# [Steam] SteamOS: It's here!



## cam51037

Downloading now!


----------



## Angrybutcher




----------



## Jinglesassy

Anyone else going really slowly and randomly stopping after like 7-20 MB?


----------



## MattGordon

so uh how do I do dual boot...









first time wanting to run a second OS and not just a single one.


----------



## junkerde

so how is it guys?


----------



## Takla

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Jinglesassy*
> 
> Anyone else going really slowly and randomly stopping after like 7-20 MB?


yes alot of people. servers are overloaded (ofc) so you gonna have to keep trying. im gonna update OP with screenshots and news in the meantime.


----------



## cam51037

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Jinglesassy*
> 
> Anyone else going really slowly and randomly stopping after like 7-20 MB?


This explains my experience with it so far.


----------



## mam72

Well I am not being the guinea pig, I don't like using day one releases of things, I let valve iron the kinks out first.

But I am willing to read others experience of it.


----------



## Outcasst

FAQ:

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/648814395741989999/

UEFI Motherboard required? Whaaat.

Also, the installer will wipe everything on the machine?
Quote:


> Intel or AMD 64-bit capable processor
> 4GB or more memory
> 500GB or larger disk
> NVIDIA graphics card (AMD and Intel graphics support coming soon)
> UEFI boot support
> USB port for installation


No installing it on my SSD then...


----------



## Alatar

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Jinglesassy*
> 
> Anyone else going really slowly and randomly stopping after like 7-20 MB?


sounds about right.


----------



## Takla

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Outcasst*
> 
> FAQ:
> 
> http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/648814395741989999/
> 
> UEFI Motherboard required? Whaaat.
> 
> Also, the installer will wipe everything on the machine?


gonna add that to the OP


----------



## Derp

Nvidia only atm. Yet another example of "I should have went green".


----------



## Alatar

*Q: What are the SteamOS Hardware Requirements?*

Intel or AMD 64-bit capable processor
4GB or more memory
500GB or larger disk
NVIDIA graphics card (AMD and Intel graphics support coming soon)
UEFI boot support
USB port for installation


----------



## Mirotvorez113

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *cam51037*
> 
> This explains my experience with it so far.


Same here. I'm wondering how much space exactly is required to install the OS. In FAQ it states 500Gb HDD is required.


----------



## Outcasst

This is actually crazy. Does it anywhere say it's a beta? Those installation instructions are way too hardcore even for a beta, let alone full release. More like alpha stage.


----------



## Outcasst

Go to download file using http://repo.steampowered.com/

rather than linking direct to the file

Works much better


----------



## cam51037

I'm having a hard time believing it needs a 500GB hard drive for installation. If it really does I'll be bummed that I won't be able to install it on my old 80GB hard drive set aside for Linux.


----------



## Outcasst

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *cam51037*
> 
> I'm having a hard time believing it needs a 500GB hard drive for installation. If it really does I'll be bummed that I won't be able to install it on my old 80GB hard drive set aside for Linux.


I'm guessing that it reserves the space for the STEAM application.


----------



## Takla

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Outcasst*
> 
> Go to download file using http://repo.steampowered.com/
> 
> rather than linking direct to the file
> 
> Works much better


thanks. updated op with this link.


----------



## doomlord52

Well, there goes my hope of installing it on my Ultrabook (intel). Well, I guess I'll VB it, or put it on my other laptop.


----------



## superj1977

Whats UEFI boot support mean?
Does my X58 mobo in sig have this or can i forget it









Also those having problems with the download dropping, use Free download manager to download it, then it just resumes if connection is lost.


----------



## Outcasst

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *superj1977*
> 
> Whats UEFI boot support mean?
> Does my X58 mobo in sig have this or can i forget it


I think Gigabyte released UEFI BIOS updates to their X58 boards in January 2011. You would have to check what version you're running.


----------



## Bitech

What can you do on SteamOS besides play games?


----------



## ChompyChob

Yeahh I think I will wait until there are more infos. Because I wanna know if i can install it on the same hdd where i got my win 7 and everything. Dual Boot Style


----------



## Shrak

Debian wheezy


----------



## selk22

Well I was excited to play with this today... Oh well I suppose I can wait for the AMD support as per usual...

As for you guys upset about wiping the HDD, why not just make a disk partition just for Steam OS?


----------



## doomlord52

Can't even download. It stops at ~10mb and just says it's finished.


----------



## Shrak

Seeding as we speak ~


----------



## Outcasst

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *selk22*
> 
> Well I was excited to play with this today... Oh well I suppose I can wait for the AMD support as per usual...
> 
> As for you guys upset about wiping the HDD, why not just make a disk partition just for Steam OS?


Because the FAQ isn't very clear. It says it will wipe ALL data on the machine. To me, that implies every drive will be wiped. Maybe it's just worded badly.

Anyway, I'm going to unplug all my drives apart from my 500GB and give it a go.


----------



## PainKiller89

Confused, do i need to download steamosinstaller or sysrestore?


----------



## Takla

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PainKiller89*
> 
> Confused, do i need to download steamosinstaller or sysrestore?


steamOSinstaller


----------



## Domino

Not even going to bother trying it out. Not worth the time, effort, headaches, nor the problems these people are actually having in just downloading the file. The FAQ is confusing. Valve time used to be a joke, but it seems to be more of a reflection of there new standards. Outside of GO, doesn't sound like Valve is doing any quality work anymore.


----------



## superj1977

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Outcasst*
> 
> I think Gigabyte released UEFI BIOS updates to their X58 boards in January 2011. You would have to check what version you're running.


All i know is im running a modified beta bios Fd14 with updated Oroms.
If UEFI is like an enhanced bios where you can use mouse to navigate settings then i dont have it


----------



## salamachaa

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Especially when it's just a linux distro. Odd.
> 
> Not even going to bother trying it out. Not worth the time, effort, headaches, nor the problems these people are actually having in just downloading the file. The FAQ is confusing. Valve time used to be a joke, but it seems to be more of a reflection of there new standards. Outside of GO, doesn't sound like Valve is doing any quality work anymore.


Yes, this move is genuinely confusing to me. How can you even have a developers version when devs won't know how half of the gpus that their users have will work or not?


----------



## selk22

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Outcasst*
> 
> Because the FAQ isn't very clear. It says it will wipe ALL data on the machine. To me, that implies every drive will be wiped. Maybe it's just worded badly.
> 
> Anyway, I'm going to unplug all my drives apart from my 500GB and give it a go.


That would be a terrible terrible terrible idea by any programmer at Valve. I hope that's not the case.. Perhaps make a small partition on that 500gb drive when you install the SteamOS on it and see if it also wipes that as well?


----------



## akromatic

god damn UEFI, haunts me where ever i go. the guy who made UEFI needs to be shot


----------



## mike44njdevils

Not understanding the UEFI requirement...unless Valve feels you need a n00b way to select "boot from USB device"...


----------



## TFL Replica

There are no drivers for other vendors yet, because they're currently busy backporting them. This is a beta release after all.


----------



## CSCoder4ever

Awesome... but at 960MB... going to need to download it tonight.

or even wait a day or 2..


----------



## jlhawn

I will pass on this mess. just sounds to messed up, wipes hdd's, does this mean all 4 of my drives will be wiped clean if I want to install this on lets say drive E ? I have drives c d e f and g & h are blu rays.


----------



## deepor

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *selk22*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Outcasst*
> 
> Because the FAQ isn't very clear. It says it will wipe ALL data on the machine. To me, that implies every drive will be wiped. Maybe it's just worded badly.
> 
> Anyway, I'm going to unplug all my drives apart from my 500GB and give it a go.
> 
> 
> 
> That would be a terrible terrible terrible idea by any programmer at Valve. I hope that's not the case.. Perhaps make a small partition on that 500gb drive when you install the SteamOS on it and see if it also wipes that as well?
Click to expand...

You will have to hack around yourself to get it installed without wiping stuff. What they currently prepared is a backup image of that 500GB drive they are wanting you to have, and an USB stick Debian installer thingy with unattended installation rules that will wipe everything before it creates the partitions it wants you to have.

So you will currently have to go at it manually, perhaps with that Clonezilla backup they made, create and restore the partitions individually and stuff. After that, you'll have to see how to go about putting the boot loader into your EFI system partition to make it dual boot with your Windows or other Linux. Perhaps look into the rEFInd boot manager and its documentation for how to do that (that should explain how the EFI system partition works and how UEFI boots and stuff).


----------



## Takla

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jlhawn*
> 
> I will pass on this mess. just sounds to messed up, wipes hdd's, does this mean all 4 of my drives will be wiped clean if I want to install this on lets say drive E ? I have drives c d e f and g & h are blu rays.


1. install windows boot to usb stick 1
2. install steamOS boot to usb stick 2
3. dis-connect all hdds / ssds your not using for steamOS
4. if you dont like steamOS, reinstall windows with usb stick 2 and reconnect the ssds / hdds

whats so hard about that for you people?


----------



## mike44njdevils

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Takla*
> 
> whats so hard about that for you people?


I assume it's that pesky "effort" thingy


----------



## Takla

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mike44njdevils*
> 
> I assume it's that pesky "effort" thingy


ahh yeah i heard about that. common problem.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mike44njdevils*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Takla*
> 
> whats so hard about that for you people?
> 
> 
> 
> I assume it's that pesky "effort" thingy
Click to expand...

It's that pesky slow arse performance thing that steamOS was all for. Yeah, I'd love 40-80mb/s read and writes, what a nice performance drive to test a performance driven OS on. Nice test run to see if my steam games would run faster...when in the end, run worse. How is that a good impression?

Didn't think that one through, eh.


----------



## iRUSH

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Bitech*
> 
> What can you do on SteamOS besides play games?


I want to know this also.


----------



## Gir

Is it compatible with the wireless 360 controllers for windows?


----------



## dogbiscuit

What happens with a smaller drive ? I expect that's just a guide for usage requirement, not install requirement.


----------



## CSCoder4ever

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *iRUSH*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Bitech*
> 
> What can you do on SteamOS besides play games?
> 
> 
> 
> I want to know this also.
Click to expand...

assuming you're not afraid of command line, Quite a bit!


----------



## Shrak

Seeded 5GB already just during my trip to Petco... greedy people you









One more trip to the store before I can get my machine up and installed...


----------



## FastMHz

Well this stinks....my PhenomII gaming rig has no UEFI and it has a Radeon card....double whammy. And I thought I was ready with this empty Velociraptor sitting here


----------



## Slaughtahouse

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Takla*
> 
> ahh yeah i heard about that. common problem.


Yes... effort. Or how about we can sit back and watch you guy's do all the testing for us?

I'm sure it's easy enough to do but I don't see the point in being a first adopter here.


----------



## Tsumi

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Takla*
> 
> ahh yeah i heard about that. common problem.


People made a huge fuss about one extra click to the desktop...


----------



## ILoveHighDPI

I wonder what the differences will be between running SteamOS and using Steam on Ubuntu?

Other than buying hardware with everything pre-installed, it seems like it would be simpler to just install Ubuntu and run Steam through that.


----------



## Takla

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Tsumi*
> 
> People made a huge fuss about one extra click to the desktop...


hahaha yeah i remember


----------



## FastMHz

Just downloaded it and tried to boot using a non-EFI BIOS, and no go







I even tried using the Debian option with the Linux Universal USB Installer.

Hoping that since this is beta it's just not done yet and eventually will support old-skool BIOS.


----------



## doomlord52

So just so I don't ruin one of my laptops... when it says "will erase all contents of the target computer", it means that HDD partition, right? Or does it actually wipe the ENTIRE drive regardless of partition?


----------



## Waltibaba

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Outcasst*
> 
> This is actually crazy. Does it anywhere say it's a beta? Those installation instructions are way too hardcore even for a beta, let alone full release. More like alpha stage.


Have you tried Arch Linux? In the linux world, this is what user friendliness looks like...


----------



## Slaughtahouse

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Waltibaba*
> 
> Have you tried Arch Linux? In the linux world, this is what user friendliness looks like...


How is it hard? Download, put to usb stick, boot of usb stick.

Pretty much it. Set some stuff up in your options prior and the rest is done.


----------



## FastMHz

^ I concur. Not any more difficult than if you downloaded a Windows ISO and wanted to install from a USB stick.


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Waltibaba*
> 
> Have you tried Arch Linux? In the linux world, this is what user friendliness looks like...


Not sure how you're saying Arch is user friendly ( it is after you know it but initially it isn't ). Installing Linux in most cases is easier than Windows.

But yes, this is definitely going to be beta until the steam machine test is over and everything is finalized would be my thinking.


----------



## alancsalt

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *superj1977*
> 
> Whats UEFI boot support mean?
> Does my X58 mobo in sig have this or can i forget it
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Also those having problems with the download dropping, use Free download manager to download it, then it just resumes if connection is lost.


Never been a UEFI for my X58A-OC

UEFI came onto desktops with Asus P8P67/H67 chipset? Gigabyte didn't have it till later...


----------



## Waltibaba

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *CSCoder4ever*
> 
> assuming you're not afraid of command line, Quite a bit!


You don't even need to use the CLI, from the FAQ:
Quote:


> It also provides a desktop mode which can run regular Linux applications.


Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Slaughtahouse*
> 
> How is it hard? Download, put to usb stick, boot of usb stick.
> 
> Pretty much it. Set some stuff up in your options prior and the rest is done.


That's if you have a spare 1TB HDD that you can clone the image onto. If you don't, it's the Debian Installer for you, and that's not the greatest of experiences. I don't care either way, CLI is all I need, but others will. I was just pointing out that Valve did little (as of this first release) to move away from the general Linux UX landscape, the way Ubuntu, Suse, and even Fedora do.


----------



## Slaughtahouse

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Waltibaba*
> 
> You don't even need to use the CLI, from the FAQ:
> 
> That's if you have a spare 1TB HDD that you can clone the image onto. If you don't, it's the Debian Installer for you, and that's not the greatest of experiences. I don't care either way, CLI is all I need, but others will. I was just pointing out that Valve did little (as of this first release) to move away from the general Linux UX landscape, the way Ubuntu, Suse, and even Fedora do.


I meant to quote the other user that you were quoting. As far as the beta release goes, not much of a surprise here. See how it goes when it's in full debut.


----------



## SoloCamo

Hmm, maybe this will prompt me to get a board for the 8120, 4gb ddr3 and gts450 and spare 500gb I've got sitting in a box... I'll wait for more stable results, though.


----------



## mike44njdevils

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Slaughtahouse*
> 
> ...how about we can sit back and watch you guy's do all the testing for us...


SHHHHH!!!! This is my plan. Also, for the people asking what "else", this is supposedly a debian Linux distro, yes? then the answer is, everything you can do in windows.


----------



## doomlord52

Any Linux pro want to help me out? I'm trying to install it onto my laptop (Custom Install method), and at Step 5, I don't get any option menu. Instead I get the GNU GRUB console.

What exactly did I do wrong? Followed everything else exactly.


----------



## akromatic

i srsly dont get the 500GB-1TB disk requirement. the installer is just 950mb and unless it comes with a crap load of games there is no way for it to fill all 500GB


----------



## M3T4LM4N222

So is it hard to install or just like installing Ubuntu?


----------



## lurker2501

Quote:


> WARNING: Both installation methods will erase all content on the target computer


Somebody needs to make a virtual machine tutorial for this.


----------



## KingGreasy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *akromatic*
> 
> i srsly dont get the 500GB-1TB disk requirement. the installer is just 950mb and unless it comes with a crap load of games there is no way for it to fill all 500GB


Maybe it's to make sure OEMs don't pull a Windows Vista and skimp on the hardware. The HDD isn't the most important but for gaming a 250GB HDD would suck for a system where all the games are installed off the disc or downloaded. Especially now that games so often now are 20+ GB.


----------



## Razor 116

Without In home streaming I may aswell install Ubuntu, Which doesn't exclude AMD, Intel or motherboards without UEFI. I find the excitement for this puzzling but I guess its because shiny new thing and yet another linux distro.


----------



## arctia

I'll try to install it on one of my many virtual platforms tomorrow. If it works with VirtualBox, then hurray for everyone.


----------



## TFL Replica

It should be possible to install SteamOS' packages and modified kernel on a different distro. I'm waiting for Phoronix to publish their benchmarks first.


----------



## byteninja2

In Valve time, coming soon will be, if we're lucky, 6 months for AMD/Intel support.


----------



## Boomstick727

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *FastMHz*
> 
> Well this stinks....my PhenomII gaming rig has no UEFI and it has a Radeon card....double whammy. And I thought I was ready with this empty Velociraptor sitting here


Phenom II?

2008 called, they want their hardware back


----------



## Artikbot

Hm, Debian. I expected that.

I still would have preferred it to run over a RHEL base... Only because it's what I use daily








Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Boomstick727*
> 
> Phenom II?
> 
> 2008 called, they want their hardware back


I too run a Phenom II rig, mid 2010. Point invalid.

Also, requiring UEFI to boot is pure bullcrap.

It's also fantastic because NONE of the computers I have at home can run SteamOS. HTPC: No UEFI. Server: No UEFI. Workstation: No UEFI, Radeon card. Laptop 1: No UEFI. Workstation 2: No UEFI. Portable: Radeon IGP.

Thank you Steam for a failure of a release. -__-


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Boomstick727*
> 
> Phenom II?
> 
> 2008 called, they want their hardware back


Just lol

Also I hope people realize that although there 'not bad' .. AMD Catalyst drivers are still 30% behind that of windows. People claim that the opensource are nearly as good and there not (still such an achievement as there is easily over 1 million lines of code in the GPU driver) being about a 40% that of windows

AMD cat cant do Vsync properly, this leads to EPIC tearing. Ohh usually adding AA on a game on the very few games that support it causes hideous mouse lag









So given that a HTPC steamBOX would normally be an AMD APU be prepared for some niggles. Having said that i can play counter strike on my Trinity APU at 200fps @ 1080p but i cant enable AA or vsync on the source engine yet.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Artikbot*
> 
> Hm, Debian. I expected that.


Same, makes sense.


----------



## Admiral AnimE

desktop screens and details


----------



## Pip Boy

ive got a funny feeling the first 6 months of this is going to be a cluster fluck of people having uefi issues. Im fairly experienced with installing linux on various platforms but my recent gigabyte FM2 board behaves very oddly once a linux distro is installed often requiring quite a lot of tinkering to get it working and usually culminating (ironically) in running legacy mode not efi


----------



## Artikbot

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> ive got a funny feeling the first 6 months of this is going to be a cluster fluck of people having uefi issues. Im fairly experienced with installing linux on various platforms but my recent gigabyte FM2 board behaves very oddly once a linux distro is installed often requiring quite a lot of tinkering to get it working and usually culminating (ironically) in running legacy mode not efi


I had to install Fedora in legacy mode in my FM2 board, too.

It appears F19 and its new LiveUSB tool fixed that part. Never bothered to check.


----------



## chemicalfan

I don't see the problem with the AMD drivers... It's still running Linux, and Debian with that, so why can't you just install the Catalyst drivers post install? Or does it not include VESA drivers?? I'm guessing it's not using X, otherwise using the open-source drivers for Intel & AMD would be a doddle.

Can Virtualbox fake being a UEFI machine? Not sure it can fake the 3D properly though


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Artikbot*
> 
> I had to install Fedora in legacy mode in my FM2 board, too.
> 
> It appears F19 and its new LiveUSB tool fixed that part. Never bothered to check.


flukely the kernal updates recently added proper UEFI boot support just in time i guess.. even so i was sometimes getting some oddities as GRUB still gets installed? again i actually like GRUB for its fall back modes and boot versions on snapshots so there is a conflict of interest between bios screen->bootsplash->logon screen VS bios screen->GRUB->bootsplash->logon screen ((yes i have a logon for my home machines))

further more with an encrypted drive (unless it is badbios) i also had problems as there needs to be a small front partion to allow for a bootloader in order to pre-load the decryption stuff.


----------



## unseen0

What is tje benefit to using SteamOS compared to windows? Besides better performance, I can't really think of anything. Since I'm sure you are limited to usage of other programs other then games


----------



## mAs81

I'm not sure if I want this now installed in my PC..I never had dual OS,and maybe it will be better to wait a few months so the Steam guys can fix any bugs/inconsistencies the Steam OS might have..
Nevertheless this is definitely going in a HTPC I'm planning to build for my living room!!!!


----------



## AngeloG.

May I ask, what's the point of this OS?


----------



## Outcasst

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *doomlord52*
> 
> Any Linux pro want to help me out? I'm trying to install it onto my laptop (Custom Install method), and at Step 5, I don't get any option menu. Instead I get the GNU GRUB console.
> 
> What exactly did I do wrong? Followed everything else exactly.


I swapped USB thumb drive and it worked. The one that failed was USB 3.0 but a USB 2 drive worked fine.


----------



## admin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AngeloG.*
> 
> May I ask, what's the point of this OS?


I am sure this is known and understood, but I believe SteamOS is meant to be the "lean back" experience for "PC Gamers". Basically, it allows people who are heavily vested in steam to replicate a console-like experience with their PC game library.

I am still a "lean in" gamer - but I respect their move with this!


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *unseen0*
> 
> What is tje benefit to using SteamOS compared to windows? Besides better performance, I can't really think of anything. Since I'm sure you are limited to usage of other programs other then games


if you already own windows then perhaps none. But obviously its free and not $90 - $120 for the operating system (( yes,yes we know everyone pirates windows ))

also ultimately given the customization that has taken place on this distribution which actually seems quite extensive and even has bugs fixed that they will pass onto to the rest of the linux community it means that the OS is rapid fast with very little 'meat' to slow it down. We all know windows is very fast with an SSD but often there is so much extra on there that you just dont need for a gaming platform. Look at the services running now on windows and their constant cpu battle half of them are there to protect from intruders and create excessive internal DRM on its own kernal, the other half are from bloaty applications and drivers that are not optimized from main vendors because the culture of closed source hasnt driven forward the idea of the clean and efficient.

in laymans terms its free and faster. Its also ready to run at the same or greater productivity levels of windows. People talk photoshop and in time im sure it will migrate but GIMP is equally good enough for 95% of users. All other applications from 3D rendering to music production are pretty much sorted and again most are free and fast.

So perhaps the benefit is towards expanding the community of future PC users and not the existing user base


----------



## ladcrooks

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mam72*
> 
> Well I am not being the guinea pig, I don't like using day one releases of things, I let valve iron the kinks out first.
> 
> But I am willing to read others experience of it.


^ this


----------



## Outcasst

So I gave it a try installs fine but reboots to a black screen.

Ah well.


----------



## EmZkY

I had hopes that Steam os would become an alternative to Windows over time for PC gamers. By the looks of it, it's mainly aimed at their console/controller. I would love an alternative OS especially after the direction Microsoft seems to be heading with Windows.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *EmZkY*
> 
> I had hopes that Steam os would become an alternative to Windows over time for PC gamers. By the looks of it, it's mainly aimed at their console/controller. I would love an alternative OS especially after the direction Microsoft seems to be heading with Windows.


