SteamOS: It's here

http://steamdb.info/blog/35/

by xPaw • 13 years ago

343 245 13 years ago

steamdb.info

huskyr• 13 years ago

A link explaining what SteamOS actually is might come in handy:

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

cshimmin• 13 years ago

Is this some kind of leak? steamdb.info is evidently not affiliated with Valve in any way...

nemof2• 13 years ago

nope this is entirely legit. Valve confirmed that when they shipped the 300 steam boxes today to beta testers they'd also push live Steam OS Beta. Check the github and steamstatic.com files.

evjan• 13 years ago

This doesn't mean that downloads from steamdb.info or steamstatic.com are legit. Tread carefully, I'll wait until there's a link from an official site.

Xeoncross• 13 years ago

Running on Debian 7.1 Wheezy, nice. Now I don't have to change operating systems.

sillysaurus26• 13 years ago

Does anyone know if this can be installed in VirtualBox? I'd like to try it, but I don't feel like setting up a new computer for it or dual booting.

voltagex_8• 13 years ago

I suspect so, it's based on Debian 7.1.

The main problem is they seem to have put it on a single server instead of the Steam CDN and now no one's able to download it

sillysaurus26• 13 years ago

If you use wget, the download'll resume automatically whenever it chokes:

  wget http://repo.steamstatic.com/download/SteamOSInstaller.zip

But it's choking every percent for me, so I doubt it'll finish.

jkrems• 13 years ago

They people to use the CDN link and not steamstatic: http://repo.steampowered.com/download/SteamOSInstaller.zip

tfgg• 13 years ago

Along these lines, does anyone know the best way to boot from the downloaded zip file in VirtualBox? I'm currently trying to convert the contents to a bootable .iso, but I'm not sure if that'll work.

jdjb3• 13 years ago

Use mkisofs to create an iso from the unzipped contents and use the iso like any other install media.

cwyers• 13 years ago

From the FAQ:

"NVIDIA graphics card (AMD and Intel graphics support coming soon)"

I believe VirtualBox emulates a graphics card, and not an NVIDIA one, so it may not run even on machines with an Nvidia card.

wtallis• 13 years ago

VirtualBox emulates a generic VESA adapter, with some extensions to pass OpenGL commands to the host (and includes a fork of Wine's Direct3D-on-OpenGL implementation to provide some degree of acceleration for Windows guests).

Using a real NVidia GPU from within a VM is possible, but not with VirtualBox, and not with most gaming systems (due to either having necessary hardware features disabled on overclockable Intel CPUs, or AMD systems lacking a second GPU for the host).

voltagex_8• 13 years ago

Sorry, invalid assumption - it's a zip made to be extracted to a FAT32 drive for UEFI install. This is difficult to do on VirtualBox.

sillysaurus26• 13 years ago

Well, shit. Is there any hope of virtualbox (or even vmware) support?

jdjb3• 13 years ago

I got it running under Virtualbox fairly easily. It's not that exciting, just Gnome 3 with a few extra desktop icons. You can choose to login to big picture mode directly from Gdm.

bluekitten2• 13 years ago

Do they allow us to install games outside of Steam or does everything have to go through the Steam store and their 30% cut?

quarterto• 13 years ago

God forbid a distribution platform be compensated! How dare they ask for money!

winslow2• 13 years ago

I don't believe that's the point she is making. Obviously the distributor should be compensated. I believe her point is will 3rd parties that are NOT green lit on steam still be downloadable similar to Android's install from unknown sources.

My initial thought would be they allow 3rd party / not affiliated with steam. They seem pretty open with everything about SteamOS and I would think it would only hurt their chances of adoption if they were to lock it down. Even if they do lock that down I'm sure someone would easily find a work around as it is Linux after all.

JetSpiegel• 13 years ago

The OS is based on Debian, according to [1] there is a GNOME desktop that you can use.

