SteamOS is just there to run one single application: Steam. Users see absolutely nothing of Linux. It could be running MacOS or BeOS or TempleOS and it wouldn’t make the slightest difference to them.
Not that it’s a bad thing, it confirms that Linux is stable and mature and that you can use it for an appliance, but that’s pretty much it. And yes, you can bypass the Steam interface and run a KDE desktop (is that the UX you think of? it’s available on any Linux and pretty much any Unix-like desktop), which is nice of Valve to have included. But except for the .1% who will toy with it, there isn’t really much point (and yes, I did toy with it end enabled ssh, and added a few gadgets). I still wouldn’t install SteamOS as a desktop system though. That’s not what it’s made for.
Desktop mode is a nice extra because Valve are generally nice. But it’s not what the purpose of SteamOS is. It’s just an aside. The same way you can get a shell on your wifi camera. And you could run some silly servers on it. But that’s not the point of your camera.
SteamOS proves that Linux doesn’t need technical expertise to operate.
All Linux OSs need to aim for SteamOS’s UX, imo, if they want to see greater adoption.
Unless the point is to keep normies from migrating to it, which is just bass ackwards.
SteamOS is just there to run one single application: Steam. Users see absolutely nothing of Linux. It could be running MacOS or BeOS or TempleOS and it wouldn’t make the slightest difference to them.
Not that it’s a bad thing, it confirms that Linux is stable and mature and that you can use it for an appliance, but that’s pretty much it. And yes, you can bypass the Steam interface and run a KDE desktop (is that the UX you think of? it’s available on any Linux and pretty much any Unix-like desktop), which is nice of Valve to have included. But except for the .1% who will toy with it, there isn’t really much point (and yes, I did toy with it end enabled ssh, and added a few gadgets). I still wouldn’t install SteamOS as a desktop system though. That’s not what it’s made for.
Desktop mode isn’t Steam.
Desktop mode is a nice extra because Valve are generally nice. But it’s not what the purpose of SteamOS is. It’s just an aside. The same way you can get a shell on your wifi camera. And you could run some silly servers on it. But that’s not the point of your camera.