.
the better versions will be repackaged with xfce, cinnamon or KDE desktop environments.

i don't see why people can't just get a copy of linux mint kde,xfce now or opensuse or even ubuntu and dual boot if they are even slightly interested in linux (and free software as a concept) then its going to give people a strong taster of what will be on offer but with a fully usable environment


----------



## Mopar63

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> if you already own windows then perhaps none. But obviously its free and not $90 - $120 for the operating system (( yes,yes we know everyone pirates windows ))


Well that would be the case except you need to have a second machine to run the existing STEAM library most of us have running Windows.

This is ALL a marketing ploy by nVidia and STEAM to attack MS and AMD. Gabe is mad that MS made their own store instead of just using his and feels threatened. Instead of making his product even better than it already is he sunk a stupid amount of money into a PR campaign. Nvidia jumped on the bandwagon because AMD having all the consoles is scaring the crap out of them along with the potential of Mantle and they needed some press so they paid or gave away a ton of hardware, same as paying in my opinion, to be exclusive at beta launch.

So what do we have then with the first beta? Steam OS is more closed and limited that Gabe complained about with Windows, and we have beta and developer packages that are all geared toward nVidia when the first officially announced commercial Steam Boxes are AMD based. Oh and this amazing console will require a gaming PC for the majority of existing libraries to play, so you need a Steam Box AND a PC..

Personally I say if you want your games on your TV then move your PC to your TV and game there. Wireless game controlllers as well as wireless keyboards and mice will do the same as the Steam Box for less money and give you more freedom.


----------



## PROBN4LYFE

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *FastMHz*
> 
> Well this stinks....my PhenomII gaming rig has no UEFI and it has a Radeon card....double whammy. And I thought I was ready with this empty Velociraptor sitting here


Lol my Phenom rig was my test subject too!!!! with the radeon HD4660 LLs!


----------



## adridu59

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AngeloG.*
> 
> May I ask, what's the point of this OS?


Providing a reference distro for Linux gaming (both for developers and players).


----------



## TFL Replica

According to *distrowatch*, it ships with the latest proprietary AMD drivers (13.11 beta), and Mesa 9.2.2. So the drivers are there, but haven't been set up yet.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *KingGreasy*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *akromatic*
> 
> i srsly dont get the 500GB-1TB disk requirement. the installer is just 950mb and unless it comes with a crap load of games there is no way for it to fill all 500GB
> 
> 
> 
> Maybe it's to make sure OEMs don't pull a Windows Vista and skimp on the hardware. The HDD isn't the most important but for gaming a 250GB HDD would suck for a system where all the games are installed off the disc or downloaded. Especially now that games so often now are 20+ GB.
Click to expand...

Disk capacity doesn't reflect the performance of the drive to a practical degree like you are stating. I can have a 1 TB Samsung F3 and it would be easily outperformed by a completely filled 80 GB Intel SSD. So again, the schema here of Valve sheeple is rather disgusting.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *EmZkY*
> 
> I had hopes that Steam os would become an alternative to Windows over time for PC gamers. By the looks of it, it's mainly aimed at their console/controller. I would love an alternative OS especially after the direction Microsoft seems to be heading with Windows.


I have no idea what SteamOS is being directed to. So far its been nothing but a failure and a fan fair. Seems to be what those little hardware boxes are to the tech world that the wannabe electrical engineers play with on their spare time but never show any practical use in the long run.

Gabe really needs to turn this around...fast...even for a beta if he ever wants his reputation to improve as a "professional". They hold their company with such high values but it's beginning to be filled with nothing but MLP fans.


----------



## Outcasst

What I did notice is that the install time was extremely long. It went on for about four times the usual Windows installation on a mechanical drive.


----------



## Sunnyside

Whats with the 500gb disk requirement?

Can this be installed on to a 64gb SSD?


----------



## DVLux

I like how nobody seems to have installed this, yet this is over 10 pages of redundant questions and statements of "ZOMG Deletes all hard drives?!" and "Wgy the massive disk requirements, Dood?". Can we, maybe, get some actual OS Feedback some time soon?


----------



## AngeloG.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *adridu59*
> 
> Providing a reference distro for Linux gaming (both for developers and players).


So, like, a common ground to try and increase the support for other platforms than Windows for gaming? Sounds great in theory, let's see how much devs support it.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *admin*
> 
> I am sure this is known and understood, but I believe SteamOS is meant to be the "lean back" experience for "PC Gamers". Basically, it allows people who are heavily vested in steam to replicate a console-like experience with their PC game library.
> 
> I am still a "lean in" gamer - but I respect their move with this!


I fail to see how different it is than just clicking the full screen mode on Steam on Windows in that respect though!


----------



## ep45-ds3l

I was going to install it on my old Agility 3 SSD.. But it's only 120GB.. :/


----------



## GermanyChris

If this provides the necessary impetus to move off of Direct X and back to more open standards it will have done it's job.


----------



## adridu59

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AngeloG.*
> 
> I fail to see how different it is than just clicking the full screen mode on Steam on Windows in that respect though!


Well the root goal has been to provide an alternative to Windows since Steam execs didn't like the way Microsoft was heading with Win8. Now we'll see how it fares performance wise, drivers have been left unoptimized for long since Linux hasn't been a real gaming platform so there's still a lot of work to do on that regard and SteamOS is still on its first beta stage.


----------



## FastMHz

This should have been released as an *alpha* since the drivers for Radeons aren't even ready yet, and they better sort that UEFI requirement out as well, or the idea of re-purposing slightly older hardware for use as a SteamBox is out the window. Many of us would be better off installing Linux Mint and putting Steam on top of that at this point.

Has _anyone_ successfully gotten this installed and _working_ yet?


----------



## sQuetos

What is this steamos? someone explain


----------



## Sunnyside

WHY DOES THIS NEED A 500GB DRIVE?

CAN I PUT THIS ON A 64GB SSD


----------



## PappaSmurfsHarem

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Disk capacity doesn't reflect the performance of the drive to a practical degree like you are stating. I can have a 1 TB Samsung F3 and it would be easily outperformed by a completely filled 80 GB Intel SSD. So again, the schema here of Valve sheeple is rather disgusting.


wth are you talking about he wasn't talking about disk performance?


----------



## kx11

the 1T hdd space scared me away


----------



## HanakoIkezawa

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Waltibaba*
> 
> Have you tried Arch Linux? In the linux world, this is what user friendliness looks like...


I liked so hard xD


----------



## DVLux

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Sunnyside*
> 
> WHY DOES THIS NEED A 500GB DRIVE?
> 
> CAN I PUT THIS ON A 64GB SSD


TRY IT AND FIND OUT?!

Sheesh, and here I thought this was Overclock.net... Where nobody listens to system requirements and everyone has an Nvidia, because Catalyst drivers suck*

Can we start getting actual OS news and footage now? This is only like, you know, the most raved about thing on the internet by now.


----------



## MME1122

I want to install now but I have finals tomorrow so something tells me it's a bad idea =/
It'll be a nice winter break project I guess
Quote:


> Sheesh, and here I thought this was Overclock.net... Where nobody listens to system requirements and everyone has an Nvidia, because Catalyst drivers suck*


Lmao


----------



## Xraze

Going to install this, will report after I do with screenshots etc.


----------



## GermanyChris

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DVLux*
> 
> TRY IT AND FIND OUT?!
> 
> Sheesh, and here I thought this was Overclock.net... Where nobody listens to system requirements and everyone has an Nvidia, because Catalyst drivers suck*
> 
> Can we start getting actual OS news and footage now? This is only like, you know, the most raved about thing on the internet by now.


Remember the effort comments a few pages back? That's the problem if it's not packaged up all sexy like it's not going to happen


----------



## Takla

updated OP with some videos


----------



## ep45-ds3l

Downloaded, extracted to an 8gb USB flash drive, restarted, select restore.. Won't work with my 120gb SSD.. :/

Edit.. I didn't DL the "custom installation".. Will do now..


----------



## CSCoder4ever

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *ep45-ds3l*
> 
> Downloaded, extracted to an 8gb USB flash drive, restarted, select restore.. Won't work with my 120gb SSD.. :/


I was able to do the custom install fine on my bullshipper's 120GB SSD, just got work out some bugs.


----------



## Angrychair

My mobo and both GPUs are running eufi bios. But I'm still not trying this lol.

It does sound interesting but I don't have a spare drive to install it on.

Dual boot with w8.1pro would be fun on my 840evo 250gb


----------



## DraXxus1549

Found a way to install this in a VM easily,

Here


----------



## llythrus

Guys/ new linux users (noobs) the hard drive space is only a recommendation since Valve thinks you will be using Steam as a primary.
UI also looks like gnome 3.8


----------



## iTzHughie

I'm the type of person that usually cannot see the long term/immediate benefits of things most of the time. Also have been under a rock with this whole SteamOS business, so excuse the possibly stupid question(s).
What exactly is the point of having steam OS? I'd imagine that steam (on windows) is more convenient the way it is now. Why would some of you want to go through the hassle of a dual boot setup just for this when it when steam can be opened from the windows desktop? (Unless they're planning to not be on windows anymore)

I actually think this is pretty cool btw. Just don't see the practicality


----------



## djriful

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Sunnyside*
> 
> Whats with the 500gb disk requirement?
> 
> Can this be installed on to a 64gb SSD?


Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Sunnyside*
> 
> WHY DOES THIS NEED A 500GB DRIVE?
> 
> CAN I PUT THIS ON A 64GB SSD


You're not just going to install SteamOS and run nothing right?


----------



## mboner1

This all sounds very underwhelming, i really don't see the benefit of running this, seems like you get a lot of headaches and loss of features just to run steam big picture basically or am i missing a whole lot? I like new things but this just doesn't seem worth the effort.


----------



## iTzHughie

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mboner1*
> 
> This all sounds very underwhelming, i really don't see the benefit of running this, seems like you get a lot of headaches and loss of features just to run steam big picture basically or am i missing a whole lot? I like new things but this just doesn't seem worth the effort.


Pretty much what I was getting at >.>


----------



## TFL Replica

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mboner1*
> 
> This all sounds very underwhelming, i really don't see the benefit of running this, seems like you get a lot of headaches and loss of features just to run steam big picture basically or am i missing a whole lot? I like new things but this just doesn't seem worth the effort.


Quote:


> Originally Posted by *iTzHughie*
> 
> Pretty much what I was getting at >.>


From the SteamOS web page: "a free operating system designed for the TV and the living room.". The headaches are a result of some users thinking that this is a finished product, or is intended to replace a desktop orientated OS. Users with no Linux experience (or no desire to read the guides) should avoid fiddling around with this beta. There may or may not be a desktop optimized variant in the future, but that doesn't really matter. Linux users already have (and enjoy) Steam for Linux.


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *TFL Replica*
> 
> From the SteamOS web page: "a free operating system designed for the TV and the living room.". The headaches are a result of some users thinking that this is a finished product, or is intended to replace a desktop orientated OS. Users with no Linux experience (or no desire to read the guides) should avoid fiddling around with this beta. There may or may not be a desktop optimized variant in the future, but that doesn't really matter. Linux users already have (and enjoy) Steam for Linux.


This is pretty much spot on.

I think most need to remember that 1) this is a beta still, as long as steam machines are in beta, then steam os will be in beta, and 2) it's definitely not a desktop replacement. There may be a bastardized gnome shell attached to it, but Valves only real focus is on Big Picture mode.


----------



## h2spartan

I was excited when i first heard of Steam OS. I thought it might be a full fledged desktop OS. Oh well, time to move along. Nothing to see here.


----------



## rarnold

The install on my VM is taking a loooong time. Anyone else having long installs?


----------



## mboner1

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shrak*
> 
> This is pretty much spot on.
> 
> I think most need to remember that 1) this is a beta still, as long as steam machines are in beta, then steam os will be in beta, and 2) it's definitely not a desktop replacement. There may be a bastardized gnome shell attached to it, but Valves only real focus is on Big Picture mode.


Yeah, i'm not trying to say it sucks, i'm sure some people will like it for a living room build or something as that's what i thought of when i first heard of it. It just seems like your forfeiting a lot and i can't see it becoming widely popular even if it is just for gaming, i mean you can't play any games that aren't from steam can you? Does it offer better performance for gaming or have the possibility of offering better performance for gaming in the future?


----------



## Xeio

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *TFL Replica*
> 
> From the SteamOS web page: "a free operating system designed for the TV and the living room.". The headaches are a result of some users thinking that this is a finished product, or is intended to replace a desktop orientated OS. Users with no Linux experience (or no desire to read the guides) should avoid fiddling around with this beta. There may or may not be a desktop optimized variant in the future, but that doesn't really matter. Linux users already have (and enjoy) Steam for Linux.


I wouldn't doubt that a bunch of people who've never used linux before are going to try and install this because "It's steam! woo!". The ensuing rage fit for the biggest of popcorn buckets.


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mboner1*
> 
> Yeah, i'm not trying to say it sucks, i'm sure some people will like it for a living room build or something as that's what i thought of when i first heard of it. It just seems like your forfeiting a lot and i can't see it becoming widely popular even if it is just for gaming, i mean you can't play any games that aren't from steam can you? Does it offer better performance for gaming or have the possibility of offering better performance for gaming in the future?


You can install any Linux game on it and play it from the desktop view ( and within steam via "add-non-steam-game" ). It'll offer better performance to Windows after things start getting better optimized.

People don't seem to get that yes, Linux is pretty limited right now. But until someone makes a push to actually give it new life, then it never will be. Gabe is doing that. Steam for Linux is the biggest thing to happen for Linux for a long time, and not only has Nvidia and AMD both stepped up their drivers because of it, but Valve have helped with that. A bunch of publishers have already stated that they'll be making future games Linux compatible which is a huge step as well. And while we may not get back-ported games ( some, but not most ), we will at least get future games. This all adds to Linux's future in the long run.

It may have been a slow start last year when Steam for Linux was released but it has picked up quite a bit lately and as long as Valve is making this push and putting Linux out there in the form of Steam Machines, Steam OS, or even just Steam for Linux then we'll continue to grow.


----------



## mboner1

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shrak*
> 
> You can install any Linux game on it and play it from the desktop view ( and within steam via "add-non-steam-game" ). It'll offer better performance to Windows after things start getting better optimized.
> 
> People don't seem to get that yes, Linux is pretty limited right now. But until someone makes a push to actually give it new life, then it never will be. Gabe is doing that. Steam for Linux is the biggest thing to happen for Linux for a long time, and not only has Nvidia and AMD both stepped up their drivers because of it, but Valve have helped with that. A bunch of publishers have already stated that they'll be making future games Linux compatible which is a huge step as well. And while we may not get back-ported games ( some, but not most ), we will at least get future games. This all adds to Linux's future in the long run.
> 
> It may have been a slow start last year when Steam for Linux was released but it has picked up quite a bit lately and as long as Valve is making this push and putting Linux out there in the form of Steam Machines, Steam OS, or even just Steam for Linux then we'll continue to grow.


Cheers, you cleared up a lot of info for me. +rep.


----------



## Kokumotsu

my main concern is. Can Steam OS play League of Legends off the bat without any frustrating options to workaround?
my buddy has a bad PC so win 7 isnt the best option because of its uses. but with Steam OS being more convenient as its less of a resource hog because its a linux platform. would it make league run better using a intel 965 chipset compared to win 7

i really want to try Steam OS out but this is the only dummy pc i can use it on


----------



## lurker2501

The only question is does it bring performance advantage. All I want to see is tests. If it's not the case this OS is useless for a PC gamer. It's like people who game on Win install Linux distros just for the sake of dual-booting. Yeah, it's fancy and stuff, but completely pointless.


----------



## mushroomboy

Debian based eh? Interesting.... Read through the image, you'll see the references. This should provide some nice stability for them to build off.


----------



## thanos999

just started downloading thing is will i be able to install it on a 500g external drive for now i havent got a spare internal i can put it on for now they are being used for storage


----------



## darkstar585

Well this sucks... I have Q6600 and 6850 crossfire htpc sat waiting to become a steambox. I hope they retract the requirement for uefi in the near future.


----------



## King Nothing

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *darkstar585*
> 
> Well this sucks... I have Q6600 and 6850 crossfire htpc sat waiting to become a steambox. I hope they retract the requirement for uefi in the near future.


I'm sure things will change when this is no longer in beta. Right now were all just beta testers working for free. I think the whole idea about the UEFI thing is so their isn't people complaining about it not working well on their C2D pc's.


----------



## <({D34TH})>

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *iTzHughie*
> 
> I'm the type of person that usually cannot see the long term/immediate benefits of things most of the time. Also have been under a rock with this whole SteamOS business, so excuse the possibly stupid question(s).
> What exactly is the point of having steam OS? I'd imagine that steam (on windows) is more convenient the way it is now. Why would some of you want to go through the hassle of a dual boot setup just for this when it when steam can be opened from the windows desktop? (Unless they're planning to not be on windows anymore)
> 
> I actually think this is pretty cool btw. Just don't see the practicality


One point of a Steam Machine is to introduce new consumers to PC gaming without the hassle of building a system and such, plus providing simple console interface that anyone can use. This also embraces the use of Linux, so developers can make games for an Open OS using OpenGL and break the monopoly that Windows has established throughout the years.


----------



## rarnold

Installed and running with my system, but since I have an AMD card, I can't switch to picture mode. I can still play around with some of the system settings and such. Working on getting VMware tools installed now as well as audio.


----------



## Squeeky

not sure if im allowed to do this but i had uefi turned off in bios and didn't want to fiddle with all the settings so i just disconnected my normal hdds and connected a spare to install on using these instructions from reddit. You dont need uefi but its pretty hardcore. It also means once installed i can plug my other disks back in and just press f11 at start up and select my other drive.

http://www.reddit.com/r/SteamOS/comments/1su4t1/uefi_requirement_with_steamos/


----------



## Triscuit

I followed the above guide but I keep getting:
SYSLINUX 6.02 CHS 2013-10-13 Copyright (C) 1994-2013 H. Peter Anvin et al
Failed to load ldlinux.c32
Boot failed: please change disks and press a key to continue.
I would be in your debt if you know how to fix this error


----------



## RipperLord

Try turning off UEFI support and enabling Legacy USB if you are installing from a flashdrive.


----------



## RipperLord

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Triscuit*
> 
> I followed the above guide but I keep getting:
> SYSLINUX 6.02 CHS 2013-10-13 Copyright (C) 1994-2013 H. Peter Anvin et al
> Failed to load ldlinux.c32
> Boot failed: please change disks and press a key to continue.
> I would be in your debt if you know how to fix this error


Which way are you trying to install it? DVD, CD or USB?


----------



## Triscuit

I don't have any UEFI on this motherboard. That's why I was following that workaround on reddit. I also made sure that legacy usb support was on. A few others have had this issue but nobody seems to know how to fix it, or they just don't want to share.


----------



## Triscuit

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *RipperLord*
> 
> Which way are you trying to install it? DVD, CD or USB?


I am using USB following the workaround guide. I have done everything properly, and on 3 separate machines. Every time I get the same error. I do not have another usb drive that the bios will read unfortunately. I will probably try to make a cd image of my usb drive to see if that works.


----------



## Sharazzi

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *h2spartan*
> 
> I was excited when i first heard of Steam OS. I thought it might be a full fledged desktop OS. Oh well, time to move along. Nothing to see here.


Yep...pretty much my thoughts exactly.

Basically it seems to be a glorified version of windows media centre that ties into ones steam account. Or that is what I have gathered from reading the posts previous.


----------



## GTR Mclaren

QUESTION

maybe is too soon to ask...but considering this OS will not have to run all the things that Windows run in background....

could the games perform better in it ?


----------



## Shrak

Yes and no.

Yes, it does and very well could have a potential performance boost from being much more light weight... and less overall processes running...

No, because we still need some optimizations in graphics drivers ( AMD and Intel at least as Nvidia's I think are like 98% what they are in Windows, or something along those lines ), and little things. It would definitely help to drop the bastardized Gnome Shell in favor of something lighter as well, or just drop the desktop all around and integrate applications better into Big Picture mode ( wouldn't be hard, and would be less overhead than a full DE ). The driver improvements will come with time, already have been increased pretty decent over the past year alone.


----------



## PR-Imagery

Why didn't they provide an iso image like normal people...


----------



## djsi38t

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *GTR Mclaren*
> 
> QUESTION
> 
> maybe is too soon to ask...but considering this OS will not have to run all the things that Windows run in background....
> 
> could the games perform better in it ?


Yes,games can perform better,and ultimately this is the goal of this os.

With future support for new games the time should come when this platform is better than windows.It may even be better right now with certain games.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *iTzHughie*
> 
> I'm the type of person that usually cannot see the long term/immediate benefits of things most of the time. Also have been under a rock with this whole SteamOS business, so excuse the possibly stupid question(s).
> *What exactly is the point of having steam OS?* I'd imagine that steam (on windows) is more convenient the way it is now. Why would some of you want to go through the hassle of a dual boot setup just for this when it when steam can be opened from the windows desktop? (Unless they're planning to not be on windows anymore)
> 
> I actually think this is pretty cool btw. Just don't see the practicality


It is known that Windows' convenience offers a bit of bloat to the coding that offers a few extra CPU cycles. This hinders performance by ~5 percent. The point of the OS, from the users standpoint, is an operating system that has little to no impact on game performance. It is an operating system that caters towards gamers and gamers only.

The problem with this OS is that it is very limited. We don't need it. When APIs like OpenGL are used on Windows, we don't see such a shock in performance differences between Linux and Windows like we do between Windows on DX9 and Linux on OpenGL. With APIs like Mantel are on the horizon we might actually see Linux and OpenGL run equal, or even less efficient, when compared to the Windows' platform. Windows is more versatile, mature, *and powerful as a practical all-round platform*. Linux can only trout its competition only if the OS is designed around a specific purpose, and this has always been the case. Since there is no real dedicated team behind Valve as large as Windows' or OSX, we won't see SteamOS ever being something worth wild like common Linux distros unless users are unrightfully forced to use it.

The *real point* of the OS is Gabe's personal issues with Windows' market. He fears that his business is going to be gutted with the Windows' store platform. He doesn't want Windows' to take a chunk of his share, or be force to pay any royalties. Frankly, it is a poor mispersepection, on his part; where Windows' won't actually ever do such a thing. The latter purposes that the OS caters towards are merely tangential but are still valid (which users have brought up; but to be frank, the real purpose of this OS was fueled by Gabe's personal problems with Windows as opposed to something significant to the gaming environment).

