Readers: SteamOS / Steam Machines Will Lead To Significantly Greater Linux Marketshare

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Readers: SteamOS / Steam Machines Will Lead To Significantly Greater Linux Marketshare

60% of the Phoronix readers that participated in our weekend survey feel that SteamOS / Steam Machines will lead to a significantly greater market-share for Linux...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=SteamOS-Linux-Market-Poll

[humbug]

"SteamOS might be a relevant, but Steam Machines is the dumbest thing Valve came up in a while. So no."

There's really no point trying to separate these two things. The reason for the existence of steamOS is for Valve to have a suitable Linux distro to put onto steam machines, and give devs something to target on Linux. If steam machines die steamOS dies with it. Valve is not trying to push Linux desktop/laptop users to switch to steamOS. They want you to use Ubuntu, Debian, Mint etc. As long as you install the steam application on top of it they are happy.

[sirdilznik]

It should be noted that even moving up to 3 or 4% would be significant, given that would be triple or quadruple the current Steam marketshare. I personally see marketshare going to about 5% in the short term after the SteamOS launch, which is hardly revolutionary, though still a step in the right direction.

[Ardje]

I think we should also note that a 1% is a relative constant. It means that the amount of steamos/linux users is growing as fast as the windows/apple community.
Steamos on the steam machines will probably grow the total steamos %. Steamos gives software houses a "single" target to develop for, and it also gives them probably more freedom.

[GraysonPeddie]

I do use Google+, but not Twitter.

If SteamOS adoption grows and more developers including SquareEnix/Matrix port their games to Linux, that will keep me from using Windows at bay, even though I have not bought a license for Windows 10 yet (I'd gladly prefer Windows 7 due to Aero Glass, which I've had trouble replicating with Windows 10 using Glass8 and Aero Glass for Windows theme).

My life has been great so far for running Linux exclusively for three years and I'd tend to feel a little uneasy installing Windows in a separate hard drive. Windows 10 is not that bad even though I don't want to install Classic Shell since I do want an out-of-the-box Windows 7 Start menu in Windows 10. I simply don't like the direction Microsoft went with flat-style Windows theme and Modern-style applications. I don't mind trying out Ubuntu Phone convergence, but with Microsoft, I could care less about it. It is hard for Windows to become less relevant these days.

[johnc]

I don't think they're going to sell too many of these Steam Machines.

Unfortunately it's become pretty apparent that Intel and AMD have led a concerted effort to torpedo the whole concept.

[wargames]

I really hope SteamOS succeeds. Windows 10 is a pile of crap. I tried it a couple of days ago (I was forced to) and I'm still recovering. They can shove that shit into their ass. I'd rather go back to the MS DOS days than using that shit. Seriously. It's pure shit.

[L_A_G]

I'd hate to sound like an asshole, but what's the point of this piece? Of course people on a site that mainly does articles on Linux performance are going to think that a Linux based OS for console-like PC's is going to be a smashing success. It's like going to Dualshockers or some other console fanboy site and asking them if they think a console just about to be released from the company they're fanboys of is going to be successful.

Personally I want to be optimistic, but I'm not so sure enough people will be ready to plonk down enough money on a console that's a worthwhile upgrade over a current gen console.

Now don't get me wrong, Steam machines could very well be really successful and get a lot of titles released without needing to sell like current generation consoles. This is mainly because it's considerably cheaper to develop for SteamOS than consoles. With consoles you have to start paying the platform holder just for the privilege to start development, then there's really expensive documentation and software, development kits that cost up to $10.000 each, debug kits that cost up to $1000 each and certification that costs $10.000 a try. The final insult to injury is that of a game that is finally sold to retail at wholesale for $50 a copy, the platform holder takes about $25 in licensing and manufacturing on top of everything they've already charged you.

If anyone gets the feeling that a company trying to cut this out sounds familiar then you'd be right because the 3DO tried just this. Development kits and tools sold at cost and manufacture of consoles farmed out to whoever wanted to make and sell them. The end result was a platform that didn't sell many consoles because the hardware was really expensive as it was sold at a profit rather than at cost or a loss (which is what consoles usually do) but because development was so cheap it had a much greater software library than what you would have expected.

However unlike the 3DO, SteamMachines aren't coming out just before a whole new generation of consoles and they can be sold at a much more competitive price thanks to using off-the-shelf PC parts rather than custom ones. Custom ones like in most consoles don't really make financial sense unless you're selling a lot of hardware, which means the SteamOS platform should be a lot more resilient to slow sales than it's spiritual precursor, the 3DO.

[zanny]

Steamos gives software houses a "single" target to develop for, and it also gives them probably more freedom.

This is completely wrong. Since Steam debuted on Linux developers have always and only targeted the Steam Runtime, which is distro agnostic and if maintainers can get Steam to run then any game on Steam should work (except for when the shipped SteamOS libraries are too old to work with newer kernels / libc infrastructure).

Linux games porters were never testing or targeting Suse, Fedora, even Ubuntu - they were using the Steam Runtime, and while probably running it on Ubuntu they were doing nothing specific to Ubuntu.

I really hope SteamOS succeeds. Windows 10 is a pile of crap. I tried it a couple of days ago (I was forced to) and I'm still recovering. They can shove that shit into their ass. I'd rather go back to the MS DOS days than using that shit. Seriously. It's pure shit.

SteamOS is not a competitor to Windows 10 at all. It doesn't compete with any full featured desktop class operating system because it is not one. It competes with the proprietary operating systems on traditional consoles and set top boxes.

Steam Machine market share is Valves inroad into the console space. Traditional PC gamers will not adopt these things at all, especially since none of them are price competitive. I'm still wondering if any of these will actually show up on store shelves - if not, consider them dead in the water, because nobodies grandmother is going to be google searching for Steam Machines to buy them off Steam itself.

[schmidtbag]

There's really no point trying to separate these two things. The reason for the existence of steamOS is for Valve to have a suitable Linux distro to put onto steam machines, and give devs something to target on Linux. If steam machines die steamOS dies with it. Valve is not trying to push Linux desktop/laptop users to switch to steamOS. They want you to use Ubuntu, Debian, Mint etc. As long as you install the steam application on top of it they are happy.

Agreed, but to elaborate, I'd say it's to help put some consistency in an otherwise incredibly fragmented platform. Linux has poor commercial software support because it's too difficult to appease everyone. Having a somewhat consistent hardware and software platform makes this much easier for developers, since all they have to do is focus on what's officially supported. That way, if something goes wrong, Valve, the hardware manufacturers, and the game devs can all blame the customer for not supporting their platform.