Steam OS. What it is

Hi everyone

 

I am planing to build a Steam Machine with Steam OS . As I tried to install Steam Os on an old PC, id did not work. 

So question number 1. 

Can my system run Steam Os

System: AMD FX 6300; GTX 550TI; 4 GB DDR 3 1333 Ram; 

 

Question number 2. 

I allways thought that I can play all my Win Pc games on it, I allways thought of it as a sort of Full screen Steam app. Is that so? The Instalation did not look like just steam, it lookt like a Linux system simular to Ubuntu (I mean from de designe)

 

Question number 3. 

Can I watch movies on Steam Os, as it should replace my Console that we use to watch DVD on. 

 

Thanks Janick

 

Steam OS is based off Debian, (the same thing Ubuntu is based on). Insted of a gimped system I would recommend Sabayon it has the Steam Machine user interface built in and you get a full powered Linux machine.

http://www.sabayon.org/

1) Yes, your system can run Linux/SteamOs

2) You can play any Linux game natively or you could stream it from a windows machine if the game dosen't have a Linux version.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2092220/hands-on-steams-in-home-pc-game-streaming-beta-already-feels-like-magic.html

3) I don't know if SteamOs can watch DVDs out of the box but if you install XBMC it will. It is only a quick command away to install.

http://xbmc.org/

PS. remember SteamOs is still in beta, Sabayon is ready to use ;)

SteamOS is a joke. It's a series of bad decisions that has lead to a pretty fucked up situation right now. First Valve went along with the smooth-talking Ubuntu-people, but they couldn't deliver, which didn't come as a surprise to the experienced linux community, so Valve then switched to Debian, which is what Ubuntu was once forked off, and now they have an eternal beta system, because Debian doesn't support any relatively recent features, and they are having a serious crisis and even war between Debian board members right now, unbelievably over the question whether or not to implement systemd, a technology that has been adopted by other distros for years, and might even soon be replaced by the next generation of the product. So now Valve is stuck, and they've now given all Valve games for free to Canonical devs again in the hope that Ubuntu will help them out of their predicament... Valve made some pretty bad decisions when it comes to their linux program, they are not doing very well for the moment...

BUT, the good news is, that if it exists, the bleeding edge distros have the best implementation of it, and have the best working and most stable implementation of it. One of those bleeding edge distros is Gentoo, and a user-friendly respin of Gentoo is called Sabayon (Sabayon.org), and they have a really fast and modern system (unlike Debian or Ubuntu) that looks and feels really nice, is completely stable, uses the latest and greatest technology, and allows for the installation of Steam in a dedicated Big Picture mode based upon XBMC, which means that there is added support for the music streaming function for instance in Big Picture mode, besides the other streaming functions (now in linux with full native VCE - thanks to AMD for open sourcing video encoding acceleration - and h.265 support, yes that's not the h.264 codec from the year 2003 like with nVidia cards, but the more modern 4k-ready h.265 codec, which is supported natively now in bleeding edge linux distros).

When you download a live ISO and burn it on a DVD, and use the installer on the DVD, you'll see that the installer menu offers all those choices right up front, in order to keep things simple.

So yeah, forget SteamOS, it's complete nonsense, use Sabayon 14 instead.

Thanks you made my day. Last question: Can I use a Xbox 360 (wired) controller on Sabayon?

Janick

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/connect-your-xbox-360-controller-to-your-linux-gaming-rig/

 

Thank you. 

So much bullshit and bias.

Valve ported the Steam client to Ubuntu because Ubuntu has the biggest user base. That's a fact.

Valve choose Debian as base for SteamOS because they don't need anything from Ubuntu and because it removes one layer of complexity.

There is no conspiracy going on, nobody wanted Ubuntu to deliver anything. SteamOS doesn't need bleeding edge packages because it's just a damn console which runs the Steam client. The only thing they care about are the graphics drivers so everything they did was logical and well calculated.

