Valve Rolls Out A Rare Update To SteamOS Brewmaster

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Valve Rolls Out A Rare Update To SteamOS Brewmaster

Valve at least is continuing to maintain the Debian-based SteamOS for the short-lived Steam Machines, but their updates are hardly exciting...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=SteamOS-Brewmaster-2.136

[Kemosabe]

Wondering what their mid/long term plans are. Feels like None.

[Guest]

Is there any way to find out what kernel versions, Mesa versions they're shipping? Does the version of GNOME they ship support starting with Wayland? Given that the work Keith's been doing for VR leasing is mostly for X server, it doesn't look like they have any intention of running on Wayland anytime soon.

[RealNC]

What a horrible system. It doesn't even run in a VM for development purposes. And it gives you such an outdated development toolchain that it's borderline useless. Ancient GCC, ancient libstdc++, ancient libs...

I had to bypass their SteamOS runtime completely for my executable to run.

[anarki2]

Wondering what their mid/long term plans are. Feels like None.

Wondering what they were smoking before to think they should have any other plan. A clear sign of just how big Newell's ego is to think they can change the Linux desktop landscape in a few years in a way none of the other big, way, way more experienced companies could in the past 25 years. The fact that a huge number of people actually believed their promises is also a great sign of just how out of touch a lot of Linux zealots are.

[Filiprino]

Well, they could not have an agreement with Ubuntu to use their packages in binary form. To use that software they have to compile it from the source of the packages. That would give a modern software stack. But it is more work.

On the other hand, they have entered Khronos ARB.

[M1kkko]

Wondering what they were smoking before to think they should have any other plan. A clear sign of just how big Newell's ego is to think they can change the Linux desktop landscape in a few years in a way none of the other big, way, way more experienced companies could in the past 25 years. The fact that a huge number of people actually believed their promises is also a great sign of just how out of touch a lot of Linux zealots are.

... what are you even doing on this website?

Also, Vulkan alone has changed quite a lot of the landscape.

[audi.rs4]

... what are you even doing on this website?

Also, Vulkan alone has changed quite a lot of the landscape.

Agreed. Steam on Linux I feel has changed everything. Sure, there are only a handful of games released with Linux support to ones created overall, but that is far better than what used to be. Going back before 2010, all I had to play on Linux semi current at the time was Prey and Quake 4. Then a few small indies like Osmos. Now, with Steam, we get games like Dirt Rally, Shadows of Mordor, Company of Heroes 2, Mad Max, PayDay 2 and F1 2017 brought to Linux. My library is now so large, I have trouble choosing what to play next, as I likely won't get to them all. Before, I could buy every game in Linux, and had to replay them as there just wan't anything new coming out.

[JPFSanders]

Wondering what they were smoking before to think they should have any other plan. A clear sign of just how big Newell's ego is to think they can change the Linux desktop landscape in a few years in a way none of the other big, way, way more experienced companies could in the past 25 years. The fact that a huge number of people actually believed their promises is also a great sign of just how out of touch a lot of Linux zealots are.

They have made possible that for the FOSS 3D stack to reach a level of maturity that we didn't even thought possible, they have made possible for many of us to ditch Windows for gaming, they have made Linux appear in the radar of many companies who didn't give a damn about Linux before.

Many bugs in the kernel and user libraries have been fixed thanks to their push.

They are spending money on hiring Linux developers to fix stuff, heck they are even paying for proper VR support to be available out of the box on Linux in an agnostic open form.

They are making the ecosystem better by bringing applications and games to the platform, something that the platform needs to break the chicken/egg situation.

No, they aren't going to solve KDE's overall shittiness, nor Gnome craziness, nor XFCE lack of developers, nor they are going to produce a magic console to displace the PS4 or the XBone, they're just laying down the foundations for a better Linux platform in case they need to use it to protect themselves from the monopoly.

And guess what? they are succeeding, whether you can appreciate it or not all these developments in 3D and VR they are bringing in, are making possible lots of industrial applications for Linux workstations.

I wouldn't say that they're taking the world by storm, but they are having a very positive impact.

[sarmad]

for the short-lived Steam Machines

I would argue it wasn't short lived, it actually never lived. Valve did not market them nor tried to push them in any way. Valve's strategy seemed to depend 100% on Linux enthusiasts to market the devices. Still, the push Valve gave to Linux gaming is massive.