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Valve Releases New SteamOS Beta With Updated Drivers
To be honest, is there really any point to SteamOS over any Linux distro with Steam anymore?. I really can't see one unless you are buying a pre-built Steam Box which I seriously doubt many will do considering the price and minimal entertainment value. We Linux users get so much news about new things coming that turn out to be over-hyped bologna. You get more from your Linux distro with Steam.
The point was never to get you to switch from PC.. that would be bad for Valve. The point is to get console players to switch to PC (since consoles are essentially just limited PCs now anyways). All Valve is doing is moving Steam to Linux so they can create a free-to-distribute Steam Client which OEMs can use to move physical units. They're just the first company to attempt Android's successful marketing strategy with consoles and PCs.
I think it's excellent that it's "just another [debian] distro". That means and Linux PC is essentially a Steam Machines "DevKit". And I hope they keep the Desktop mode too. It's disabled by default, so you wont accidentally end up in Linux Land, but it's available to you if want to set your box on a desk and use it as a PC. Don't need to be tech-savvy to enable it either, which is great for kids, students, and developers alike. Though it wouldn't be the biggest deal if it disappeared in the future.
Ultimately there's a lot more involved to success or failure of the Steam Machine, but it's business model looks pretty solid from here. If there's one "change" to appreciate in any corporation, it's embracing open-source in a way that benefits the larger community. So so far, i'm loving Valve's decisions.
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