[Onkel Neal]

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


http://www.pcworld.com/article/30048...-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.