SteamOS, Linux, and Steam Machines

[Pierre-Loup]

We've noticed that what started out as a routine cleanup of the Steam Store navigation turned into a story about the delisting of Steam Machines. That section of the Steam Store is still available, but was removed from the main navigation bar based on user traffic. Given that this change has sparked a lot of interest, we thought it'd make sense to address some of the points we've seen people take away from it.

While it's true Steam Machines aren't exactly flying off the shelves, our reasons for striving towards a competitive and open gaming platform haven't significantly changed. We're still working hard on making Linux operating systems a great place for gaming and applications. We think it will ultimately result in a better experience for developers and customers alike, including those not on Steam.

Through the Steam Machine initiative, we've learned quite a bit about the state of the Linux ecosystem for real-world game developers out there. We've taken a lot of feedback and have been heads-down on addressing the shortcomings we observed. We think an important part of that effort is our ongoing investment in making Vulkan a competitive and well-supported graphics API, as well as making sure it has first-class support on Linux platforms.

Recently we announced Vulkan availability for macOS and iOS, adding to its existing availability for Windows and Linux. We also rolled out Steam Shader Pre-Caching, which will let users of Vulkan-based applications skip shader compilation on their local machine, significantly improving initial load times and reducing overall runtime stuttering in comparison with other APIs. We'll be talking more about Shader Pre-Caching in the coming months as the system matures.

At the same time, we're continuing to invest significant resources in supporting the Vulkan ecosystem, tooling and driver efforts. We also have other Linux initiatives in the pipe that we're not quite ready to talk about yet; SteamOS will continue to be our medium to deliver these improvements to our customers, and we think they will ultimately benefit the Linux ecosystem at large.

In general, and if you have any questions or feedback on the topics above, feel free to reach out to me at [e-mail].

Thanks!
- Pierre-Loup

[[LINUX] facePlanted]

omg

[Visualvengeance]

Sweet! Thank you guys for your efforts and everything you do to make Linux/Vulkan a great experience :)

[eldarion_telcont]

Would you consider bringing Steam to one of these machines https://raptorcs.com/content/TL2WK2/intro.html

Apparently there's already support for Unreal Engine 4 and Vega GPUs; looks like a great machine for us Linux enthusiasts...

[pb]

Thank you for your continued effort! I've been running SteamOS for the last few years and I feel it's a great experience, especially on a family-shared steambox. Looking forward to playing more great Linux games in years to come!

[pshem]

As a Linux gamer, I really appreciate how far you've taken the gaming ecosystem and open source graphics drivers on it.

Speaking of the projects further down the pipeline, are you talking about the usage of flatpak runtimes for games on Steam to replace the current unpatched Ubuntu 12.04 based runtime? Flatpak devs spilled the beans during a FOSDEM presentation and I'm curious if anything is going to come out of it

[LINUX GOD]

Fingers crossed for Steam AMD VEGA console. Also thank you for clarifying -- I'm sure you put a lot of people at ease.

[The Linux Guru]

Awesome!!! Thank You Very Much!!!

[Unyieldingly]

I hope you guys make a full Linux desktop as well, i think this would do way better then SteamOS did.

[aaronfranke]

Originally posted by Unyieldingly:

I hope you guys make a full Linux desktop as well, i think this would do way better then SteamOS did.

Why, when Valve can just continue to endorse Ubuntu? It's better to not divide resources.

[Sun G]

Thank you for your continuous investment and dedication to supporting GNU/Linux and generally gaming on free software platforms. I honestly hope that your investment will be worth in the long run and serve Valve just as well as the community.
I am truly grateful.
All the best

[grandmastermoth]

Keep up the amazing work!

[toyeLinux]

Thanks for everything

[mihaiedrisch]

Great news, Valve. Windows 10, UWP, & DX12 must be destroyed at any cost. They are a forever looming existential threat on the open architecture PC platform.

[Alexander DeLarge]

Awesome news. #NoTuxNoBux

Also fix the damn hardware survey. It's misleading people into believing that Linux is significantly less popular among gamers than it actually is.

Also I'd really like to see an option in the hardware survey for people who run Windows exclusively for games and Linux for everything else. We deserve representation in those numbers too.
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/7h48rw/the_steam_hardware_survey_bias_against_linux/

[Shigutso.sh]

nice, hope to see more Linux stuff from Valve in the near future!