Valve launches SteamOS [LWN.net]

Valve launches SteamOS

Posted Sep 25, 2013 17:26 UTC (Wed) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389)
In reply to: Valve launches SteamOS by jspaleta
Parent article: Valve launches SteamOS

If today's (or Friday's) announcement is the SteamBox, that's when I'd expect something like "here's the hardware we guarantee" (the official SteamBox) and "here's the minimum required hardware you'll need to run it yourself" (the "random " SteamBox you build from parts). I don't think releasing the code/binary/whatever before the minimum required hardware list would be the best idea.

Valve's PR isn't…orthodox, but I would also expect to see *something* by the end of the week.

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Valve launches SteamOS

Posted Sep 25, 2013 17:32 UTC (Wed) by mikemol (subscriber, #83507) [Link]

I think your comment about published standards is spot-on. "Here's the minimum you'll need for this degree of functionality."

Supplemented with performance metrics (like the "Windows Experience" metric set in Vista and up) and feature presence tests, and you can automate compatibility by encouraging developers to put performance and feature requirements in package manifests. You might even go so far as to warn the user if they want to run a game for which their system is on the edge of supported specs.

It would help with things like "why is this game so sloow?" "You see that yellow marker next to the title? That means your system isn't fast enough to run that game at the visuals preferences you set in your global settings. Don't ignore that yellow marker."