Steam OS anyone?

[shumkar]

To quote https://developer.va...eam_under_Linux

 

Gentoo

Unofficial .ebuilds are available through gamerlay, progress is tracked on Gentoo Bug 442176. Use your preferred overlay manager to install the overlay, gamerlay. If you currently do not have an overlay manager, install the overlay manager layman, then install gamerlay using layman -a gamerlay. Finally, install steam using emerge --ask games-util/steam-launcher.

Note that overlay is a community repository. If this is not preferred, install the unpackaged version of Steam.

 

I just wanted to add that there is also another Gentoo overlay with Steam, it's called steam-overlay, I installed Steam from it, all necessary packages were pulled by games-util/steam-meta.

Edited January 16, 2020 by shumkar

[zixi]

Thanks everyone. That was very very useful! As the spare PC is sitting here not earning its keep I think what I'll do is try a different distro every month! That way, I'll see different ones and hopefully I'll learn stuff along the way. We've decided that rather than buying the Linux mag when we see it, we'll take out a subscription so I can use whatever new flavours come along! My husband has seconded Fedora - it's what he used for years but for some reason he shifted to Ubuntu...

 

At the moment the spare is running Mint and Cinnamon - I really like it though it isn't as elegant as Ubuntu and Gnome. I do like Gnome - it's very attractive. I have run puppy Linux on an extremely old lap top and that was great fun and extremely fast! But I think trying some others on the spare is a good idea. And I don't have to worry about backing stuff up because there's nothing to backup! Win! Win! Win!

 

Thanks again!!! :cool:

[shumkar]

zixi, What's about backups of the system? When trying different distros, it may be especially useful. Do you know that a Linux system may be transferred (cloned) from one PC to another much more easily than Windows? It will boot (yet, almost) regardless different processors, disks and other hardware... A backuping tool may carry out its work quietly, as other system tools (cron, logger) do.

[zixi]

Hi shumkar - Thanks for that reminder! Yes, my husband has explained about how easy it is to take my desktop and profile with me. But the spare PC has nothing on it except the OS so it doesn't matter on one level though perhaps I should do it to see how the process works! I have spent my entire life backing up carefully but the one time I really needed backups I hadn't been careful at all (as I explained somewhere else) and I lost the lot! So even on my main machine there's not much to backup. It'd fit on an old fashioned floppy disk! :laugh:

 

What impresses me most about Linux - apart from how fast it is - is how stable it is. It's very very very difficult to break. I haven't actually ever achieved a crash even with a game though I did resort to a reboot before my husband explained how to bring up a terminal and 'kill' a process. Even that is rare now. I did find the paths very complex to start with but now I mostly open a terminal in the appropriate folder so I don't have to worry about paths so much! I was also puzzled by the lack of drives as I've spent so much time putting things on C: or D: drive and as you know Linux doesn't 'see' things like that.

 

I have a suspicion that people think that Linux is a black background terminal with green text! My desktop is extremely elegant and uncluttered but everything I need is very easy to reach. Even the terminal windows harmonise with the rest and are semi transparent so I can read text below while typing into a window... It's so impressive!

[shumkar]

Hi zixi,

 

What impresses me most about Linux - apart from how fast it is - is how stable it is. It's very very very difficult to break. I haven't actually ever achieved a crash even with a game

 

That's true, Linux is stable. But it may be injured by external factors: hardware failures, power outages. I used to change battery in the UPS near my desktop almost every year :confused:

 

I have a suspicion that people think that Linux is a black background terminal with green text! My desktop is extremely elegant and uncluttered but everything I need is very easy to reach. Even the terminal windows harmonise with the rest and are semi transparent so I can read text below while typing into a window... It's so impressive!

 

Yeah, in recent years the number of bells and whistles in Linux has increased. Where is the good old black terminal? I have to configure it myself :laugh:

Edited January 18, 2020 by shumkar

[zixi]

 

I have a suspicion that people think that Linux is a black background terminal with green text! My desktop is extremely elegant and uncluttered but everything I need is very easy to reach. Even the terminal windows harmonise with the rest and are semi transparent so I can read text below while typing into a window... It's so impressive!

 

Yeah, in recent years the number of bells and whistles in Linux has increased. Where is the good old black terminal? I have to configure it myself :laugh:

@shumkar - 'the resident Linux expert' has just said the same thing!

 

I forgot to add how helpful the Linux community is and how kind with newbies. Some have gone off and written scripts for people who were struggling with old printers etc etc. The more awkward something is - the better they seem to like it. :laugh:

 

[shumkar]

I forgot to add how helpful the Linux community is and how kind with newbies. Some have gone off and written scripts for people who were struggling with old printers etc etc. The more awkward something is - the better they seem to like it. :laugh:

 

Agreed. I noticed it too. Community is 'the heart' of Linux. Some distros are fully community-driven (as Gentoo). There are public email-lists where developers are announcing news, changes, bugs, and users may participate in the discussion, if they want to. There are also lists for users where they ask for help and adviсe; it's often that developers themselves answer to the users' questions.

Edited January 18, 2020 by shumkar

[kthompsen]

Valve are slackers when it comes to their own distro (kind of like Half-Life 3 heh). They had greater ambitions at one point, but the Steamboxes didn't really take off, so now they're left with a distro that isn't their top priority. Like others are saying, just get your favorite flavor of Linux and install Steam on that. Anything Ubuntu/Debian related (like SteamOS is) will work just as well. edit: OTOH, since SteamOS isn't as experimental and rigorously updated as others, that makes it more stable at least.

Edited January 19, 2020 by kthompsen

[zixi]

Valve are slackers when it comes to their own distro (kind of like Half-Life 3 heh). They had greater ambitions at one point, but the Steamboxes didn't really take off, so now they're left with a distro that isn't their top priority. Like others are saying, just get your favorite flavor of Linux and install Steam on that. Anything Ubuntu/Debian related (like SteamOS is) will work just as well. edit: OTOH, since SteamOS isn't as experimental and rigorously updated as others, that makes it more stable at least.

I think your analysis that it is no longer a priority is correct! It explains a lot! And it isn't the easiest OS in the world to install. Re 'stability' agreed but as I no longer use a computer for anything other than fun and if I'm using the 'spare' to experiment in any case, I don't think that's a concern. You're right - it isn't as if there's a problem over finding alternatives! :laugh: Thanks for the insights!

 

@shumkar - Agreed! There is always generous help!

[kthompsen]

 

Valve are slackers when it comes to their own distro (kind of like Half-Life 3 heh). They had greater ambitions at one point, but the Steamboxes didn't really take off, so now they're left with a distro that isn't their top priority. Like others are saying, just get your favorite flavor of Linux and install Steam on that. Anything Ubuntu/Debian related (like SteamOS is) will work just as well. edit: OTOH, since SteamOS isn't as experimental and rigorously updated as others, that makes it more stable at least.

I think your analysis that it is no longer a priority is correct! It explains a lot! And it isn't the easiest OS in the world to install. Re 'stability' agreed but as I no longer use a computer for anything other than fun and if I'm using the 'spare' to experiment in any case, I don't think that's a concern. You're right - it isn't as if there's a problem over finding alternatives! :laugh: Thanks for the insights!

 

@shumkar - Agreed! There is always generous help!

 

 

If you're really interested in experimenting with Linux, check out ClearLinux. Made by Intel, no less. It's benchmarked as the fastest distro out there (at least on Intel cpus), but it's also polished for a young distro. I've only used it for desktop stuff a little, so I couldn't say how well it performs for gaming per se. Although it does have Steam in it's "app store" thing.