Honestly, I don't support anything, like this, that is merely fueled by misperspectual disgust towards two people. It's just childish. It's an OS born out of childish mentality and won't get a single bit of my time.


----------



## MasterGamma12

Steam Os now seems like a waste of time to me.
Piece of Garbage.


----------



## RipperLord

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MasterGamma12*
> 
> Steam Os now seems like a waste of time to me.
> Piece of Garbage.


You're using Windows 8.1 :/


----------



## RipperLord

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *GTR Mclaren*
> 
> QUESTION
> 
> maybe is too soon to ask...but considering this OS will not have to run all the things that Windows run in background....
> 
> could the games perform better in it ?


Confirmed already.

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

But the drivers still need to become more mature for Linux.


----------



## MasterGamma12

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *RipperLord*
> 
> You're using Windows 8.1 :/


And your point is.....
Windows 8 at least supports literately any motherboard in the last 8 years.
My Nehalem main won't even support Steam OS and if i want a "Steam OS", I'll use Ubuntu.


----------



## RipperLord

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Triscuit*
> 
> I am using USB following the workaround guide. I have done everything properly, and on 3 separate machines. Every time I get the same error. I do not have another usb drive that the bios will read unfortunately. I will probably try to make a cd image of my usb drive to see if that works.


Try using Universal USB Installer for Windows - http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
or if you already have a Linux machine, get unetbootin

It honestly sounds like a bad image on the USB; usually caused by bugged USB installer utilities.


----------



## RipperLord

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MasterGamma12*
> 
> And your point is.....
> Windows 8 at least supports literately any motherboard in the last 8 years.
> My Nehalem main won't even support Steam OS and if i want a "Steam OS", I'll use Ubuntu.


Linux runs on almost any machine configuration since 1994. Since SteamOS is using 3.10.11, I can guarantee you that it isn't the OS at fault; besides that SteamOS is Ubuntu with GNOME 3.

Which way are you trying to install it?


----------



## MasterGamma12

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *RipperLord*
> 
> Linux runs on almost any machine configuration since 1994. Since SteamOS is using 3.10.11, I can guarantee you that it isn't the OS at fault; besides that SteamOS is Ubuntu with GNOME 3.
> 
> Which way are you trying to install it?


Steam Os is based on some Debian distro.
I really wanted to burn it to a disk.


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *RipperLord*
> 
> Linux runs on almost any machine configuration since 1994. Since SteamOS is using 3.10.11, I can guarantee you that it isn't the OS at fault; besides that SteamOS is Ubuntu with GNOME 3.
> 
> Which way are you trying to install it?


It's Debian...

But yes, Linux will install on pretty much any machine out there.


----------



## RipperLord

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shrak*
> 
> It's Debian...
> 
> But yes, Linux will install on pretty much any machine out there.


My bad, I assumed if they supported Ubuntu 12.04+, that they would fork off from them.


----------



## JayKthnx

But does it fold?


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *JayKthnx*
> 
> But does it fold?


Of course.


----------



## JayKthnx

I would love to see how well it does compared to other standard distros, if anyone would like to give it a shot.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *RipperLord*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *MasterGamma12*
> 
> And your point is.....
> Windows 8 at least supports literately any motherboard in the last 8 years.
> My Nehalem main won't even support Steam OS and if i want a "Steam OS", I'll use Ubuntu.
> 
> 
> 
> Linux runs on almost any machine configuration since 1994. Since SteamOS is using 3.10.11, I can guarantee you that it isn't the OS at fault; besides that SteamOS is Ubuntu with GNOME 3.
> 
> Which way are you trying to install it?
Click to expand...

Far from the truth. Most Intel low power GPUs in netbooks, or wireless controllers don't even run properly in Linux. Windows at least have universal drivers that runs nearly everything out of the box. There are a few odd balls that don't, and those are hard to find or you must have made a mistake in making the decision of even buying that hardware to begin with.


----------



## Triscuit

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *RipperLord*
> 
> Try using Universal USB Installer for Windows - http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
> or if you already have a Linux machine, get unetbootin
> 
> It honestly sounds like a bad image on the USB; usually caused by bugged USB installer utilities.


didn't work, it tells me there is no config file found.


----------



## aweir

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *JayKthnx*
> 
> But does it fold?


Not the beta version.

In my test system, which is fairly old, it failed to fold.

I placed a loose towel on top of my computer desk and let the OS install and run for about 10 hours. After 10 hours of sitting idle, the towel was still bunched up on my desk. Thinking there was a problem with the material composition of the towel, I laid a t-shirt next to it and let the computer sit idle for another 10 hours, at which time SteamOS failed to fold either the towel or the t-shirt.

I'm hoping the final version is more promising.


----------



## salamachaa

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *aweir*
> 
> Not the beta version.
> 
> In my test system, which is fairly old, it failed to fold.
> 
> I placed a loose towel on top of my computer desk and let the OS install and run for about 10 hours. After 10 hours of sitting idle, the towel was still bunched up on my desk. Thinking there was a problem with the material composition of the towel, I laid a t-shirt next to it and let the computer sit idle for another 10 hours, at which time SteamOS failed to fold either the towel or the t-shirt.
> 
> I'm hoping the final version is more promising.


Badum tisssss


----------



## Moparman

Have a perfect rig sitting for this [email protected] an a [email protected] 2150mem


----------



## Admiral AnimE

Benchmarks


----------



## RipperLord

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Far from the truth. Most Intel low power GPUs in netbooks, or wireless controllers don't even run properly in Linux. Windows at least have universal drivers that runs nearly everything out of the box. There are a few odd balls that don't, and those are hard to find or you must have made a mistake in making the decision of even buying that hardware to begin with.


That's curious, when I installed Windows Server 2008 on an old Dell Vostro, it refused to pick up the Intel gigabit NIC. Same machine on Fedora 19... everything works, even as a Live CD.
Generic driver sets are present even on Linux, to get the most basic functionality out of practically any card and device. I don't know where you got the assumption that things work better on Windows, nor do I know how much experience you have with Linux, but it's been a long time since drivers were a problem on Linux.

Propriety video drivers still need a far bit of work, but the graphics cards DO work.


----------



## Pimphare

This sounds like turning your PC into a console.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *RipperLord*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Far from the truth. Most Intel low power GPUs in netbooks, or wireless controllers don't even run properly in Linux. Windows at least have universal drivers that runs nearly everything out of the box. There are a few odd balls that don't, and those are hard to find or you must have made a mistake in making the decision of even buying that hardware to begin with.
> 
> 
> 
> That's curious, when I installed Windows Server 2008 on an old Dell Vostro, it refused to pick up the Intel gigabit NIC. Same machine on Fedora 19... everything works, even as a Live CD.
> Generic driver sets are present even on Linux, to get the most basic functionality out of practically any card and device. I don't know where you got the assumption that things work better on Windows, nor do I know how much experience you have with Linux, but it's been a long time since drivers were a problem on Linux.
> 
> Propriety video drivers still need a far bit of work, but the graphics cards DO work.
Click to expand...

Odd; never had this problem. On the contrary, every Linux distro I've installed has either black screened, had no GPU support, could not detect wifi cards, etc., out of the box. The only time Linux ever worked, for me, and this is being generous, was on my old AMD 3800+X2 box with SLIed 9600GTs. And installing the Nvidia drivers, at that time, was a pain.


----------



## Liranan

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Odd; never had this problem. On the contrary, every Linux distro I've installed has either black screened, had no GPU support, could not detect wifi cards, etc., out of the box. The only time Linux ever worked, for me, and this is being generous, was on my old AMD 3800+X2 box with SLIed 9600GTs. And installing the Nvidia drivers, at that time, was a pain.


I've found the latest Linux distro's to contain a lot of bugs and problems. The last real working Linux distro I like is Mint 13, 14 and 15 are disasters with many things not working, updates killing the OS and a lot of issues that constantly require reinstallation.


----------



## Pip Boy

Gnome 3 ?

I think they have come in at this on the wrong angle or at least I think people will adapt the optimisations valve make and put a more generic environment on.

imo It should of been a Valve themed desktop using Crunchbang or XFCE (with a conky showing system information and temps) or even could of been a nice flashily animated KDE. This way they could of put a big picture icon on the desktop or written a top corner application to go straight into big picture (which currently you can only do via steam)
Then all they needed to do was install a mouse to joypad utility to make their pad work like a mouse so if your sat on the TV in desktop mode you either navigate to the corner using the analogue sticks OR press their controller button to launch immediate into big picture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s59cL_Vvoo

The way they have done it makes it confusing for people.. let alone the confusion associated with Gnome 3's lack of windows buttons


----------



## Pimphare

This here is picking at my brain! Does anyone know if you can dual boot SteamOS with Windows 8.0 64 bit? I have a 128gb SSD as primary drive and a 500gb HDD as secondary. I also have an Intel I5-3570k with GTX 760's in SLI. Anyone try dual OS with this yet??









Edit: Oh and I forgot to add that I have a UEFI motherboard.


----------



## CasperGS

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PR-Imagery*
> 
> Why didn't they provide an iso image like normal people...


Thank you!!


----------



## DVLux

So now nobody wants to use SteamOS, after they raved in that thread like it was the Second Coming? So much for objective reviews and information...


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *DVLux*
> 
> So now nobody wants to use SteamOS, after they raved in that thread like it was the Second Coming? So much for objective reviews and information...


I will admit im kind of surprised about the way it works and looks I had hoped for something that would replace a windows desktop like ubuntu but with heavy gaming optimisations and some nice controller + apps for quick switching into big picture mode (with a valve like theme)

I wont try it until after tomorrow when the phoronix ubuntu vs steamOS benchmarks are out.. that should give some pointers as to how well the optimisation works versus vanilla Debian/ubuntu based distributions. Im already running mint 16 with steam/desura and other non DRM's games pretty well TBH I only hope for teams such as Mint, Fedora, Suse, Canonical etc.. to take on the optimisations into their environments for the best of both worlds










one of my Linux UI's with fully x360 support and buttons mapped to bring the virtual keyboard up too. I have full slide animations and transparency. On my activities i have a development work area and a workspace for windowed gaming if needed.

I can still use big picture on that but TBH i prefer the quick alt-tab slider on KDE to goto the browser version. Was easy to setup and get working slicker than most other out of the box pre-paid operating systems


----------



## selk22

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> I will admit im kind of surprised about the way it works and looks I had hoped for something that would replace a windows desktop like ubuntu but with heavy gaming optimisations and some nice controller + apps for quick switching into big picture mode (with a valve like theme)


This was my hope.. We shall see. This is beta right now but I dont think we will see SteamOS replacing ubuntu or windows anytime soon.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *selk22*
> 
> This was my hope.. We shall see. This is beta right now but I dont think we will see SteamOS replacing ubuntu or windows anytime soon.


well then lets hope the power of the opensource community come out with a raft of SteamOS distributions without big picture or gnome and just the kernal updates and their custom compositor then it will be pretty much game over for windows


----------



## cones

I haven't read the whole thread so if its been asked already sorry. What about the need for a 500gb HDD and do you really need UEFI for it?


----------



## Mikey976

after some hoop jumping ive got the OS installed on an old non uefi HP C2D rig with a gt420 and 64gb ssd

i used the files at the end of this
http://w3.reddit.com/r/SteamOS/comme..._with_steamos/
to get it to boot.

however the quick and dirty way i got the system to boot via USB is rename zip to iso, used unetbootin to copy contents to USB, copied files from said link then when booting the drive scroll down to "unknown grub 0" or something it will go thru the autoinstall and wipe the system. follow instructions for grub in link above.

i just cant seem to get steam to run or the post install script to work

trick is after post install what they leave out of the instructions is when you log into gnome session as steam/steam you must run Steam via terminal. after accepting EULA then close/logout and complete instructions as perscribed.

may run into issue where its booting into steam BPM and drops to intrafms, just perform a hard reboot and should come up clean and prompt for first login

plays l4d2 perfectly thus far


----------



## N3G4T1v3

I really want to put this onto my laptop, but not having uefi bios, it's proving stupidly difficult to install
I've never encountered such a difficult linux OS to install


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *N3G4T1v3*
> 
> I really want to put this onto my laptop, but not having uefi bios, it's proving stupidly difficult to install
> I've never encountered such a difficult linux OS to install


initial benchmarks have it a bit slower than ubuntu. Also it is a gnome de with a low latency kernal. Did you know there is something called ubuntu studio which also has a low latency kernal which is great for gaming? then just run big picture .. ala SteamOS (well until they pass there changes upstream to merge into other distributions)


----------



## GermanyChris

It's beta, and on select HW only lets give it some time to mature.


----------



## Rookie1337

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Far from the truth. Most Intel low power GPUs in netbooks, or wireless controllers don't even run properly in Linux. Windows at least have universal drivers that runs nearly everything out of the box. There are a few odd balls that don't, and those are hard to find or you must have made a mistake in making the decision of even buying that hardware to begin with.


Not to go OT...but what is this FUD? The FUD you have is wrong. And the proof is that Intel has their drivers integrated in the Linux kernel as soon as they can. You must be thinking about the PowerVR based GPUs that the Atoms used to have which Intel could not provide drivers for because of Imagination Tech (the owners of the PowerVR design) didn't feel like providing it. As for the WIFI, that is often complicated by interactions between the drivers and the GUI network management programs that may be included.

As for your blackscreen issues...that's often a botched image download or burn or bybassed by adding a nomodeset option on boot (granted that isn't user friendly). I will concede that right now there is a massive flux or bugs as the push for user friendliness increases and thus GUI installers become pointlessly flashly and thus open up bugs (IE the Ubiquity installer found in Ubuntu/Kubuntu/etc. crashes with Nvidia GPUs). But the ultimate issue and this I think everyone needs to understand since so few realize it was one of the biggest issues with Vista...if hardware makers don't work with you then your OS is going to have problems. Considering how the hardware world in the consumer space treats the use of Linux I'm impressed things often work as well as they do.

@Phill1978: Has something changed recently as lowlatency is supposed to be slower than a generic kernel do to how it slices CPU time. I'm incapable of accurately explaining it but basically it gives CPU time whenever something wants it and thus interrupts something that you may be doing; thus this helps audio/video production but it makes for a slower response of an interactive environment IIRC. Also, phoronix had a comparison of the two back in june 2012 and the generic won outside of benchmark suites.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Rookie1337*
> 
> Not to go OT...but what is this FUD? The FUD you have is wrong. And the proof is that Intel has their drivers integrated in the Linux kernel as soon as they can. You must be thinking about the PowerVR based GPUs that the Atoms used to have which Intel could not provide drivers for because of Imagination Tech (the owners of the PowerVR design) didn't feel like providing it. As for the WIFI, that is often complicated by interactions between the drivers and the GUI network management programs that may be included.
> 
> As for your blackscreen issues...that's often a botched image download or burn or bybassed by adding a nomodeset option on boot (granted that isn't user friendly). I will concede that right now there is a massive flux or bugs as the push for user friendliness increases and thus GUI installers become pointlessly flashly and thus open up bugs (IE the Ubiquity installer found in Ubuntu/Kubuntu/etc. crashes with Nvidia GPUs). But the ultimate issue and this I think everyone needs to understand since so few realize it was one of the biggest issues with Vista...if hardware makers don't work with you then your OS is going to have problems. Considering how the hardware world in the consumer space treats the use of Linux I'm impressed things often work as well as they do.
> 
> @Phill1978: Has something changed recently as lowlatency is supposed to be slower than a generic kernel do to how it slices CPU time. I'm incapable of accurately explaining it but basically it gives CPU time whenever something wants it and thus interrupts something that you may be doing; thus this helps audio/video production but it makes for a slower response of an interactive environment IIRC. Also, phoronix had a comparison of the two back in june 2012 and the generic won outside of benchmark suites.


Sorry im too busy facepalming about the intel comments made by Domino ... I just don't even know where to begin.

Intel GPU drivers are Excellent on linux, probably the best out of the bunch.

In fact I have an old extremely cheap and nasty laptop that features a truly anaemic 8 shader core intel gma gpu with 128mb of VRAM can play a modern game like Don't starve with all of its animated assets on high @ 1280 x 800 fully loaded on screen at 20 fps is amazing.. because the driver is running at its most efficient. I even managed to get Killing floor working on it on the lowest settings at 12 - 15fps which when you consider the powerpoint presentation only nature of the igpu is no mean feat. Extrapolate to a modern K series intel mobile and budget gamers can play tonnes of games perfectly fine but of course not the AAA uber graphics games.

Just utter gibberish garbled by Domino


----------



## remnant

will be watching the development of this hopefully as time goes on games will be written for steam os as well as windows


----------



## Flames21891

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Pimphare*
> 
> This here is picking at my brain! Does anyone know if you can dual boot SteamOS with Windows 8.0 64 bit? I have a 128gb SSD as primary drive and a 500gb HDD as secondary. I also have an Intel I5-3570k with GTX 760's in SLI. Anyone try dual OS with this yet??
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Edit: Oh and I forgot to add that I have a UEFI motherboard.


Yes, but it's a bit tricky. SteamOS refuses to use partitions, it will simply take control of an entire drive. As far as I know, you don't really get a choice of what drive it chooses either, so you'll need to unplug all but the drive you want to install it to.

After you have everything setup, shut down, plug your drives back in and boot back into SteamOS. Go to the desktop, open Terminal and type 'sudo update-grub' (without the quotes) and it should see your Windows loader and add it to the list, so the next time GRUB comes up just keep hitting the down arrow and select the Windows loader instead of SteamOS.

Heads up, before using any Sudo commands, you will need to set a password. To do this, just type 'passwd' (again, without quotes) in Terminal and set one.

On another topic, out of curiosity has anyone else had working sound out of the box? I'm too lazy to setup sound manually on it right now, but I am wondering if EVERYONE will have to manually set up their sound devices or if some lucky few can skip that step.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Rookie1337*
> 
> Not to go OT...but what is this FUD? The FUD you have is wrong. And the proof is that Intel has their drivers integrated in the Linux kernel as soon as they can. You must be thinking about the PowerVR based GPUs that the Atoms used to have which Intel could not provide drivers for because of Imagination Tech (the owners of the PowerVR design) didn't feel like providing it. As for the WIFI, that is often complicated by interactions between the drivers and the GUI network management programs that may be included.
> 
> As for your blackscreen issues...that's often a botched image download or burn or bybassed by adding a nomodeset option on boot (granted that isn't user friendly). I will concede that right now there is a massive flux or bugs as the push for user friendliness increases and thus GUI installers become pointlessly flashly and thus open up bugs (IE the Ubiquity installer found in Ubuntu/Kubuntu/etc. crashes with Nvidia GPUs). But the ultimate issue and this I think everyone needs to understand since so few realize it was one of the biggest issues with Vista...if hardware makers don't work with you then your OS is going to have problems. Considering how the hardware world in the consumer space treats the use of Linux I'm impressed things often work as well as they do.
> 
> @Phill1978: Has something changed recently as lowlatency is supposed to be slower than a generic kernel do to how it slices CPU time. I'm incapable of accurately explaining it but basically it gives CPU time whenever something wants it and thus interrupts something that you may be doing; thus this helps audio/video production but it makes for a slower response of an interactive environment IIRC. Also, phoronix had a comparison of the two back in june 2012 and the generic won outside of benchmark suites.
> 
> 
> 
> Just utter gibberish garbled by Domino
Click to expand...

Never ran on my Intel HD nor GMA500. So call it gibberish all you want but ever distro I tried did not work or ran like absolute garbage. Windows 7 ran smoother. On the Intel HD, I had to try disabling certain GPU calls on installation and force CPU rendering just to get past the black screen at times. Oh, those Linux installs completely threw me off every trying it again.

Then again, I did try Ubuntu, again, on this laptop. Corrupted my 750GB to the point that it thought Linux was still installed on it; even after formatting the drive it still thought Ubuntu was on it. Can't explain it, but lately it has been working fine. Used to always have to remove the 750, reboot, load into windows, shut down, and slab the 750 back in just to not get no Ubuntu gnome error or whatever crap it used to read.

It's OT, but the point being, SteamOS is just plagued with the same issues as all the Linux desktop OS have...and they don't have a good support system to make it a suitable replacement. Disappointing.


----------



## knightsilver

Quote:


> Domino,
> 
> It's OT, but the point being, SteamOS is just plagued with the same issues as all the Linux desktop OS have...and they don't have a good support system to make it a suitable replacement. Disappointing.


Agreed!!

Anyone know or tried SteamOS on a VM?


----------



## ccRicers

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *N3G4T1v3*
> 
> I really want to put this onto my laptop, but not having uefi bios, it's proving stupidly difficult to install
> I've never encountered such a difficult linux OS to install


This, I'm kinda stumped. I'm posting this from Xubuntu, on an Athlon 64 system with Radeon X200 integrated graphics.


----------



## GAMERIG

OCN dudes, why not you buying Dell Alienware x51 (runs UbuntuOS) for banging $$ and wipe it out for SteamOS. Plain and simple! =op

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk


----------



## hot120

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Takla*
> 
> 1. install windows boot to usb stick 1
> 2. install steamOS boot to usb stick 2
> 3. dis-connect all hdds / ssds your not using for steamOS
> 4. if you dont like steamOS, reinstall windows with usb stick 2 and reconnect the ssds / hdds
> 
> whats so hard about that for you people?


If you are going to be sarcastic, as least be correct with it! You mixed up your own USB sticks knucklehead!


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Never ran on my Intel HD nor GMA500. So call it gibberish all you want but ever distro I tried did not work or ran like absolute garbage. Windows 7 ran smoother. On the Intel HD, I had to try disabling certain GPU calls on installation and force CPU rendering just to get past the black screen at times. Oh, those Linux installs completely threw me off every trying it again.
> 
> Then again, I did try Ubuntu, again, on this laptop. Corrupted my 750GB to the point that it thought Linux was still installed on it; even after formatting the drive it still thought Ubuntu was on it. Can't explain it, but lately it has been working fine. Used to always have to remove the 750, reboot, load into windows, shut down, and slab the 750 back in just to not get no Ubuntu gnome error or whatever crap it used to read.
> 
> It's OT, but the point being, SteamOS is just plagued with the same issues as all the Linux desktop OS have...and they don't have a good support system to make it a suitable replacement. Disappointing.


nah its not you just don't know how to follow simple instructions

and my igpu was even worse than the GMA500! (gm45 with 1.6 dual core intel pentium)


----------



## bad_haze

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *FastMHz*
> 
> Well this stinks....my PhenomII gaming rig has no UEFI and it has a Radeon card....double whammy. And I thought I was ready with this empty Velociraptor sitting here


Dude. I upgraded from my "Golden Copper" rig below to the "Laptop" in my sig below, and it actually performs much much better. Go figure. Our systems are dated whether we like it or not







*sad face*.

