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- Welcome to the SteamOS wiki!
- About SteamOS
- Why SteamOS?
- Picking the right Steam Machine
- About this wiki
- Prior versions of SteamOS
- Alternate community versions of SteamOS
- Ready to begin?
- Want to learn more?
- References
SteamOS is designed primarily for playing video games in the living room. Users will be able to stream games from their Windows, Mac or Linux computers to one running SteamOS, and it will incorporate the same family sharing and restrictions as Steam on the desktop. Valve claims that it has "achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing" through SteamOS. The operating system is open source, allowing users to build on or adapt the source code, though the actual Steam client is closed.
Since SteamOS is solely for playing games in the living room, it does not have many built-in functions beyond web browsing and playing games; for example, there is no file manager or image viewer installed by default. Users can, however, access the available GNOME desktop environment and perform tasks like installing other software. Though the OS does not, in its current form, support streaming services, Valve is in talks with streaming companies such as Spotify and Netflix to bring their features to SteamOS. However Steam does have full length films from indie movie makers available from their store. The OS natively supports NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD graphics processors.
Valve stated has added support for movies, television, and music functionality to SteamOS, however the video content is only from Steam's store which has a small amount of films, while music playback only supports local music collections. It should be noted that recently, Netflix, and other DRM protected content, now function in the latest beta client and beta OS revisions of SteamOS via the native built-in browser1.
Video: What is SteamOS? (Click to play)
You may be interested in SteamOS if...
- You are a gamer that wants to play PC games in the living room
- You want a "hands free" experience, all controlled by a gamepad
- You mainly use Steam for your gaming needs.
Why Should I choose SteamOS over Windows? What are it's advantages?
- Designed to not get in the way (see: UAC, Firewall, Virus scanners on Windows)
- Free to use, free to hack on.
- Custom compositor (See: steamcompmgr) that keeps Steam and games front and center
- No screen tearing
- Automatic Steam client and Operating System updates
- 100% designed to be used from the living room with a gamepad, and therefore provides a smoother living room experience than Windows or Mac OS
- No need to reboot for installation of Games
- Fast boot times
- Supported by the largest PC games vendor, Valve.
- No need to mess with your operating system, control panel, install/uninstall of programs.
SteamOS may not be for you if...
- You require a full desktop experience
- You cannot part with games that are only designed for Windows
Video: Picking the Right Steam Machine (Click to play)
Contributions and documentation are very welcome. This wiki is very much community-driven by awesome folks like you. Please see the contribution guidelines for advice in contributing to this wiki. Most primary resources are located in the table of contents sidebar to your right. While the Steam for Linux community page has a guides section, Steam Universe does not.
The current release of SteamOS is codenamed "Brewmaster," based on Debian 8.x "Jessie." While there is no official page stating the prior release, Alchemist, is unsupported, several statements have been made to that effect. You can reference the official statment from John Vert (Valve) below.
Source: Steam Community
On the Getting Started wiki page, you will find information regarding community efforts to improve SteamOS and modify SteamOS. Two notable efforts are Stephenson's Rocket and VaporOS. These efforts are not officially tied to, or supported by Valve. However, changes and improvements from these efforts sometimes may make it into the official release. Efforts to also supplement SteamOS functions and software installations can also be found via GitHub projects such as SteamOS-Tools.
Head on over to the Getting Started wiki page. There you will find some good information on installing SteamOS. Be also sure to check out the link on the right side, including several How-To's, the hardware wiki, and FAQ pages.
See the Documentation Portal wiki links to your right.
