In an IGN interview, Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais said that “[they] want [SteamOS] to be at the point where at some point you can install it on any PC”. Below is a transcript of the interview. I tried to clean it up to my best ability.
Just like Steam Deck paved the way for Steam OS on a variety of third-party handhelds, we expect that Steam Machine will pave the way for Steam OS on a bunch of different machines in either similar form factors, different perf envelopes, different segments of the market, and get to a good outcome there. We definitely want to encourage people to try it out on their own hardware. We’ll be working on expanding hardware support for the drivers and the base operating system. Just last week, we fixed something that was preventing us from booting on the very latest AMD CPU platforms. Last month, we added support for the Intel Lunar Lake platforms. We’re constantly adding support and improving performance. We want it to be at the point where at some point you can install it on any PC, but there’s still a ton of work to do there.
If the embedded video doesn’t take you to the correct part of the video, the correct timestamp is 5:37.
EDIT: Here’s the written article of the video:
https://www.ign.com/articles/valves-next-gen-steam-machine-and-steam-controller-the-big-interview
I hate Microsoft shoving AI down our throats. I will not upgrade to AI Windows. I just don’t want to port over to a new OS because: (1) I like 10’s GUI, (2) I don’t trust an OS that I might not be able to run word or excel on because I do so much on them, and (3) my version of Windows doesn’t have ads on it.
my version of Windows doesn’t have ads on it.
Windows 7?
My EU Win11 doesn’t show any ads either.
I’d be surprised if that turned out to be the case, but I’ve never used EU Windows 11. Is it a special no-ads version?
Windows 10 definitely has ads - I recall seeing something pushing the Xbox on the lock screen a while back. That counts IMO.
Yeah there’s been loads of threads with surprised Europeans when it comes to Windows ads, because we just don’t get them.
… That is not true. We get app recommendations in the home screen and we get a “news” panel. Those are ads. You can’t disable the recommended apps thing either. Recommended by who? The top payer? Fuck off.
There are alternatives to Microsoft Office like LibreOffice and OnlyOffice. Plus you can still use Office 365 in a browser if it “has” to be Microsoft Office.
I’ve used both Libreoffice and Onlyoffice along with Microsofts offerings. I’ve gone several hours in onlyoffice to only notice when I’m saving that I was using Onlyoffice instead of Microsoft Excel. That’s how similar they look.
LibreOffice has been so good. As a non-power user I haven’t even noticed a difference, aside from the lack of bullshit.
Yep, the browser version has been good enough if you’re not working with 500 MB excel files that’s been used since 20 years ago. Even the people at my work has switched to the web version of office.
As others have mentioned - and to add my own opinion: In terms of Writer (Word) and Calc (Excel), LibreOffice is by far better than M$ for everyone who isn’t for some reason an absolute fan of searching for buttons that have the function they need by looking at tiny icons.
If all the games I had worked on steam os I’d switch to Linux in a heartbeat.
Which ones don’t?
The ones with kernel level rootkits. I think they call it “anti cheat detection”
Its crazy to me, because if these games were designed from the ground up to have server side validation, and to share information on a needs to know basis, you wouldn’t really need any advanced client side AC and the process could just monitor itself and not spy on you as a complete black box.
Yes, this would cost money up front to develop differently such that this happened, and yes it would make the miniscule server costs slightly increased (and still miniscule), but its completely doable and they don’t want to, because thats more money and no one is forcing them to.
I love this comment because it’s hubris in a nutshell
Battlefield 6
Helldivers 2
CoD
I played Helldivers 2 on Linux literally last night
Crappy sweaty games I do too enjoy respawning simulator but I just stick to bf one that I paid a fiver for
I have hundreds of hours in Helldivers 2 and I haven’t played a single minute on Windows.
Helldivers 2 works just fine on Linux…?
it does
🤣😂🤣 So instead of Arch, they’ll use NetBSD‽
Whether you like the idea of SteamOS or not, this will be the easiest way to get Linux into the mainstream for gamers. And at a time when Windows is forcing everyone to buy a new PC it really couldn’t come sooner. If Steam timed this right they could really fuck over Microsoft. I honestly can’t think of a more hilarious scenario in which Windows potentially gets dethroned.