Just gotta get me an SSD... and Christmas is around the corner


----------



## GermanyChris

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> nah its not you just don't know how to follow simple instructions
> 
> and my igpu was even worse than the GMA500! (gm45 with 1.6 dual core intel pentium)


No it's just not Windows. I'm sure he can follow instructions he's a university student but he becomes amazingly unable to do things outside of Windows.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Never ran on my Intel HD nor GMA500. So call it gibberish all you want but ever distro I tried did not work or ran like absolute garbage. Windows 7 ran smoother. On the Intel HD, I had to try disabling certain GPU calls on installation and force CPU rendering just to get past the black screen at times. Oh, those Linux installs completely threw me off every trying it again.
> 
> Then again, I did try Ubuntu, again, on this laptop. Corrupted my 750GB to the point that it thought Linux was still installed on it; even after formatting the drive it still thought Ubuntu was on it. Can't explain it, but lately it has been working fine. Used to always have to remove the 750, reboot, load into windows, shut down, and slab the 750 back in just to not get no Ubuntu gnome error or whatever crap it used to read.
> 
> It's OT, but the point being, SteamOS is just plagued with the same issues as all the Linux desktop OS have...and they don't have a good support system to make it a suitable replacement. Disappointing.
> 
> 
> 
> nah its not you just don't know how to follow simple instructions
> 
> and my igpu was even worse than the GMA500! (gm45 with 1.6 dual core intel pentium)
Click to expand...

I don't think you quite understand how drivers work... lol It has nothing to do with how powerful the GPU, there was no driver support because no Linux tard could make universal vertex call to shaded units on a gpu.


----------



## BakerMan1971

I have been looking forward to SteamOS for a long time, I do think it would be prudent for me to wait for the next / normal installation release before having a blast.

I do see this thread getting quite heated in places, but would like to remind everyone that when Valve made the announcement they hinted at Linux Pro's only









anyway, I am sure that once the festive season is done with, the driver writers et al will get to work on the thing to get some fun releases we can all play with.

Would love to have a blast on a VM but do not mind slapping it on a spare drive


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> because no Linux tard .


and we have your feelings encapsulated right there

thanks.

_I have to wonder what university teaches you to become so dismissive and use offensive words? If your so smart why don't you help the 'tards' to fix Linux?_


----------



## TheReciever

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> and we have your feelings encapsulated right there
> 
> thanks.
> 
> _I have to wonder what university teaches you to become so dismissive and use offensive words? If your so smart why don't you help the 'tards' to fix Linux?_


I would be slightly inclined to agree.

I have never had any issues installing a few different distros just for kicks on my laptop with Intel HD, this would be my sig rig actually. This is in no way is testament for how things operate in the linux world.


----------



## oblivious45cs

After five pages im surprised to see only a few people have actually got this running and commented on it.

I installed SteamOS on my secondary computer, specs below

AMD Athlon II X2 270
4GB Ram
GTX 580
640 Gb WD Black
AsRock MB (Non UEFI)

Due to being a non UEFI Mb, i followed the steps a few others have posted from reddit to get through the initial setup. Once complete everything appeared to be working, Xbox controller was functioning, connected to my steam account and downloaded a few games. Only problem i have run into outside of the UEFI requirement was no sound. Using the on board sound on my motherboard it was based on a VIA HD audio chip. I did some research and manually installed the 8 or so packages related to ALSA audio for Debian which got my sound working. (looking at the steam distro Alsa was listed as being there, not sure why it didn't work out of the box, but manually installing the packages solved it)

Once everything was working i loaded up Serious Sam BFE, and Bastion and played for a couple hours with it. Both played well, but i can definitely feel that the slow Athlon CPU is bottle-necking the 580 like crazy, had to lower settings in Serious sam to get playable frame rates. Might have to pick-up a AMD 6 core next time i see a sale.

Overall i thought the experience was great (FOR WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE) It felt like a pretty smooth console interface, system booted quickly, logged into my steam account, downloading games was simple, browsing the store and my large game library could be a little more intuitive, but over all i liked it.

Everyone needs to remember what valve is trying to achieve here, and stop comparing the steam OS experience to what they personally what valve to achieve. Valve is attempting to offer a full "console like" experience for those that want it on the PC. And when looked at in that light, honestly they did a great job out of the gate with this beta. Think of how much Steam has evolved over the years and you can definitely see how much potential Steam OS has. I am certain over continuous updates and improvements we will see media streaming, a better browser, better driver compatibility, a more intuitive and featured interface, ect.

Overall i am pretty impressed, now i am interested to get my hand on the Steam controller and see if that can truly be used for non-standard console games, like RTS and strategy games.

The main thing this entire venture is going to hinge on is the games. I have 230+ games on Steam, out of that library 48 of them are linux compatible, and about 20 of those are valve titles (DOD, CS, HL, Portal ect.) The only recent "Big Name" title that i have that i could play would have been Metro Last Light, but i wasn't going to try that on the AMD dual core. For me this will be a nice box to load up all the Indie titles i have but don't feel like sitting at my desk to play, and for that it works perfectly. I think everyone who tries Steam OS will find there own usage scenarios for it, but at-least for the foreseeable future don't expect it to come anywhere close to replacing Windows or their main rig.


----------



## Sisaroth

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *GTR Mclaren*
> 
> QUESTION
> 
> maybe is too soon to ask...but considering this OS will not have to run all the things that Windows run in background....
> 
> could the games perform better in it ?


Yes, but not because of the background stuff. If you don't have crap installed then windows has almost no background things running that slow stuff down. It's more the layers in the windows OS that the application has to go through to get to the hardware that slows it down (directx, drivers and some other stuff). If steamOS is finetuned to have as least overhead as possible between the application and the hardware than it can be faster than windows, native linux application usually already run faster than their windows version. But mantle should do a similar thing so if mantle is widely adopted than the performance benefit of steamOS might become nothing.
Linux also has a different way (different priority system and mechanics to prevent starvation) to schedule threads to the CPU, that might also benefit gaming but it's hard to say.


----------



## ozlay

UEFI


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *ozlay*
> 
> UEFI


Easily bypassed...


----------



## SteveZ23

Why is this better than using Windows with a controller?


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SteveZ23*
> 
> Why is this better than using Windows with a controller?


No one said it was.

Why do people assume this was made purely to be a drop in Windows replacement?


----------



## SteveZ23

I am just saying what are the benefits of installing this on my computer?


----------



## GermanyChris

It's not Windows is the big benefit in my eyes


----------



## Shrak

It's not really meant for your desktop. It's meant more for the HTPC scenario.

As I said, this isn't a drop in replacement for Windows, Mac or other Linux distributions. If you already have one of those installed, then this means nothing to you.

But if you have or want to build an HTPC, then this provides a free alternative to Windows. And later on, it'll be able to take advantage of you're already powerful desktop and stream any game it's able to play your HTPC. Meaning all your HTPC has to do is be able to process the video/audio stream essentially, in term meaning you can build an extremely lean HTPC and not need to worry about buying another Windows license, or purchasing another expensive video card. Or you can add a decent video card and have a standalone gaming HTPC / PC once more games start getting released on Linux. It's been picking up quite a bit of speed, and I feel a push like this from a company like Valve can make it a reality. We've already seen decent improvements in video drivers and game selection in the last year alone.


----------



## Flames21891

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *oblivious45cs*
> 
> After five pages im surprised to see only a few people have actually got this running and commented on it.
> 
> I installed SteamOS on my secondary computer, specs below
> 
> AMD Athlon II X2 270
> 4GB Ram
> GTX 580
> 640 Gb WD Black
> AsRock MB (Non UEFI)
> 
> Due to being a non UEFI Mb, i followed the steps a few others have posted from reddit to get through the initial setup. Once complete everything appeared to be working, Xbox controller was functioning, connected to my steam account and downloaded a few games. Only problem i have run into outside of the UEFI requirement was no sound. Using the on board sound on my motherboard it was based on a VIA HD audio chip. I did some research and manually installed the 8 or so packages related to ALSA audio for Debian which got my sound working. (looking at the steam distro Alsa was listed as being there, not sure why it didn't work out of the box, but manually installing the packages solved it)
> 
> Once everything was working i loaded up Serious Sam BFE, and Bastion and played for a couple hours with it. Both played well, but i can definitely feel that the slow Athlon CPU is bottle-necking the 580 like crazy, had to lower settings in Serious sam to get playable frame rates. Might have to pick-up a AMD 6 core next time i see a sale.
> 
> Overall i thought the experience was great (FOR WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE) It felt like a pretty smooth console interface, system booted quickly, logged into my steam account, downloading games was simple, browsing the store and my large game library could be a little more intuitive, but over all i liked it.
> 
> Everyone needs to remember what valve is trying to achieve here, and stop comparing the steam OS experience to what they personally what valve to achieve. Valve is attempting to offer a full "console like" experience for those that want it on the PC. And when looked at in that light, honestly they did a great job out of the gate with this beta. Think of how much Steam has evolved over the years and you can definitely see how much potential Steam OS has. I am certain over continuous updates and improvements we will see media streaming, a better browser, better driver compatibility, a more intuitive and featured interface, ect.
> 
> Overall i am pretty impressed, now i am interested to get my hand on the Steam controller and see if that can truly be used for non-standard console games, like RTS and strategy games.
> 
> The main thing this entire venture is going to hinge on is the games. I have 230+ games on Steam, out of that library 48 of them are linux compatible, and about 20 of those are valve titles (DOD, CS, HL, Portal ect.) The only recent "Big Name" title that i have that i could play would have been Metro Last Light, but i wasn't going to try that on the AMD dual core. For me this will be a nice box to load up all the Indie titles i have but don't feel like sitting at my desk to play, and for that it works perfectly. I think everyone who tries Steam OS will find there own usage scenarios for it, but at-least for the foreseeable future don't expect it to come anywhere close to replacing Windows or their main rig.


Firstly, I think most people can't spare an entire HDD (a really annoying point of SteamOS at the moment) and secondly, the installation is a bit troublesome.

I would be lying if I said my installation was 100% smooth. It MOSTLY was, but after doing everything, when I should finally be able to truly boot into SteamOS, it just hung on a black screen. No errors, no indication of what was wrong. The PC wasn't frozen, it just stopped doing anything. I had to edit the boot parameters to force it into Bash, which then showed me it took exception to having a second display connected. After disconnecting my second display and rebooting it worked perfectly, but what irks me is that had I not thought of Bash I would have been SOL.

Also the sound issue has nothing to do with UEFI, I too got no sound out of the box. Oh and just a heads-up, the 500GB HDD requirement is complete BS. I installed it on a 300GB HDD, and at no point did it even take up 100GB worth of HDD space. Any old drive lying around should do the trick.

SteamOS isn't going to provide any meaningful upgrade (in fact I would say in most ways it's a downgrade) from Windows. In the future, if it gets LOTS of support, it may be a suitable replacement for some. But it's going to be hard for people like me to justify using SteamOS as a primary OS when there's so many things we do that are currently much easier, or can only be done, in Windows at the moment. Linux is a great coding environment, not so much for day-to-day usage.

Still, that's not to say I won't use SteamOS at all. I really want to make a streaming box, and I think that's where the OS is going to get most of its initial foothold, but it's likely never going to be something I'll use on my main rig as I do more than just game and browse the web.


----------



## ccRicers

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shrak*
> 
> It's not really meant for your desktop. It's meant more for the HTPC scenario.
> 
> As I said, this isn't a drop in replacement for Windows, Mac or other Linux distributions. If you already have one of those installed, then this means nothing to you.


Do a lot of HTPC mobos have UEFI, though?

I'd eventually like to do a small living room gamer build anyways. A form factor like a DS Bolt but more bang for your buck.


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *ccRicers*
> 
> Do a lot of HTPC mobos have UEFI, though?
> 
> I'd eventually like to do a small living room gamer build anyways. A form factor like a DS Bolt but more bang for your buck.


Most any motherboard most of us would consider using made in the last couple of years will.

Besides, the UEFI " requirement " is easily bypassed.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *oblivious45cs*
> 
> After five pages im surprised to see only a few people have actually got this running and commented on it.
> 
> I installed SteamOS on my secondary computer, specs below
> 
> AMD Athlon II X2 270
> 4GB Ram
> GTX 580
> 640 Gb WD Black
> AsRock MB (Non UEFI)
> 
> Due to being a non UEFI Mb, i followed the steps a few others have posted from reddit to get through the initial setup. Once complete everything appeared to be working, Xbox controller was functioning, connected to my steam account and downloaded a few games. Only problem i have run into outside of the UEFI requirement was no sound. Using the on board sound on my motherboard it was based on a VIA HD audio chip. I did some research and manually installed the 8 or so packages related to ALSA audio for Debian which got my sound working. (looking at the steam distro Alsa was listed as being there, not sure why it didn't work out of the box, but manually installing the packages solved it)
> 
> Once everything was working i loaded up Serious Sam BFE, and Bastion and played for a couple hours with it. Both played well, but i can definitely feel that the slow Athlon CPU is bottle-necking the 580 like crazy, had to lower settings in Serious sam to get playable frame rates. Might have to pick-up a AMD 6 core next time i see a sale.
> 
> Overall i thought the experience was great (FOR WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE) It felt like a pretty smooth console interface, system booted quickly, logged into my steam account, downloading games was simple, browsing the store and my large game library could be a little more intuitive, but over all i liked it.
> 
> Everyone needs to remember what valve is trying to achieve here, and stop comparing the steam OS experience to what they personally what valve to achieve. Valve is attempting to offer a full "console like" experience for those that want it on the PC. And when looked at in that light, honestly they did a great job out of the gate with this beta. Think of how much Steam has evolved over the years and you can definitely see how much potential Steam OS has. I am certain over continuous updates and improvements we will see media streaming, a better browser, better driver compatibility, a more intuitive and featured interface, ect.
> 
> Overall i am pretty impressed, now i am interested to get my hand on the Steam controller and see if that can truly be used for non-standard console games, like RTS and strategy games.
> 
> The main thing this entire venture is going to hinge on is the games. I have 230+ games on Steam, out of that library 48 of them are linux compatible, and about 20 of those are valve titles (DOD, CS, HL, Portal ect.) The only recent "Big Name" title that i have that i could play would have been Metro Last Light, but i wasn't going to try that on the AMD dual core. For me this will be a nice box to load up all the Indie titles i have but don't feel like sitting at my desk to play, and for that it works perfectly. I think everyone who tries Steam OS will find there own usage scenarios for it, but at-least for the foreseeable future don't expect it to come anywhere close to replacing Windows or their main rig.


great write up thanks

+rep

is the interface EXACTLY the same as Big picture mode on vanilla steam or is there more ?


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> great write up thanks
> 
> +rep
> 
> is the interface EXACTLY the same as Big picture mode on vanilla steam or is there more ?


Pretty much the same. You have to remember that it is a beta so it's going to have a few additions in that respect, that'll eventually work their way to the normal client.

I'd make a video but there's a few on youtube already;


----------



## Pip Boy

(a brief) SteamOS vs. Windows 8.1 NVIDIA Performance

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=steamos_windows8_linux&num=1

actually seems slower than Ubuntu vs windows 8 at the moment. But its still pretty even so far


----------



## oblivious45cs

To be honest i never really ventured into big picture mode before Steam OS, so i cant say for certain. From what i can remember of Big picture mode i would say they pretty much exactly the same, with Steam OS having a few more options under hood. But the front end interface is very similar.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shrak*
> 
> Pretty much the same. You have to remember that it is a beta so it's going to have a few additions in that respect, that'll eventually work their way to the normal client.
> 
> I'd make a video but there's a few on youtube already;


seems a bit more fleshed out than the current big picture. Im not sure how some games are not going to have to go to windowed desktop in order to change settings pre-game (like Trine2) and thats not very console or TV like is it ..?


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> seems a bit more fleshed out than the current big picture. Im not sure how some games are not going to have to go to windowed desktop in order to change settings pre-game (like Trine2) and thats not very console or TV like is it ..?


Games with separate patchers / launchers can easily be integrated into it as well. But also remember, it's an older game that wasn't designed with SteamOS in mind, and using the console version would be a bit limited.

I feel like the separate launchers will go away sooner or later anyways. They're already pretty few in the grand scheme of things ( maybe 3? of my 9x Steam games have them...Trine being one of them )


----------



## madbrayniak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SteveZ23*
> 
> Why is this better than using Windows with a controller?


If you want a full on PC that can play games then I would say none.

If you want a PC that is pretty much games only I would say that you have the advantage of having an OS that is fully optimized to run games at the highest possible settings with minimal operations occurring in the back ground.


----------



## bryonhowley

Well I hope there are more games that support Steam with Linux than there were a couple months ago when I tried Ubuntu again. At that time out of the 320+ Steam games I had a total of 7 that were supported on Linux. That is correct 7 out of 320! At least on OS X I have 99 supported games.

At some point I would like to try SteamOS but I am not going to disconnect 13tb of hard drives just to install it without worry of having them wiped to install it. It is just not worth it at this time. My current Steam Library alone is over 2tb's.


----------



## Unhooked

Anyone try to stream games from a PC to a SteamOS machine?


----------



## Tsumi

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shrak*
> 
> No one said it was.
> 
> Why do people assume this was made purely to be a drop in Windows replacement?


It's like the Bulldozer hype. Half the people on OCN were hyping it up to be the "Microsoft and Windows killer" and "Savior from Microsoft tyranny" and things like that.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Tsumi*
> 
> It's like the Bulldozer hype. Half the people on OCN were hyping it up to be the "Microsoft and Windows killer" and "Savior from Microsoft tyranny" and things like that.


To be fair half the people were led to expect something else by valve when they called it SteamOS and said it would be a Linux desktop.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *bryonhowley*
> 
> Well I hope there are more games that support Steam with Linux than there were a couple months ago when I tried Ubuntu again. At that time out of the 320+ Steam games I had a total of 7 that were supported on Linux. That is correct 7 out of 320! At least on OS X I have 99 supported games.
> 
> At some point I would like to try SteamOS but I am not going to disconnect 13tb of hard drives just to install it without worry of having them wiped to install it. It is just not worth it at this time. My current Steam Library alone is over 2tb's.


Im kind of agreeing even though im pleased this whole thing will push forward GPU drivers and Kernal / display server optimisations to be on par with windows. I don't have anywhere near that amount of games and usually only have about 5 or 6 installed at one time (20 Linux games out of 118 titles for me) but if they can't even get CS:Go out of the door for SteamOS when they promised it very early in the year even after 6 months previous of potential portage then yea.. how are they going to get people to port existing games (like Crysis, Dirt 2,3 )

I have waited a fair few months for red orchestra Stalingrad and rising storm even though killing floor was ported ages ago and uses similar technology AND they said they would be porting they haven't done so

So more old games ported across is a top priority for me and not just new games the streaming feature wont cut it as a replacement for them all as id have to run two machines at once one with a fresh copy of windows also and a equally decent GPU


----------



## Angrybutcher

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Unhooked*
> 
> Anyone try to stream games from a PC to a SteamOS machine?


This is the whole reason I'd even use SteamOS currently. Sadly it doesn't seem like anyone has tested it.


----------



## EaquitasAbsum

Are there currently any advantages to the SteamOS over Linux, Mac and Windows, or is it just; "The trendy thing to do"? I read originally they were making it for their consoles and Home Theater type(Barebones) PCs, is this still true and they are just making it compatible with Desktops due to they hype, or is my data false and they were trying to make the OS for Desktops from the get-go?


----------



## Vagrant Storm

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Angrybutcher*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Unhooked*
> 
> Anyone try to stream games from a PC to a SteamOS machine?
> 
> 
> 
> This is the whole reason I'd even use SteamOS currently. Sadly it doesn't seem like anyone has tested it.
Click to expand...

This currently isn't working yet. They said the beta testing for it is to start *shortly*. So who knows when this will come to be.

Though I am thinking that you will not need the SteamOS to do this. You should be able to stream from Windows to Windows.

I tried installing this on my ESXi server...it won't boot up. Any one else got this to work on a VM? I am probably not going to mess with it much more though...not worth it. It sounds no different than if I go big picture mode on my Sabayon install.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *EaquitasAbsum*
> 
> Are there currently any advantages to the SteamOS over Linux, Mac and Windows, or is it just; "The trendy thing to do"? I read originally they were making it for their consoles and Home Theater type(Barebones) PCs, is this still true and they are just making it compatible with Desktops due to they hype, or is my data false and they were trying to make the OS for Desktops from the get-go?


honestly i don't think there is atm but this is Beta. The performance isn't actually better on games than vanilla ubuntu or Mint and i cant see them putting out a gimped 'big picture' mode when the SteamOS is released for those who want to use their own linux + steam client with big picture mode

unless valve really push forward on the optimisations then i doubt it will be far in front of a main linux distribution. Im kind of head scratching as to why they didn't go with a cool Half Life / Portal themed light weight linux desktop with all the popular applications installed (Firefox, VLC, Libre office, GIMP etc.. to be better than of windows for productivity AND to help game devs supply a game making program for free. Basically an Ubuntu like release without the unity desktop and some good compositor like Compton or even Wayland

but instead there going the full console interface with some option to go back to an alien Gnome 3 desktop?

So this makes 0% sense the reason being is too obvious as most people wont have TWO pc's to play games and SteamOS isn't dual boot
So how are modders going to create content on PC or Youtubers going to capture feeds and edit etc...

They screwed up


----------



## Vagrant Storm

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *EaquitasAbsum*
> 
> Are there currently any advantages to the SteamOS over Linux, Mac and Windows, or is it just; "The trendy thing to do"? I read originally they were making it for their consoles and Home Theater type(Barebones) PCs, is this still true and they are just making it compatible with Desktops due to they hype, or is my data false and they were trying to make the OS for Desktops from the get-go?
> 
> 
> 
> honestly i don't think there is atm but this is Beta. The performance isn't actually better on games than vanilla ubuntu or Mint and i cant see them putting out a gimped 'big picture' mode when the SteamOS is released for those who want to use their own linux + steam client with big picture mode
> 
> unless valve really push forward on the optimisations then i doubt it will be far in front of a main linux distribution. Im kind of head scratching as to why they didn't go with a cool Half Life / Portal themed light weight linux desktop with all the popular applications installed (Firefox, VLC, Libre office, GIMP etc.. to be better than of windows for productivity AND to help game devs supply a game making program for free. Basically an Ubuntu like release without the unity desktop and some good compositor like Compton or even Wayland
> 
> but instead there going the full console interface with some option to go back to an alien Gnome 3 desktop?
> 
> So this makes 0% sense the reason being is too obvious as most people wont have TWO pc's to play games and SteamOS isn't dual boot
> So how are modders going to create content on PC or Youtubers going to capture feeds and edit etc...
> 
> They screwed up
Click to expand...

