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SteamOS Details: Debian Linux, Gnome 3 & Why it Matters

SteamOS shipped last night and after it hit the net many people started analyzing it and trying to figure out more of the technical details. Valve has a really great SteamOS FAQ that outlines many of the details you should be aware of and i'll summarize some of the important ones.

SteamOS is based on Debian GNU/Linux Wheezy using some Valve custom bits. Valve has added a nice mechanism to load games from SteamOS, its own packaging of graphic drivers and a customization to have the console auto-update.

SteamOS seems to be require 64 bit processors.

SteamOS contains a setting to drop out of Steam to the Gnome 3 Desktop. Gnome 3 is a full featured Linux desktop you can... Read All

SteamOS shipped last night and after it hit the net many people started analyzing it and trying to figure out more of the technical details. Valve has a really great SteamOS FAQ that outlines many of the details you should be aware of and i'll summarize some of the important ones.

SteamOS is based on Debian GNU/Linux Wheezy using some Valve custom bits. Valve has added a nice mechanism to load games from SteamOS, its own packaging of graphic drivers and a customization to have the console auto-update.

SteamOS seems to be require 64 bit processors.

SteamOS contains a setting to drop out of Steam to the Gnome 3 Desktop. Gnome 3 is a full featured Linux desktop you can learn more about here: http://www.gnome.org/gnome-3/

Valve has enabled easy access to gain root access on SteamOS. Basically this means you can customize it to do anything Linux can do.

Right now SteamOS targets NVidia only, but there are drivers included for Intel and ATI.

I have been involved with Linux for many years and Valve's choices on what to ship with SteamOS are very exciting. Basing SteamOS on Debian Linux is a brilliant choice as it allows some awesome customization options for opening up your SteamOS to do nearly anything. I will be keeping my eye to how things advance to see guides on adding extra package repositories to SteamOS so you can setup your Steam Machine to run XBMC, VLC or act as a file server.

I have a mac-mini under my TV so I can watch web video and use VLC to play any movie file I throw at it. Now that SteamOS is basically a customized version of Debian, I can replace the mac. In a world where Sony can ship a console without mp3 playback or support for DLNA/UPnP, SteamOS will ship something you can hack to do practically anything you'd want a computer to do.

Valve shipped out the initial 300 Steam Machine beta machines and so far we are waiting for people to obtain them and report back. A few people in the beta are YouTuber's and I will let you know when they start talking about stuff.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/648814395741989999/

If you want to download the backgrounds SteamOS ships with, you can download them here. I set the main one as my Linux desktop background, you know, for science.

http://repo.steampowered.com/steamos/pool/main/v/valve-wallpapers/

As an aside, I have been running Debian Wheezy for a few weeks as I recently switched from being a long time Ubuntu user. It's a great distro and at some point in 2014, I am looking to switch my primary Linux Desktop to SteamOS.

My Thoughts On Western Digital's WDMyCloud NAS

I have tons of digital files I have amassed over the years. I have 155 gigs of music I have acquired from ripping CD's, buying it online or getting stuff people release for free. I also collect PDF books, games, movies, digital pictures and a ton of other stuff I never want to lose. I take pride in that the majority of my digital collection is legit stuff I actually own. For many years I have been happy with how I access my stuff because I typically used to operate on only one computer. Everything lived in one place and life was great. That said, after University I started acquiring more devices and then managing all my files got a bit harder.

After I added a few more... Read All I have tons of digital files I have amassed over the years. I have 155 gigs of music I have acquired from ripping CD's, buying it online or getting stuff people release for free. I also collect PDF books, games, movies, digital pictures and a ton of other stuff I never want to lose. I take pride in that the majority of my digital collection is legit stuff I actually own. For many years I have been happy with how I access my stuff because I typically used to operate on only one computer. Everything lived in one place and life was great. That said, after University I started acquiring more devices and then managing all my files got a bit harder.

After I added a few more computers to the mix, I started treating one computer as the "canonical point" for all files and then I used various scripts to keep everything in sync over my network. A few years ago I picked up an iPhone and things started to get a bit hard to manage. It wasn't impossible, it just was tedious. I'd buy a new album, rip it, copy it to my Linux machine then sync it to my laptop and other computers. Then use iTunes to copy it to my phone. It was manageable but not fun.

A few months ago I decided to bite the bullet and look into buying something I have wanted for a few years now. I got a NAS. NAS stands for Network Attached Storage and it's basically a hard disk you plug into your network that can serve up your files. After doing quite a bit of research I bought the 3TB Western Digital WDMyCloud.

First off, the WDMyCloud is awesome. At 3TB, I have more than enough disk to store my files. Once your music, movies and photos are on the device the MyCloud scans your files and serves them up over Windows & Apple filesharing + DLNA & UPnP. DLNA/UPnP are protocols many devices like the XBox 360 & PS3 can stream media over. Right now, I can browse through all my music and movies from the MyCloud on my PS3. Western Digital also has an app for the iPhone but you can use any generic DLNA/UPnP app as well.

One of the neat things about the MyCloud is that it lets you enable ssh by simply checking a box in the admin UI. Most devices don't allow this and to get ssh access you need to flash the device or hack it. The MyCloud lets you unlock it by default and it's pretty awesome as under the covers it runs Debian Wheezy(Linux). I have used this ssh access to turn the MyCloud into a local Linux server.