Steam gets a lot of deserved flak for their anti-consumer practices and gambling, but it’s honestly amazing how much they can do as a company. It’s amazing the things you can accomplish when you don’t have shareholders to deal with.
While I generally agree with your overall assessment. The thing you have to understand is that Microsoft has largely written off home users. At least written them off as a concern. They are much more focused now on corporate, government, and AI. Whether or not home users remain trapped on their products, matters less to them. Compared to the other groups.
The recent revelations about meddling by Microsoft corporate into their gaming division, closing so many successful studios. Canceling massive projects. Without regard to how much time, energy and resources were poured into them. All to meet some arbitrary 30% margin of profitability. They’re betting in the short term on the other groups to keep home users trapped and helpless. And short term it will work to an extent.
But the time is right for valve to push right now regardless.
At corporate scale, migrating to Linux is a non-starter right now. Our IT had to explain to people where the “windows button” had gone and how people could find all their apps. Support had to argue with a user who had a hardware issue, but didn’t want to get a new device because it would come with Win11. Last I heard, a board member still refuses to upgrade.
So yeah, MS has the corporate world by the balls. Smaller companies might have a better shot, but might have a harder time hiring someone willing to give Calc even just a chance when all their training and experience is with Excel.
I hope Linux can gain a larger foothold on the home user market, particularly among those who only really need the browser anyway. If Valve can convince gamers that it really isn’t that big of a leap, perhaps that’s the best place to pry open MS’ grip.
It’ll be a long way to go still, but at least it looks like there’s some movement.
Problem is Microsoft has leverage in several enterprise categories like teams, office, etc.
There have been successful corporate switches in Linux, with even dedicated 1:1 UX skins to keep even the most poorly skilled users happy, but lots of corporations are just way too vendor locked.
It doesn’t matter how total garbage win 11 or teams gets, anyone locked in is gonna be stuck, kinda like what happened with vmware.
Microsoft’s biggest mistake though is basing their QoL and overall OS design on the home market. If they lose their leverage there, even mid size or older corps may seriously consider transitioning or trialing Linux as a test.
It’s very hard to convince leadership to abandon vendor locked deals, but they eat up anything that demonstrates slashed costs and improved productivity. If a vendor like SUSE shows up with a complete package, they may genuinely consider if MSFT takes a real nosedive.
My employer certainly is. You’d have to throw our about 80% of our infrastructure, including a bunch of shit that was built in-house, and good luck convincing management that all those development expenses are sunk cost.
Particularly mamagement of the rest of the company, whom IT had to do a lot of work to convince we’re more than just a cost to manage.
If they release Half Life 3 day 1 of Steam Machine launch, Linux gonna get so much attention, probably biggest bang of the decade.
I’ve seen a lot of folks waiting for this to make the switch, it’s silly but having a familiar name attached to it gives them a sense of comfort, and SteamOS is solid for what it is.
I’m not a fan of its whole “read only filesystem” shenanigans and wiping things on upgrade, so I switched my Deck to CachyOS Handheld, but I acknowledge it does those for a reason, adding a safety net to the “console-like” experience for most users. Admittedly that feature may be just the thing some inexperienced users would need in order to not break the thing.
I know people (and was, once upon a time, one of them) that are really scared of accidentally breaking something. To them, being told “Don’t worry, the important bits are locked down anyway, so you couldn’t even break them” is a promise of safety. They might not strictly need it, but how would they know in advance?
(I did break things, eventually, and learned that I can fix them too, but I took a leap of faith that most users wouldn’t and probably shouldn’t dare)
It may limit stuff for a more technical user But for common folks? It makes it reliable, a lot reliable
It’s more reliable, but more tedious. Kind of like a walled garden, like Apple and Android phones. You can’t just go download random software and install it willy nilly like Windows. I mean you can, but that process is more involved. Flatpaks and Appimages are what most users will be limited to.