[1] http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1...

sleepydog• 13 years ago

Steam for windows allows you to launch non-steam games (or applications) from Steam by creating a shortcut(iirc you even get the steam overlay when you press shift+tab). I would be surprised if they removed this functionality from SteamOS.

killercup2• 13 years ago

Download seems to be awfully slow. A torrent for the installer would be nice.

killercup2• 13 years ago

  magnet:?xt=urn:btih:1e4dae83371ba704d5d89e1828068ef0c4151e32&dn=SteamOSInstaller.zip&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80%2Fannounce

mcgwiz• 13 years ago

Whoa, this comment ruins the page layout. If you can still edit it, can you throw two spaces in front of it? (That'll render it in a fixed-width <code> block.)

newman3142• 13 years ago

What I'm interested in is the streaming portion. Imagine a setup where a VMware server with a gaming VM streaming to a RaspberryPi in the family room or Mac.

sillysaurus26• 13 years ago

How much bandwidth would that require at 1080p with compression? Well, if we assume 16:1 compression ratio, that's 1920x1080x3/(16x1024) KB per frame, times 24 fps = 9.11MB per second. So a 73Mbit wifi connection would be required. Can the RPi push that?

30fps would require a 90MBit link.

tlarkworthy• 13 years ago

very unlikely

sjwright• 13 years ago

Or perhaps we could assume a 32:1 compression ratio on 720p content -- that's about 10 megabits per second. I don't know if the Pi could even do that with sufficiently low latency (the server's specs will probably be more important anyway) but if we're going to give a flea computer a task, at least make it vaguely feasible.

And when did wifi suddenly become a requirement?

And where did you get 24 fps for gaming?

noselasd• 13 years ago

netcat piping to /dev/null on an RPI saturates the 100Mbit NIC on my RPI but with over 70% cpu load, on my non-scientifc tests.

newman3142• 13 years ago

I wouldn't attempt wifi. My house is full GigE.

I haven't played much with the Pi as yet so no idea as to what kind of throughput is possible.

But regardless, I'm happy to use a beefier client if that is what is required. Noticed I said Pi or Mac. Maybe a Mini would be more suited to this.

Simucal• 13 years ago

Does anyone have a torrent link? The installer link is down for me.

Edit: Here is an unnoficial torrent magnet link: http://mgnet.me/foUDd

voltagex_8• 13 years ago

http://repo.steampowered.com/download/SteamOSInstaller.zip is the CDN link

voltagex_8• 13 years ago

Unverified sha1 - 1e4dae83371ba704d5d89e1828068ef0c4151e32 but it seems to match chunks from the HTTP source (using the torrent & HTTP source together)

supergauntlet3• 13 years ago

this torrent seems to give me the same as the official hash:

  magnet:?xt=urn:btih:1e4dae83371ba704d5d89e1828068ef0c4151e32&dn=SteamOSInstaller.zip&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80%2Fannounce

ehPReth• 13 years ago

SHA-512: http://repo.steampowered.com/download/SHA512SUMS

jamra7• 13 years ago

I have a huge problem with Steam in general. It's nothing against Valve and nothing against the games on Steam store, but hear me out.

Lets say you buy a game on the Steam store. Now lets say that game is so bug-ridden that you can't play it. It's so bad that you can't even run the game. You check online and it's such a big problem that the CTO has publicly apologized. You contact Steam support to ask for a refund. They tell you to forget it, so you contact the publisher. You explain that you have liked their games forever but this game is not playable. You want your money back. The publisher will tell you that you need to get a refund from the retailer you purchased the game from. It's out of their control because they don't have your money.

You contact Steam again, they tell you that they will issue no refund. You threaten to file a charge back from your credit card company. Steam says that they will disable further purchases from the Steam Store if you do so. They actually state that they will not let you purchase any more games from them if you protect yourself as any consumer should be allowed to.

Somehow, I just can't imagine doing business with them anymore.

smtddr• 13 years ago

>Lets say you buy a game on the Steam store .... >Somehow, I just can't imagine doing business with them anymore.

"Let's say"? Is this a hypothetical? If this didn't actually happen then what's the issue?

CJefferson• 13 years ago

This kind of thing has happened to several people. Steam used to disable your access to all your games if you did a charge back, so things have got a little better.

res0nat0r• 13 years ago

I've heard of this actually happening. I think it is to prevent people from buying games, playing them, then trying to file a chargeback so they play the game for free.

