The "streaming games from the powerful WindowsBox to cheapo SteamOS box on your TV in the livingroom" is a neat concept. Especially for odd people that think controllers, couches and a 1080p TV is better than KB/Mouse, a nice desk chair and a bigass monitor. Really though, while mostly not for me I get it. But I don't think SteamOS is even really supposed to even be usable as a desktop OS. Even if you don't do anything but play games on the computer. And Valve doesn't seem to be interested in make the case otherwise either. It has to play current DirectX games to be usable stand-alone, for instance. Otherwise what's the point? If I need Windows to play BF4 why bother dual booting to SteamOS for, what, Portal 2?
I think mostly that it is a start. It's no secret that gaming on Linux is not an option if you want to play the big ones. In recent months a lot more games have been made linux compatible and only more will come. Getting this out there so that people can start to see linux as a viable alternative to windows and not just the domain of "nerds" but an actual platform to play games on is crucial. Who better to do that than the guys with the biggest game library in one place on the internet? Gabe Newell also makes it no secret that he loves linux and wants to see it take off as an option for gamers.
This is also a beta, and is not recommended unless you already know how to work in Linux distro's fairly well. I havent looked into it too much, but I am hoping there was some mention of being able to boot as a LiveCD like normal? Id love to just play around with it a bit but dont want to go through the hassle of installing it somewhere just for a day. It looks like many major companies are moving towards linux compatibility, and this OS is a major step to allow that to happen. Next year it may be possible we will see a release of BF5 on Linux as well, and maybe a port of BF4 too. Whether it will be released on SteamOS or just a general linux release I dont know. EA is not eager to put their games into Valve's system that is for sure.
Gabe started to rag on Windows because he was worried about the Windows Store baked into 8 would smoosh Steam out of the picture like Internet Explorer kicked Netscape to the curb. All of that "windows 8 is terrible for games" stems from that...and it didn't happen. (and, frankly I don't see why he was ever worried) I don't think EA would really have much of a problem being compatible with SteamOS from a business standpoint (assuming there's enough StOS penetration for them to want to make ports) as long as they don't have to go through Valve's distribution systems. Origin for SteamOS: bam done. As far as what I mean by not intended as PC-replacement. The thing apparently doesn't include things like a file manager or image viewer...as it's linux you can add those things, but if they want it to be beyond the nerds as a desktop OS that wouldn't be sufficient.
Hm so u could stream ur games from ur main box ? That's an interesting option !! No need to build 2 $$$ PCs then whenever u wanna play those big picture friendly games on ur TV (like Tomb Raider / Skytim / borderlands 2 / AC5, whatever...). It's for sure tho that playing a total war on the couch on ur TV will give u back pain, headache, neck strain, cramps, etc... Same for BF4... Games streaming is a very very nice option if it works well. Can't wait to try this.