And all your hate for Debian is hilarious. They don't have a crisis about which init system to use, they had a vote. That happens often in Debian, it's the normal process so nothing special is going on. Oh, and Debian is more modern than most distros out there if you want it to be.

I understand that you like bleeding edge distros but honestly, it's just an update model. They are not better or worse than rolling release or LTS releases or anything else. Your attitude that one model is superior to everything else for everyone is just extremely stupid.

So yeah, forget SteamOS, it's complete nonsense, use Sabayon 14 instead.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. If Valve wanted something like Sabayon, they would have used it. They are like 99% different things. You don't want SteamOS. Fine, but don't tell everyone it's crap because it's not.

If they were using Debian testing I would agree with you. If Valve really wants to  show off the performance gains in Linux why not use the newer tech?

Because there is no performance gains.

The graphics drivers and the kernel are the only things that matter for gaming performance and when using proprietary drivers even the kernel gets pretty much irrelevant to gaming perf.

Because there is no performance gains.

You're kidding, right? There is at least 40 % performance gains on AMD and Intel graphics with proprietary and open source drivers with kernel 3.12, and another step like that with kernel 3.13/3.14 for nVidia/AMD respectively. Way to go to bring out a gaming console that comes with kernel 3.4...

How about AMD open sourcing VCE for h.264 encoding for streaming... only on modern kernels... and that's not a feature that gamers don't value.

 

You say that Debian had a "normal vote"... wow, if it's normal that people even have to be sent out on retreat to calm themselves down, and if the decision has to be made so that it can be reverted immediately, that's not a "normal vote", that's pretty insane.

By the way, Valve has now given all Ubuntu devs also all Valve software for free... maybe they're not so pleased with Debian after all, and do want something from Canonical...

 

I don't care to be honest, SteamOS is just the Steam client in Big Picture mode, the implementation of Sabayon, on a bleeding edge system and with an easy and working installer that works without problems on any hardware, is much more useful. I don't have anything against Debian, but for modern desktop PC's, it's just not the easiest distro to work with if you want to run a bleeding edge system because you want the huge performance and feature benefits thereof.

There is at least 40 % performance gains on AMD and Intel graphics with proprietary and open source drivers with kernel 3.12

Ha, that's bullshit. The proprietary drivers are not faster on the new kernel. And that's the drivers SteamOS users care about because it is the fastest driver. Yes, for Intel graphics you pretty much need a new kernel but that's exactly what I said so didn't you read my post or what's wrong with you?

How about AMD open sourcing VCE for h.264 encoding for streaming... only on modern kernels... and that's not a feature that gamers don't value.

Uhm, and on the proprietary driver. Like I said, when you use the proprietary driver you don't even care about the kernel. It's only relevant for mesa drivers.

By the way, Valve has now given all Ubuntu devs also all Valve software for free... maybe they're not so pleased with Debian after all, and do want something from Canonical...

Or maybe they did it because they have absolutely no disadvantage by doing so. You can speculate how much you want, nobody forbids it, but seriously, don't act like it's all a fact.

I don't care to be honest, SteamOS is just the Steam client in Big Picture mode

Yes, you got it! You absolutely got it! You don't care because you don't want or need something like SteamOS. Fine, but stop saying it's crap because, for god's sake, it's not. It's just not for you.

I don't have anything against Debian, but for modern desktop PC's, it's just not the easiest distro to work with if you want to run a bleeding edge system because you want the huge performance and feature benefits thereof.

I don't need a bleeding edge distribution. I need a stable system with relatively new packages. It's not like you can't simply grab the newest kernel and install it on all distributions if you want to and it's not like you can't have different versions of mesa on the same system.

Caro amico, I'm not going to debate your thesis that Debian Stable and proprietary Windows drivers are the greatest thing ever for gaming in linux, and that the Linux kernel doesn't matter, mkay...

What the…? I never said that it's the greatest thing ever for gaming in linux. It's not - but the proprietary drivers give you the best performance. That's a fact. An unfortunate fact but still a fact.