I guess the fine line from Valve is, there isn't really any way to differentiate people legitimately having problems vs. people trying to scam the system, so their default policy is if you file a chargeback your account is going to be suspended.

goostavos3• 13 years ago

I went through this. Spent a total of two weeks trying to get the game to work -- even went it and bought new hardware. I went out of my way to show record bench marking results. It's not my card, it's not my power supply, it's the buggy game.

2weeks of being jerked around by steam, doing every. Single. One. Of their suggestion AND logging that I did them. No result. The end result could be boiled down to "sucks for you. We don't give refund."

In the end, I ate the $60. I wasn't going to risk my entire game library over one game.

I must say though, the events certainly "raised my consciousness" to the fact that owning digital things is in a really crappy place right now. What other company do we allow the right to reach into our house and pull back things that we have rightfully purchased? It's really quite absurd.

jamra7• 13 years ago

Happened to me with Rome Total War II.

Ralfp• 13 years ago

Most recent case when big release flopped and guys behind it were apologising that I can remember is X: Rebirth from few weeks ago. Many people asked for refund but nobody got it.

analemma• 13 years ago

> "It's nothing against Valve..."

Not sure what you mean by this. Who are you complaining about, if not Valve? It's not as though "Steam Support" is an entity independent from them.

Angostura• 13 years ago

He's saying that he doesn't have a problem with Valve in general or in other regards, just with this specific policy.

kin• 13 years ago

When did something like this ever happen? Per Steam's policies, whenever a game like this exists (The War Z for example), Steam will pull it from their store.

Plus, with all the Steam sales how do you not want to do business with them? I have so many games from Steam that I just have but have yet to play.

Also, why would you buy a game without first reading reviews?

jamra7• 13 years ago

War Z is the only one I heard of. The game in question is Rome Total War II. It is from a more reputable publisher even though they apologized for the bugs and I waited for the first patch to solve this very well known issue.

dmart• 13 years ago

Okay? Sorry, but your personal Steam Support horror story doesn't really contribute to discussion of the Steam OS platform itself.

jamra7• 13 years ago

Yes it does. It's worth bringing up. If you go through the trouble of installing an OS whose existence is based on this policy, you should know if your rights as a consumer will be ignored.

Sheepshow• 13 years ago

Anecdotally, I bought Dark Souls not knowing it required a Microsoft game profile to save your game at all -- no local saves whatever. I wrote a (really bitchy) email to Steam and was promptly offered some sort of "special circumstance" refund.

Incidentally I didn't even follow through with it, though I never played the game even once...

dereferenced• 13 years ago

Just take the 5 minutes it takes to make an account and enjoy an awesome game. Use a fake email if you must.

pyrocat• 13 years ago

Uh, that's never happened to me, nor anyone I know. And Steam Quality Control is good enough that games that bug-ridden will very very rarely make it through.

dekken_• 13 years ago

You played Nether recently?

I haven't, that's how much it sucks.

I'm still hoping they pull it together but the last time I looked at it, it was atrocious.

Macha• 13 years ago

Crasher, WarZ, those are the two I can think of off hand.

Negitivefrags• 13 years ago

As someone who released a game on steam, they never checked it. We could have released a game that crashed on start up and they wouldn't have known before hand.

I'm not complaining. It's great for developers.

Nursie2• 13 years ago

Plants Vs Zombies.

If you have an account on a PC and an account on a Mac they will either destroy each other's cloud saves or refuse to start.

HoochTHX2• 13 years ago

Godus has those very issues.

starburst• 13 years ago

Let's not forget Day One: Garry's Incident, how can a game like this be allowed on the store is beyond me.

percentcer• 13 years ago

Haven't been able to get AntiChamber to launch without crashing

kmlymi• 13 years ago

Jagged Alliance Online.

The game was advertised as it works on OSX, but it doesn't work on Mavericks, and still has issues in other cat versions. Read here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/218450/discussions/0/846955554...

recursive• 13 years ago

I had that problem with Saints Row 2. It didn't run on my OS properly at all.

randartie• 13 years ago

It has happened to me. I purchased a game and the multiplayer was completely broken/bugged. Like most people, I thought Steam would refund me without much of a hassle. Turns out steam has a very strict NO REFUND policy. This came as a shock to me after hearing so many good stories about Steam. Note that this was a well documented bug in the steam forums for this game.

