In an IGN interview, Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais said that “[they] want [SteamOS] to be at the point where at some point you can install it on any PC”. Below is a transcript of the interview. I tried to clean it up to my best ability.
Just like Steam Deck paved the way for Steam OS on a variety of third-party handhelds, we expect that Steam Machine will pave the way for Steam OS on a bunch of different machines in either similar form factors, different perf envelopes, different segments of the market, and get to a good outcome there. We definitely want to encourage people to try it out on their own hardware. We’ll be working on expanding hardware support for the drivers and the base operating system. Just last week, we fixed something that was preventing us from booting on the very latest AMD CPU platforms. Last month, we added support for the Intel Lunar Lake platforms. We’re constantly adding support and improving performance. We want it to be at the point where at some point you can install it on any PC, but there’s still a ton of work to do there.
If the embedded video doesn’t take you to the correct part of the video, the correct timestamp is 5:37.
EDIT: Here’s the written article of the video:
https://www.ign.com/articles/valves-next-gen-steam-machine-and-steam-controller-the-big-interview
You brought up bazzite like it and steam OS are the exact same thing. So you tell me what it has to do with bazzite.
I did not. I brought it up like they serve a similar function but only Bazzite, with their team of volunteers, seems interested in improving compatibility across various hardware.
So what you’re saying is that you don’t think steam has any interest in providing compatibility across various hardware?
I’m saying it’s obviously not a priority for them.
Is it weird that a group of volunteers who aren’t charging for the privilege can and do implement a software skew across multiple different hardware, vs a company (who are charging for the privilege) to focus on one piece of hardware to get that working as good as they can for paying customers before moving on to allow their software on other hardware?
Because as you said yourself that’s the difference. Even if that’s not what you meant, that’s literally the difference here. When you are using the software volunteers made you are more willing to give them grace. When you are paying for a product, you are less likely to give a company grace (even if that company is one you like). Because when you pay for a product you expect it to be polished, usable, and generally with little to no flaws.
I’m sure you can and will argue that steam isn’t selling the OS. But the thing is, to a certain extent that’s exactly what they’re doing.
So in response to your question “what does your point have to do with steam OS vs bazzite”, I’ll ask you what this means:“how is it strange that they’re working so hard on this when bazzite/similar will run on anything”.
Because from my view of things there wouldn’t really be a bazzite without steam OS. Steam OS walked so Bazzite could run.
If your argument is that steam OS has flaws and bazzite doesn’t, then I think that’s probably not how I took it. Even if your argument is that both have flaws, that’s not how I took your initial comment.
On the steam deck, the hardware where steam OS launched initially, and where it has lived for the better part of almost 4 years, it’s a pretty polished thing. Steam OS focused first and foremost on making sure that it ran on that hardware because they are a business selling a physical piece of hardware coupled with an OS to provide an experience that people pay for.
When it officially started expanding to other handhelds, it obviously had some teething problems but all in all it’s still improving.
So if you think it’s not a priority, then I guess, but, at the end of the day what you mean is that it’s not their main priority and that’s not “weird”.
Yes. It’s weird. That’s what I said. Their “paying customers” are paying for games on the Steam platform. The more devices running Steam’s Game Mode, the more money they make.
Exactly, so why does the first-party product from the billion dollar company require more grace than the volunteer-led one?
Exactly. Valve created SteamOS, so it’s weird that they’re having so much trouble porting it to other hardware while other, volunteer-led communities are having no such problems.
Here’s the thing. You haven’t provided anything (except time) to show that Valve are struggling with porting Steam OS to other hardware. You keep saying that they are (even when it has been explained that Steam OS is part and parcel of their physical hardware, and therefore a product that is currently being paid for), but you have nothing to show for it except that it wasn’t their main focus over time.
That doesn’t prove it’s not a priority of theirs. It just proves it’s not the very first priority on their list.
If you thought I was suggesting that we should give Valve more grace than the developers of Bazzite, I think perhaps you focused on the wrong part of what I was trying to explain.
When you consider just how many people (reviewers especially) have been heavily critical of how difficult Steam Os was for them to run on other hardware (this was after steam announced that it would be available on other handhelds, mind you), you can perhaps understand that steam didn’t start out trying to make their OS compatible with every hardware under the sun. Instead they started out making it work on one device (a device they were selling), and have now switched focus (since that device is successful) to making it run on other hardware.
But Bazzite started out making their software run on a couple of devices and then continued to add devices to that stable until it got where it is today because it already had a template in Steam OS, and because it had that particular focus from the start.
Even now, if you go to the Bazzite home page you’re met with a statement about who bazzite is for and that statement is still relatively limited in its scope. The number of devices that they provide guides for are growing all the time, but that was the point of Bazzite, wasn’t it?
And, for what it’s worth, Bazzite has the added benefit of the internet at large helping them. Valve is a company and their R&D isn’t handled by crowd source.
These two entities are working from separate and very different road maps.
And I’m not going to. Anyone who has been paying attention already knows it’s true.
The fact that everyone and their mother has no problem doing it, and Valve has not been doing it, shows that it’s not. I’m not faulting them, I’m sure they have their reasons, its just strange, as you would think there’s a lot of money on the table that they’re not keen to pick up.
I honestly don’t know what it is you’re trying to say. Valve is the only one that needs grace. Bazzite is doing it already.
Seems like you know it’s true as well. I’m not sure what you’re arguing about.
…why not? It’s clearly not that hard.
It’s the same community. It’s Linux. It’s open source. The idea that they don’t have the resources that a handful of volunteers do is preposterous.