And yet it just might happen anyway.
One of the biggest deals about the introduction of the Steam Deck wasn’t the device itself, or even the lessons learned from the Steam Controller. No, the biggest thing was SteamOS. The Linux-based OS, in development at the company since 2012, offers compatibility with Windows games and is, more importantly, fairly lightweight.
And it’s only recently that the fruits of those 12 years have begun to show. In an interview with Frandroid Pierre-Loup Griffais, one of the developers at Valve that worked on SteamOS, said, “we’ve come a long way behind the scenes”. He’d know, as he’s been on the project since the beginning. And currently, their focus is on compatibility
“All of this work is broadly applicable to the PC platform, and it’s going to continue to expand over time. Supporting multiple platforms, multiple chipsets, controllers for different machines that are out there and even ones that aren’t out yet.” – Pierre-Loup Griffais
As of right now, even Griffais would admit that their support for some platforms is “very basic”. But currently, they have four of their developers working on the NVIDIA open-source driver.
“It’s just that there’s a lot of work to do… But the beauty of this open source model is that a lot of the elements that we’ve put in place or that have been put in place by other players in the community are shared. A lot of work has already been done, and everyone is developing the same code base. It’s a pretty unique model.” – Pierre-Loup Griffais
That said, since this is all open-source, they can take advantage of that.
“We’re not too interested in inventing our own sauce. If something is already done that meets our standards of performance and functionality, we use it.” – Pierre-Loup Griffais
The ideal for Valve is for SteamOS to be compatible with it all: PC’s, laptops, portables and everything in between. It sort of runs counter to Windows, which is infamously closed off. Gabe Newell once referred to Windows 8 as “a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space“. That said, Griffais stressed that they’re not picking a fight with the OS giant.
“I don’t think the goal is to have a certain market share, or to push users away from Windows. If a user has a good experience on Windows, there’s no problem. I think it’s interesting to develop a system that has different goals and priorities, and if it becomes a good alternative for a typical desktop user, that’s great. It gives them choice. But it’s not a goal in itself to convert users who already have a good experience.” – Pierre-Loup Griffais
According to Griffais, there’s no real roadmap for SteamOS.
“It’s when we have the time and we get there.” – Pierre-Loup Griffais
Source: PC Gamer
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