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Comment by anentropic | Hacker News Reader

Isn't this specifically not a desktop system?

Yes but it's virtually the same core software stack as on the desktop. So the linux distros get a huge leg up in that arena.

Are you sure about that? Why wouldn't this be more similar to Android than, say, Linux Mint? Who says they're even using any of the typical userspace bits?

I would bet a money (albeit a small amount) that, to a first approximation, they're really only using the Linux kernel.

Because they already ported Steam to Linux and have about 200 titles native on Linux. That fits quite well with "Hundreds of great games are already running natively on SteamOS." statement. I do not see why they would force game developers to do the work again.

The release of Steam on Ubuntu was a precursor to this. Valve encouraged developers to port their games to Ubuntu and ported their own games. It is unlikely that they would do that again. This will likely be a linux system with gnu userspace for now, even though they would have a custom UI.

As others have said, the important point here is that the core of Linux support is here. They've already ported all of their major titles to Ubuntu-based desktop linux, and I would be extremely surprised if SteamOS did not inherit greatly from that effort.

Even if SteamOS uses different toolkits or packaging (which it very well might), the amount of effort to get those titles to run on typical desktop linux distros should be relatively very minimal.

I highly doubt it would be more similar to Android than Linux Mint simply because they have already invested time and money into making Steam run on the Linux Mint family of distros (i.e Ubuntu), and (to my knowledge) none working on the android stack.

It will have the kernel and should have the same glibc userspace. It might use Wayland rather than X.

The rest is irrelevant; if a game runs on the SteamOS, it will run on my Linux desktop.

Your last thought is the big point here. It may be part of more of a horizontal strategy that is initially touted as a niche move.

When we actually see it, it may be either a desktop-less distro, have Unity/GNOME or some other desktop permutation. My best estimate of what best fits a maximum impact strategy is an OS with a desktop environment pre-installed (even if hidden from casual view) or easily installable.

I have a feeling that we may look back at this seemingly minor product announcement as a significant stepping stone.

My bet is a Debian derivative, running X, with no complete desktop environment, but with all the GTK libs required.

Maybe with added Wine.

It'll likely just boot straight into Big Picture.

I assume he is implying that games coming to SteamOS should be able to run on any desktop linux that supports the Steam client.

Depends on what you mean. It is specifically designed to be a "living room" OS, like steam's big picture mode not a desktop system. So yeah not a traditional desktop experience.

Nothing in the release said steam only or no desktop, and they call out the ability to create content on the platform specifically Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want. Gamers are empowered to join in the creation of the games they love. Rather sounds like what they are doing is going to be open source and allow non games to run. Even if they don't ship with KDE or Gnome by default it should be possible to get something up and running.

It does seem that way, but if it's possible to run SteamOS on some sort of custom Linux box, if not a normal Linux PC, for me at least that would be good enough (that way you can enjoy the latest graphics hardware, which is the main draw of PC gaming along with mods).

Well they'd have to work real hard to stop people running everything else on it...

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