Is Steam for Linux missing the Big Picture (pun intended) with the SteamBox?

[ReticentRobot]

First, I just want to say that I'm super excited about the Valve SteamBox (meh on third party steamboxes though). That said, I think a big part of why PS3 and 360 are successful in the living room is the availability of media apps like Netflix, HBO Go, etc. and I think Valve is missing out a bit by focusing 100% on games (though I'm there are plenty that will argue that it's a shame that consoles have moved away from them and are focusing on being entertainment boxes, my [non-gamer] wife would disagree).

With Microsoft pushing Media Center to it's grave with the latest 360 update (and Windows 8) it would be so cool if I could launch MythTV (or XBMC front end) from within Steam natively.

Also, see the comments from Gabe in the interview from the the verge (http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/8/3852144/gabe-newell-interview-steam-box-future-of-gaming).

Does Gabe realize that Netflix doesn't work (natively) with linux? I don't want to have to switch inputs on my TV to another device (like Roku, etc) to consume media - I would rather that the steambox serve as a one-stop shop.

So... Netflix on the Steam Box?

Oh absolutely. You can fire up a web browser, you can do whatever you want.

What about Xbox and Apple TV? How are you going to compete on the multimedia side?

So there are these $50 sort of things that output [media] from a PC somewhere in your house. There’s Miracast, and Shield from Nvidia, and so on. Those will be the cheap way to do it, and they’ll be high quality in the home. I spent a bunch of time when [OnLive] first started coming out, saying at the end of the day that trying to do that over [the internet] is the wrong idea. It’s the nature of how you build distributed applications; it’s why AT&T lost and the internet won. AT&T said "let's put all the intelligence into the network and at the center of the network." This is a battle that’s been fought many times.

[matt]

He has said that there will be Netflix in Steambox, ergo I guess there are plans for native Linux support for Netflix.

[ReticentRobot]

Първоначално публикувано от Linux gutigen o):

He has said that there will be Netflix in Steambox, ergo I guess there are plans for native Linux support for Netflix.

That would be cool, kind of some mixed messages about it reported here (almost a year ago, so who knows what has changed since then): http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/02/netflix-no-plans-to-support-linux

Still though, I would rather see an easy to launch netflix 'app' in steam than try to get my wife to open up the browser and launch it from that. Hmm... that just gave me a thought - I wonder if IR remote support is coming (or already works?) with big picture mode...

[instabilis]

I would think, if it runs natively you could potentially add anything you want as a Non-Steam Game/Program.

[matt]

Remember that it's Valve you talking about. They have enough power on the market to make things happen. We'll see :)

[^PbP | Joe Bangles]

It's not netflix that doesnt work, it's silverlight. Also, it's not that silverlight doesn't have a linux version because they can't make one, it's because they don't want to, it is a microsoft product afterall.. I haven't heard all of the specs about it, but if the steambox will be able to support netflix, that does not mean that people will be able to start streaming netflix on linux.

[instabilis]

Първоначално публикувано от ^Pb | moon3715 (Linux):

It's not netflix that doesnt work, it's silverlight. Also, it's not that silverlight doesn't have a linux version because they can't make one, it's because they don't want to, it is a microsoft product afterall.. I haven't heard all of the specs about it, but if the steambox will be able to support netflix, that does not mean that people will be able to start streaming netflix on linux.

You mean this http://www.go-mono.com/moonlight/ ?

[^PbP | Joe Bangles]

"Moonlight is an open source implementation of Microsoft Silverlight for Unix systems."

That is one of the first things that page says, and at the bottom:


"What is Moonlight?

Moonlight was built by Novell in collaboration with Microsoft which provided Novell with test suites, specifications, open source code and Media Codecs to create an entirely open sourced Silverlight-compatible implementation for Unix systems.

Access to licensed Media Codecs (MP3, WMV, VC-1) is provided by Microsoft to Moonlight 1.0 and 2.0 users. The first time that you access a web site that requires these codecs, Moonlight will prompt you to download the codecs from Microsoft and install those on your system."


Pay attention to the liscensed media codecs, you still won't be able to stream netflix videos with Moonlight one of the main reasons being that Microsoft refuses to license Silverlight’s DRM to moonlight.

If you guys want better information on this, here is a website I found on the matter. http://www.howtogeek.com/119204/how-to-watch-netflix-on-linux/
That should explain everything you need to know, including running netflix in a virtual machine on your linux system.

Just realize, Microsoft is the biggest reason we can't easily watch netflix on linux, though, that shouldn't come as a surprise to most of us.