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Boots up gaming PC
Windows: "YOU IN DANGER ZONE! NEED WINDOWS 11! BUY NEW PC U SCRUB!!!111"
Load up Steam
Steam: "Hey, I see MS are being assholes - click here to install SteamOS instead"
Reboot PC
Millions of people never run windows again
I'm dreaming but that would be amazing. That would make this the year of the Linux desktop. C'mon GabeN, make it happen!
Things which are holding this back
What we know so far, SteamOS won't be a general purpose OS, so it might not support every random piece of h/w.
We might not have the year of the Linux Desktop, but we can expect 2025-2026 to be the year of the Linux handheld.
SRC: Linux fanboy for the last decade
Choice paralysis is a surprisingly big issue.
I'm waiting for the parts for my new gaming PC build to arrive, and the amount of time I've spent choosing a distro has been asinine.
But I did make the choice to leave both the NVIDIA and Windows eco systems on my desktop after seeing most my games run fine on the steam deck ( along with disliking windows 11, and NVIDIA ending gamestream support)
Distro doesn’t really matter too much. Just don’t get some obscure distro that no one has heard of before.
Plus it’s pretty common for newbies to jump around to test out different distros anyway.
Most of the time, the differences you will see are just desktop environment.
After you have used Linux for some time, then you will understand the major differences between the distros other than the way they look.
If you have any questions about Linux feel free to send me a DM. I’m always happy to help.
Does anybody remember Wubi? It was Linux that was installed on Windows just like a regular program. Gave you an option to choose Linux on boot. It didn't make any partitions, and if you didn't want it anymore? Then you'd go to Windows and uninstall like any other program. It had a few limitations but was an interesting concept.
Of course! It's what got me started!
I love it as a concept, and frankly a dual boot installer (create partitions) that worked from Windows would be pretty useful I think. USB/disk installs add complexity that just hurt the chances.
Yeah, I remember Wubi! That was 20-ish years ago now. It kind of got made irrelevant by VM's I guess. I wonder if it's still around.
VMs are still slow unless you're talking linux on linux with KVM
Wubi was great because you got native speed to test Linux with, which was probably better than Windows for at least most versions of Windows.
That would be a massive headache because you'd have to make it work on any hardware. And if you bork your users' PCs you're in for a really bad time. It would be much better to come up with a new Steam machine.
i mean… any hardware is kinda just a matter of time imo
linux already works with more hardware than windows does, and often more reliably - not some of the complex stuff required for gaming of course, but again… matter of time. it’s not important until it’s important and then it really kicks off
Microsoft recently announced a handheld for Xbox. They’re going to half ass this they way they did with windows phone.
If it ran SteamOS, I'd have died laughing.
They are always late to the party and they have an image problem
And they haven't managed to come up with a decent product in decades.
I like some of their developer products that said... Wtf is with their marketing department? I'm a techy and play some games but if someone asked me to buy them a Xbox I honestly don't know which one is best... Xbox one series S? I think??
Now atleast on Playstation I know it's ps5 as it's the biggest number.
You want Nintendo... Switch as it's a different enough name to make it stick.
Imagine going to but a truck... Do you want a Ford f150, a Ford f150 series x or a ford f150 series s? Now keep in mind a Ford f150 can't go on any roads built in last 5 years and if you pick the wrong series letter your speed is capped at 30mph....
Don't get me started on visual studio vs visual studio code....
I mean this is basically ford. What is XL XLT and LARIAT even mean for example.
To be fair, cars do kind of have that problem. Nissan has cars like the Altima S, SL, SV, SR. We can assume the S is the base model, but what the hell do the rest mean.
but if someone asked me to buy them a Xbox I honestly don’t know which one is best… Xbox one series S? I think??
Aaaand they've already failed. Series S is barely better than the previous gen, it's Series X that you want.
The only real benefit of having an xbox is that you cross-own the games with PC. BUT you're restricted to the Windows Store versions, so you can't play on Linux, so for me at least the benefit immediately washes away, as I no longer use Windows. Oh well, I'll just buy my games on Steam and sure, SOME of them will be Microsoft games, but only titles in the like 2 or 3 franchises I care about, Forza and... Oh wait, it's not like the next TES game is ever going to come out. So it's just Forza.
Ps5 has the same problem. Is it the latest more powerful version? Can it take discs?
Yeah, I don't think Microsoft has ever understood or cared how much pc gaming has added value to windows.
Which makes the strategic defeat here of failing to understand they are fucked longterm all the more satisfying.
Microsoft understood in the 90s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2V9TFrmQ_Q
St. John recognized the resistances for game development under Windows would be a limitation, and recruited two additional engineers, Craig Eisler and Eric Engstrom, to develop a better solution to get more programmers to develop games for Windows. The project was codenamed the Manhattan Project, like the World War II project of the same name, and the idea was to displace the Japanese-developed video game consoles with personal computers running Microsoft's operating system.
To get more developers on board DirectX, Microsoft approached id Software's John Carmack and offered to port Doom and Doom 2 from MS-DOS to DirectX, free of charge, with id retaining all publishing rights to the game. Carmack agreed, and Microsoft's Gabe Newell led the porting project. The first game was released as Doom 95 in August 1996, the first published DirectX game. Microsoft promoted the game heavily with Bill Gates appearing in ads for the title.
I know it's correct but reading "Microsoft's Gabe Newell" actually made my eye twitch.
It's kind of wild how much Microsoft failed to capitalize on PC gaming over the last 20 years. Arguably PC Gaming has thrived in spite of them, not because of them.
Valve was smart to understand how Microsoft could threaten their business model but it barely mattered considering how many rakes Microsoft stepped on over the years. Don't even get me started on Games For Windows Live.
It doesn’t make them money. Most of Microsoft is focused on business, enterprise, add AI. Everything edge is just part lip service.
"Microsoft's Gabe Newell"
Lol
He left Microsoft almost immediately after Doom 95 was released specifically because he didn't like the direction Microsoft was going.
Unrelated tidbit gleaned from reading the entry:
the name "DirectX" came from one journalist that had mocked the naming scheme of the various libraries. The team opted to continue to use that naming scheme and call the project DirectX.
I hope that SteamOS finds more of its way into desktop computers. Sure, I don't trust Valve; just like I don't trust any other corporation. But it's like fighting a big cancer with a smaller meta-cancer, if they hurt Windows/Microsoft I'm happy.
Plus its current relationship with GNU/Linux is symbiotic.