I do realise this, but unless Valve have managed to convince all developers to ditch DirectX then it is a waste of time and effort. Developing for two api's will mean buggier ports and i really think if PC gaming was competing against itself it would really cause alot of harm. Not that I think this will be competing against Windows anyway, it sounds more like an Ouya alternative. Speaking of Windows, ignoring the added cost and closed nature of the OS, surely Windows 8 is a better choice for a large TV, controller friendly Steam console than Linux?

You forget that Steam already has big picture mode. It works in Linux too and is controller friendly. It is comparable experience to PS3 for example already. All they need to add is media (video & photo) support and it's basically the same. http://abload.de/img/steam2013-09-1821-29-gwk1c.jpg

with multithreaded programming on linux.... an opportunity for valve to go for a quasi - winning bet.....(stack tracing)....

Sorry was on my phone should of been more specific. My point not about Steam but the rest of the operating system not being particularly user friendly for someone to use 6-8ft away with a controller. Windows is already heading in that direction, and has a backcatalog of at least 2000 games just on Steam, it's crazy to think you can just start PC gaming again from scratch. This would have to be running a heavily modified version of Linux by Valve, something livingroom and "noob" friendly. Does that mean it would also be heavily restricted, or would it be free for the user to tinker and for many users likely break. Gabe Newell keeps talking about open and innovative, but what innovations would Steam on Linux bring us that Microsoft would restrict? I just don't get it, or what he thinks the target market is for this. High end gamers will hate this as it will make low/mid spec stuff even more mass market. Hardcore gamers will hate and worry what "controller friendly" will do for mouse/kb controls. Casual gamers will be put off by the lack of games, as will both of the above. This comment especially makes me laugh; ""None of the propriety closed platforms are going to be able to provide that grand unification between mobile, the living room, and the desktop," Newell said." Isn't that what Windows 8 got slaughtered for trying, and do many PC gamers actually want such a thing? This is nothing more than a Newell ego trip. Claiming everyone else in PC land is dying while they are seeing 76% sales rises is just so arrogant, especially when the reason for those rises is that they have just about monopolised the digital gaming market.

I'd love to see games work on Linux .Was dreaming about this years ago. But honestly I can't see how this is going to happen. They need AAA titles to work on Linux.Let's hope Gabe has got something magical in his hat..

with things like wine (as an exemple) you can run windows game fine on your favorite distro... more and more game work nicely btw

Let's face it. Win8 is the nicest OS ever made. Especially 8.1. I realize it's a business with a profit motive/responsibility to shareholders but I think MS should : a/ Charge $20 per copy (not $120) b/ Re-install their openGL DLLs as standard. Those things worked so well back in the day. Windows won the battle of OS's in the 80s because anyone could write free software for it and publish. I remember the walled gardens of everyone else. Young kids hated walled gardens then and are now gravitating towards unix as a result. But games is what holds everything back.

windows 8.1 solve most of the interface that fail in 8 but windows isn't the nicest OS (last nice M$ OS was 7), it is just the one in trust position. when you buy a PC you have Windows whenever you want it or not, and even on some system you cannot install another OS ("for your own security" as said in the bootscreen of this **** PC). and windows doesn't win because you could write for free (it wasn't), but because it was easy to write... remember how was C before M$ C, and how hard it was to found lib that fit your need. but if W win in the 80 it was mostly due to the quality of Bill Gate (Ok the leak of some version too lol).

lol Im not new to the linux thing but... install ubuntu yesterday and installed steam. which I installed 64bit ubuntu and steam wouldnt run because it was missing 32bit librarys. so almost hour later because it was using slow mirrors to download. I was able to get steam running, only to find out only 10 of my 300 on linux. it more work to get steam running on linux then windows

lot of game doesn't work fine without them, but there is always a way to make game run on a 64 Linux... as painfull that those who need Fmod to run lol (linux isn't perfect either 🙂 )