Valve's SteamOS Compositor Has Begun Seeing Some Activity Recently

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Valve's SteamOS Compositor Has Begun Seeing Some Activity Recently

SteamOS Brewmaster hasn't seen any updates in a while (SteamOS 2.195 came out this summer with minor updates) though recently Valve's SteamOS Compositor GitHub repository did see some activity igniting hopes we could see a new release still this year... Well, it would be really great seeing a release re-based to Debian 10 "Buster" but any activity would be welcome even just pulling in all of their Linux graphics driver infrastructure updates they've funded in recent times...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=SteamOS-Compositor-2019

[ElectricPrism]

Great news, so glad to see SteamOS updates boiling.

Especially amongst reports like this:

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/218105/microsoft-announces-windows-10x-for-dual-screen-and-folding-devices

That’s not the only difference, though. Windows 10X is a stripped-down version of Windows 10, meaning it’s built to run modern applications instead of the classic Win32 apps.

It's basically Windows 10S resurrected with a goal of making things Windows Store centric as the singular software distribution point.

I can only imagine they have masked their aggressive intents to proceed at some future date to disable all 3rd party content distribution apps like that had been planning previously.

[kaprikawn]

...It's basically Windows 10S resurrected with a goal of making things Windows Store centric as the singular software distribution point.

The Windows Store is a failure, and will continue to be so. They don't have the developers, nobody is putting their stuff on it. You can't even find the most basic apps you'd expect.

[Jabberwocky]

Many people will be looking for new operating systems when Windows 7 extended support gets dropped in ~3 months (January 2020). I hope this "new activity" will get the attention of users coming from Windows 7.

[FireBurn]

Would love to see them switch to Clear Linux, it seems to run the fastest these days - even on AMD systems

[kaprikawn]

Would love to see them switch to Clear Linux, it seems to run the fastest these days - even on AMD systems

Speed isn't the only consideration. Debian being the current base should give you an idea of what they're prioritizing i.e. stability, reliability etc.

[sabian2008]

Great news, so glad to see SteamOS updates boiling.

Especially amongst reports like this:

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/218105/microsoft-announces-windows-10x-for-dual-screen-and-folding-devices

It's basically Windows 10S resurrected with a goal of making things Windows Store centric as the singular software distribution point.

I can only imagine they have masked their aggressive intents to proceed at some future date to disable all 3rd party content distribution apps like that had been planning previously.

Can't see linked article because it's paywalled, but I think that the "instead of the classic Win32 apps" bit has nothing to do with distribution nor packaging. I think it might as well be a new target with only modern APIs and a kernel that cuts ties with a heap lot of legacy stuff whose only purpose is to retain Win32 compatibility.

[schmidtbag]

Would love to see them switch to Clear Linux, it seems to run the fastest these days - even on AMD systems

Honestly... not a bad idea. Normally I'd advise against the general public being exposed to Clear, since it's got an "unorthodox" approach to handling software and updates, but, SteamOS is really just meant to play games; Clear's quirks can be easily masked.
I guess the only problem is how Steam provides a lot of its own libraries, which might either interfere with Clear's or obsolete the benefits. Of course, Valve could do something about that, so that doesn't happen anymore.

[9Strike]

Honestly SteamOS is a joke. Who would still run Debian 9? They should do a Debian testing based Distro or do an Ubuntu fork of the latest version.

[SyXbiT]

Honestly SteamOS is a joke. Who would still run Debian 9? They should do a Debian testing based Distro or do an Ubuntu fork of the latest version.

That's ridiculous. SteamOS came out years ago. It was originally Debian 7 and is now at 9. Sure, Valve could be faster at upgrading, but there's a lot of testing required across drivers and graphics cards to ensure nothing breaks.