There are plugins and addons for now I didn’t felt limited when i ran a speech to text engine in game mode to chat more easily in games.
Absolutely, it is a huge drawback, but the good part of it is that the user is less prone to accidentally fuck it up.
It’s quite a trade-off, the more raw control you give to the end user, the more prone they are to breaking things. Of course, exceptions always apply, but in a “generic Joe” kind of user, it tends to follow that
Yep, exactly
It’s the bell curve meme
I’ve seen a lot of folks waiting for this to make the switch, it’s silly but having a familiar name attached to it gives them a sense of comfort, and SteamOS is solid for what it is.
And should they be not native English speakers, they’ll wonder why the desktop is only in English, why they can’t even check the spelling of their native language. Or why playback of WebM videos glitches.
I really like my Steam Deck and actually use it as desktop PC from time to time but you can tell desktop mode is an afterthought. Traditional Linux distributions are actually a better choice for regular users. Valve luckily open sources and upstreams everything of SteamOS other than the actual Steam client, so it’s not like SteamOS has some special sauce nobody else gets.
I 100% agree about this being the opportunity for Linux to be brought into the mainstream but for a different reason.
This will divorce Linux from Linux bros. Most people aren’t interested in doing any of the stuff Linux is good at like running servers, they just want to run their apps.
Right now the only way normie users hear about Linux is by stumbling into a Linux bro who started ranting at them.
While Linux bros have been great for popularizing Linux on the backend and with technical people you literally could not pick a worse demographic to represent a product to the general public.
What makes it even funnier is, that steam is started by former Microsoft employees
I really hope they sell the GabeCube in retail outlets. It’ll be a Linux machine you can just plug in and use. A lot of people will buy it as a console and then realise it works fine as a PC. That’s the kind of promotion Linux needs right now.
I fear for this too but because I live where steam hardware is never sold, I have to rely on scalpers or stores who sell it for triple it’s value. I want the controller (tbh I want the vr controllers, but not the steam frame) but I don’t want to pay around $2,000 MXN for it.
I have to rely on scalpers or stores who sell it for triple it’s value. I want the controller
The 8bitdo Ultimate 2 series of controllers are fine pieces of hardware. Yes, they don’t have the trackpads but they have TMR sticks (probably the very same model as Steam Controller 2) and they are even compatible game consoles.
The biggest problem is that there are four very similarly named controllers (“Bluetooth” is the highest end and compatible with all BT devices even phones) but that’s it. No need to throw money at scalpers if good alternatives exist.
PS: If it behaves like Steam Deck’s controller, it’ll be useless without Steam running and merely acting as mouse.
Why not use a reshipping service?
So much for the “I’m still running Windows because I game a lot” crowd. No more excuses, ditch Microsoft and switch to Linux!
There are still excuses.
I love gaming on my Steam Deck, but I’m not ready to make that PC switch yet because I don’t have the time anymore to sit and fuck around trying to get a game to run.
But what does the chart look like after you assign weights to AAA games?
That chart means nothing if all the games you play work fine. I have tons of hours on MH Wilds for example and that’s the only game where I had to do tinkering in the last 3 years, but we all know that wasn’t a OS specific issue right? PoE 2 crashed in Vulkan for the first week, worked fine on dx12. Now works fine on Vulkan and I’m having a much better experience than some of my buddies on windows with game crashes.
I would track the performance of your games instead of the overall.
And if you play popular MOBAs then Windows is it.
Nah, Dota runs natively on Linux. And no other MOBAs exist, amiright.
Im okay with keeping moba players, fortnite and roblox people, and kernel level anticheat gamers off of linux if it means compromising on Linux’s part :)
What MOBAs other than League of Legends are incompatible with Linux?
Protondb has a lot of old information on its thats not relevant anymore thanks to updated proton releases.
