Valve took a strong stance against Microsoft Windows when it launched its SteamOS initiative last year, but Microsoft Studios Chief Phil Spencer praised the company last week at GDC, claiming that Valve’s focus on Linux has encouraged Microsoft to redouble its efforts in PC gaming, to the benefit of gamers everywhere.
A key feature of the new SteamOS is home streaming, which lets users render games on powerful PCs and then stream them to low-power devices throughout the home. Now Valve has opened the feature up to outside beta testers for the first time, and initial impressions are positive.
Valve’s upcoming SteamOS will find a home on a new breed of small Linux-based PCs called Steam Machines. We already knew that iBuyPower and Valve itself were designing hardware, but now the full list of third party Steam Machine partners has been unveiled at CES.
Valve on Friday released the first public beta of SteamOS, the company’s new Linux-based platform aimed at home theater PCs. The free software lets gamers run Linux-compatible Steam games as well as stream Windows-based games from their more powerful desktop PCs.
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Valve on Friday released the basic technical specifications for the prototype Steam Machines that will be sent to beta testers later this year. The specs reveal powerful hardware, with some models sporting NVIDIA Titan GPUs and Intel Core i7 CPUs.