Steam Hardware

Please tell me why you think Bazzite is a fork of SteamOS. They have completely different foundations: SteamOS is based on Arch while Bazzite is a variant of Fedora Atomic Desktop.

Am I missing something?

GTX 770 here!

Thankfully the Linux community is pretty active and just about everything is supported alreadh

But the common person also does not have a top of the line rig because they would have had to build that. So for the common person this would be perfect.

So, I don't know what information this is based on, but I'm questioning it.

High end gaming rigs come in pre built, for people who want that kind of warranty, or, more often in my experience, the people who own them build them. Which means they're not super fussed about installing a different OS.

It's more likely that some subset of them play games that require windows (VR, some racing sims, competitive online games that require kernel level anti-cheat etc), and won't switch because of that.

There may be some subset of the gaming populace who wants that without the fuss, and usually they buy consoles. Computer gaming is what it is because people very often like control.

I'm a tinkerer at heart, and one of my older brothers used to build custom gaming rigs as part of his business back in the early 2000's. Most of my family and quite a few of my friends have been computer gamers for decades.

I'd be willing to wager that a fair number of computer gamers aren't bothered about the installation process of steam OS, but might be wary of limiting the games they can play using it.

I strongly doubt it'll be comparable in price to the PS5. They're sold at a loss by Sony. Valve has already made it clear they are not doing the same.

Twice as expensive? Cheaper than $700 is not twice as expensive as $500.

Sure, it'd be nice if it were $500 or less, but from what I understand, it isn't possible (I'd love to be proven wrong). PS is able to sell hardware at a loss to then recoup that loss in game sales. The Steam Machine is a PC. You don't have to buy anything from Steam to use it after you buy it. It cannot be sold at a loss - though I wouldn't be surprised to see Steam Machine packaged with games during sales to make it a better value for the same cost or something.

Moving from fact to opinion, I think the steam machine, for under $700, could be considered a better value than a PS or Xbox, for two reasons. The first is Steam Sales - you'll probably save a couple hundred bucks as compared to buying the same games on a console. Secondly, and more importantly, it's not only a gaming console for your living room, but also a PC for your living room as, when combined with the Steam Controller, I can't think of a better way to use a full desktop on my TV. The SteamDeck track pads make it totally practical to use a normal desktop without a mouse and keyboard. They're amazing for mousing, scrolling, and typing. I'll probably buy it for that alone - though the lack of support for DRM protected media might force me to continue using my Xbox as a media console - though I might also tell media platforms where to shove their DRM, becuase it obviously isn't working if I can acquire their media from other sources.

Tl;dr: it will likely be more expensive, as it can't be sold at a loss or tight margins - but cheaper games and the fact that it's a full fledged PC for your TV could make the additional cost make sense.

On my Linux box or steam deck I can play latest cuttongbedge games, random bullshit going back yo the 70s, and any indie game off itch.io

It's got a pretty good back catalog advantage.

How many years of playstation plus more expensive could it be before it's too expensive?