until they managed to get the big device makers to train users and market the devices. SteamOS is going to have the same rough and long launch period, but the ultimate payoff is very big as the tech is all there and it's just a matter of getting the big game publishers to join up.

As with mobiles and Google, if anybody can succeed in the gaming industry, it's Steam. So I definitely wouldn't write this one off, I think it will take off in a few years time if they can get the big players - both software and hardware - to join up.

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EA won't be there. Blizzard won't be there. Steam is increasingly becoming a great indie platform where the only AAA titles we see on it are Valve's.

In what universe are Grand Theft Auto, Borderlands, Bioshock, Skyrim, Call of Duty, and Saints Row indie titles?

I suspect that like Android, they're going to leverage Linux-the-kernel, but have a user space that is alien to the one common in current Linux servers and desktops.

I can understand: I'd say good riddance to some parts of the userspace myself coughX windows systemcough, but having a few different userspaces is like having the UNIX wars all over again.

PS "The UNIX wars" has a modern space opera ring to it, like something out of an Orson Scott Card book (or JMS script. Or maybe your-favourite author. I don't read enough Sci-Fi to know). And now I have an urge to write a comics^W graphic novel adaptation of the UNIX wars. It'll be glorious!

That seems really unlikely. Steam for Linux runs on Ubuntu as it's platform of choice, and installs via apt-get. They're already running all their games under X and the standard Ubuntu userspace tools, with BigPicture, it would be very surprising for them to fork the platform at this point.

Android made sense because standard linux/X windows applications didn't work on a multi-touch mobile device for a whole host of reasons. PC games work fine on Linux and X.

X has a lot of baggage. And by lot, I mean a few metric tons. The protocol can do things you wouldn't believe, and do that in the most cumbersome way (it was all the range in the Eighties, or so I'm told).

Most of Steam and Steam games don't really use X as anything but a bootstrap for GL, and run full screen, so they could be easily ported to FB+GL (consider that there's already a GTK backend that renders to FB, no X involved).

I don't think so. It will be probably based on Ubuntu LTS

Valve, a AAA developer in their own right, already has plans to release their own hardware & doesn't need to wait for a third party to make hardware for this to succeed. They already have a massive base of customers which have already invested hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, in their Steam libraries so they don't need to build traction. Game consoles, while a significant expense, are not an all or nothing commitment like a cellphone - customers can easily have a Steam box in addition to their PlayStation, Xbox or PC.

It's not really fair to compare this to Android. Android succeeded, not because of Google's user base but because of Google's financial clout. Companies thought that throwing in their lot with Google was a safe bet - there's too much money behind the project for it to fail. People are going to throw in with Valve because it's a smart bet - it's bringing what gamers want to the table.

Like Android had Google users, Steam has a user base already.

I think that will help get people onboard as well. Everything is already right there for you, your friend list, your games, your awards, your wallet.

Getting a box running SteamOS is just another piece of the puzzle for Steam users invested in the ecosystem.

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