I used to feel very safe purchasing from steam, now I don't think it's very safe to purchase any sort of indie game.

samstave• 13 years ago

Then you have never tried to purchase linux games on Steam.

I have a modest library of games, and I have quite a few of these I bought for when I boot to Linux. Almost none of these games work.

While I have not sought a refund, or anything from Steam - it can be common to buy a game on steam and not be able to run it.

jdjb3• 13 years ago

Dungeon Defenders is fairly unplayable on desktop Linux due to this bug: https://bugzilla.icculus.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5831

This bug is easy to reproduce and they even know the issue (lack of physx support on the linux drivers) and even though there's a workaround (Android version doesn't have this issue) the devs still haven't fixed it. They could at the very least stop selling new copies to Linux users on Steam until this is fixed.

rodgerd• 13 years ago

You didn't buy Age of Empires II HD, obviously.

barbs• 13 years ago

The recent Ashes 2013 cricket game was so bug-ridden it was taken off Steam after less than a week. It looks like all refunds were handled by the publisher though:

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/12/02/ashes-cricket-2013-pulled-...

officemonkey3• 13 years ago

I've owned L.A. Noire for over a year and I've never been able to play it because of a rare and enduring "synchronizing bug." I've probably spent 16 hours researching, twiddling and reinstalling to try to get it to work.

The only good news is I got it on deep deep discount during last year's Christmas sale.

cmaggard• 13 years ago

I've had this happen with me- I preordered Leviathan: Warships, and upon launch was completely unable to access multiplayer through their buggy account system. The publisher acknowledged my issue but declined to answer further support requests. Valve issued credit to my account in exchange for removing my game from the library within hours of asking for it.

jamra7• 13 years ago

Preordered games somehow are cancelable. It's in the terms of service.

Brakenshire• 13 years ago

Seems like a valid complaint against Steam, but with not much to do with Steam OS. The whole point is that this OS is in some ways irreversibly open. No single company ever has the power to control the platform entirely- if Valve have bad policies, you at least have the option to install another marketplace.

jamra7• 13 years ago

In the screenshot on the github page, you are signing a terms of use. I guess I am wondering if it's even possible to install another store.

rch• 13 years ago

Get your credit card company on the phone. Explain the situation clearly and back up your claims. They may ask you to call the retailer with the credit card company representative listening in (you'll get instructions on what to do). How the conversion goes from that point could be very different from you working on your own.

mmuro• 13 years ago

Why would this be limited to Steam? I bought a game on the PSN Store that wasn't even playable. I asked for a refund and didn't get it.

As someone who sells a digital product, I completely understand the No Refund policy.

mililani• 13 years ago

Wow, this is why people pirate.

iends• 13 years ago

This is why I issue chargebacks.

jdlshore2• 13 years ago

Hmm, as someone who also sells a digital product, I have to disagree. I'm very generous with refunds. I figure a reputation for great customer service more than makes up for the small amount it costs me.

Sure, there's nothing, literally nothing, stopping someone from downloading my entire 40-hour+ back catalog, unsubscribing, and asking for a refund. They could also sign up for the free trial, download everything, and unsubscribe.

Or they could just pirate everything. And there's nothing I can do to stop it.

So who would I hurt by refusing to offer refunds: The freeloaders? Or the legitimate customers who gave my product a try and found that it didn't fit? Maybe I'm naïve, but I think that positive word-of-mouth a friendly and prompt refund will benefit me more in the long term.

I know that if I got a non-functional product and couldn't get a refund, I'd be livid. I'd execute a chargeback so fast their head would spin, and I would badmouth the company involved for months.

k-mcgrady3• 13 years ago

> "As someone who sells a digital product, I completely understand the No Refund policy."

I don't. There games are DRM'd and when I FINALLY got a 'refund' (best I could get was store credit) they disabled the game anyway so it's not like I could get my money back and still have the game.

erwanl• 13 years ago

On Google Play you can ask for a refund. The request gets forwarded to the developer who can accept to do the refund or not.