So there are a lot of games that suggest tweaks/tinkering that dont need it anymore… but people like me(random idiots that don’t have IT/Sysadmin experience to know everything about linux) still might do, because the reviews from 18 months ago say its necessary, because there arent many reviews and the one from 18 months ago is still only like 5 places down from the top.
So polls like that should be taken with a heavy grain.
That’s interesting, is there a way to filter only on “new reviews”? Actually, I’d expect proton to already be doing that, given that you have to specify which proton you’re using when rating the game
On a game’s page, it orders them by most-recent first. There’s also a filter query field at the top, but I’m not sure what the syntax for it is and I can’t seem to find information on that, but at least you’ll automatically see the newest ones first.
Still waiting for Wayland to allow global hotkeys since I use those a lot
I didn’t realize that was an issue. I used to use f13-f24 on my qmk keyboard for that but that was before wayland and I’ve been using a generic cheap trash kb after somehow losing the other one.
It’s not an excuse when your favorite game only supports kernel-level anti-cheat on Windows.
Yeah at this point the anticheat of the multiplayer military fps genre really is the opiate of the masses keeping windows at the top of gaming market share. Because no OS besides windows would ever allow for something so wildly insecure.
I play the genre, in fact PUBG is one of my favorite games (Judge me as you will), but I made the decision a few years back that my control over my own computer, my privacy and security in my own home, my ideological rejection of the stranglehold microsoft has over the home PC, were all more important than my ability to play a handful of violent, samesie, DoD-funded military apologia.
I have zero regrets. I do miss PUBG from time to time. But no, in the end it wasn’t really an excuse to not switch.
If enough people stop buying those games because the developer refuses to infect your computer for you, they’ll change their tune. Money talks bullshit walks.
Many of these games are free-to-play. At least, mine is. I’m open to alternative games, but none of them scratch that itch.
Do it goddammit!
Strange that they’re working so hard on this but Bazzite and similar will run on anything…
Having a company like Valve behind it is major, getting people on Linux is the important first step, then once familiar they can try other distros.
Don’t you think better hardware compatibility with their first party OS is important for getting people on Linux?
What do you think they are doing???
I just explained that they’re not doing a good job at that.
Strange that they’re working so hard on this but Bazzite and similar will already run on anything…
You said it’s strange they are working so hard on it. Are you lost?
JFC, that’s what they said, not me. Are you lost?
Even if I did, hard work is not the same as good work.
No, I’m not lost, that’s literally the comment you made that I responded to.
They are working on it, a major software company with the means and funds to infinitely back Linux.
If you prefer Bazzite or some other OS, that’s great, but Valve building and supporting their own distribution is a good thing for more mainstream adoption of Linux.
Maybe English isn’t your first language, so you didn’t mean exactly what you said?
I wouldn’t considered this strange. Bazzite definite has some downsides that involve tinkering to get things working on some hardware.
Valve is trying to deliver both a hardware product that just works, and a software product that just works without that tinkering. They’re trying to bring Linux to your mom who wants to play terraria and you uncle who plays overwatch with his kids. They want them to have an experience that’s console like in how easy/intuitive it is to use, without anything that’s finicky or confusing.
Every time I do an update on bazzite it breaks deckyloader for me and I have to go in and fix it. I’ve had to change controller type on bazzite to get certain games to work.
I have back buttons on my device that still don’t map reliably in bazzite. This is not the experience valve want their customers to have.
They’re shooting for a seamless experience.
I wouldn’t considered this strange. Bazzite definite has some downsides that involve tinkering to get things working on some hardware.
Almost never. Whereas SteamOS almost always just won’t work, regardless of tinkering.
Every time I do an update on bazzite it breaks deckyloader for me and I have to go in and fix it.
This is not a Valve product. I can tell you SteamOS will be the same because they’re not developed together.
I have back buttons on my device that still don’t map reliably in bazzite.
That’s nothing to do with Bazzite, that’s entirely done in Steam.
In steam on windows the devices onboard controller actually works as intended. I dual boot so I’ve tested this extensively.
