SteamOS beta released...

[lost_soul]

http://lifehacker.co...load-1482911466

 

I would TOTALLY install this and give it a try if it didn't involve subjecting myself to a platform where publishers can make all my purchases useless eventually. I've already been screwed over by companies like EA, Square, Ubi and anybody else who left me with a game that requires a disk to be in the drive when optical drives are a thing of the past and with no official patch (besides buying a new copy of the game).

 

I don't believe in supporting developers anymore because of the above, but I at the same time want Valve to succeed against Microsoft and "gather Steam" with this SteamOS thing. I've also got several Linux boxes with NVIDIA cards that would be prime for testing. Linux is my main platform of choice already, so I would have a good grasp of things... more so than the average Joe who tries to install and use this. I've even got spare hard drives sitting around that would be usable for SteamOS. They're not massive, but just 160 gigs or so.

 

Its a shame I can't trust any developers/publishers not to **** me and run though.

Edited December 14, 2013 by lost_soul

[PranQster]

Hmmmm... I think I have another had drive lying around. I'll give this a go after work tomorrow or sonntag.

Edited December 14, 2013 by PranQster

[lost_soul]

If you do, please tell us what its like. What desktop environment did they go with? Did they go with a traditional desktop at all? I imagine they would so that it can be used for general tasks besides gaming, however, they need to choose a DE that doesn't impact performance too badly.

 

EDIT: Apparently this is built on Debian. That makes sense, I guess. If they used Ubuntu, they would have to deal with the Mir vs Wayland thing eventually. The reason I personally switched to (Lubuntu) from Debian was that I was unable to make my optimus graphics function in Debian, but they are great in Ubuntu. I did lots of research and the proposed solutions that I found didn't solve the problem.

Edited December 14, 2013 by lost_soul

[plasticman]

The Phoronix guy seems to be knee deep into it right now...

 

It is mentioned you can use Gnome Shell outside the Steam client. Phoronix also reports there is a customized compositor that is based on xcompmgr. I don't get how this is supposed to get along with having Gnome Shell at the same time. Doesn't Gnome Shell depend on Mutter or whatever it was called?

 

Anyhow, the OS is based on Debian, which is a good thing. Good for Debian and therefore it will benefit the future of mankind in broader terms. I like it how completely uncool (meaning conservative) Valve is about the latest flame wars: by choosing Debian Wheezy it is neither upstart nor systemd, just plain old system v init. It is neither Wayland nor Mir, Xorg will have to do for now.

 

At the same time they seem to spare no effort where it is neccessary: a customized compositor may help to draw pixels on the screen more reliably -- Xorg is known to have issues here. Also the kernel is said to be heavily modified and borrows a lot from the realtime kernel patches. Propably good for reducing latencies, which is a must for the planned "stream windows games from your pc on your steam machine"-feature.

 

I hope this whole thing will gain momentum. Next year will be the year of the linux desktop.

[Lux]

Maybe of interest. I'm sure everyone has their own sources.

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/12/everything-you-need-to-know-to-install-steamos-on-your-very-own-computer/