SteamOS
First of three is live. Looks like Valve is making their own Linux distro which comes with a Steam client built in. If Steam can stand on it's own merits: Valve will provide users with root by default, allow other developers to sell software which runs on SteamOS without integrating into Steam or selling on the Steam store, and SteamOS will not place up any dialogs which attempt to trick users into not running applications which are not integrated with Steam. If not, well then we've got another walled garden clone.
Predictions
"Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want."
If Valve does the right thing here, and it sounds like they are (based on the quote above), then we've got the 2nd renaissance of the PC. Certainly this won't stop at PC's either. Your other PC's (personal computers), ie your phone and your tablet, will no longer be limited to being just a phone and a tablet. The age of restricting OS functionality simply to continue a walled garden will be over. OEMs will have a consumer OS which they can ship on any device regardless of power budget. If a developer wants to ship a game with keyboard, mouse, controller, and touch inputs, then it just runs on any device which it was compiled for. If a developer wants to ship a productivity application (non-game) which runs on 300W to 1W devices, then they just recompile for x86 and ARM, etc. You get the point.
This could be awesome!
First of three is live. Looks like Valve is making their own Linux distro which comes with a Steam client built in. If Steam can stand on it's own merits: Valve will provide users with root by default, allow other developers to sell software which runs on SteamOS without integrating into Steam or selling on the Steam store, and SteamOS will not place up any dialogs which attempt to trick users into not running applications which are not integrated with Steam. If not, well then we've got another walled garden clone.
Predictions
"Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want."
If Valve does the right thing here, and it sounds like they are (based on the quote above), then we've got the 2nd renaissance of the PC. Certainly this won't stop at PC's either. Your other PC's (personal computers), ie your phone and your tablet, will no longer be limited to being just a phone and a tablet. The age of restricting OS functionality simply to continue a walled garden will be over. OEMs will have a consumer OS which they can ship on any device regardless of power budget. If a developer wants to ship a game with keyboard, mouse, controller, and touch inputs, then it just runs on any device which it was compiled for. If a developer wants to ship a productivity application (non-game) which runs on 300W to 1W devices, then they just recompile for x86 and ARM, etc. You get the point.
This could be awesome!