I am wondering if they made it with only their Steam Box in mind. They had to have an OS to run it. However, I think we all know how popular those are going to be...I bet they will lucky to sell 25,000 or so.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Vagrant Storm*
> 
> I am wondering if they made it with only their Steam Box in mind. They had to have an OS to run it. However, I think we all know how popular those are going to be...I bet they will lucky to sell 25,000 or so.


agree. its a flop in that sense.

the natural progression within the PC community has been a steady flow of people entering into the world of desktop Linux and getting used to it. If valve had taken the simple step to boot into desktop ( a usable one like xfce) and not just all about big picture then people would of had their interest in Linux stoked as usually most people enjoy the overal experience not everyone gives in straight away.

This way they could of easily made a nice animated graphical Tripple boot manager with [Big Picture] / [Steam OS] / [Windows 8]

This would help EVERYONE and before long applications would be ported like MSI afterburner and Raedon Pro

I just think there doing it wrong and its not that everyone who likes linux cant do it right but what about all the others? Y' know the 50 million on windows ..


----------



## Tsumi

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Vagrant Storm*
> 
> This currently isn't working yet. They said the beta testing for it is to start *shortly*. So who knows when this will come to be.
> 
> Though I am thinking that you will not need the SteamOS to do this. You should be able to stream from Windows to Windows.
> 
> I tried installing this on my ESXi server...it won't boot up. Any one else got this to work on a VM? I am probably not going to mess with it much more though...not worth it. It sounds no different than if I go big picture mode on my Sabayon install.


I seem to recall a picture or article stating that the streaming feature will be available on all Steam clients, not just SteamOS.


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Tsumi*
> 
> I seem to recall a picture or article stating that the streaming feature will be available on all Steam clients, not just SteamOS.


Yup, the main steam machine / steam os page...

Really not sure how people thought this was going to be more desktop oriented... for god sake everything they said included "living room" and all the pictures on the steam sites show a living room with a steam machine being used as a console...

Whats worse? LOOK AT THE URL PEOPLE!

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/ <- Notice the /*livingroom*/steamos at the end. Then the picture used is a cat sitting on a sofa in a living room....

Main page;

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/
Quote:


> Last year, we shipped a software feature called *Big Picture, a user-interface tailored for televisions* and gamepads.
> *This year we've been working on even more ways to connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living-room.*
> Soon, we'll be adding you to our design process, so that you can help us shape the future of Steam.


http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamMachines/
Quote:


> A powerful new category of *living-room* hardware is on the horizon.
> Join the hardware beta now.
> Choose the model right for you in 2014.


No where was this ever said to be for desktops or a Windows, Mac, Linux drop in replacement that people are apparently confused about.

Speaking of steam machines; http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/172868-steam-machine-beta-kit-arrives-with-top-tier-specs-and-amazing-packaging


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shrak*
> 
> No where was this ever said to be for desktops or a Windows, Mac, Linux drop in replacement that people are apparently confused about.


Sure. But lets call a spade a spade.

SteamOS isn't a Valve operating system .. its a Linux desktop with a graphical UI slapped on top. The OS part of SteamOS stands for: OPERATING SYSTEM

So that's a STEAM based OPERATING SYSTEM see the confusion for some ( not you of course as you always knew)

They should of called it Linux Big Picture to make it even more confusing

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS

Quotes:

_" Steam is coming to a new operating system "_ - So wait its coming to an operating system or it IS an operating system ?

_"As we've been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we've come to the conclusion that the
environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself."_

So wait there's and operating system built round Steam operating system? Yo Dawg ..

Now I agree they never said " look this is a windows replacement" But most folk aren't dumb and they know what operating system means, what Linux is as a desktop OS (sorry its a kernal but who's counting) and how Microsoft are moving to a walled garden / cloud operating system so ...

You can't blame people here there was ambiguity and slight contradictions, they gave as much information as they have with anything else.. very little . As I said most will be fine to install Ubuntu (or whatever) and then eventually install a single ever updated repo for all the "SteamOS" packages that make it run faster than a normal distribution on gaming

Hence hardly anyone will use 'steam OS' but the rest will use Linux + Steam + Repo optimisations (or a distro spin off)

effectively it will spawn decent gaming Linux distributions that people can use and unfortunately for canonical i don't think it will be theirs given their recent direction


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> Sure. But lets call a spade a spade.
> 
> SteamOS isn't a Valve operating system .. its a Linux desktop with a graphical UI slapped on top. The OS part of SteamOS stands for: OPERATING SYSTEM
> 
> So that's a STEAM based OPERATING SYSTEM see the confusion for some ( not you of course as you always knew)
> 
> They should of called it Linux Big Picture to make it even more confusing


Linux is the kernel. Ubuntu is an operating system. Same thing here, the operating system is the whole package... kernel, tools, UI, preinstalled programs, etc. The Linux kernel without the GNU tools is pretty boring and I'm going to say useless. The Linux kernel and GNU tools without an desktop environment to the average user is pretty much useless ( I'm not talking about the keyboard cowboys and IT people that use only the command line, as for me and many others like so, the CLI is all we need ).

At least, to keep things extremely simple and on the average users level of understanding the difference.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS
> 
> Quotes:
> 
> _" Steam is coming to a new operating system "_ - So wait its coming to an operating system or it IS an operating system ?
> 
> _"As we've been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we've come to the conclusion that the
> environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself."_
> 
> So wait there's and operating system built round Steam operating system? Yo Dawg ..


Yes, theirs. You can take a base debian install and build it around their client and gaming in general. Not hard. Take Ubuntu for example, it was built off Debian, and then they custom tailored it to fit their ideas, minds, and over all we don't call Ubuntu... Debian, nor do we usually call Debian... Linux unless we're asked what Debian is.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> Now I agree they never said " look this is a windows replacement" But most folk aren't dumb and they know what operating system means, what Linux is as a desktop OS (sorry that's GNU but who's counting) and how Microsoft are moving to a walled garden / cloud operating system so ...


This is where we can agree to disagree. Quite honestly most folks don't even know what an operating system is, they just know they use Windows on an HP.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> You can't blame people here there was ambiguity . As I said most will be fine to install Ubuntu (or whatever) and then eventually install a single ever updated repo for all the "SteamOS" packages that make it run faster than a normal distribution on gaming
> 
> Hence hardly anyone will use 'steam OS' but the rest will use Linux + Steam + Repo optimisations (or a distro spin off)


I agree most ENTHUSIASTS will use Linux + Steam + Repo optimizations, but SteamOS was built for Steam Boxs ( or Machines, whatever they're calling them these days ) as an already pre-configured setup for their hardware. They only released it to us because 1) they want to be open and 2) some people don't want to go through the setup of installing regular Linux and then configuring it a.k.a. the lazy enthusiast who doesn't want to learn anything about Linux.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shrak*
> 
> This is where we can agree to disagree. Quite honestly most folks don't even know what an operating system is, they just know they use Windows on an HP.


I know who you talk of, but in the context of gaming machines .. HP aren't gaming machines so the users wont be those people.

I take your points about a customised debian base but you must admit their wording was a tad confusing for the semi technical layman


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> I know who you talk of, but in the context of gaming machines .. HP aren't gaming machines so the users wont be those people.


Sorry I meant Dell... uh no I mean Alienware








Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> I take your points about a customised debian base but you must admit their wording was a tad confusing for the semi technical layman


Yes and no. Typical marketing going for a slightly stretched truth.


----------



## zerobahamut

If any of you are interested in trying out SteamOS on Windows without formatting and all that fun stuff, check out this video - it explains how to do it.


----------



## salamachaa

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *zerobahamut*
> 
> If any of you are interested in trying out SteamOS on Windows without formatting and all that fun stuff, check out this video - it explains how to do it.


It is interesting that the whole Steamos UI is there in the steam client. Will update after testing.


----------



## zerobahamut

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *salamachaa*
> 
> It is interesting that the whole Steamos UI is there in the steam client. Will update after testing.


Thats excatly what we thought. When we tried the command prompt and it worked, we were literally like

*MIND = BLOWN*

For what it is, it's pretty cool. The SteamOS UI is definitely worth checking out using this method.


----------



## salamachaa

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *zerobahamut*
> 
> If any of you are interested in trying out SteamOS on Windows without formatting and all that fun stuff, check out this video - it explains how to do it.


Ok here is my official update. It does seem to have the entire steamos UI in there with the exception of the desktop environment. The desktop environment seems to be a part of the host OS. It isn't accurate to say you get the whole experience with this workaround, but it does show the general layout of things. If anyone wants to do a steam big picture windows box, I would probably just make sure steam is on a ssd and run it at startup and in big picture mode. You can add non-steam games and stuff to your liking. Honestly, at the moment, that would probably be the best steam controller experience. I suppose you could use regular linux and do something similar.


----------



## adamkatt

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *GTR Mclaren*
> 
> QUESTION
> 
> maybe is too soon to ask...but considering this OS will not have to run all the things that Windows run in background....
> 
> could the games perform better in it ?


Not really because most systems easily tackle all window processes without a problem to even notice such things running. I do see what your getting at perhaps with older hardware but it still just lies with AMD/Nvidia and how well they deliver their drivers.


----------



## Milestailsprowe

Has anyone gotten PlayOnLinux to work with Steam OS for Steam games. I was thinking of running Linux Steam for Native games and PlayOnLinux for Windows.


----------



## AlDyer

Why is SteamOS such a big deal? What can it do that my Windows 8.1 can't?


----------



## Milestailsprowe

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AlDyer*
> 
> Why is SteamOS such a big deal? What can it do that my Windows 8.1 can't?


SteamOS is a Big deal because its a open source OS by a major name in gaming. Valve has made alot of customization to debian linux allowing for much better performance then what is seen in windows, Linux has a MUCH bigger chance to be viable gaming platform, allows for gaming PC's to be ALOT more accessible to non tech people and has built in streaming function so you can use your gaming pc anywhere in the house.


----------



## AlDyer

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Milestailsprowe*
> 
> SteamOS is a Big deal because its a open source OS by a major name in gaming. Valve has made alot of customization to debian linux allowing for much better performance then what is seen in windows, Linux has a MUCH bigger chance to be viable gaming platform, allows for gaming PC's to be ALOT more accessible to non tech people and has built in streaming function so you can use your gaming pc anywhere in the house.


Ok so it's a OS for gaming, especially for people who aren't tech . I get it, it makes life easier for them, but why is it so big on OCT? Does it support Windows applications? AFAIK; no. I need my Windows apps and dual boot isn't an option for me. I am also capable of using Windows so SteamOS is useless for me? And I'm it's useless for most people here too, at least without dual boot. Kind of silly that I have to reboot for my productivity OS. What games does it support? I am also not addicted that badly that I feel the urge to stream games to my Android while I'm taking a dump.


----------



## Milestailsprowe

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AlDyer*
> 
> Ok so it's a OS for gaming, especially for people who aren't tech . I get it, it makes life easier for them, but why is it so big on OCT? Does it support Windows applications? AFAIK; no. I need my Windows apps and dual boot isn't an option for me. I am also capable of using Windows so SteamOS is useless for me? And I'm it's useless for most people here too, at least without dual boot. Kind of silly that I have to reboot for my productivity OS. What games does it support? I am also not addicted that badly that I feel the urge to stream games to my Android while I'm taking a dump.


it can do windows applications with wine and play on Linux. Its Debian under the cover so a lot of windows alternatives are there


----------



## mushroomboy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AlDyer*
> 
> Ok so it's a OS for gaming, especially for people who aren't tech . I get it, it makes life easier for them, but why is it so big on OCT? Does it support Windows applications? AFAIK; no. I need my Windows apps and dual boot isn't an option for me. I am also capable of using Windows so SteamOS is useless for me? And I'm it's useless for most people here too, at least without dual boot. Kind of silly that I have to reboot for my productivity OS. What games does it support? I am also not addicted that badly that I feel the urge to stream games to my Android while I'm taking a dump.


How about this, why would Sony use FreeBSD for their operating system in a console? Why does Microsoft not use a regular version of windows for the Xbox? Because the overhead for windows is huge on the software side where FreeBSD doesn't have this. Well it does but after you hack it up a bit, it doesn't. The problem is, we don't have a real viable way to hack up windows for performance. So instead of companies getting Microsoft to release an extremely leightweight Windows system Valve got a FOSS system and did it themselves.

Sure, you can play games on that system of yours. With an operating system that's much more performance based, you'll get more FPS. Which in this, equates to not only better games but longevity of the system. If you took the hardware specs of the 360, got a similar PC, then tried to play Crysis 3 at the "console" quality..... I'm going to say, it's going to look like crap compared to the console. Same hardware, more software overhead.

So this is a future endeavor, to bring cheaper PC gaming to the home in a console like format that can be upgraded with ease. Everything is handled on Valve's end, you get hardware that's "plug n' play" and the software side is taken care of fore you. Make sense? No? Well then I don't know why you'd post without even knowing the end goal. It's been in the tech news for ages now, articles and stuff have been everywhere explaining the goals and why the goals are worth it.


----------



## Pimphare

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Flames21891*
> 
> Yes, but it's a bit tricky. SteamOS refuses to use partitions, it will simply take control of an entire drive. As far as I know, you don't really get a choice of what drive it chooses either, so you'll need to unplug all but the drive you want to install it to.
> 
> After you have everything setup, shut down, plug your drives back in and boot back into SteamOS. Go to the desktop, open Terminal and type 'sudo update-grub' (without the quotes) and it should see your Windows loader and add it to the list, so the next time GRUB comes up just keep hitting the down arrow and select the Windows loader instead of SteamOS.
> 
> Heads up, before using any Sudo commands, you will need to set a password. To do this, just type 'passwd' (again, without quotes) in Terminal and set one.
> 
> On another topic, out of curiosity has anyone else had working sound out of the box? I'm too lazy to setup sound manually on it right now, but I am wondering if EVERYONE will have to manually set up their sound devices or if some lucky few can skip that step.


Yeah I tried installing SteamOS on a 16gb flash drive last night just for fun. It didn't give me the option of where to install it. With that said, I was curious if it were possible to install SteanOS to a blank HDD or SSD first then install a second OS on the same drve on a seperate partition? I'll play around with this when I get time and post my results.


----------



## AlDyer

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mushroomboy*
> 
> How about this, why would Sony use FreeBSD for their operating system in a console? Why does Microsoft not use a regular version of windows for the Xbox? Because the overhead for windows is huge on the software side where FreeBSD doesn't have this. Well it does but after you hack it up a bit, it doesn't. The problem is, we don't have a real viable way to hack up windows for performance. So instead of companies getting Microsoft to release an extremely leightweight Windows system Valve got a FOSS system and did it themselves.
> 
> Sure, you can play games on that system of yours. With an operating system that's much more performance based, you'll get more FPS. Which in this, equates to not only better games but longevity of the system. If you took the hardware specs of the 360, got a similar PC, then tried to play Crysis 3 at the "console" quality..... I'm going to say, it's going to look like crap compared to the console. Same hardware, more software overhead.
> 
> So this is a future endeavor, to bring cheaper PC gaming to the home in a console like format that can be upgraded with ease. Everything is handled on Valve's end, you get hardware that's "plug n' play" and the software side is taken care of fore you. Make sense? No? Well then I don't know why you'd post without even knowing the end goal. It's been in the tech news for ages now, articles and stuff have been everywhere explaining the goals and why the goals are worth it.


I know it's been in the news and so, but this has been blown way out of proportions. Too much hype for this. Nothing guarantees that it will ever become mainstream. But I admit it could in the future be cool, but right now it's nothing. Can somebody please tell me what games and software it supports and directly not via wine, because you guys already pointed out that one of the strengths is ease of use, which wine would basically nullify. I am not quite interested enough to study this thoroughly, but give me a real reason why I should be bothered, right now not in the future.


----------



## BakerMan1971

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AlDyer*
> 
> I know it's been in the news and so, but this has been blown way out of proportions. Too much hype for this. Nothing guarantees that it will ever become mainstream. But I admit it could in the future be cool, but right now it's nothing. Can somebody please tell me what games and software it supports and directly not via wine, because you guys already pointed out that one of the strengths is ease of use, which wine would basically nullify. I am not quite interested enough to study this thoroughly, but give me a real reason why I should be bothered, right now not in the future.


Like it or not, the future of gaming is going to change, platforms change, operating systems change, and we all have to adapt if we want to play the games as they are released.
As a bit of a geek, I have followed changes (often reluctantly) over the years, and have grown to love each platform I have used, starting in the 80's with 8 bit home computers, moving to 16bit systems, then very reluctantly moving to the PC platform once the 16bit system I thought could live forever, disappeared.

The PC's days may be numbered, and which platform will I choose next? well I suppose one way to find out is to try them. So there is the reason to give it a go, because in the end it may be one of very few choices for your gaming fix.


----------



## Milestailsprowe

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AlDyer*
> 
> I know it's been in the news and so, but this has been blown way out of proportions. Too much hype for this. Nothing guarantees that it will ever become mainstream. But I admit it could in the future be cool, but right now it's nothing. Can somebody please tell me what games and software it supports and directly not via wine, because you guys already pointed out that one of the strengths is ease of use, which wine would basically nullify. I am not quite interested enough to study this thoroughly, but give me a real reason why I should be bothered, right now not in the future.


it supprtd any Linux software and all the linux games on steam. Since its not fully released yet because its in beta a lot if things have not been announced. Expect more come CES


----------



## mushroomboy

^^ It's not even a release version, the beta testers for the hardware itself just happened. So what games are supported? Go look up steam, it tells you.


----------



## GermanyChris

Looking things up and installing new things is entirely to hard for him.


----------



## mushroomboy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *GermanyChris*
> 
> Looking things up and installing new things it entirely to hard for him.


Thats why i didn't post a game list. Gogle exists and im amazed at how many people can't use it.


----------



## ozlay

got it running on an acer nettop with intel atom 1.6 and nvidia ion









installing hl2 hopefully it will work on such a slow setup









Edit: runs horrible


----------



## GAMERIG

SteamOS Dudes,









It's looking sooo awkwardness!

My big question is You can PLAY racing cars, fps, GTA, and Sports (such as basketball, baseball, boxing, football, soccer) with Steam Controller?!?! Please *TBH*....

=o)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> because no Linux tard .
> 
> 
> 
> and we have your feelings encapsulated right there
> 
> thanks.
> 
> _I have to wonder what university teaches you to become so dismissive and use offensive words? If your so smart why don't you help the 'tards' to fix Linux?_
Click to expand...

A university that teaches the proper use of the English language. Tard is slang for ******, which is terminological for slow. When you ****** tires, do you think of the mentality handicapped or offensive terminology or the proper use of the English language. What university did you attend that taught you to misplace 'tard with ******ation? I'm sorry you took offense to it.

If you need to settle for simple cop outs of personal opinions over the quality of workmanship users put behind Linux, being that such old competing, coined "superior" Linux distros are still horrifically held back by petty annoyances, where as you are unable to refute a legitimate point towards the claims made, while still making a claim for the sake of blabbering about some meaningless off-topic point to insult the intelligence of many gifted individuals, it's rather sad what university, or whatever education system you attended, amounted you to even bothering to make a post. Sorry for the long sentence; it would be a waste of my time to have any intellectual discussion with you any longer. Cheers.


----------



## dralb

Question: Is this planned to be used in Steam boxes in a manner a PC illiterate person will be able to use? I know this is beta and issues are to be expected, but I was under the impression that this was some sort of PC/Console cross over. In my opinion, it would have to be very easy to set up and use if they want anyone other than enthusiasts to use it. We make up such a small part of the whole market, there is much more money to be made from the average consumer. (I assume they would use it both ways. As a PC install and preinstalled on steam boxes)

edit: I am not knocking it as I have not tried it yet. I was just curious as to the end result of this. I think a "console" that allows the average person to play PC games is a great idea. I know many people that are intimidated by PC's and PC games due to the fact that you don't just throw a game in and start playing.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Tard is slang for ******, which is terminological for slow. When you ****** tires, do you think of the mentality handicapped or offensive terminology or the proper use of the English language. What university did you attend that taught you to misplace 'tard with ******ation? I'm sorry you took offense to it.


Yea because that's what you meant.
Quote:


> *If you need to settle for simple cop outs of personal opinions over the quality of workmanship users put behind Linux, being that such old competing, coined "superior" Linux distros are still horrifically held back by petty annoyances, where as you are unable to refute a legitimate point towards the claims made*, while still making a claim for the sake of blabbering about some meaningless off-topic point to insult the intelligence of many gifted individuals, it's rather sad what university, or whatever education system you attended, amounted you to even bothering to make a post. Sorry for the long sentence; it would be a waste of my time to have any intellectual discussion with you any longer. Cheers.


Your hurt by this whole Steam OS and Linux direction aren't you, we have all seen you bouncing around in Microsoft threads and refuting anything that involves Linux. There seems to be this hardcore base of people who are afraid of change.. which is weird as technology changes all the time.

Quote:


> it's rather sad what university, or whatever education system you attended, amounted you to even bothering to make a post. Sorry for the long sentence; it would be a waste of my time to have any intellectual discussion with you any longer. Cheers.


Sorry did you start one? I couldn't tell between your Linux bashing and associating developers with the mentally handicap and generally being condescending to others.

Jog on


----------



## Angrybutcher

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> [snip] Cheers.


Tard is also short for Tardar Sauce, aka Grumpy Cat


----------



## mushroomboy

Actually that's why ****** is considered offensive to the mentally challenged. Because it was originally ment to say they are ******ed, as in slow. However people took the word and started using it in a slang form. Hence why calling a slow computer ******ed is actually apt, as the computer has no intelligence.

It's ironic actually, since only people who are ignorant (which some consider stupid, or dumb in itself) consider ******ed to mean "dumb". Another reason why "get it through your head" often follows ******ed. "Are you ******ed (slow), get it through your head." Which I'm sure if we could go back in time to study social interactions, we'd see that first and then this example next: "Are you ******ed!? Get it through your head [insert insult]." As people often have this poor habit of taking what somebody says, thinking they can make it better. Then they go and take the word out of context, and next thing you know it's a social thing.

Kind of like one of my posts earlier today, where I go off on the idea of "arcade games" as a style or genera. Every time I see "Microsoft Arcade" I want to physically drop kick Gates and Jobs in the nuts. Because they took a term out of context, which has NO reason to be defining a genera or style, and did so because they could. I hate Microsoft for too many things.


----------



## ozlay

i have to agree with some of you that at its current state is a bit technical for the average joe to setup but that is expected for any OS in its beta form it will only get better i just hope they release the streaming support soon thats the main reason for me why i wanted steamos


----------



## Tsumi

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *ozlay*
> 
> i have to agree with some of you that at its current state is a bit technical for the average joe to setup but that is expected for any OS in its beta form it will only get better i just hope they release the streaming support soon thats the main reason for me why i wanted steamos


Streaming is not a SteamOS exclusive though.