Steam could at least provide that.

benihana• 13 years ago

tl;dr: I had a bad experience once and now I don't like them.

shiven• 13 years ago

Nothing wrong with that now, no? My computer, my rules.

leoc• 13 years ago

I know one person who bought the wrong game on Steam by mistake: he couldn't get a refund but he was able to persuade Steam support to add the value of the purchase to his Steam wallet.

Nonetheless, this seems to be a good place to mention GOG's 30 day money back guarantee: http://www.gog.com/support/website_help/money_back_guarantee

Erk• 13 years ago

on origin you can get your money back 24 hours after you started it the first time

ansimionescu• 13 years ago

Just posting to confirm that this is indeed the case. Paid like £7 for an indie game that doesn't work on Mavericks and never even had a chance to open it.

r0s2• 13 years ago

This exact scenario happened to me with the second Penny Arcade game.

But I don't care. I'm disappointed, sure. On the other hand it's a generally very rare occurrence, mainly limited to indy titles, and it's very likely most games will get fixed and patched. The deployment of fixes is a major benefit to Steam in general.

If you think there's a retailer on earth who won't give you some edge case runaround in a similar way you're naive.

ekianjo2• 13 years ago

your post is really out of topic. Your comment has nothing to do about this news on steamos.

werid2• 13 years ago

If you chargeback any online service like this, they will cancel your account. Origin does the same.

free652• 13 years ago

X-Rebirth isn't? Yea, they refused a lot of refunds.

jebblue2• 13 years ago

I paid $49 for Unreal III, it still sits in my drawer unused and unopened. Why? Because Epic promised to have a Linux port soon after release like they did with UT 2004. That had been the 3rd game I bought from them. I've bought none from them since.

I have not had a single negative experience with Valve. I started with them on Windows years ago and when they came out with Steam for Linux last year I installed it and got all my games (that ran on Linux and more since that have been ported) in the same UI, better experience, faster, I have zero complaints with Valve and Steam.

Hansi• 13 years ago

The few instances those things have happened they've issued refunds....

Tomdarkness• 13 years ago

I think this depends where you live and your consumer protection laws. While I've never requested a refund I know several people in Europe who have had successful refunds.

zmb_• 13 years ago

I had a similar issue, except it was with their Steam client (on Mac). It started hanging and crashing on every launch. I sent them crash traces and tried to get help figuring out what was wrong. However, their customer support is one of the worst I've ever dealt with. I got no help at all, just a canned reply after canned reply that told me to follow the steps I had explicitly told them I had already followed.

After trying to get it to work for weeks, I finally told them that their product is faulty and they're not doing anything to fix it so I would like my money back. Of course they refused over and over. Since I only had a handful of cheap games bought at sales, I decided to write the whole thing off as a loss and uninstall it.

keypusher2• 13 years ago

I have a hard time believing this happened to you, as I have had interactions with Steam customer service for similar issues and they usually gave me credit. If you really think Steam's return policy is bad, let me know how Best Buy or Gamestop treats after you bought and played a game and want a refund.

k-mcgrady3• 13 years ago

I had almost the exact same thing happened. I bought Super Meat Boy for Mac. Checked the specs and I was above them. The game worked once or twice but then crashed every time I entered the level screen. I contact Steam who told me to contact the developer. The developer said that it was a problem on the latest version os OS X and wouldn't be fixed soon. They said I can get a refund but it has to come from Steam.

I actually showed Steam my email from them and still had to fight for it. In the end all they would give me was credit for the Steam store, they wouldn't refund me.

I thought this might have been a one-off (maybe I just got a bad customer service person) but apparently not. If I were a game developer I'd be pretty worried that the blame fell back on me for bad customer service like this.

pronoiac• 13 years ago

I had the same issue with Super Meat Boy on a Mac! I just checked, and it looks like there's been an update that fixed it, at least with 10.8.

robinduckett• 13 years ago

The problem is, that if you tried to take a PC game back for being faulty at a GAME/Gamestop brick and mortar shop, more often than not, they will only give you a replacement game of the same title. If it's faulty because of software bugs, probably the BEST you could get is store credit, and only after you've shouted at everyone for a while.

It is GAME's policy in the UK to NEVER refund/allow returns of PC games after they've been opened because of piracy, and quite frankly, is exactly the same reason Steam have their own similar policies in place.

