For people new to to this whole Steam/SteamOS thing, who like me have Roku, iPad, and XBox, etc., why a having a box with SteamOS a good thing to have? It currently doesn't have HBO Go, Netflix, or Hulu on it, so not truly a STB that I want. Is it a just competitor to game consoles?
In the end the SteamOS box might put the beginning to the end of DirectX over OpenGL for PC gaming which is good for more games on nix and mac as it is easier porting. I am excited for anything that starts to make console gaming more like PC gaming and nix based gaming systems focused on OpenGL.
This also moves away from the proprietary console hardware and libs that make that more costly to develop, granted XBox and PS are now x86 based to help that more. SteamOS may help standardize across consoles that anything standard OpenGL/CL etc will be more portable rather than locked to console manufacturers with their high devkit prices and selective publishing.
If you're unable to come up with an answer on your own, the answer is you shouldn't.