Valve Releases Debian-Based SteamOS Beta 211
An anonymous reader writes that, as promised, "Valve has put out their first SteamOS Linux operating system beta. SteamOS 1.0 'Alchemist' Beta is forked from Debian Wheezy and features its own graphics compositor along with other changes. Right now SteamOS 1.0 is only compatible with NVIDIA graphics cards and uses NVIDIA's closed-source Linux driver. SteamOS can be downloaded from here, but the server seems to be offline under the pressure."
TORRENTS! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why nVidia only? (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't it specifically designed for a specific system that specifies a specific model of nVidia graphics controller?
Re: Why nVidia only? (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems like since this is only in beta, its a little early to start making the accusations that they wont support ati. Wait till they actually release the full version.
Re:Graphics Cards (Score:0, Insightful)
fuck their pos drivers. they make nvidia's look like perfection (even though they're not) by comparison. On windows they're bad enough, but on linux? holy fuck are they fucked.
Re:Debian! (Score:5, Insightful)
Debian is now the "distro franca" of Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Although Debian is not one of my desktop distros (which are Gentoo and NixOS), I recognize that it has become the most reliable and best supported distro with the largest community and the most respected pedigree. It's also the most common base or parent for other distros like Ubuntu, so clearly it has the largest slice of the pie. And here's a little secret that is no secret: it just works.
I use it occasionally on little ARM boards like the awesome BeagleBone Black, where you have to overwrite the pile of junk Angstrom distro that comes on the board out of the box. Debian is totally painless and just works in that role. If you need a replacement distro that you can depend on, Debian never disappoints.
It's the "distro franca" of Linux, the GOTO choice for those who don't like pain.
Re:The "only compatible with NVIDIA graphics cards (Score:5, Insightful)
They probably don't want to hear any square pegs complaining that they only get 2 fps out of the AMD drivers.
Re:Graphics Cards (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a very early release. I'm not surprised they decided to limit it to just one set of drivers, and Nvidia's drivers, while not that great in an absolute sense, are in a much better state than AMD's (and Intel's hardware just isn't sufficient for gaming).
I really do hope they get support in soon, though I suppose that depends more on AMD than on Valve. I'm not particular to either vendor - both Kepler and GCN are pretty good hardware, and they're each doing some very interesting things in the software side.
Re:Why nVidia only? (Score:5, Insightful)
No.
Re:UEFI Booting is Required (Score:3, Insightful)
Welcome to Slashdot, a division of Dice tolling media. You must be new here, otherwise you would know factual relevance has little to do with moderation.
Re:Why nVidia only? (Score:5, Insightful)
You are screwing a large group of people
That large group of people are the ones at fault here.
AMD/ATI has never attempted to even approach NVidia's commitment to make hardware run well with Linux. Yet you people keep buying their hardware. The small cost savings of AMD has always been enough to get even regular Linux desktop users to buy their stuff despite their chronic indifference to anything other than Windows.
The best thing that could possibly happen at this point is for gamers to ignore people like you and buy Steambox compatible hardware, meaning not AMD, in large quantities. Then, maybe, at long last, at least fifteen years too late, that fucking company will finally step up and deal with the problem.
Linus not withstanding, NVidia has provided me with up-to-date, stable, performant Linux drivers for their hardware without fail for almost twenty years. Recently, NVidia has invested even more effort and collaborated with Valve to capture the Steambox platform. If this Debian based, open gaming platform succeeds we all have NVidia to thank. NVidia has EARNED this outcome, and people like you, with your sad-sack AMD crap need to reconsider your behavior.
But you won't. Nope. Instead, you'll download Steambox and try to run it on your Windows-only video hardware, watch it catch on fire and the bitch up a fucking storm all over the Internets about how Steambox is a giant POS.
If Steambox succeeds it will have to be despite you god damned AMD buyers, as always.
Re:Debian! (Score:5, Insightful)
For a console system, you need sprites, high-speed polygon placement, built-in shaders and deadline-based updates (it has to be damn smooth, if it's going to compete with the alternatives).
What you do not need are windows (beyond picture-in-picture), client-server overheads (consoles aren't likely to be connected to X terminals in a different room, city or country, unless you're using a VERY big monitor), memory overheads from components never used in this context, or support for multiple users with one or more displays each on a single console.
Now, I haven't inspected the code yet, so can't say how far they've gone. Nor do I know if anyone still works on KGI or GGI, although those would be far closer to console requirements than X.
(Hey, I love X, I actually have made a lot of use of redirecting screens several hundred miles for diagnostic purposes, I think there is a lot of life in the system yet, but vanilla X is totally wrong for consoles and even modded X won't give the experience console addicts crave.)
Besides, Valve isn't a desktop flavour. If you want a desktop flavour, one that wows desktop users (just as the desktop market starts dying horribly, it's anguished cry half-drowned in the blood and tabletness flowing forth like a monstrous, misshapen river) then you need to make one.
Re:Debian has ALWAYS been the top distro. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Graphics Cards (Score:3, Insightful)
Which nobody sane actually cares about. Graphics drivers are about performance and features, not the legal state of the code of the fucking driver.