If you don't like it, buy console games.

mike-cardwell2• 13 years ago

If GAME wont give you a refund, you issue a chargeback on your credit card to get your money back.

kalleboo2• 13 years ago

It is GAME's policy in the UK to NEVER refund/allow returns of PC games after they've been opened

Isn't that illegal under EU consumer protection laws?

Lazare• 13 years ago

If I go out to check the mail, there is a chance I may be hit by a bus. I still walk outside my door.

Purchasing from Steam has risks and benefits, just as purchasing from any other store does. You highlight one risk, and it is a real risk, but you don't really indicate why it outweighs everything else.

Let's assume that Steam games are generally 20% cheaper than boxed games from my local game store (actually, they're much cheaper than that, in this part of the world). Let's assume that one game in ten is a dud (actually, much less than that, in my experience). So we have two options:

Buy 10 games for X locally, get a refund on one game, ending with 9 good games for 0.9X.

Buy 10 games for 0.8X locally, get no refund, ending with 9 good games for 0.8X.

Obviously, option 2 is better. Same games, less money, even AFTER the refund. Plus I didn't have to go outside to be hit by a bus. :) (Plus, my local game store has a poor selection.) Your argument seems to be "hey, options 2 is so terrible I will never use Steam", but I don't see what's terrible about it; it sounds like a great deal to me. Plus, many brick and mortar stores will quibble over refunds; many will absolutely refuse to give a refund if the box has been opened. How is this better?

"Steam isn't perfect" isn't a good argument. "Steam isn't the best option" is a good argument, but you might struggle to make it. :)

jamesjguthrie• 13 years ago

The only thing that matters is that it's against the law to sell a broken product and not give any kind of refund. You can't say that because it may be relatively cheaper to buy from Steam that we as consumers should just metaphorically take it in the arse.

jessejmc• 13 years ago

This happened to me with Batman: Arkham Asylum. Not saying that the game was bug-ridden, but I couldn't get it to run on my computer.

I had previously spent thousands of dollars through Steam, and after they wouldn't refund a $5 sale, I quit buying games through them. I even mailed a letter to Gabe Newell at their corporate headquarters, and while this has worked successfully with other companies, I never received a reply.

I also won't buy games that require Steam activation, which sucks sometimes. Shadowrun Returns was one such game, but it looks like they now have it on GoG, so I have something to play this weekend.

I'd start doing business with them again for a $5 store credit and an apology, but I have little hope that will ever happen.

crusso• 13 years ago

Happened to me with one of the Mass Effect games I bought through Steam. Crashed on me too frequently to play. Never had any problems with any other game I'd ever purchased.

I told Steam about it. They said, "no refunds". It's not that I made some kind of vow to never use Steam again, but basically that was the disappointment that pushed me over to using my PS3 for all new games and I haven't bought another Steam game since. That was a few years ago.

PagingCraig• 13 years ago

"You contact Steam support to ask for a refund. They tell you to forget it, so you contact the publisher."

This has never happened to me. I've always gotten a refund.

ChikkaChiChi• 13 years ago

I was just issued a refund for a game I purchased several months ago because it's unplayable (Super Street Fighter IV).

This also isn't the first refund I've gotten? Are you all using the same support ticket system?

ensignavenger• 13 years ago

I heard that one guy had his steam account closed so he couldn't access or play any of the games he had bought after processing a chargeback! Small Claims court can be the consumers only friend in these situations.

leoedin• 13 years ago

Is this going to result in better video drivers for Linux feeding back into the open source community? That would be nice!

mey• 13 years ago

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

They have been working with various GPU vendors on better Linux drivers for at least a year if not more.

Valve also recently joined the Linux Foundation.

