Steamlink

[Onkel Neal]

http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/16/valves-steam-link-lets-you-play-your-steam-library-games-on-any-tv-in-the-house/

Nice, this allows you to play pc games on your tv

[Onkel Neal]

Microsoft's New Xbox One Experience missed a crucial chance to kill Steam Machines


http://www.pcworld.com/article/3004873/software-games/microsofts-new-xbox-one-experience-missed-a-crucial-chance-to-kill-steam-machines.html

Windows is under assault like it’s never been before, and Microsoft just missed a crucial chance to use its sweeping Windows 10-powered New Xbox One Experience update to cut a powerful new competitor off at the knees.

From the rise of mobile technology to the tremendous slowing of PC performance increases to Apple’s Mac surge, Windows has been looking wobbly for five years or more. What’s worse (for Microsoft), the titanic mistake dubbed Windows 8 sparked a mutiny of sorts inside the PC industry itself, inspiring Valve—the company behind Steam—and over a dozen PC makers to gamble on Steam Machines: radically small PCs, powered by the Linux-based SteamOS, designed both to usurp Windows’ iron-fisted control over PC gaming and to drag PC gaming into the living room.

After a long delay, the first wave of Steam Machines launched this week, alongside Valve’s radical Steam Controller and Steam Link. Make no mistake about it: The appearance of a gaming-focused, Linux-based threat to Windows, backed by the largest and most beloved company in PC gaming, is nothing short of a major threat for Windows. We found our initial week in a Steam-powered living room nothing short of intoxicating.

[AVGWarhawk]

I see these Steam machines for sale when I sign into Steam. I did not pay much attention to them. I kind of checked it off as another Playstation/Xbox deal.

[Rockin Robbins]

Competition is good. I'll never have a console. PC games are just too much better and shooting with a joystick is just torture when mouse shooting is such a natural thing.

I don't think Microsoft had the chance to cut the Steam Box off at the knees because of all the ill-will it generated with Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. Their old pattern of every other version of Windows being an absolute home run is very broken and users just aren't feeling the love.

Still seems like the Steam Box is overpriced by $100, but I wish it well. It will represent a very important infusion of commercialization into the Linux universe.

Expect the Linux old guard to fight it like it's the Antichrist. But their resistance to all forms of commercially produced closed source software is what has kept Linux from assuming its rightful place as the legitimate third point of the Microsoft/Apple/Linux triangle.

So I wish Steam well. I'll buy their Linux version games to support their efforts. Just as games have been responsible for the capability of PC hardware and Windows itself, games will invigorate Linux.