-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Does anyone have any information on just how free SteamOS is going to be?
I hear rumors that it's going to be based on Ubuntu, which isn't a great start. However, they have stated that it will be fully "open", whatever that means, so maybe there's a potential to trisquelise it?
Of course, some may see this as pointless as very few (if any) of the games themselves will be free/libre, but I still think there's value in a totally libre games-based platform, even if it is used to play non-free games. It's a step in the right direction.
Valve are in a unique position to be able to go to hardware manufacturers (Nvidia, AMD) and push for better Linux support in their drivers. Maybe as a community we should see if there's any way we can apply pressure to Valve to ask Nvidia and AMD to free their GPU drivers for SteamOS. Is there any indication that this is something they'd be interested in? I don't know much about Valve.
I'm kind-of excited about this development because I think it will mean much much more effort is put into making mainstream games compatible with GNU/Linux systems, which is often cited as one of the main reasons that people choose to stay with Windows. I know games won't be freed - they'd loose too much money - but there's a real chance here to pull millions of users away from Windows for good. That HAS to be a good thing!
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