Your experience of “almost never” and my experience of “happens sometimes” create a bill, my friend. This is what is called anecdotal evidence.
None of that anecdotal evidence (yours or mine) actually undermines the main point which is that bazzite started out telling users to install their skew of fedora at their own risk on hardware they didn’t directly provide a guide for. And that’s part of the fun of Linux for some people.
But there are a lot of people who don’t do PC gaming full stop specifically because they don’t want to fiddle with anything, they just want to play a game, and steam is courting those people. That’s my point. They don’t want to give those people a bad experience, and they are spending time attempting to make their experience as clean and positive as possible.
In steam on windows the devices onboard controller actually works
Sure but we’re not talking about Windows. The Linux Steam client is not the same as the Windows one, obviously.
bazzite started out telling users to install their skew of fedora at their own risk
That was a long time ago.
But there are a lot of people who don’t do PC gaming full stop specifically because they don’t want to fiddle with anything, they just want to play a game, and steam is courting those people. That’s my point.
What does your point have to do with SteamOS vs. Bazzite?
You brought up bazzite like it and steam OS are the exact same thing. So you tell me what it has to do with bazzite.
I did not. I brought it up like they serve a similar function but only Bazzite, with their team of volunteers, seems interested in improving compatibility across various hardware.
So what you’re saying is that you don’t think steam has any interest in providing compatibility across various hardware?
Been waiting years at this point. Hope it happens soon.
As much as I appreciate Valve’s contributions to the Linux gaming world: If I wanted a computer with an Operating System dedicated to / optimized for gaming, I would buy a console instead.
I do believe that an operating system by steam for anything but the SteamDeck is a bad idea. It might leech market share of other linux distros, and trigger less well maintained generic linux compatibility - and at that point, Valve could get procured by one of those parasitic megacorps and the enshittification thumbscrews will be tightened HARD. With the end result throwing Linux gaming back a decade in favor of proprietary hot garbage.
I’m slightly worried that games on Linux will end up targeting Steam os, instead of just running great on any distribution.
And I’m fine running SuSE and Fedora. Also they run my games just fine and I wish it stayed that way.that is what I was trying to say - in more words and with a couple of typos ;)
Well in that case I agree with you!
just running great on any distribution
Just running great on some Bob’s distribution for which Bob made sure no game will ever run on it…
It’s got a use case. I mean, I know not everyone has a dedicated gaming PC, but some people (myself included) do. I don’t keep any personal info on it, it’s just for gaming. I have a separate mini-PC for general use. It’s a good option for a “consolized” PC at the TV for gaming, in lieu of the typical gaming console. Many already use Bazzite for the purpose.
Either way, I’m glad to see it as an option. And that’s all it is. I doubt I’d use dedicated SteamOS (I like my gaming rig to be fully up-to-date on the latest kernel so I use Endeavor), but it’s a simple and straightforward choice. There’s Bazzite, Cachy gaming, and plenty of standard and immutable distros, SteamOS is just one more.
I have a pretty beefy gaming PC and a separate middling mini-PC for my linux workstation. I enjoy the separation of concerns and distractions and would love to install a gaming-focused OS on my gaming PC.
Valve isn’t getting acquired any time soon. They’re a small-ish group that basically gets 30% of nearly every PC game sold. They’re private, so finances aren’t published, but I have a hunch they have a healthy amount of cash on hand to do whatever the fuck they want for decades, and they might in fact be closer to the size of those mega corps.
It’s built on FOSS software, Valve is a main contributer to a bunch of Linux-specific frameworks like Proton, AMD FOSS drivers, and others. This means that the FOSS world benifits from their contributions, regardless of Valve’s future contributions.
That’s the beauty and power of FOSS, it can’t be restricted or locked away, everybody gets to enjoy everybody else’s contributions, big and small.
Even if Valve totally enshitifies and tries to restrict their tech, the community will fork their projects, take the code and continue building cool stuff.
