SteamOS will be available to download tomorrow

The first release of SteamOS will be available to download from tomorrow, December 13, Valve has announced.

[twdll]

Can I just download it on to my 2nd HDD and just boot from there or are there certain requirements that you must have?

[wtopez]

Apparently there's no crazy requirements. You can do the install and just press F12 (or whatever key loads the boot option in your system) when starting your PC to choose where to boot from. I might give it a shot but my Linux skills are not so good. Frankly they're terrible, but it seems like a good way to learn, no?

[Fishy Fingers]

Do you need any previous Linux experience? I doubt you will. Plus, expect there will be no shortage of guides on YouTube 12 hours after the download goes live.

[SkullBlade169]

@Fishy Fingers

Unless something goes horribly wrong which causes you to be dropped in to a command line which would either require you to fix something or reinstall SteamOS, I can't see this being the case.

Basically: If it works, then no I don't think you will need any previous Linux experience.

[ZodTheRipper]

This will be my OS on my new PC. Don't know whether I'll try it on my current one just 4 fun ...I'll probably wait a few days/weeks to see whether it has/causes any problems. New software can't be trusted these days even if it's steam.

[UltimateMaster]

It needs to be able to play the PC games as well, and not limited to what Linux has with it's limited library.
If it has the full Steam library of games, then you can bet they've got a success.

[andyboy13]

@UltimateMaster

The biggest draw for me is the game streaming option. I could see installing steam OS on my laptop and leaving windows on the gaming pc. That way I can just boot up the laptop on a light weight OS and essentially stream a video. That could make for some great battery life!

[Ghoul]

they clearly said that "However, the developer doesn't recommend that users try it out until next year unless they're already "an intrepid Linux hacker". "

its a beta build and you should know how to handle linux.

wait until next year then

[Kayant]

Have you even installed a linux distro before? If so then it shouldn't be harder than install Ubuntu,Mint etc am guessing seeing as this is supposed to be for the masses so it shouldn't be anywhere near as complex Arch linux is to install.

Defiantly installing this as soon as it arrives :)

[Eonjay]

I'm pretty excited about this. Windows has really bogged down my PC. Hopefully this can freshen things up. I will be installing this to my second HDD.

[adorie]

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[starchild]

This is great news. I'm going to give it a spin. I'm excited to see where this goes.

Also, Mantle was supposed to release for Battlefield 4 this month. Has anyone heard an exact date?

[paul-p1988]

The majority of Linux distros (might even be all of them) have an option to install it side-by-side with Windows, known as dual-booting. I assume Steam OS will be no different. When you boot your PC it will come up with a black screen asking which OS to boot, so it's really simple. I used to run Windows XP and Linux Ubuntu as a dual-boot a while back, mainly because there were certain programs on Windows i couldn't run through Linux, but that has changed quite a lot now so i just use Ubuntu instead.

You may even be able to burn the ISO to a DVD and run it as a live operating system just to give it a test run (it just 'installs' Linux onto your RAM, so it's pretty slow, but obviously not permanent), which once again is an option that many Linux distro's have, but not all of them. The major distro's all do it, so i would personally assume SteamOS would let you do it.

With regards to requirements, it's the same as any OS, but as long as you have a fairly modern PC you shouldn't have any problems installing it :)

[PLASTICA-MAN]

I hope there is an option to allocate custom space to this SteamOS partition.

[Lior]

Will it work properly with games like on origin like battlefield 4

[Kayant]

No. People seem to be forgetting that SteamOS is linux meaning it has small range of natively supported games atm well in terms of the big AAA games. This is meant to change that so devs/pubs will support linux more. Just give it time ;)

So if you're looking for this to replace your current windows environment day one then this might not be for you expect if you have two PCs and you can use the streaming feature to play Windows games.

[AD705]

i highly doubt that they'll release steamos with no added games support to whats currently available on steam in linux.

I will probably wait a few months before downloading steamOS. Just to see where it will go.

[wtopez]

Hmm interesting... I'm definitely checking this out. Dual boot it is!

[Blackdeath_663]

will wait and see if there is a performance difference. there probably won't be a huge amount in the early stages

[Fireseed]

That, or it'll likely be the 50% performance difference they've been claiming...

[AD705]

Really 50% performance boost on steamOS? How will they pull that off? In fact wheres an article that states that?

[Trenta27]

Linux is a beautiful thing. I have used it countless times to bring old computers back to life. Windows takes up a massive amount of resources.

[ninjahunter]

Yea, that's what im excited to see, If i could squeeze another year out of my laptop from a 20% boost to CPU or GPU performance, my wallet would be awfully happy. But if its just 5-10%, it would be hard to justify loading it up just to play a couple games.

[Perjoss]

Even though it will likely never happen, I'm still excited about maybe one day being able to game on PC without the need for windows.

[Spinal]

Windows is far than a gaming OS. I'd hate to have just a gaming OS on my PC. Thats what consoles are for.

I like use Micosoft Office and other Windows compatible applications. Just imagine the amount of programs that wont be compatible with SteamOS lol.

[Fishy Fingers]

True, at least now. But expect SteamOS to support the more popular PC applications (Firefox etc) and perhaps even offer/support office type services.