If you are looking for a way to consolidate your media for easy access, I recommend you check out the WDMyCloud. So far, I love using it and it has made sharing my files on my home network really simple.

http://is.gd/AAoHuM

Travis Admin wrote on 12/13/2013 at 04:20am

After Jon told me he got this I snagged one up as well. It's pretty impressive. Previously I used PS3 Media Server for DLNA streaming to my PS3, but this has all but replaced that. The downside is that it doesn't do transcoding on the fly, so any formats the PS3 can't handle, you just can't stream them. This is rarely a problem though. Most MKV's can be converted to MP4 in just a few seconds and without any quality loss since they're both just containers for other formats. VLC can even do it without any extra software, though I ran into some issues with it on a few files that handbrake was able to handle with no problems.

Just to see if I could, I managed to get a full rails dev environment set up on it, though I seriously don't recommend actually using that. It *should* be possible to set up printer sharing on it, but CUPS is a fickle beast that I didn't feel like dealing with.

What I have done successfully, though, is add a secondary drive to it and set up a cron job to rsync everything once a day, so I have two copies of everything and will lose at most a day. This is something I highly recommend and if anyone is interested I'm totally willing to give a few pointers. You can also make a cow moo at you every time you ssh into it.

So in short, yeah what Jon said. It's a great device. It isn't the best or fastest NAS on the market, but it's the best I can find in the price range.

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 12/15/2013 at 05:45pm

This is an intriguing looking device. Especially for the price.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/15/2013 at 06:30pm

I agree, it really is. Travis his the only negative with it though, it's not terribly fast. I don't mean transfer speeds, that's mostly fine, occasionally it's not very responsive.

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GOGcom Winter Sale Starts by Giving Away Fallout & Fallout 2

War might not ever change, but sometimes the price of games change so much you must pick them up. GOG.com is launching its holiday sale with a bang and is releasing Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics free for a limited time.

Nab the games quick as your change to pick them up dries up in one day.

http://www.gog.com/promo/fallout_series_giveaway_winter_promo_2013

Where you are there, checkout the other awesome holiday sales on GOG.com games. Tis the season to spend like the end of the world is near.

Steam Machine beta boxes shipping, Steam OS Friday!

The Steam Universe group has updated with new info about various upcoming events. The 300 lucky recipients will get their boxes very soon-- they're shipping Friday-- and Steam OS will be made available that day.

Check your email today at 2PST to see if you're one of the lucky 300!

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse#announcements/detail/1930088300965516570

Link Put Down His Sword and Walked Away

http://1.media.dorkly.cvcdn.com/18/73/4e6ed0b529dce9b86082fdc079d7a0fd.jpg

http://www.dorkly.com/comic/57350/the-legend-of-zelda-a-break-between-worlds

Awesome Link comic I read on Dorkly today I wanted to share. Funny, sad and true all at the same time.

Don't walk away Link, you need to save Hyrule... again.

Interview with Starbound Composer, Curtis Schweitzer

After the Starbound beta hit, like many of you, I played the heck out of it. Now that there have been a few game patches and people have tried out the beta, I wanted to ship a few questions over to our friend Curtis Schweitzer, who composed the game score. I was happy to hear that he was interested in talking with us about how things have gone since launch and what we can expect going forward.

jdodson: The Starbound beta has shipped and the reaction seems to be quite good. Right now, Starbound is the number 3 played game on Steam and all those people are listening to your music. How are you processing all of that right now?

Curtis Schweitzer: I'm just enjoying seeing... Read All

Doom, One of The Greatest Games of All Time Turns 20

After hearing about "the most evil murder simulator ever made" and noticing the shareware version on the shelf for a few bucks, I gave Doom a shot. The graphics, immersion and gameplay blew my mind. The Demons snarling and grunting was really unnerving coming through my sound blaster. Shooting something and watching it explode was extremely satisfying. I also had fun connecting the game over BBS's and LAN for deathmatch.

Doom is one of those games that stamped my brain with what games could be and as such have a huge love for it. When Doom II came out I was very happy with the double barreled shotgun and new creepy levels.

I hope Doom continues to live on and wish iD... Read All

GOG Moving to a Better Refund Policy in the Digital Age

"Game doesn't work for you? Contact our support (http://www.gog.com/support) and tell us to fix it! But what if they cannot find a solution? If such a rare event should occur, we'll give you your money back. Simple as that. If you buy a game on GOG.com and find that it doesn't work properly on your system, and our support cannot fix the problem, you get a full refund. It's a worldwide guarantee, and you have whole 30 days after the purchase date, to contact us about the refund.

There's even more! If you bought a game by mistake, or simply changed your mind about a purchase, you can get a full refund within 14 days, as long as the game wasn't downloaded."

I mention this... Read All

No Man's Sky trailer

Indie studio Hello Games (who brought us the delightful Joe Danger) dropped this trailer at VGX. The concept reminds me a lot of Starbound, but in full rendered 3D, and including space battles.

First off, this looks absolutely gorgeous. Second, I'm glad to see more exploration-heavy games like this. Procedurally generated planets are sure to give you a ton of replay value.

There's a site up at http://www.no-mans-sky.com/ without much content yet, but I'll be keeping my eye on it. I can't wait to hear more info about this one.

Tales from the Borderlands announced at VGX

Telltale Games, the studio behind some amazing adventure games like last year's The Walking Dead series, showed a teaser trailer for Tales from the Borderlands at VGX last night. This is a totally new style of game for the Borderlands series, but I could definitely get behind a more story-driven look at Pandora.