----------



## ozlay

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Tsumi*
> 
> Streaming is not a SteamOS exclusive though.


maybe but its the best option iv seen so far for what i want to use it for anyways


----------



## davtylica

This looks like a disastrophy thus far. To have a UEFI bios requirement is just plain ignorance on Valve's part. Lol I hope it doesn't turn out like Obama Care









DANGER!!! FUSTERCLUCK ALERT!!

It's sad really, people like Gabe Newell and Barrack Obama............This is the best you can do? I use more forethought just sitting on the can lol.
Anywho that's my two cents FWIW. Let's all embrace as the end draws near


----------



## djsi38t

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AlDyer*
> 
> give me a real reason why I should be bothered, right now not in the future.


Because you enjoy playing with linux based operating systems,and like steam.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *djsi38t*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *AlDyer*
> 
> give me a real reason why I should be bothered, right now not in the future.
> 
> 
> 
> Because you enjoy playing with linux based operating systems,and like steam.
Click to expand...

It's a great idea, but it's born out of the mindset of an individual who has a huge mis-perspective on Microsoft's store direction. People call it bashing when all people are stating are facts revolving around general, known, decade old Linux related problems (as an operating system on the desktop platform) and SteamOS directly in it's "beta", or more appropriate terminology "alpha" stage. It's junk software.

There is no point other then a certain cliche of people that are so headstrong on their idea of Linux and their hatred for every other operating system out there (for God knows what reason). Keeping a rational and practical mind, Linux has continuously failed, just as we seen with SteamOS, as being a legitimate OS as a stand-a-lone. It won't give significant performance increases over Windows, given how API calls are even called, and the headover of resources as OS uses is not even problematic. We see in Mantel draft discussions how much GPU overhead there actually is and how CPUs horsepower is being absolutely wasted. OpenGL is not even the future of PC gaming anymore. Why even bother? The crowd is small, there is no *real* support in SteamOS, and you are limited to a select few titles with hopeful dreams that everyone is going to port all their games over? Only a select few are going to do that, and those few are going to be left behind as they get old drivers, limited support, etc.

SteamOS is a great idea, I love the whole concept. But our resources, Valve's resources, should be put into Mantel, or at least OpenGL, not some petty hissy fit Gabe is going through.


----------



## GAMERIG

*Source*


----------



## BakerMan1971

I like that idea, here's hoping it is workable.


----------



## deepor

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> It's a great idea, but it's born out of the mindset of an individual who has a huge mis-perspective on Microsoft's store direction. People call it bashing when all people are stating are facts revolving around general, known, decade old Linux related problems (as an operating system on the desktop platform) and SteamOS directly in it's "beta", or more appropriate terminology "alpha" stage. It's junk software.
> 
> There is no point other then a certain cliche of people that are so headstrong on their idea of Linux and their hatred for every other operating system out there (for God knows what reason). Keeping a rational and practical mind, Linux has continuously failed, just as we seen with SteamOS, as being a legitimate OS as a stand-a-lone. It won't give significant performance increases over Windows, given how API calls are even called, and the headover of resources as OS uses is not even problematic. We see in Mantel draft discussions how much GPU overhead there actually is and how CPUs horsepower is being absolutely wasted. OpenGL is not even the future of PC gaming anymore. Why even bother? The crowd is small, there is no *real* support in SteamOS, and you are limited to a select few titles with hopeful dreams that everyone is going to port all their games over? Only a select few are going to do that, and those few are going to be left behind as they get old drivers, limited support, etc.
> 
> SteamOS is a great idea, I love the whole concept. But our resources, Valve's resources, should be put into Mantel, or at least OpenGL, not some petty hissy fit Gabe is going through.


Your argument about "why bother?"... keep that in mind and look at Mantle. Why bother with Mantle? It's only on AMD and only on Windows. It won't work on NVIDIA and won't work on OS X and won't work on the consoles etc. OpenGL works everywhere. So you shouldn't bother with Mantle. How do you feel about that? Do you want that? No one bothering with Mantle?

It's the same with Linux. I hope developers preparing their games to run on Linux will also make it easy to sell the game on all systems. That could make you totally free when deciding what you want to use. It could lead to a future where you can buy something from Apple because you like using OS X best without worrying about games not running. You might want to run Linux because on Linux there's nothing keeping you from using a perfectly fine old mouse like the WMO1.1 at 500Hz which you can't do on Win8 for some reason.


----------



## hollywood406

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *AlDyer*
> 
> What games does it support? I am also not addicted that badly that I feel the urge to stream games to my Android while I'm taking a dump.










hahahaha...... Well said. I found that out of my 40+ steam games only 6 are available to play and they played poorly (read un-playable). It could be because I was using a (spare) GTX260 for testing but honestly, I should have gotten a somewhat playable game even with the 260. I see no reason to switch from a windows-based setup.


----------



## davtylica

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *hollywood406*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> hahahaha...... Well said. I found that out of my 40+ steam games only 6 are available to play and they played poorly (read un-playable). It could be because I was using a (spare) GTX260 for testing but honestly, I should have gotten a somewhat playable game even with the 260. I see no reason to switch from a windows-based setup.


Perhaps it was due to lack of a UEFI bios...


----------



## 0493mike

Some people are questing why. Why not. This is OCN we try new things, hard to do things, scary stuff. Because we like it, its fun. I'm one of those people that will have a hard time working with this because ( I am a tech illiterate aka dummy). Thats one of the reasons I joined OCN was to learn new things. Whatever the reasons behind creating new technology be it an OS, mantel, driect X new drivers their all just parts. Maybe well get a better machine when its put together. Hey cant hurt. They way I look at this is more options more choice. And its free hehe.Didnt mean to preach its just sometimes we take things to seriously.


----------



## Mega Man

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *deepor*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> It's a great idea, but it's born out of the mindset of an individual who has a huge mis-perspective on Microsoft's store direction. People call it bashing when all people are stating are facts revolving around general, known, decade old Linux related problems (as an operating system on the desktop platform) and SteamOS directly in it's "beta", or more appropriate terminology "alpha" stage. It's junk software.
> 
> There is no point other then a certain cliche of people that are so headstrong on their idea of Linux and their hatred for every other operating system out there (for God knows what reason). Keeping a rational and practical mind, Linux has continuously failed, just as we seen with SteamOS, as being a legitimate OS as a stand-a-lone. It won't give significant performance increases over Windows, given how API calls are even called, and the headover of resources as OS uses is not even problematic. We see in Mantel draft discussions how much GPU overhead there actually is and how CPUs horsepower is being absolutely wasted. OpenGL is not even the future of PC gaming anymore. Why even bother? The crowd is small, there is no *real* support in SteamOS, and you are limited to a select few titles with hopeful dreams that everyone is going to port all their games over? Only a select few are going to do that, and those few are going to be left behind as they get old drivers, limited support, etc.
> 
> SteamOS is a great idea, I love the whole concept. But our resources, Valve's resources, should be put into Mantel, or at least OpenGL, not some petty hissy fit Gabe is going through.
> 
> 
> 
> Your argument about "why bother?"... keep that in mind and look at Mantle. Why bother with Mantle? It's only on AMD and only on Windows. It won't work on NVIDIA and won't work on OS X and won't work on the consoles etc. OpenGL works everywhere. So you shouldn't bother with Mantle. How do you feel about that? Do you want that? No one bothering with Mantle?
> 
> It's the same with Linux. I hope developers preparing their games to run on Linux will also make it easy to sell the game on all systems. That could make you totally free when deciding what you want to use. It could lead to a future where you can buy something from Apple because you like using OS X best without worrying about games not running. You might want to run Linux because on Linux there's nothing keeping you from using a perfectly fine old mouse like the WMO1.1 at 500Hz which you can't do on Win8 for some reason.
Click to expand...

well actually like all awesomeness from amd ( hmm on die memory controller... 64bit { thank god we didnt have to deal with intels junk idea in 64bit...}) just to name 2 amd is making mantel available to nvidia, however it will be up to them to use it .... ( the last i knew unless something has changed


----------



## davtylica

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *0493mike*
> 
> Some people are questing why. Why not. This is OCN we try new things, hard to do things, scary stuff. Because we like it, its fun. I'm one of those people that will have a hard time working with this because ( I am a tech illiterate aka dummy). Thats one of the reasons I joined OCN was to learn new things. Whatever the reasons behind creating new technology be it an OS, mantel, driect X new drivers their all just parts. Maybe well get a better machine when its put together. Hey cant hurt. They way I look at this is more options more choice. And its free hehe.Didnt mean to preach its just sometimes we take things to seriously.


Sure you have a very valid point. I think to some degree most of us tend to push the boundaries. That is why we are here as you stated. My reasoning for bashing "SteamOS" is because it is littered with idiocy, which was fathomed from Idiots. I say this with regard for other members... there's NOT a single one of us who read those requirements and couldn't help but think to themselves " What kind of
Idiot(s) came up with those requirements?" Yea , sure if you meet those requirements then kudos to you...but I will bet money that less than 25% of those participating in this thread will meet ALL of those requirements.

So my question, is this a marketing scheme to get people to buy newer UEFI motherboards and higher capacity SSD's? That would be idiocy in itself...or... are they are simply using "natural selection" so the Elite 25% will be the only ones testing the OS. Again if this were the case it would be idiocy

OTN...please do not bash my post. I am merely stating the obvious and I dont consider my posts in any way useful contribution to this topic. I just don't understand why so many people are flocking to this like bugs to a bug zapper...me personally I know what a bug zapper does....ZAP!!







LOL!!


----------



## Pip Boy

I agree the spec's were stupid but if they said Intel i3 or AMD APU with 4gb ram and a 50gb drive then people would of auto assumed it wasn't for next gen gaming

The mistakes they made was not actually building a custom OS with a choice to run one or the other on boot and also a quick controller button map to launch into big picture from the desktop.

Why should they be responsible for easing people into Linux? Because their future business model depends on it and they go ahead and make it ludicrous specs and hard to install, thus making people think Linux is awkward and hard to install

which in reality is easier than windows with distributions like Ubuntu / Mint etc..


----------



## Tsumi

Why would people assume that? Rather, why would Steam's core users (the ones most likely to download SteamOS) assume that? They know what PC gaming is, Valve shouldn't make up random specs just to look impressive. That's exactly like Call of Duty Ghost's artificially inflated RAM requirement, and serves only to piss off users, not attract them.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Tsumi*
> 
> Why would people assume that? Rather, why would Steam's core users (the ones most likely to download SteamOS) assume that? They know what PC gaming is, Valve shouldn't make up random specs just to look impressive. That's exactly like Call of Duty Ghost's artificially inflated RAM requirement, and serves only to piss off users, not attract them.


Because there not trying to get the core users.. there already on windows and are likely to stay for a good few years. This is for an expanding market of TV casual and HTPC users who want their PC game collection on the big screen perhaps accepting the loss of a twitch shooter, perhaps not the sort of person who has 3x 144hz monitors setup or a 1440p IPS panel.. i.e Big TV gaming but the sort of person who plays big adventure or racing games to benefit the larger screen, controller and the more casual seating arrangement

Should Big TV gaming mean a lower common denominator? No,but it generally works out that way..


----------



## Tsumi

That's why most things ship with both "Minimum specifications" and "Recommended specifications." Valve could have and should have done the same thing.

Or they could have even made it comical, do something that would grab attention. Valve is known for thinking outside the box, or am I wrong on this count? For example:

"SteamOS will run on nearly every computer made within the past 20 years. But to keep yourself from going crazy like GLaDOS, we recommend "insert system specs here." And while we can't guarantee that will get you the cake, you won't need to rant to your Companion Cube about how it was too laggy to aim your portals."

It's a beta OS, (by some accounts it's really more of an alpha), and the vast majority of end users will never use anything beta. So what are they trying to accomplish with these artificially inflated specs?


----------



## deepor

They did not make up random specs... It's just a backup image of the SteamOS installation they have prepared for those 300 beta machines they have built and sent out. That's why it has that size. It's to recreate the right partition size on those PCs.


----------



## GermanyChris

or it's a beta not for public consumption and they wanted it to appeal to Linux people who are going to make it work by modifying it which is exactly what happened.


----------



## hollywood406

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *davtylica*
> 
> Perhaps it was due to lack of a UEFI bios...


My motherboard has a UEFI BIOS, I think you have to have one to install SteamOS. I got farther than I had in my previous attempts to install Steam on a linux-based OS (Ubuntu). I thought my previous attempts were doomed since I was trying to use an ATI GPU. I thought for sure that it would play decent with the GTX260.....not so. I'm not going to pull my GTX660 or GTX670 to test that theory though, unless I get really, really bored with 80-90fps and smooth game-play







I can understand that Steam would use high-end hardware to showcase their product, I would do the same thing. Maybe the final version will play nicer.


----------



## mushroomboy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *hollywood406*
> 
> My motherboard has a UEFI BIOS, I think you have to have one to install SteamOS. I got farther than I had in my previous attempts to install Steam on a linux-based OS (Ubuntu). I thought my previous attempts were doomed since I was trying to use an ATI GPU. I thought for sure that it would play decent with the GTX260.....not so. I'm not going to pull my GTX660 or GTX670 to test that theory though, unless I get really, really bored with 80-90fps and smooth game-play
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I can understand that Steam would use high-end hardware to showcase their product, I would do the same thing. Maybe the final version will play nicer.


Don't have to have it, just they didn't include the standard Grub2 package or something. So you'd have to have live USB stick or another distro already on there from what I've gathered. Which is irritating but it's not an official release so..... Things are expected to be a bit rushed, if people don't see that then... Well, it isn't on the official page for download and that should say it all. =P


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> I agree the spec's were stupid but if they said Intel i3 or AMD APU with 4gb ram and a 50gb drive then people would of auto assumed it wasn't for next gen gaming


So most of their demographic?


----------



## salamachaa

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *0493mike*
> 
> Some people are questing why. Why not. This is OCN we try new things, hard to do things, scary stuff. Because we like it, its fun. I'm one of those people that will have a hard time working with this because ( I am a tech illiterate aka dummy). Thats one of the reasons I joined OCN was to learn new things. Whatever the reasons behind creating new technology be it an OS, mantel, driect X new drivers their all just parts. Maybe well get a better machine when its put together. Hey cant hurt. They way I look at this is more options more choice. And its free hehe.Didnt mean to preach its just sometimes we take things to seriously.


I don't think the problem is laziness, it's just a lack of reward for doing something that has work attached to it. Overclocking is in the pursuit of performance. Modding is in the pursuit of awesome. Sometimes these overlap. SteamOS is in the pursuit of???? What's the fill in the blank? Most people that tried it did it for the awesomeness of being away from M$, but most people are ok with windows unless if there is a large performance difference.


----------



## mushroomboy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *salamachaa*
> 
> I don't think the problem is laziness, it's just a lack of reward for doing something that has work attached to it. Overclocking is in the pursuit of performance. Modding is in the pursuit of awesome. Sometimes these overlap. SteamOS is in the pursuit of???? What's the fill in the blank? Most people that tried it did it for the awesomeness of being away from M$, but most people are ok with windows unless if there is a large performance difference.


Well Linux is generally on par with performance if a developer bothers to do it properly. Heck, even wine + windows games is pretty on par with Windows. I'd get 300FPS in Source games sooooooo. The end goal, is to take that and tighten it more. Even if they don't, to tighten that performance gap to be completely equal. So the idea is, to have an OS that you can mod and get good performance from. Even tweak it's stock, re-compile the kernel and all that, for the pursuit of performance.

In the end, it is something a site like this could have. It's just so foreign to most, and young, that people are overlooking what it could be. Where as people already in the Linux world can see what the future could be. I guess too many people are shrouded by the past perceptions that they don't understand the present or the future of projects like this.


----------



## salamachaa

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mushroomboy*
> 
> Well Linux is generally on par with performance if a developer bothers to do it properly. Heck, even wine + windows games is pretty on par with Windows. I'd get 300FPS in Source games sooooooo. The end goal, is to take that and tighten it more. Even if they don't, to tighten that performance gap to be completely equal. So the idea is, to have an OS that you can mod and get good performance from. Even tweak it's stock, re-compile the kernel and all that, for the pursuit of performance.
> 
> In the end, it is something a site like this could have. It's just so foreign to most, and young, that people are overlooking what it could be. Where as people already in the Linux world can see what the future could be. I guess too many people are shrouded by the past perceptions that they don't understand the present or the future of projects like this.


I get what you are saying and I can definitely agree. I just don't think it is worth messing with until the final release.


----------



## mushroomboy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *salamachaa*
> 
> I get what you are saying and I can definitely agree. I just don't think it is worth messing with until the final release.


Oh, I don't disagree with that. Test releases aren't for the end all, as well as the list of games is small. Even CS:GO isn't on there. So for now, it's the adventurous but in the long run it should shape up nicely. Valve doesn't like to do a half crap job, or at least that's what has been their stance in the past.

Just shouldn't bash it or dismiss it as "nothing special". Win8 was "nothing special", nor was Win7, as Vista was bashed too much. In the end, people liked it and ended up liking the tweaked version of Vista called Win7. I guess my stance is, it's too early to really say anything at this point.


----------



## GermanyChris

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *salamachaa*
> 
> *I don't think the problem is laziness*, it's just a lack of reward for doing something that has work attached to it. Overclocking is in the pursuit of performance. Modding is in the pursuit of awesome. Sometimes these overlap. SteamOS is in the pursuit of???? What's the fill in the blank? Most people that tried it did it for the awesomeness of being away from M$, but most people are ok with windows unless if there is a large performance difference.


This is it, laziness


----------



## salamachaa

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *GermanyChris*
> 
> This is it, laziness


I think you and I have a different definition of laziness. I don't mind doing a lot of work if there is a reward. Why go through all of the trouble if you are going to get a worse experience than windows plus big picture?


----------



## GermanyChris

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *salamachaa*
> 
> I think you and I have a different definition of laziness. I don't mind doing a lot of work if there is a reward. Why go through all of the trouble if you are going to get a worse experience than windows plus big picture?


I think we do, we also have a different definition of work.


----------



## JMatzelle303

Do you think steamOS will be hear to stay and more developers will jump on board or u think a couple of years down the road it will be non existent


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *JMatzelle303*
> 
> Do you think steamOS will be hear to stay and more developers will jump on board or u think a couple of years down the road it will be non existent


I think Valve are going to push it for a while. How long no one knows. Publishers and developers are already jumping on the Linux train, so as long as we keep getting more and more games I think Valve will continue it.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *salamachaa*
> 
> but most people are ok with windows unless if there is a large performance difference.


Exactly, and that's where most of the rational comes from. The performance difference is not that large. And when it comes down to it, we know the OS does not play that much of a factor as Valve was initially trying to cherry pick it to be. When we saw OpenGL performance numbers on both Windows and Linux on TF2, the difference between the two was relatively low. The amount of work to put into the project for such little gains is rather insensible to do on Valve's part, not only on a rational move but a business one. A simple switch to re-coding their games, like they are already doing to have their Source engine work in Linux, into OpenGL is much easier then fulfilling Gabe's personal vendetta against his irrational perception of the Microsoft Store.

The gains are just not there. Heck, even the supposed "practical" gains are even worse then the theoretical gains. SteamOS is just two step backwards for 1 step forward to reach at a point we already had years ago. And, when the numbers finally start to show results, this being years down the road, the rest of the crowd would have already had plenty of optimizations.

So, what we should be thinking is why Valve is pooling their resources into going backwards just to attempt to reach the same, and or a slight performance increase over the current and poor performing DirectX API? Why not work hard at going forward with new and efficient APIs, and their optimizations, and learning to code under multi-threaded environments. We are CPU limited. We've been CPU limited for nearly a decade. Why not fix problems as opposed to make problems?

Frankly, when you really think of it, SteamOS isn't something "new". Linux is mature. It's matured to the point where we know there is a small crowd and no one really took an interest in it outside of specific purposes (on the desktop environment). SteamOS is not a new direction to making our games run faster; we had Linux and OpenGL for many years. The problem is that people shifted towards DirectX and ran away from making proper multi-threaded games. If anything, after DirectX 9, DirectX has been nothing but a failure to the industry.


----------



## mushroomboy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Exactly, and that's where most of the rational comes from. The performance difference is not that large. And when it comes down to it, we know the OS does not play that much of a factor as Valve was initially trying to cherry pick it to be. When we saw OpenGL performance numbers on both Windows and Linux on TF2, the difference between the two was relatively low. The amount of work to put into the project for such little gains is rather insensible to do on Valve's part, not only on a rational move but a business one. A simple switch to re-coding their games, like they are already doing to have their Source engine work in Linux, into OpenGL is much easier then fulfilling Gabe's personal vendetta against his irrational perception of the Microsoft Store.
> 
> The gains are just not there. Heck, even the supposed "practical" gains are even worse then the theoretical gains. SteamOS is just two step backwards for 1 step forward to reach at a point we already had years ago. And, when the numbers finally start to show results, this being years down the road, the rest of the crowd would have already had plenty of optimizations.
> 
> So, what we should be thinking is why Valve is pooling their resources into going backwards just to attempt to reach the same, and or a slight performance increase over the current and poor performing DirectX API? Why not work hard at going forward with new and efficient APIs, and their optimizations, and learning to code under multi-threaded environments. We are CPU limited. We've been CPU limited for nearly a decade. Why not fix problems as opposed to make problems?
> 
> Frankly, when you really think of it, SteamOS isn't something "new". Linux is mature. It's matured to the point where we know there is a small crowd and no one really took an interest in it outside of specific purposes (on the desktop environment). SteamOS is not a new direction to making our games run faster; we had Linux and OpenGL for many years. The problem is that people shifted towards DirectX and ran away from making proper multi-threaded games. If anything, after DirectX 9, DirectX has been nothing but a failure to the industry.


Well the thing is, people might jump ship from consoles if they get the support. Why buy a console when you can get a 500USD steam machine. The benefit is, you get a computer as well. A full blown HTPC that you have complete control over. You have the option to install, due to it being linux, software that an Xbox/PSX doesn't have (PSX as in PS3/PS4 ect...). MythTV, XMBC, Freevo, stuff like that. You get other alternative software that's nice, XMMS2 which has some nice streaming options.

Really, there are a LOT of Linux alternatives out there for things most Windows users don't know about. The more that gets pushed, the more things will be developed. Audacious, heck there are a ton of good Linux music players. I still use Winamp in windows, seriously I do. It's the MP3 player that I've always liked, does everything I want.

So it's not just about SteamOS in some aspect, it's about having an open system where the sky is the limits so to speak. So really, it's not just about "is there better performance", for some it's about the entire package. What you can get out of it. It's debian based with a tweaked kernel, so for now most of the Debian software should run on it. Which as stands, is one of the distributions with the largest repository for "programs". Debian's repos have roughly 15k different applications. It's freaking awesome. Want a program? Just download it from their repo, which is guaranteed to run and is safe.