I've got a PC that doesn't have Office installed, never have a problem using 3rd party solutions.

[Chrono]

Just saying, all those software have great free (as in freedom) alternatives. And even if you insist on M$ Office, you can use it through WINE.

[paul-p1988]

Tbh the open source office software is quicker and cleaner than MS Office, and doesn't use the horrible ribbon system... have a look at LibreOffice, you can even download it for Windows if you want to try it before taking the plunge and going to Linux to see what the office software is like.

For all the other applications you can install Wine, which is a windows compatibility layer. All my previous Windows only software works on it, and thankfully it's a lot more backwards compatible than Windows (Got my old Jedi Knight 2 game running on it, Windows didn't support that past XP lol).

Pretty much everything you can run on Windows can be run on Linux, and those that can't tend to have an opensource equivalent anyway, so you can do near enough exactly the same things on both now :)

[curtis92]

Spinal mentions using PC for things other than games.

Okay, I agree. I follow.

Spinal uses Office as example.

*leaves*

[Perjoss]

nobody expects steam OS to replace their main OS totally. its something you dual boot into to play games only.

[XiSasukeUchiha]

Awesome, downloading tomorrow for sure

[Psychotica]

Sounds good but I think I will wait until it's been out for awhile before trying it. Give them a chance to patch it up.

[curtis92]

Get the feeling most who download this will boot it up, go "cool." Then reboot back into Windows.

[Saryk]

Could be. But when I got to buy 3 more copies of Windows. I might stick with this, depending.

[cesuf]

Not following how buying 3 copies has relevancy. You will still need windows for a very long time, even if this OS ends up being great for games.

[Fireseed]

Sick! I literally just finished putting together my new rig :)

[aLiEnViSiToR]

MY HDD IS READY !!!

[TheOrion]

Cool, another distribution to tinker with.

[zpoc]

if steamOS can give some new life to my old 4890 gpu (which, technically, can push the same amount of tflops as the xbox one gpu...) then i'm in. i just need to by a new case and power supply and i'll have a livingroom pc set-up since i've already got memory, mb and a first gen i5 laying around as well. i'll stream from my main box if nothing else, i guess.

[ATiElite]

HD4890 is the GREATEST GPU EVER MADE!

low price and it could overclock to 1ghz and challenge GTX280 and GTX285 gpu's that were double it's price.

Find a water block for your HD4890 and overclock it to 1ghz and that baby will FLY.

I loved my HD4890 CFX set-up. So much power and it was on par with a GTX295 and still way cheaper.

HD4890 was 1.36 tflops 4 years ago.

So pretty much a 4 year old card can run BF4 better than a XB1.

High Settings 40fps 1080p card at 1GHZ! YES I still have both my XFX Black Edition HD4890's. I keep them in a glass case attached to my Gigabyte Mobo but break them out from time to time.

[zpoc]

yeah, gotta love the 4890! so much bang for the buck. shame it's not dx11 compatible, but i'm curious to see how universal linux drivers end up being. i admit, i don't know much about API's so i don't know what's actually possible or not.

[LAWSON72]

I will only download this if I decide to build a stream machine or if benchmarks prove it runs games better. Either way it is nice that people dont have to buy Windows.

[ATiElite]

I can't wait to download SteamOS!

I may go and build a new PC just to celebrate a Windows free PC.

SteamOS is gonna go to my 4K TV FACT!

[tee_bag242]

ATI do you actually have a 4k TV yet? Curious if they have DVI in's? HDMI is a bottleneck that worries me about these first gen 4k TV's.

[ATiElite]

I just got a Sony 4K 65" it has 4 HDMI v1.4

DVI is all but Dead. A tidy little list of Manufactures has sworn to phase out DVI in favor of HDMI 2.0, Display Port, and Thunderbolt!

Sony says it can update it's HDMI to v2.0 through a online firmware update.

other 4K TV manufactures messages to 4K HDMI 1.4v users:

LG - We MIGHT have a solution to handle 60hz 4K content but don't count on it, thanks for buying our 4K 30hz TV though!

Sharp - we are looking to find a solution to handle 60hz 4k but dont count on it but thanks for buying a 4K 30hz TV

Samsung - we are smarter than those OTHER two idiots because our inputs are in a separate BOX which we will GLADLY swap out and give you a HDMI 2.0 box for a PRICE!! muh ha ha ha ha or maybe Free depending on how we feel.

Seiki and Panasonic - What the hell is HDMI 2.0? When did this happen?

Sony and Toshiba - by January 1st 2014 we will send out a firmware update to give current 4K TV HDMI 1.4 users HDMI 2.0.

*EDIT* SOny's HDMI 2.0 update came out November 30th, I haven't connected my TV to the Internet yet. will do tonight though!

84 inch 4K tv owners and Projector users will have to pay to get their TV's converted to HDMI 2.0.

84" 4K Tv cost $25k I don't think too many people have those and if so then spending another $2k should be nothing to them to get them converted but SOny may do it free.

and that my friend is all the 4K TV buying guide info you may ever need.

[tee_bag242]

Cheers for that. I might hold off a touch longer. The annoying part is I have the hardware to run it lol

[ninjahunter]

Prepare yourself, benchmarks are coming.

[MuhammadJA]

i hope it's compatible with most steam titles.