It appears they are working towards making the software in the ecosystem better.

clarry2• 13 years ago

What isn't clear to me from that post is whether they're giving something for the open source community, or for a part of the Linux community that runs proprietary drivers, distribution platforms, games, etcetra on top of some open source?

drill_sarge2• 13 years ago

It does not state on what drivers/other stuff they are contributing. It sounds they work together with the vendors to improve the proprietary drivers, I think. That would be zero benefit for GNU/Linux environment. Also current state of Steam OS is just a standard Debian with proprietary components added. And those components are what really matters in this field. I do not expect that Valve make their Steam Client open source, but at least not relying solely on closed stuff for the relevant parts. In the current state this doesn't improve anything or makes somehow the "ecosystem" better.

monokrome• 13 years ago

It already has.

stusmall• 13 years ago

I'm pretty excited to see, at least from the steam FAQ, this is going to be a pretty straight forward layer on top of Debian with some back ported changes. I've seen so many crazy rumors about completely custom audio stacks, replacements for X and who knows what else. This is assuming the vague mention of an "updated graphics stack" doesn't mean anything crazy...

bliker• 13 years ago

Can somebody post screenshots if they got it running? I am mostly interested in design. Their release announcements were amazing so I am curious what they pulled off.

keypusher2• 13 years ago

It basically looks like BigPicture.

if_by_whisky• 13 years ago

Any word on controllers yet?

lelf• 13 years ago

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1...

tiglionabbit• 13 years ago

It's based on Linux? What about all the games that require DirectX?

Raticide• 13 years ago

If it was based on Windows there'd be no point in having it.

moocowduckquack2• 13 years ago

presumably for many of them you can have a software wrapper that translates directx to opengl calls

anon42• 13 years ago

You'd have to be literally drunk to think that's a good idea.

cabbeer2• 13 years ago

SteamOS FAQ

    Please use http://repo.steampowered.com[2] for downloading

    repo.steampowered.com goes through the CDN and will spread the load. The steamstatic link people are passing around is not behind a CDN.

    http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/648814395787298909/[3]

For those using the unofficial torrent to download, can verify it with official MD5 or SHA512.

cabbeer2• 13 years ago

  magnet:?xt=urn:btih:1e4dae83371ba704d5d89e1828068ef0c4151e32&dn=SteamOSInstaller.zip&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80%2Fannounce

cespare• 13 years ago

This single comment really messes up the whole HN comments page by making it really wide. Someone should fix the CSS.

(By the way, you can fix your comment to not do that by putting it in a literal block by prefixing with 2+ spaces.)

fzltrp• 13 years ago

Is there a jigdo link? If they plan to do point releases they should go with that system, it saves quite a lot of bandwidth.

kylemaxwell• 13 years ago

I'd rather just go to the official site, myself.

http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

Anonymous329• 13 years ago

Agreed, although jump up one level.

http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/

Not sure why we're voting up an unofficial site that's just copying the info from the official page.

xPaw• 13 years ago

Our post was made BEFORE that page was live and any announcements by Valve were published.

STRiDEX• 13 years ago

Anyone know why the hard drive requirements are so large? Also they say 500gb and 1TB in different locations

"The image provided here requires at least a 1TB disk."

747facts• 13 years ago

The 1TB one is due to the way Clonezilla images work, it expects a drive with at least 1TB capacity to mirror the image back.

binaryatrocity• 13 years ago

The 1TB requirement is for the default install, if you use the custom Debian-based installer that isn't an issue.

WalterSear• 13 years ago

So now I need to set up bootcamp >four< different OSs?

/sigh

lotu2• 13 years ago

If you have linux installed already you can just install Steam an it will work.

SmileyKeith• 13 years ago

After install it didn't boot correctly on my Macbook Pro 7,1. Booted to grub but then black screen. Also note (as now stated in the official documentation) it wipes your hard drive for the initial install.

codygman• 13 years ago

Hopefully they make the backported eglibc .deb packages available. I'm betting they'll have an updated version of the graphics driver and possibly mesa too.

On Debian this has been a headache for me, so I'm hoping they'll make these things available :)

xur17• 13 years ago

Mirrors:

http://instockalerts.net/files/SteamOSInstaller.zip

http://firefly.epicconstructions.com/files/SteamOSInstaller....

qwerty_asdf2• 13 years ago

They should include optical disk instructions (ISO-to-bootable-DVD), given that USB sticks are such an obvious security hazard.

(...I realize it's trivial to create an ISO image for DVD burning, but gee it'd be nice if that was a readility available option)

e12e• 13 years ago

given that USB sticks are such an obvious security hazard

What? What's less secure about booting some random code you've downloaded from the internet from an usb stick vs booting it from a cd you've burned at home?

qwerty_asdf2• 13 years ago

If you burn a disk, it stays put. The disk will never be changed. Every time you use that burnt DVD, you get the same results, unless it gets scratched.