Idk, there are many pluses to this which people overlook. It's not just a SteamBox, more than a console, it's a full blown PC at an affordable price (different packages).

Sure you may not get the latest and greatest graphics with the lower end packages but you get much more than you ever would with a console. Upgrading will be as simple as paying extra down the line for components. Which they've made very compact but easy to install. So you got one that has a GTX 760, just pull that out and easily install a 770, 780 or more. New CPU? Just get the next line up, from an i5 to an i7. Sure, if Intel changes socket and you are already on the i7 it gets a bit more expensive. The thing is, you can still do it quite easily as long as specs are made. So it's kind of like the easy-pc for the lamens average joe.

Sure we can do that with Windows, but the beauty is free updates and never a thought about purchasing software. Now of course, some software is going to be paid, but as far as the main OS and all that it's guaranteed to work with the specified hardware. Windows does that..... kind of. Where as Valve is going to (guessing here) explicitly support certain hardware without a doubt.

So yeah, it's going to be a really great thing in the end. Right now it's on baby legs, just learning to walk. Give it time and this could be a really good thing, especially if developers give it support. Which could make OGL better, Linux better, everything could benefit from Valve's push/dream.


----------



## davtylica

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Frankly, when you really think of it, SteamOS isn't something "new". Linux is mature. It's matured to the point where we know there is a small crowd and no one really took an interest in it outside of specific purposes (on the desktop environment). SteamOS is not a new direction to making our games run faster; we had Linux and OpenGL for many years. The problem is that people shifted towards DirectX and ran away from making proper multi-threaded games. If anything, after DirectX 9, DirectX has been nothing but a failure to the industry.


I have to disagree with you here...with DX10 came a more dynamic API...lighting and shadows. Then came DX11 which took that a step further and brought tesselation mapping to the table. The problem is and still remains....developers don't use the tools available to them for their own agendas whatever that may be. My best guess would be cost factor and experience limitations.


----------



## XHyperioNX

Hey guys,
So I installed SteamOS after a little research.

Number 1 just unplug your the drive storage your using via USB, SATA, or even IDE.

Simply download STEAMOSINSTALLER, format USB Stick, or HDD (If possible) to FAT32. Drag N' Drop files..
Boot from...... at BIOS.
Go down the install list 1 by 1 *A pain in the A55 at that. Also, check any BIOS features that may need changed.

I have SteamOS installed on my other 320GB HDD.
I pop it in to my PC and boot it to try it out.
Drivers install all for the most part.
Not much wireless support for internet that's for sure.
Couldn't get the actual Steam App to even load? Must been because no internet connection..
I notice that there are quite a few cool features, but just not enough for daily use. Even as a gamer platform.
They transformed Firefox browser to Squirrel something....... can't remember.
I'll be playing with it Online, and far more dept as time goes by.. I plan to build some PC's with this dedicated OS on it. So, I've gotta tweak it out perfect for customers


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> So most of their demographic?


Yes


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mushroomboy*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Exactly, and that's where most of the rational comes from. The performance difference is not that large. And when it comes down to it, we know the OS does not play that much of a factor as Valve was initially trying to cherry pick it to be. When we saw OpenGL performance numbers on both Windows and Linux on TF2, the difference between the two was relatively low. The amount of work to put into the project for such little gains is rather insensible to do on Valve's part, not only on a rational move but a business one. A simple switch to re-coding their games, like they are already doing to have their Source engine work in Linux, into OpenGL is much easier then fulfilling Gabe's personal vendetta against his irrational perception of the Microsoft Store.
> 
> The gains are just not there. Heck, even the supposed "practical" gains are even worse then the theoretical gains. SteamOS is just two step backwards for 1 step forward to reach at a point we already had years ago. And, when the numbers finally start to show results, this being years down the road, the rest of the crowd would have already had plenty of optimizations.
> 
> So, what we should be thinking is why Valve is pooling their resources into going backwards just to attempt to reach the same, and or a slight performance increase over the current and poor performing DirectX API? Why not work hard at going forward with new and efficient APIs, and their optimizations, and learning to code under multi-threaded environments. We are CPU limited. We've been CPU limited for nearly a decade. Why not fix problems as opposed to make problems?
> 
> Frankly, when you really think of it, SteamOS isn't something "new". Linux is mature. It's matured to the point where we know there is a small crowd and no one really took an interest in it outside of specific purposes (on the desktop environment). SteamOS is not a new direction to making our games run faster; we had Linux and OpenGL for many years. The problem is that people shifted towards DirectX and ran away from making proper multi-threaded games. If anything, after DirectX 9, DirectX has been nothing but a failure to the industry.
> 
> 
> 
> Well the thing is, people might jump ship from consoles if they get the support. Why buy a console when you can get a 500USD steam machine. The benefit is, you get a computer as well. A full blown HTPC that you have complete control over. You have the option to install, due to it being linux, software that an Xbox/PSX doesn't have (PSX as in PS3/PS4 ect...). MythTV, XMBC, Freevo, stuff like that. You get other alternative software that's nice, XMMS2 which has some nice streaming options.
> 
> Really, there are a LOT of Linux alternatives out there for things most Windows users don't know about. The more that gets pushed, the more things will be developed. Audacious, heck there are a ton of good Linux music players. I still use Winamp in windows, seriously I do. It's the MP3 player that I've always liked, does everything I want.
> 
> So it's not just about SteamOS in some aspect, it's about having an open system where the sky is the limits so to speak. So really, it's not just about "is there better performance", for some it's about the entire package. What you can get out of it. It's debian based with a tweaked kernel, so for now most of the Debian software should run on it. Which as stands, is one of the distributions with the largest repository for "programs". Debian's repos have roughly 15k different applications. It's freaking awesome. Want a program? Just download it from their repo, which is guaranteed to run and is safe.
> 
> Idk, there are many pluses to this which people overlook. It's not just a SteamBox, more than a console, it's a full blown PC at an affordable price (different packages).
> 
> Sure you may not get the latest and greatest graphics with the lower end packages but you get much more than you ever would with a console. Upgrading will be as simple as paying extra down the line for components. Which they've made very compact but easy to install. So you got one that has a GTX 760, just pull that out and easily install a 770, 780 or more. New CPU? Just get the next line up, from an i5 to an i7. Sure, if Intel changes socket and you are already on the i7 it gets a bit more expensive. The thing is, you can still do it quite easily as long as specs are made. So it's kind of like the easy-pc for the lamens average joe.
> 
> Sure we can do that with Windows, but the beauty is free updates and never a thought about purchasing software. Now of course, some software is going to be paid, but as far as the main OS and all that it's guaranteed to work with the specified hardware. Windows does that..... kind of. Where as Valve is going to (guessing here) explicitly support certain hardware without a doubt.
> 
> So yeah, it's going to be a really great thing in the end. Right now it's on baby legs, just learning to walk. Give it time and this could be a really good thing, especially if developers give it support. Which could make OGL better, Linux better, everything could benefit from Valve's push/dream.
Click to expand...

The problem is, is that you are trying to cater to the console crowd. The console crowd does not build custom gaming rigs. Valve and their supporters need to developers rigs that cost 400-500 dollars and start marketing them to major retailers with major advertising campaigns. If not, the steam box was a failure as well.

To the niche market, like Linux was always catered to, it has potential. But even then, it will fail given reasons constantly expressed in this thread that haven't been refuted.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> So most of their demographic?
> 
> 
> 
> Yes
Click to expand...

Which is another mistake. Valve doesn't have a clue on what they are doing. They aren't even marketing the SteamOS towards where most of their customers specs are. Heck, they even took detailed analysts of their systems over many years and still fall short.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *davtylica*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> Frankly, when you really think of it, SteamOS isn't something "new". Linux is mature. It's matured to the point where we know there is a small crowd and no one really took an interest in it outside of specific purposes (on the desktop environment). SteamOS is not a new direction to making our games run faster; we had Linux and OpenGL for many years. The problem is that people shifted towards DirectX and ran away from making proper multi-threaded games. If anything, after DirectX 9, DirectX has been nothing but a failure to the industry.
> 
> 
> 
> I have to disagree with you here...with DX10 came a more dynamic API...lighting and shadows. Then came DX11 which took that a step further and brought tesselation mapping to the table. The problem is and still remains....developers don't use the tools available to them for their own agendas whatever that may be. My best guess would be cost factor and experience limitations.
Click to expand...

The problems came with poor tools that weren't implemented for optimizations. DirectX is horrifically unoptimized. Most of what is housed in DX11/10 can be accomplished in DX9. Tessellation can be accomplished by merely adding more polygons to the model. Takes a little more work, but in the end, we saw how even Crysis, when modded, gave us everything DX10 gave under the DX9 API. DX11 should have been called DX9.f


----------



## deepor

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> [...] Valve doesn't have a clue on what they are doing. They aren't even marketing the SteamOS towards where most of their customers specs are. Heck, they even took detailed analysts of their systems over many years and still fall short.


I feel you are too negative! The only thing they need are a few million extra Steam subscribers and it will have been worth it for them and all supporters, everyone involved will make a profit on this venture. I don't see any downsides except of course the risk that they won't sell any machines.


----------



## mushroomboy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> The problems came with poor tools that weren't implemented for optimizations. DirectX is horrifically unoptimized. Most of what is housed in DX11/10 can be accomplished in DX9. Tessellation can be accomplished by merely adding more polygons to the model. Takes a little more work, but in the end, we saw how even Crysis, when modded, gave us everything DX10 gave under the DX9 API. DX11 should have been called DX9.f


It's the other way around mate. What can be done in DX9 can be done in DX10/11 quicker and easier. DX9 compared to DX10/11 is terrible, it has significant overhead. Early games poorly implemented DX10, because most of the focus was still on DX9 due to consoles. Everything in DX9 can be done in DX10 at a cheaper cost (performance). That's how it is, the main reason why people should have switched. What we got were games being played on DX10 compliant hardware but running in DX9 with major overhead.

The reason most people got a huge "hit" was because a lot of early games were made to really showcase the new features. Extensive lighting, effects, all the eye candy was brought out even if it wasn't majorly noticeable or necessary. Plus it was very early on in it's life, as well as developers were unfamiliar with it compared to the older DX9 which had been around FOREVER.


----------



## w0rmk00n

I'm so excited that I'm about to install it as a virtual machine until I get access to my computer.


----------



## Domino

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mushroomboy*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> The problems came with poor tools that weren't implemented for optimizations. DirectX is horrifically unoptimized. Most of what is housed in DX11/10 can be accomplished in DX9. Tessellation can be accomplished by merely adding more polygons to the model. Takes a little more work, but in the end, we saw how even Crysis, when modded, gave us everything DX10 gave under the DX9 API. DX11 should have been called DX9.f
> 
> 
> 
> It's the other way around mate. What can be done in DX9 can be done in DX10/11 quicker and easier. DX9 compared to DX10/11 is terrible, it has significant overhead. Early games poorly implemented DX10, because most of the focus was still on DX9 due to consoles. Everything in DX9 can be done in DX10 at a cheaper cost (performance). That's how it is, the main reason why people should have switched. What we got were games being played on DX10 compliant hardware but running in DX9 with major overhead.
> 
> The reason most people got a huge "hit" was because a lot of early games were made to really showcase the new features. Extensive lighting, effects, all the eye candy was brought out even if it wasn't majorly noticeable or necessary. Plus it was very early on in it's life, as well as developers were unfamiliar with it compared to the older DX9 which had been around FOREVER.
Click to expand...

dx9 wasn't used in consoles.


----------



## Sunnyside

Just installed this, and it is obviously trying to be Windows / Xbox live, such a poor interface, not sure why they tried to copy Microsoft when thats the platform they were trying to get away from.....


----------



## mushroomboy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Domino*
> 
> dx9 wasn't used in consoles.


My bad, the Video portion of DX was. Direct3D 9, the graphics portion of DirectX was used in the Xbox. I'm pretty sure other parts of the package were there, it's essentially a modified version of DirectX 9 that was used in the Xbox 360. So while it's not the exact same, for the most part it was. The PS3 used (as previous) a modified version of OpenGL, OGL LE, though it was tweaked. When I ment consoles, I should have said Xbox.

[edit] Talking about the 360, the original Xbox was more akin to DX8


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mushroomboy*
> 
> Well the thing is, people might jump ship from consoles if they get the support. Why buy a console when you can get a 500USD steam machine. The benefit is, you get a computer as well. A full blown HTPC that you have complete control over. You have the option to install, due to it being linux, software that an Xbox/PSX doesn't have (PSX as in PS3/PS4 ect...). MythTV, XMBC, Freevo, stuff like that. You get other alternative software that's nice, XMMS2 which has some nice streaming options.
> 
> Really, there are a LOT of Linux alternatives out there for things most Windows users don't know about. The more that gets pushed, the more things will be developed. Audacious, heck there are a ton of good Linux music players. I still use Winamp in windows, seriously I do. It's the MP3 player that I've always liked, does everything I want.
> 
> So it's not just about SteamOS in some aspect, it's about having an open system where the sky is the limits so to speak. So really, it's not just about "is there better performance", for some it's about the entire package. What you can get out of it. It's debian based with a tweaked kernel, so for now most of the Debian software should run on it. Which as stands, is one of the distributions with the largest repository for "programs". Debian's repos have roughly 15k different applications. It's freaking awesome. Want a program? Just download it from their repo, which is guaranteed to run and is safe.
> 
> Idk, there are many pluses to this which people overlook. It's not just a SteamBox, more than a console, it's a full blown PC at an affordable price (different packages).
> 
> Sure you may not get the latest and greatest graphics with the lower end packages but you get much more than you ever would with a console. Upgrading will be as simple as paying extra down the line for components. Which they've made very compact but easy to install. So you got one that has a GTX 760, just pull that out and easily install a 770, 780 or more. New CPU? Just get the next line up, from an i5 to an i7. Sure, if Intel changes socket and you are already on the i7 it gets a bit more expensive. The thing is, you can still do it quite easily as long as specs are made. So it's kind of like the easy-pc for the lamens average joe.
> 
> Sure we can do that with Windows, but the beauty is free updates and never a thought about purchasing software. Now of course, some software is going to be paid, but as far as the main OS and all that it's guaranteed to work with the specified hardware. Windows does that..... kind of. Where as Valve is going to (guessing here) explicitly support certain hardware without a doubt.
> 
> So yeah, it's going to be a really great thing in the end. Right now it's on baby legs, just learning to walk. Give it time and this could be a really good thing, especially if developers give it support. Which could make OGL better, Linux better, everything could benefit from Valve's push/dream.


a bit optimistic i think


----------



## ozlay

steamos space usage does not need a 1tb needs at least 4gig

have it on a 120gig with half-life 2 installed half-life takes up about 5gigs so less then 4gigs is OS


----------



## GAMERIG

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *ozlay*
> 
> steamos space usage does not need a 1tb needs at least 4gig
> 
> have it on a 120gig with half-life 2 installed half-life takes up about 5gigs so less then 4gigs is OS
> 
> 
> Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!


Congrats and Awesome!!!!

BTW - Thanks for heads up.... You deserve a *REP+*


----------



## Tsumi

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> a bit optimistic i think


I concur, except replace "a bit" with "overly".


----------



## mushroomboy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *phill1978*
> 
> a bit optimistic i think


Well what else do we got? PC Players jumping ship from a platform they "love"? Console gamers from a platfom that hasn't let them down? optimizim in the industry is all you have pushing things forwards


----------



## un-nefer

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Kokumotsu*
> 
> my main concern is. Can Steam OS play League of Legends off the bat without any frustrating options to workaround?


Steam on Windows doesn't even include LoL, so why would it work in SteamOS?

Unless RIOT (makers of LoL) release LoL through steam, it will never happen in SteamOS or Steam on Windows/Mac.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Kokumotsu*
> 
> my buddy has a bad PC so win 7 isnt the best option because of its uses. but with Steam OS being more convenient as its less of a resource hog because its a linux platform.


While it is true that Linux (in general) uses less resources to run thew desktop environment compared to Windows 7/8, when it comes to games, gpu usage will be almost identical and the game will still require similar specs to run - regardless of OS used.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Kokumotsu*
> 
> would it make league run better using a intel 965 chipset compared to win 7


The chipset alnoe is not what you need to consider, it's the CPU, gfx card, and amount of memory the computer has - those combined dictate the performance in LoL.

If you are meaning will a PC built using intel 965 chipset and using onboard gfx be able to play LoL at a decent FPS, I'd still say no - and I'd suggest you get a gfx card and not use onboard gfx.

If this is a Laptop, using Mobile Intel 965, then you'll be lucky to hit 20FPS with all settings on low - and it's time to buy something with decent CPU and gfx card.


----------



## Erick Silver

I want to try this out, but I am a bit wary . How much space does this take?


----------



## Flames21891

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Erick Silver*
> 
> I want to try this out, but I am a bit wary . How much space does this take?


For installation purposes? 10.2GB at most (and that's only used when completing the backup image) However, you cannot create a separate partition for SteamOS. It will take over an entire drive, so be aware of that.


----------



## Aussiejuggalo

Playing around with this on a virtualbox, guessing we cant install Nvidia drivers in a virtualbox tho seeing you need to use the xserver or whatever?


----------



## Ferrari8608

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Aussiejuggalo*
> 
> Playing around with this on a virtualbox, guessing we cant install Nvidia drivers in a virtualbox tho seeing you need to use the xserver or whatever?


Nvidia drivers are installed during the install process. They won't be used though as it's a VM. I haven't tried this, but he seems to know what he's talking about:


----------



## adamkatt

This really isn't even that exciting seeing as Valve hasn't even added their latest Counterstrike game(G.O) to Linux...


----------



## ozlay

IF you google "steam os uefi workaround method 2" should be first result you can find an moded iso that adds support for non uefi bios and support for manual partitioning or you can make one yourself but downloading the moded iso is much more easy


----------



## GermanyChris

The non efi version has been out for quite some time.

Sent from my newest gadget I'm either on the bike or in the Jeep


----------



## kmac20

So what's the consensus on this people/ Would it be worth downloading on say, a netbook? Would it decrease my netbooks performance in many games, or increase? Would it be worth using in general on such a type of computer?

I will obviously stick with windows for my main gaming rig, but I feel like this COULD have potential on lower performing PCs (in particular laptops and netbooks) I haven't been able to get a good read off of what the majority think of this yet, in particular what the feel is on the lower end of the PC spectrum (as opposed to installing it on a 3500k 680gtx for example).

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps this guy (me) out!

Also on the topic of people "leaving consoles" for steambox, I would agree that is INCREDIBLY OPTIMISTIC. Even if it were lower priced, its not.....it doesn't have the same appeal to the masses of gamers as an XboxOne or PS4. Even if its half the price, with a nice controller, I don't see steambox even coming CLOSE to causing a breakaway segment from the mainstream console gamers. It's just not a console. It doesn't have XBL/PSN. Even if those services aren't that "good" relatively, they are what the majority of gamers use and are used to, and where they have built their community of friends, etc. These systems, and their services, are very entrenched, and I don't see an outside competitor such as Valve making as huge of a splash as some people think.

Will many a PC gamer buy it? Of course. So therefore is it possible it will be a moderate success? Absolutely. Will it do more and acquire a new base for VALVE? I say yes, but to what extent? Will it knock Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony down from the pedestals they have achieved? Not in my opinion, but it is entirely possible I'm wrong on this. Perhaps if it is a LOT CHEAPER (like 1/3-1/5 of the price), with comparable graphics and cheaper games, it will make a bigger dent than I currently predict, but short of this happening (quality up and price down significantly as compared to the 'classic' systems), I don't see it taking a top 3 spot anytime soon.


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kmac20*
> 
> So what's the consensus on this people/


Too early to tell, to be honest. It's still a beta, and is still missing a few features they talked about, and the few new features we're getting ( family sharing ), has some quirks to work out in it.

At least give it time to get out of beta before casting judgment on it.


----------



## Rookie1337

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kmac20*
> 
> So what's the consensus on this people/ Would it be worth downloading on say, a netbook? Would it decrease my netbooks performance in many games, or increase? Would it be worth using in general on such a type of computer?
> 
> I will obviously stick with windows for my main gaming rig, but I feel like this COULD have potential on lower performing PCs (in particular laptops and netbooks) I haven't been able to get a good read off of what the majority think of this yet, in particular what the feel is on the lower end of the PC spectrum (as opposed to installing it on a 3500k 680gtx for example).
> 
> Thanks in advance to anyone who helps this guy (me) out!
> 
> Also on the topic of people "leaving consoles" for steambox, I would agree that is INCREDIBLY OPTIMISTIC. Even if it were lower priced, its not.....it doesn't have the same appeal to the masses of gamers as an XboxOne or PS4. Even if its half the price, with a nice controller, I don't see steambox even coming CLOSE to causing a breakaway segment from the mainstream console gamers. It's just not a console. It doesn't have XBL/PSN. Even if those services aren't that "good" relatively, they are what the majority of gamers use and are used to, and where they have built their community of friends, etc. These systems, and their services, are very entrenched, and I don't see an outside competitor such as Valve making as huge of a splash as some people think.
> 
> Will many a PC gamer buy it? Of course. So therefore is it possible it will be a moderate success? Absolutely. Will it do more and acquire a new base for VALVE? I say yes, but to what extent? Will it knock Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony down from the pedestals they have achieved? Not in my opinion, but it is entirely possible I'm wrong on this. Perhaps if it is a LOT CHEAPER (like 1/3-1/5 of the price), with comparable graphics and cheaper games, it will make a bigger dent than I currently predict, but short of this happening (quality up and price down significantly as compared to the 'classic' systems), I don't see it taking a top 3 spot anytime soon.


Actually right now IIRC Nvidia's drivers for the 600 and 700 series perform (though not by much and it varies by specific GPU) better on Linux than Windows in the same games. As for using this on a netbook...what netbook are we talking about because you have to remember that for much of the Atom's life Intel didn't actually "own" the GPU as it was PowerVR (the GPU brand from Imagination Technology which is a vile and evil name in the Linux world because they refuse to offer drivers) design.

The other thing is how do you define performance as it seems that Valve (IIRC) is seeking to use real time kernels which can actually lower frame rates but the controllers/keyboard and such would respond to your input faster.


----------



## d-block

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *deepor*
> 
> Your argument about "why bother?"... keep that in mind and look at Mantle. Why bother with Mantle? It's only on AMD and only on Windows. It won't work on NVIDIA and won't work on OS X and won't work on the consoles etc. OpenGL works everywhere. So you shouldn't bother with Mantle. How do you feel about that? Do you want that? No one bothering with Mantle?
> 
> It's the same with Linux. I hope developers preparing their games to run on Linux will also make it easy to sell the game on all systems. That could make you totally free when deciding what you want to use. It could lead to a future where you can buy something from Apple because you like using OS X best without worrying about games not running. You might want to run Linux because on Linux there's nothing keeping you from using a perfectly fine old mouse like the WMO1.1 at 500Hz which you can't do on Win8 for some reason.


