Svnryn :
Why do you guys struggle to wrap your heads around this conceptYou seriously want to do spreadsheets and photoshop on the TV in your livingroom when you already do that on your windows PC at work/your desk? That's absolutely stupid. However, I don't blame you guys for having a hard time wrapping your heads around this, as Valve keep claiming this to be a PC.
For years Windows has been the defacto OS for PC gaming with no serious alternative. Valve is trying to change that and offer a OS with the sole purpose of gaming/entertainment, whether that be in your living room with dedicated boxes (for those who want to plug and play or enthusiasts who rather build their own) or at the desk your PC currently sits. Those of you already doing PC gaming, keep on doing what you're doing.
Now do you get it? For years Windows has told you that PC gaming has to be done at a desk with a mouse and keyboard and there's been hardly any innovation there aside from hardware. Valve has said enough and want to try and show people that, you're not just bound to your desk, keyboard, mouse and Windows as the only means to game on a PC. Continue doing photoshop and spreadsheets on your Windows PC and use Steam OS for a better gaming experience without all the bloat and background processes of Windows. And don't you worry PC elitist grunts, you can still use that keyboard and mouse wherever you choose to game. The choice is yours. Choices are good, Microsoft fanboys. Free your mind of the Microsoft shackles.
I myself am looking forward to where this is going both as a console and PC gamer. I like gaming in my living room, but console input and hardware leave me wanting more. My gaming PC is great, but I seriously don't want to sit at my desk while hunched over staring at another monitor while I just did that for eight hours at the office. This sort of thing is perfect for me. If it's not for you, like I said, that's cool - keep doing what you're doing.
This, in my mind, is a post that is loaded with grand generalizations, assumptions, and outright misinformation.
First off:
"You seriously want to do spreadsheets and photoshop on the TV in your livingroom when you already do that on your windows PC at work/your desk?"
Uh... Yeah. Why the heck not? Why limit myself to sitting cramped in a desk when I can lounge in my arm chair while doing research and papers? I've been running a Windows machine plugged in to my main TV living room since 2006 with wireless mice and keyboards, or even one of the *many* controller options that have been available for PCs - and yes, Windows PCs - since the 90's. When I realized I could do this in 2006 I felt stupid that it had taken me so long to realize that this had been easily possible for years already. Again, where do you get this boneheaded idea that Windows PCs are in any way tied to a desk, or have been in the past decade? Big monitors and TVs with at *least* VGA ports have been around for well over a decade along with wireless mice, keyboards, and controllers for the PC. Were you expecting someone to send you a memo telling you that this option has been there for a long time now?
Second:
"For years Windows has told you that PC gaming has to be done at a desk with a mouse and keyboard and there's been hardly any innovation there aside from hardware. Valve has said enough and want to try and show people that, you're not just bound to your desk, keyboard, mouse and Windows as the only means to game on a PC."
What? No "Windows" hasn't. MS even had a very well designed line of controllers for PC games in the mid 90's to early 2000's, the Sidewinder line. For decades, a quite wide array of PC games have supported controllers and any developer who wanted to make a controller based PC game was welcome to. Windows may not be an open platform as far as access to the source code goes, but realistically, any damned piece of hardware or software or whatever any company wanted to be made could be made for it without in any way consulting Microsoft.
You make it sound like Microsoft told the PC gaming community "Ok, here is the way things are. Gaming is done in a desk, with a mouse and a keyboard, and if you argue we'll put you out of business." In reality, MS has more or less said "here is Windows. Make any game you want, any control scheme you want, and any peripheral you want, for it." People have been open to build and sell *whatever they want* for Windows, but you're making it sound like MS has been exercising veto power on what developers could do on the platform. Again, utter poppycock.
You know what's ironic about all this though? SteamOS may be an open source platform, but there isn't anything remotely open about Steam itself. If you want to get a game actually running on Steam, you need Valve's approval and to subject your game to their brand of DRM. My concern with SteamOS is this... Can you run games off of Steam on it? Will Valve allow for major game distribution on it that doesn't filter through Steam? Before you answer, I've asked this question across several forums and done a lot of reading to try and find an answer and so far, none is forthcoming. Since Steam is itself all about control and DRM - literally, that's what Steam itself is - isn't there a very real chance that SteamOS will be a platform that will do precisely what so many people worried MS was trying to do with Games for Windows Live? That being, control exactly what content can be released on their platform?