Look what happened with Terraform, the largest infrastructure as code platform in the world. They tried to close down their codebase by changing the license to a more restrictive one, and the community rebelled and forked Open Tofu, which not only has 100% backward compatibility with Terraform, but has newly developed features that terraform doesn’t have.
Same thing with Red Hat, a multi-billion dollar corpo owned and controlled by IBM, which tried to lock out devs from their codebase recently unless they were building code specifically for Red Hat Linux. Rocky and Alma Linux not only survived, but still thrive.
I could go on, but the point is that right now Valve is a fantastic force for Linux and FOSS development in the gaming space, and because they started with a largely open platform and ecosystem, that protects the community at large from future enshitification.
The compatibility bit is actually not a major problem here, because the target environment for software on SteamOS is actually a portable container environment and not the OS itself.
You can make the Steam Linux runtime work on any distro with Kubernetes or equivalent as long as they support the container image format and dependencies like Vulkan
If it works on SteamOS, how difficult can it be to make it compatible with other distros?
SteamOS isn’t even on the latest kernel. If anything, everything on SteamOS is already compatible with other distros. It’s just Linux.
Cool, me to.
If this a video about an interview why not also link the interview?
Thanks for the link. Tried to find the article before posting, but couldn’t.
Nvidia please make a dedicated driver team for Linux. IIRC one of the biggest stumbling block for a general SteamOS release is subpar Nvidia performance on DX12 games that can get around 30% performance degradation. Even Valve assigned a team of engineers to work on this specifically.
Nvidia’s shit Linux support is why I’ve been stuck with Windows despite how badly I want to switch to Arch. You get no Nvidia Control Panel, no Nvidia App, no ShadowPlay, no RTX HDR, no 3D Settings panel; basically the only thing you can do with an Nvidia GPU on Linux is render 3D graphics. Which is fine if all you do with your PC is CAD or non-competitive SDR gaming. But I paid for all these extra features and so I’d like to use them.
Can’t even switch to an AMD GPU, either, because I like Ray Tracing too much, so I’m stuck waiting on Nvidia to get their shot together (or AMD to finally release a GPU that can handle RT @ 4K120) before I can finally ditch Microsoft for good.
Obvious solution: Build a D3D12 to D3D11 translation layer, kinda like DXVK but in reverse
That’s significantly more difficult than the opposite since many DX12 features are not in DX11
There is a fix coming for the Nvidia performance problem. It’s going to take some months for all the pieces to fall in place. See this video for more about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpXINAMaljA
if they sell easy install one/low click installs they’d make a killing.
I’d bet a lot that it’ll be easy to install. Any Linux distro I’ve tried is a breath of fresh air after using the Windows installer. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they make driver management even more seamless and automagic than the best Linux distros, stuff like that might be why it’s taking so long.
They have a unique opportunity here to capitalise on Microsoft’s mistakes.
I’d say it’s even more unique than a valuable competitive mistake/opportunity.
Valve has the chance to grow the brand and make a bunch of money and all the other standard goals for a company, sure. But they also have the opportunity to benefit the world in subtle but significant ways while getting richer.
A normal megacorp might not give a shit about that last part. But a company that is majority owned by one individual who is already a billionaire that looks like santa claus and presumably cares about his legacy and maybe even other people… it might just be possible!
It’s even still a valid course of action if there’s literally no interest in making the world better.
They’ve potentially found a way to make their nearly omnipresent e-commerce platform share a name with the operating system, which is coincidentally mostly developed by others. They get to associate their name with a few tens of billions of dollars of development effort for a fraction of the cost.To be clear, this isn’t bad or anything. It’s quite literally what a lot of the people doing all that legwork want. It just doesn’t require any altruism from valve. They make money selling games, and they sell more games when people think it’s easier to play them. A desktop with the ease of a console is a big selling point for a lot of people.
I am hoping that Gabe someday creates a PayValve service, to let perverts and LGBTQ+ customers to have a True Neutral transaction processor. Just a 1% fee would let Valve get a little bit of profit from everyone who doesn’t use MasterVisa - including competing game stores, or other markets.