That's one piss poor example. You're acting as if Mantle has proven something. It hasn't.


----------



## KnownDragon

Downloading now to try this bugger out. Not many screen shots out there of it actually running.


----------



## razorguy

Blah. I wanted to try it out but I guess I'll be waiting for AMD support


----------



## llythrus

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *razorguy*
> 
> Blah. I wanted to try it out but I guess I'll be waiting for AMD support


IIRC, Steamos is debian based so even with amd drivers are preinstalled you will be able to boot it without a hitch. The main reason why amd is listed as being supported soon is because the performance is not as optimal as nvidia for linux in general.


----------



## llythrus

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kmac20*
> 
> So what's the consensus on this people/ Would it be worth downloading on say, a netbook? Would it decrease my netbooks performance in many games, or increase? Would it be worth using in general on such a type of computer?


Netbooks typically run intel integrated so games may see a 10% dip in games, however for general usage definitely recommended.
For speed, i would recommend something arch based like manjaro or archbang on a netbook.


----------



## EniGma1987

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *kmac20*
> 
> Would it decrease my netbooks performance in many games, or increase?


I cant believe you just tried to say Netbook and performance in the same sentence and get away with it.


----------



## KnownDragon

I followed instructions to a T and when prompted to hit enter to shutdown after install was finished I did. Started back up and came to a command line and now I am stuck. Inspiron I7 NVidia 650 m any ideas?

GNU GRUB version 2.00-19ubuntu2.1
Minimal BASH-like line editin is supported. For the firt word, Tab lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists possible device or file completions.


----------



## bjones0064

With great wisdom come great decision to let everyone else experience the problems first lol


----------



## KnownDragon

Yeah gonna shut it down for now and trouble shoot later.


----------



## Rookie1337

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *KnownDragon*
> 
> I followed instructions to a T and when prompted to hit enter to shutdown after install was finished I did. Started back up and came to a command line and now I am stuck. Inspiron I7 NVidia 650 m any ideas?
> 
> GNU GRUB version 2.00-19ubuntu2.1
> Minimal BASH-like line editin is supported. For the firt word, Tab lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists possible device or file completions.


If you have a laptop with "optimus" based Nvidia setup then you're going to have a lot work as Nvidia hasn't gotten their act together on that yet.


----------



## Deadboy90

So its been about 2 weeks since release, I'm gonna try and install this on my spare HDD now that Santa brought me a new one.


----------



## Deadboy90

So i keep getting this error whenever I try to unzip the file:

Any ideas?


----------



## mrr9

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deadboy90*
> 
> So i keep getting this error whenever I try to unzip the file:
> 
> Any ideas?


Re-download and check MD5.

Why is Steam bothering with Intel graphics?


----------



## Deadboy90

I have re downloaded 3 times and keep getting the error, what's md5?


----------



## Deadboy90

I tried it with WINRAR and it is saying the file is corrupt








Fourth times the charm right?


----------



## Rookie1337

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deadboy90*
> 
> I tried it with WINRAR and it is saying the file is corrupt
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Fourth times the charm right?


I just hope you realize that while it's not "difficult", installing the AMD GPU drivers for your setup will require a little bit of work so I hope you are not completely new to Linux or the CLI as you'll likely have to use that.


----------



## Falknir

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mrr9*
> 
> Re-download and check MD5.
> 
> Why is Steam bothering with Intel graphics?


A significant portion of the Steam users are on Intel HD Graphics x000 solutions, these folks might not be playing Crysis, but they are playing many other games and need to be supported.


----------



## Ferrari8608

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deadboy90*
> 
> I have re downloaded 3 times and keep getting the error, what's md5?


Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deadboy90*
> 
> I tried it with WINRAR and it is saying the file is corrupt
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Fourth times the charm right?


Try 7zip instead? I've never used WinRAR, but I can tell you I've never had an issue with 7zip. It'll open just about anything.

Looking at the file name though, I've never seen the ".aa" extension. Maybe the file didn't finish downloading. Try downloading with a download helper application/extension?

To answer your first question:
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841290*
> The File Checksum Integrity Verifier (FCIV) is a command-prompt utility that computes and verifies cryptographic hash values of files. FCIV can compute MD5 or SHA-1 cryptographic hash values. These values can be displayed on the screen or saved in an XML file database for later use and verification.


----------



## JMatzelle303

is this worth having over windows 8


----------



## Rookie1337

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *JMatzelle303*
> 
> is this worth having over windows 8


The more accurate question is "is it worth having over another Linux distro with Steam installed?" That seems to be a no as of now but it's really subjective. There's no gains yet (this is a BETA) and the kernel they use has (though really minor) frame loss compared to a normal distro kernel. It's a little more complicated to install than a normal distro (but not much) and you have to do a little extra work to get AMD or Intel drivers working (Nvidia are just fine). The other issue is that games continue to be Windows only.

However, if more and more people installed this or the Linux Steam client then that would change. For all you people who complain about Win8 this would be your chance to get MS's attention. But, then again complaining and doing nothing about it, is the American way...


----------



## Pip Boy

just install a nice lightweight debian based linux distro thats ridiculously easy to install via iso and put steam on it. right now your performance will be better by 1 - 2 frames and id say if changes made to steamos were THAT groundbreaking in the future then they would become part of the upstream *and then downstream to your machine

May i suggest Mint 16 KDE (working great for me on AMD drivers) or XFCE

other than that there are many lightweight alternatives (crunch bang) or build your own Arch machine

you could be done installing Mint within 20mins of now


----------



## Deadboy90

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Falknir*
> 
> A significant portion of the Steam users are on Intel HD Graphics x000 solutions, these folks might not be playing Crysis, but they are playing many other games and need to be supported.


Hey I managed to get Crysis 1 running on my brothers HD 2000 GPU laptop! It was at 800x600 and 20 fps on low but he says he was enjoying himself playing it.


----------



## acitelin

I have 32 procesor and win7 installed can I install steam os ? Btw: I dont have much linux experience.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deadboy90*
> 
> Hey I managed to get Crysis 1 running on my brothers HD 2000 GPU laptop! It was at 800x600 and 20 fps on low but he says he was enjoying himself playing it.


thats actually really good. And disproves those who said intel GPU drivers for linux were terrible .. because there not


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *acitelin*
> 
> I have 32 procesor and win7 installed can I install steam os ? Btw: I dont have much linux experience.


its meant to be done on a clean install which would mean trashing your win7 (so don't do it) take my advice get a usb pen, run unebootin or pendrive linux and write the iso img to the pen, then boot from usb and try out live linux ( you could do any distro really but better to stick to debian/ubuntu based ones like ubuntu/kubuntu/mint)

then when you install, just install it alongside windows7 from the installer menu, and reboot,setup the network and install steam. Its actually faster than SteamOS and you get bigpicture mode which is almost as completly useless as steamos







just kidding


----------



## acitelin

So i can run 2 os at the same time?


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *acitelin*
> 
> So i can run 2 os at the same time?


yes of course. the linux install usually installs a GRUB menu with a selector for the two

but be careful, and read the instructions first


----------



## Ferrari8608

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *acitelin*
> 
> So i can run 2 os at the same time?


You can't run both at the same time unless one is in a virtual machine. You can have both installed to the same hard drive though. I would recommend installing Virtualbox or VMWare Player and trying out some Linux distros in VMs before attempting a dual boot install. One wrong partitioning option during the install could leave you without an OS. This risk is eliminated when using a virtual machine with a virtual hard drive.


----------



## acitelin

Soooo I ****ed up and now im installing new win7







I didnt know how to make partitions of the drive..... Im ******ed.


----------



## Pip Boy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *acitelin*
> 
> Soooo I ****ed up and now im installing new win7
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I didnt know how to make partitions of the drive..... Im ******ed.


gparted is included with mint/ubuntu


----------



## GermanyChris

Yes but you can't partition a mounted disk, I keep a gparted disc in my laptop bag as well as a live AV, Windows 7, Arch, and 10.9.


----------



## Pip Boy

http://www.webupd8.org/2013/12/install-steamos-session-in-ubuntu.html
Quote:


> If you want to run the official SteamOS session along with the custom SteamOS compositor in Ubuntu, you can easily do so by installing two packages. Once you install these packages, you'll be able to directly log in to the SteamOS session from the LightDM login screen.


a nice way of choosing how your system runs on startup ohh and it will help people who struggle to install Native steamOS by just installing Ubuntu and then adding this extra bit.

Valves 'new' (read altered from existing) compositor is used for the SteamOS session


----------



## Teplous

If i have windows 8.1 installed on an ssd, and 2 striped data drives, and an open unused drive
1) ssd OS
2) data drive 1
3) data drive 2
4) unused drive

if i were to remove 1, 2, and 3, install steam os on 4, then put 1, 2, and 3 back after the installation
would the first three drives work just as they used to? and remain separate from the steam OS?


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Teplous*
> 
> If i have windows 8.1 installed on an ssd, and 2 striped data drives, and an open unused drive
> 1) ssd OS
> 2) data drive 1
> 3) data drive 2
> 4) unused drive
> 
> if i were to remove 1, 2, and 3, install steam os on 4, then put 1, 2, and 3 back after the installation
> would the first three drives work just as they used to? and remain separate from the steam OS?


Or you could just throw your Windows Steam into auto start in Big Picture mode and save yourself the headache. If you have a working Windows computer with Steam installed, you get all the same features that SteamOS will include. But you also get to keep your Windows game library as well. SteamOS isn't really meant for dual booting, it's meant as either it's own standalone operating system -or- a supplemental extension of your desktop ( streaming to a local computer elsewhere, such as the living room as Steam has used for all their advertising ) free or charge ( not required to buy a $100 Windows license ).

Now, if you don't mind losing your Windows games just to install SteamOS for no real reason whatsoever, then to answer your question yes. But I would honestly leave the other drives in and set the 4th drive as the boot priority so that grub detects your Windows drives and sets up the boot loader properly allowing you to choose on start up.

But honestly, I would just save yourself the headache if you aren't used to Linux or Dual Booting then it's not for you right now. Remember SteamOS is still very much Alpha / Beta stage and things are going to continue to change until it's final release. Do expect bugs, do expect troubleshooting, do expect to have headaches if you've not used Linux before.

I would much rather suggest to install Ubuntu or Mint instead as they'll be much easier to dive into requiring little to no real troubleshooting while still providing you with Steam. Remember, SteamOS is just Debian with Steam pre-installed and Steams own repositories. Nothing too special.


----------



## Teplous

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Shrak*
> 
> Or you could just throw your Windows Steam into auto start in Big Picture mode and save yourself the headache. If you have a working Windows computer with Steam installed, you get all the same features that SteamOS will include. But you also get to keep your Windows game library as well. SteamOS isn't really meant for dual booting, it's meant as either it's own standalone operating system -or- a supplemental extension of your desktop ( streaming to a local computer elsewhere, such as the living room as Steam has used for all their advertising ) free or charge ( not required to buy a $100 Windows license ).
> 
> Now, if you don't mind losing your Windows games just to install SteamOS for no real reason whatsoever, then to answer your question yes. But I would honestly leave the other drives in and set the 4th drive as the boot priority so that grub detects your Windows drives and sets up the boot loader properly allowing you to choose on start up.
> 
> But honestly, I would just save yourself the headache if you aren't used to Linux or Dual Booting then it's not for you right now. Remember SteamOS is still very much Alpha / Beta stage and things are going to continue to change until it's final release. Do expect bugs, do expect troubleshooting, do expect to have headaches if you've not used Linux before.
> 
> I would much rather suggest to install Ubuntu or Mint instead as they'll be much easier to dive into requiring little to no real troubleshooting while still providing you with Steam. Remember, SteamOS is just Debian with Steam pre-installed and Steams own repositories. Nothing too special.


the main reason im looking into this is because at the moment my SSD is getting RMA'd, so at the moment my gaming rig is a 55lb paper weight, so if that would work then im fair game to try it, because otherwise im looking at a few weeks without gaming,
but if you're saying that that will work then i'll try it, at this point trouble shooting is better than nothing


----------



## Tsumi

Install Linux Mint and then install Steam. It will be a much better desktop experience than SteamOS.


----------



## Teplous

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Tsumi*
> 
> Install Linux Mint and then install Steam. It will be a much better desktop experience than SteamOS.


does mint support .exe?


----------



## jvolkman

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Teplous*
> 
> does mint support .exe?


Short answer: no. Windows applications (.exe files, including Windows games) do not run natively under Linux, which is what Steam OS is built on.

Long answer: it depends. Wine is able to run many Windows applications, including many games. It's great when it works, but headache-inducing when it doesn't. From your comments I gather that you're a Linux novice, so I wouldn't recommend venturing down that road immediately.


----------



## Teplous

oh ok
how does wine work?


----------



## 4LC4PON3

am I the only one who still does not see the use of linux right now at all. The main reason is there is barely any games supported on linux and most likely your entire steam library will never be supported. So you would have to have linux & windows installed if you want to play your older games. Maybe its just me but seems like a cool idea of Linux but far behind


----------



## deepor

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Teplous*
> 
> oh ok
> how does wine work?


I don't know how to answer. It feels pretty involved when I think about it, but there's projects that try to make it as easy as possible like this here: http://www.playonlinux.com/en/

Even with a tool like that, you'll still be stranded often I bet, and will be helpless if you need to do things in configuration files and at the command line.

You'd be best advised to check out Linux Mint or Ubuntu and just do Linux stuff. You should be able to get a lot of easy to understand help through Google with Mint and Ubuntu.

So if you choose Ubuntu for example, what you need to do is educate yourself on how to install Ubuntu, then check out how to get the real NVIDIA driver running on Ubuntu so that 3D works, then install Steam. I think those are all things you can do by clicking around in Ubuntu, no need for command line stuff. Afterwards when you have Steam running, you should just check out what games you already own that can run on Linux. If you have none, you might manage to live playing Team Fortress 2 and Dota2 until you get your SSD back.

Summary of last paragraph:

(1) Download and install Ubuntu
(2) Make sure to activate the NVIDIA driver
(3) Install Steam
(4) You'll at least be able to play TF2 and Dota2 as they are free-to-play games

And research on how to disable mouse acceleration at some point.


----------



## Tsumi

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *4LC4PON3*
> 
> am I the only one who still does not see the use of linux right now at all. The main reason is there is barely any games supported on linux and most likely your entire steam library will never be supported. So you would have to have linux & windows installed if you want to play your older games. Maybe its just me but seems like a cool idea of Linux but far behind


Linux makes a good incentive for Microsoft to keep trying to stay ahead.


----------



## Teplous

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *deepor*
> 
> I don't know how to answer. It feels pretty involved when I think about it, but there's projects that try to make it as easy as possible like this here: http://www.playonlinux.com/en/
> 
> Even with a tool like that, you'll still be stranded often I bet, and will be helpless if you need to do things in configuration files and at the command line.
> 
> You'd be best advised to check out Linux Mint or Ubuntu and just do Linux stuff. You should be able to get a lot of easy to understand help through Google with Mint and Ubuntu.
> 
> So if you choose Ubuntu for example, what you need to do is educate yourself on how to install Ubuntu, then check out how to get the real NVIDIA driver running on Ubuntu so that 3D works, then install Steam. I think those are all things you can do by clicking around in Ubuntu, no need for command line stuff. Afterwards when you have Steam running, you should just check out what games you already own that can run on Linux. If you have none, you might manage to live playing Team Fortress 2 and Dota2 until you get your SSD back.
> 
> Summary of last paragraph:
> 
> (1) Download and install Ubuntu
> (2) Make sure to activate the NVIDIA driver
> (3) Install Steam
> (4) You'll at least be able to play TF2 and Dota2 as they are free-to-play games
> 
> And research on how to disable mouse acceleration at some point.


awesome thanks for the help, i'll start dabbling


----------



## jvolkman

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *4LC4PON3*
> 
> am I the only one who still does not see the use of linux right now at all. The main reason is there is barely any games supported on linux and most likely your entire steam library will never be supported. So you would have to have linux & windows installed if you want to play your older games. Maybe its just me but seems like a cool idea of Linux but far behind


There used to be a time when playing a game meant exiting Windows into DOS. Windows games were few and far between. Things change.


----------



## aweir

Pretty soon we'll see the tagline "SteamOS is not an emulator" and everybody will have a confused expression on their face and wonder what the heck it is, then.


----------



## Carniflex

Just out of curiosity. Does Eyefinity work nowadays under Linux? I remember some years back it was said to have some problems in that regard.

I was just thinking in here that perhaps it would be cool to try a setup where the PC is running some linux distro and then when I need to fire up a windows program I'll just fire up windows within Linux (it should work ok, right? If I already have the Windows licence and all?) but then I got thinking that performance considerations aside surely something would go wrong and first thing popping into my mind was ofc eyefinity that just might do that. Actually the thought process kinda started from somewhere on the lines of "if you already have a windows licence would it not nice if SteamOS would be able to make use of "virtual" windows envirvement to allow you to play windows games in SteamOS which are not yet supported in Linux." I was thinking that surely people have good number of old XP licences kicking around and quite many games in Steam still are willing to work under XP as far as I'm aware. Plus if it's a virtual machine just firing up for the game and is sent away after closing the game it having the security vulnerabilities should not matter all that much. Certainly should be better than just dunno .. actually running the XP as the main operating system today. Or with all the cheap Win 8 licenses kicking around even more modern op system license could be had pretty cheap I'd imagine. For strictly gaming it should not matter if you like or dislike Metro or Win 8 on desktop.


----------



## malpais

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Carniflex*
> 
> Just out of curiosity. Does Eyefinity work nowadays under Linux? I remember some years back it was said to have some problems in that regard.


It works with the FOSS radeon driver, I don't know about the proprietary catalyst blob as it's been a long time since I've used it. As long as you aren't using anything Debian based the FOSS driver is the better way to go. Far more stable than Catalyst and with newer kernels the performance is almost as good in 3D, and far better in 2D.

The problem with SteamOS and Debian in general is that everything is way too outdated. Fedora or Arch Linux are far better options for anybody using an AMD card. Debian is a very poor choice to base a gaming focused distribution off. Servers sure, but nothing that requires up to date software like gaming does.


----------



## Quarazhi

Aaaah bummer I was so looking forward to this but then forgot that it was on the way, but seeing the requirements they say at least 500gb HD space but I was gonna install on my 150gb HD just to check it out..


----------



## Omega X

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *4LC4PON3*
> 
> am I the only one who still does not see the use of linux right now at all. The main reason is there is barely any games supported on linux and most likely your entire steam library will never be supported. So you would have to have linux & windows installed if you want to play your older games. Maybe its just me but seems like a cool idea of Linux but far behind


Chicken or the egg. There are three times the Linux games now because of this push and there's more coming. Apparently many can be played through Wine emulation, so there's that too.


----------



## MoonPig

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Quarazhi*
> 
> Aaaah bummer I was so looking forward to this but then forgot that it was on the way, but seeing the requirements they say at least 500gb HD space but I was gonna install on my 150gb HD just to check it out..


Yeah, i was just about to install it on a 60GB SSD i have spare. Is there a reason they say 500GB?


----------



## Quarazhi

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That


----------



## Shrak

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *4LC4PON3*
> 
> am I the only one who still does not see the use of linux right now at all.


Likely.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *4LC4PON3*
> 
> The main reason is there is barely any games supported on linux


You have to start somewhere. We have 400+ more games now than we did a year and a half ago. I'd say we're doing better in our first couple of years, than most consoles do in their lifetime. Sure they may be mostly indies and ports from other operating systems, but it's a start, and it's a good start that has a lot of support.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *4LC4PON3*
> 
> and most likely your entire steam library will never be supported.


There's no need to support the entire steam library. Before Steam, and even still after it, there's a lot of stuff you can buy on one system that won't run on another. If you buy a Windows license for Adobe CS, it'll only activate on Windows and not Mac. Same concept here. Don't treat Linux like it's Windows. It's an entirely new platform that will have to grow on it's own.

And within this last year and half of Steam on Linux, we've already had a bunch of big name publishers and developers step up and say they'll make Linux games.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *4LC4PON3*
> 
> So you would have to have linux & windows installed if you want to play your older games. Maybe its just me but seems like a cool idea of Linux but far behind


You really don't. Unless you're playing DX11+ (minimum requirement) games, then Wine will run the majority pretty darn well. Depending on the popularity, they'll run just as good if not better than under Windows native. Call of Duty is a good example of this, as well as many other popular games. A lot will still take a performance hit, but most of the time it isn't too noticeable once set up.

Then there's also the possibility of Streaming ( being SteamOS here and Steam pushing the "living room" experience with it ), a big advantage is if you have a few spare parts laying around to build a living room PC out of, you can now Stream from your main rig to any room in your house free of cost. And having been testing it out for the past couple of months, it's been pretty darn decent. Still some bugs to work out, but performance is really not all that bad. It will only get better with time.

Ultimately, things are going to be slower for us, that's what happens when Microsoft is allowed to have a monopoly on well... everything. The most freedom people get is the UK get a choice in what browser they want to use on install, big whoop. Hoorah for consumer rights right there!







But Linux has been speeding up a LOT lately. Steam bringing their client to Linux has already bettered the graphics drivers ( Steam has been pushing them ), and they'll continue to get better ( mainly looking at AMD here ). And the more attention we get the better things are going to get. Just wait for a nice little bubble to happen and we get tons of companies throwing out support for Linux, even for a short while, and it'll help us grow a lot.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MoonPig*
> 
> Yeah, i was just about to install it on a 60GB SSD i have spare. Is there a reason they say 500GB?


Space for games. 60GB will fill awfully fast. figure base install is going to be around 6GB, then if you install just one or two of their games at 12GB+ each that's game over essentially.


----------



## Rothen

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MoonPig*
> 
> Yeah, i was just about to install it on a 60GB SSD i have spare. Is there a reason they say 500GB?


Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Quarazhi*
> 
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That


Probably space for games. It should work on a 60GB SSD, although I have heard you may need to modify the installer. After all, the OS takes only about 4GB of space on its own...


----------



## slickwilly

I have installed Steam OS on an old 775 based system using Stephenson's Rocket 153plus1 I tried the distro from Steam but it failed to install when installing the Nvidia drivers

Gigabyte P45-UD3R, Intel E8400, Nvidia 8800GTS512, 8gb. DDR2 1066, I did this for my grandson, he checked and the all but three of his games work with Steam OS and he never plays those three
games played, Don't starve, Gary's mod, TF2, Portal 2 and Minecraft.
He is currently trying to get Skype to work, I am not offer much support, let him figure it out, it will be good for him


----------



## Tman5293

Holy thread necro Batman!


----------

