this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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If only there was something to be done to slash the price while not losing anything important like using an OS that is FREE... But alas, there's no such thing, I guess we'll have to stick with windows, adding the license price to a hardware that is already expensive...
Technically the OS isn't free: Valve pays a team of developers to maintain the SteamOS and also donates money to Arch and Ubuntu foundations as well as to the Proton and Wine dev teams as well as contributes code to the linux kernel. All costing them money, that they eat but could easily find a way to charge the end user
The only part they could realistically charge for is the Steam store access. Everything else is open source and portable
And practically, that doesn't matter. Valve isn't charging anyone a licensing fee for the software they've developed, so as far as the cost of the device goes SteamOS is free. Just because they could charge for it doesn't change that.
All it would take is for GabeN to die and a corporate takeover for Valve to change their tune. They are a corporation pursuing profit, not some fucking benevolent NGO, so stop idolizing them.
Where do you get that I'm "idolizing them" from my post? Whatever Valve pays to get this development done, it's not pushing up the price of a device that runs Linux/Proton vs one that runs Windows, because Linux/Proton/etc don't attract a licensing fee, while Windows does. That's just objective fact. Meanwhile you're over here speculating your tits off about stuff that might happen, so you can yell at me. The fuck did I say to warrant this aggressive bullshit from you?
I was rhetorically speaking, so if you feel targeted, it's you projecting some sort of guilt, home slice.
A lot of it is FOSS so no, they can't take it back even if GabeN dies and a hostile takeover happens. They can stop giving out updates, which would be disappointing but far from the end of it.
They might not be benevolent, they're still a major breath of fresh air compared to basically every other gaming company out there.
If GabeN is any sort of decent leader, he should be planning for retirement/death/etc.
A basic lesson of leadership is to start training your replacement ASAP and ensuring that things will run smoothly without you.
I mean... bazzite? ChimeraOS? You don't need to go to steamOS to find a free linux distro that works well with games. Hell, you could even customize one based on any of those so you don't have to pay for a windows license for your products.
Both of those heavily rely on Wine and especially Proton, which is funded by significant donations from Valve software, so you are arguing a trivial cost versus a subsidized cost.
So, instead of paying to license widows in your device, pay to support a system that ditches windows so you can stop relying on it and reduce costs of your products?
Every other company is free to sponsor FOSS development too. You're saying that like Microsoft and Windows aren't already a defacto monopoly. Charge a FOSS contribution fee instead of the Windows license, done, Linux development sponsored by the manufacturers is solved and they too get to not get steamrolled by Microsoft.
Any device that come with SteamOS by default, is a device that doesn't come with both Windows and Xbox game store by default. Basically Valve isn't paying for the OS, it's paying for devices that run Steam Store by default (instead direct, unfair, competition from Microsoft)
Can Windows PC come by default with Steam Store? Of course... if Microsoft allow them to.
Do you pay to download it?
Do you need to pay for a license to use it?
If not, it's free.
Tip: (F)OSS aint free. The devs working on those programs also donate their time to the project
Steam has the steam store to recoup this cost. This is the same model MS and Sony follows to sell the hardware at or below mfg price.
But MSI, Asus and others don't have their own platform, so they have to sell for more to maintain their bottom line.
If they ditch windows, their products can cost less without reducing profits, selling more units because of reduced price.
There is no reason for them to go with windows instead of linux if in neither case they are profitting from the OS.
MS could be offering marketing fund deals, I'm not privy to such business decisions. But even if we assume they don't, these manufacturers are in a clear disadvantage compared to Valve.
They won't be able to compete on price with the deck even if they go with linux.
Naturally they should choose linux IMO, but they not neccessarily have the same interests as me.
Not only that, Windows machines need more raw CPU power to account for the increased overhead compared to Linux