On the other hand, let's say you have a USB stick.

1. Download installer package.

2. Create bootable USB stick.

  ... maybe leave the stick plugged in, and surf the internet.

3. You boot, successfully install a clean system, then:

  ...leave the stick plugged in, and surf the internet.

  or 

  ...leave the stick unattended, and in the physical presence of an enemy.

4. Fall victim to malware which goes undetected:

  ...specially crafted malware corrupts the USB stick, and includes a malicious payload as part of the *NEXT* install.

  or

  ...someone builds an evil corrupted debian package and slips it into the installer, so that it piggybacks into the *NEXT* install.

5. Now, you have a corrupted installer spreading its hazards to every installation thereafter. You have no idea whether the installer's integrity has been compromised, because the USB stick remains writable.

With a DVD ISO, there is only one chance to attack, and it's during the download. This is easily mitigated if Valve tells us the exact size in bytes and what SHA-256 hash of the downloaded file is (over an SSL connection), so that we can verify the integrity of the download by matching hashes. If that matches, and we burn the disk, we know the disk remains secure and tamper resistant (more so than a USB stick), so long as it is not damaged or scratched or anything.

jebblue2• 13 years ago

> There is a desktop environment. Gnome.

I'm in! I'll give it a try in a VM for a while. That's how I ended up moving home machines from Windows to Ubuntu years ago.

Thanks Debian, Gnome and Valve!

EDIT: DISREGARD. "Keep in mind that we are not affiliated with Valve!"

I guess I skipped past that at the top.

lists• 13 years ago

Did GNOME just make it onto a lot of desktops all of a sudden?

venomsnake• 13 years ago

300 to be precise.

tadfisher• 13 years ago

I am drunk and this is good

Arelius• 13 years ago

Custom graphics compositor designed to provide a seamless transition between Steam, its games and the SteamOS system overlay

That is the exciting part to me. Anyone have any details? I'm about to go digging.

mike-cardwell2• 13 years ago

I was hoping that it would have a "streaming only" mode, with much lower hardware requirements. I have a decent spec gaming machine in the study, and a low spec HTPC in the living room that I was hoping I could just stick Steam OS on and stream from the study machine.

VexXtreme2• 13 years ago

Can anyone please explain to me how this is supposed to work with the majority of games out there that happen to be only for Windows? Short of a handful of indie games, what exactly are you supposed to play with this?

Many major AAA titles have performance issues on Windows these days, and that's with nVidia and AMD doing their best to optimize their drivers, so please don't try to convince me that you can run the latest Assassin's Creed through Wine or something.

iagooar• 13 years ago

It's a project that aims for the future, not the past. Or can you play PS3 games on a PS4?

VexXtreme2• 13 years ago

Ok, so it's a concept for a gaming OS that might become viable in the future, provided that developers decide to build for it.

I still feel like there's a ton of misadvertising and misleading in their ads, making it look like it's a full blown OS. Hence my question.

efraim• 13 years ago

They are working on streaming games from a windows pc to a steambox. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/homestream

drill_sarge2• 13 years ago

Debian with EULA? Hell no...

gionn• 13 years ago

2014, the year of Linux on desktop! (meh)

lucb1e• 13 years ago

(meh)

I don't get what you mean by that last part. Is it supposed to make your "2014 year of the gnu/linux desktop" remark sarcastic?

Sorry English is not my first language.

em3rgent0rdr• 13 years ago

installed SteamOS on my labtop. Essentially just Debian 7 Gnome (with special steam repository) plus Steam client and all necessary drivers (ie Nvidia) automatically installed. Easy automatic install...just extract SteamOS.zip to usb, boot usb with UEFI enabled, and will install to first disk (just make sure your first disk is unused, as the auto install will not prompt the user for anything). Went ahead and enabled all the debian repos (so can install any debian program, so can function as a desktop workstation or server). So now it is basically like I've had in the past with Debian 7 plus steam client. And of course only the steam linux games work, although you're one "sudo apt-get install wine" instruction away from running most windows programs...

SteamOS: It's here

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