Valve’s SteamOS Beta Available for Download

Valve, the company behind popular gaming platform “Steam“, has released the first public beta version of its much awaited operating system “SteamOS” codename “alchemist”.

“SteamOS” is a linux-based operating system which is based on Debian 7 (codename Debian Wheezy) code. SteamOS team has developed the OS by optimizing Debian 7 code for a better living room experience. As expected SteamOS comes bundled with Steam client program. SteamOS has been designed to run Steam and Steam games but you can also run your regular Linux applications by using its desktop mode. Almost all Debian packages will work fine in SteamOS.

SteamOS comes preinstalled with Gnome desktop environment and you can download and install any desired software similar to other Linux distributions. But first you’ll need to enable desktop mode using Steam settings.

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Currently Microsoft Windows games and software don’t work in SteamOS but future builds of SteamOS will support streaming of games from Windows computers.

SteamOS Hardware Requirements:

  • Processor: Intel or AMD 64-bit capable processor
  • Memory: 4GB or more
  • Hard Disk space: 500GB or more
  • Video Card: NVIDIA graphics card (AMD and Intel graphics support coming soon)
  • Additional: UEFI boot support and USB port for installation

Please keep in mind that SteamOS is a beta product and its development has not been finished yet. So you should only install it for testing purposes. Since its under testing, some hardware may not been supported yet.

You can install SteamOS in 2 ways:

  • Default installation
  • Custom installation

Default installation is recommended method by SteamOS team. It installs a pre-configured image of SteamOS. Custom installation method uses Debian installer to install the OS. This method allows you to customize SteamOS installation.

Interested people can download and test the OS using following links:

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In direct download links page, you’ll see following 2 setup files: SteamOSInstaller.zip and SYSRESTORE.zip. “SteamOSInstaller.zip” file is used for custom installation and “SYSRESTORE.zip” file is used for default installation type.

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Published in: Software

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. How difficult will it be to uninstall this? In other Linux distros their boot menu has been hard to get rid of.

  2. I would install this to my computer (I have leftover space from a previous Linux installation) but the SteamOS installation cleans everything from the computer, so it’s obviously meant to be used as a standalone OS. That, and I need a 1TB USB disk. The biggest USB disk I have is a 32GB one.

  3. This is basically a Debian distro with Steam Big Picture client installed on top of it.
    Everything’s pretty similar to what you can get on Steam Big Picture mode on Windows.
    Not worth the hassle.

  4. Can this be installed on a virtual machine e.g. VMware Workstation or any other? What I noticed…its not an .iso bootable file like a regular Linux or Windows bootable disc. I don’t know if VMware Workstation or any other can can use this package install! If anyone can help I’d really appreciate it very much.

  5. @Addy &inverness
    Its True that It Has Quite Hefty Requirements Considering its Still a Linux Distribution. Then Again, This Linix Build is Specially Optimized for a Total Gaming Environment as Present Day Games Require More Juice from Our PCs, Thus the High-End Reqs. Also, This OS will Come on Valve’s New Console – The “Steam Machine”, which are Scheduled to Launch on First Week of January, 2014. I Think PS4 and Xbox One will Face Quite Tough Competition! Let’s See Where this All Goes!

  6. @ViditM14
    Actually if there’s someone who will face some tough competition, it’s the Steam Machine. Take note that there’ll be different configurations of Steam Machine and that’ll cause confusion among developers and consumers.

    Additionally, the power consumption of a typical Steam Machine is three times greater than PS4/Xbox One’s power consumption and game consoles have longer lifespan compared to gaming PCs where the maximum lifespan you’ll get on it is at least 3-4 years while consoles are usually supported by up to 10 years by developers.

  7. @ViditM14
    And just like to add up that the starting price of a Steam Machine is twice the price of PS4/Xbox One and it may get even higher depending on the configuration.

  8. U guys stupid or what? of course u need 4gb ram and a gpu why else would u install a pure gaming linux distro on ur system
    my advice stay away from it if u are a noob with a single core 32bit cpu with 2gb ram and no gpu
    this is the heights of stupidity

  9. @guenn
    steam machine will have support coz its parts are gonna be easily replaceable and even my pentium 4 paired with a nvidia 8600GT is still a decent pc to play modern games though its only a spare pc for me
    i have newer gaming pcs too but they all can play the same games but with different settings
    my point being steam machine doesnt need 10 years of developer support coz all games are playable on any pc with a decent or older config too

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