STEAM OS is coming!

Sounds pretty cool. I've been hearing a lot about this steam os and I hope it's as awesome as I am expecting it to be. I wont be able to afford the SteamBox or whatever they're calling it, so this will have to do. 

 
Sounds cool, I will have to partition it somehow since I already use my Win 8 machine in the living room.  All I really use it for is gaming and watching stuff anyway.

 
Yeah, I had a failed attempt at going pure linux (Ubuntu) a few months back as the applications that I use are almost all freeware anyhow and most have either linux versions or feature-parity equivalents. I spent a few hours trying to get Guild Wars 2 to run under WINE and eventually realized that the launcher hates Unity, threw my hands-up, put Windows 8.1 back on and then proceeded to not play Guild Wars 2 anyhow. :wall: (it only ran at like 8fps with MATE installed so that put the nail in that coffin)

I'm going to give it another go with SteamOS though as I've already seen the installer screens which indicate that there is an easily accessible 'Linux Desktop' so after that it's just a matter of forcing myself to only purchase games with native linux support from here on out. (a lot of the indie stuff I mostly play already supports linux so there's that)

It's gonna be tough but I'd at least like to give it an honest shot this time of say 3 months without anything Windows/WINE. Native linux or you're off my wishlist kinda thing.

edit: Getting close. There's now a SteamOS directory in the apt repo. http://repo.steamstatic.com/

edit2: There's now a download folder with this file: http://repo.steamstatic.com/download/SteamOSInstaller.zip

(960mbs...this looks like it folks)

edit3: http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/beta/ now takes you to the storefront instead of a 404 so the proper page should be up any minute now.

edit4: Be sure to use a download manager as the speeds are all over the place with server errors and drops etc.

Code: 
Origin: Valve Software LLC
Label: SteamOS
Suite: testing
Codename: alchemist_beta
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2013 20:04:32 UTC
Architectures: i386 amd64
Components: main contrib non-free
Description: Beta build of SteamOS 1.0 distribution based on Debian 7.1 Wheezy
Click to expand...
 
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No AMD support, requires UEFI, and it needs at least 500gigs of free space...nevermind then. :cry: (have everything but UEFI)

 
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@FellOpenIan - Yeah, I went full in on Linux with Linux Mint 15. I had 13 but I was still in and out with Windows XP SP 3. I never liked Windows 7. Windows 8 is every further away from the OS experience I want.

So far I am loving my experience in Linux. I did have trouble with older ATI cards but I switch in some Nvidia cards have I have yet to look back.

Most of the stuff that I use to do in command line now has a button or menu item in Linux Mint 15 and 16. So far it's been groovy and great.

Dwarfs!! is about the only game that give trouble but this is a known issue and I don't care for the game at all.

I do not mess with WINE. I stick to native games and/or STEAM, Desura or IndieGameStand direct games.

Once I tweak the OS and fine tune everything - I just want the game to run. WINE is too much for me.

 
Well in some good news it looks like there's already an effort to get things over to git so that it'll be easier to build and with that people will be able to include a proper installer and remove all of the silly requirements as well as add in support for AMD.

This initial release looks to me like a very quickly slapped together compliment to their main release which is that recovery image that's meant for those Steam Machine test units that they sent out.

 
I'm tempted to use it but 500gb and clearing my drive doesn't sound inticing for a beta

I would like to run this and windows 8 til I feel comfortable with Linux
 
district_9000 said:
I'm tempted to use it but 500gb and clearing my drive doesn't sound inticing for a beta

I would like to run this and windows 8 til I feel comfortable with Linux
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Check out Linux Mint 16 on a liveCD or liveUSB - Don't install it - Just use it for a bit - Game on it and then see how it feels for ya. I installed the STEAMOS and it's fascinating but no where near the level in which I can enjoy it but I feel the potential in it.

 
Figured I'd post a couple of tips and tricks now that I've installed SteamOS successfully on several setups including dual booting:

http://www.reddit.com/r/SteamOS/comments/1sww9o/download_nonuefi_bootable_iso_with_manual/

That is a magnet link to an ISO which removes the UEFI requirement and also prompts you to manually setup the partitions. I'd recommend just burning it to a DVD (RW) as using UNetbootin completely screwed up the automation and it then couldn't find the kernel or ethernet drivers or even properly setup the manual partitions. I'm not sure about Universal USB but burning to a disc definitely maintains the proper config.

Once installed you can start following the FAQ instructions with some small tweaks:

After installation is complete, log onto the resulting system (using the Gnome session) with the predefined "steam" account. The password is "steam". Run steam, accept the EULA, and let it bootstrap. Logoff the steam account
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I recommend opening a terminal and typing in 'steam' for this as I've had the shortcuts fail several times. Once you agree to the EULA let the Steam client fully install, then login to your account, and don't logoff until you are looking at your library. (you are basically going to be using two linux accounts at once so you want that bootstrap to finish)

From a terminal window, run ~/post_logon.sh. This will prompt for a password - enter "desktop". This script will perform the post-install customizations, delete itself, then reboot into the recovery partition capture utility.
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Once it reboots here it will fail to boot into the recovery partition if you manually setup the partitions because well there is no recovery partition...perfectly normal. Just reboot and it should now select the top option in grub which is SteamOS.

https://github.com/valvesoftware/steamos/issues/12#issuecomment-30569193

That comment shows you how to configure sound for a non-HDMI setup. It will setup pulse for a traditional desktop sound setup thus allowing your PC speakers to work in both Steam Big Picture Mode and in SteamOS desktop mode.

That's about it for show-stoppers at least for me...I hope that it helped. :twoguns:

 
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Now that I've spent more time with SteamOS, I'm wondering why they went with a Debian base rather than an Ubuntu one: At first blush you'd think that they'd want to cut-out the middleman and just build upon Debian since Ubuntu does the same but then why use Gnome 3 for the default desktop environment if you are trying to save resources over, say, Unity? It's the same damn shit really.

I dunno...it's still very beta and the optimizations are there but minimal so I'm just kinda wondering why Valve wouldn't go with Ubuntu over Debian for the amount of benefits which Ubuntu offers over Debian for migrating Windows/Mac users. (assuming that the performance is nearly the same which it currently is)

 
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FellOpenIan said:
Now that I've spent more time with SteamOS, I'm wondering why they went with a Debian base rather than an Ubuntu one: At first blush you'd think that they'd want to cut-out the middleman and just build upon Debian since Ubuntu does the same but then why use Gnome 3 for the default desktop environment if you are trying to save resources over, say, Unity? It's the same damn shit really.

I dunno...it's still very beta and the optimizations are there but minimal so I'm just kinda wondering why Valve wouldn't go with Ubuntu over Debian for the amount of benefits which Ubuntu offers over Debian for migrating Windows/Mac users. (assuming that the performance is nearly the same which it currently is)
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Valve like many people are probably worried about what the hell Canonical is going to with Ubuntu. No one knows the future of Ubuntu, and Valve might of had to partner with Canonical instead of just modifying Debian.

 
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