I'm interested in the Steam Machine's potential to be what the Xbox One wanted to be without the bullshit.

There are some Linux apps like Jellyfin (where I watch most stuff by far) but it seems like Waydroid can fill in a lot of the Android gaps that are missing. With a TV like remote.

This would need to have the family approval factor. No hoops to jump through for the wife, just launch apps and watch.

I'm sure there are some tradeoffs specifically in the DRM camp, but the only actual potential DRM app I use is Nebula so that might be fine. I currently watch YouTube via SmartTube to circumvent ads.

Ars there other tradeoffs I'm missing?

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[–] [S] 2 points 2 days ago (3 children)

What makes you want to change to Plasma Bigscreen? I said it in another comment but one big attraction to SteamOS and/or the Machine is the low power idle state, like a regular console or streamer. Curious how other distros handle this.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 hours ago (1 child)

    I've been having similar ideas and was about to create my own thread until I found this one.

    Personally, I want to switch between Steam Big Picture Mode for gaming and Plasma Bigscreen for streaming. Unlike the other reply, I'm fine with the underlying OS being Steam OS as long as I can get it working that way.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago

    I don't really want to use Steam as a launcher. It's proprietary and not the most intuitive when it comes to navigation outside of gaming, and most of the usage will be non-Steam stuff.

    I also don't want SteamOS on my HTPC, I want something more open that does not send requests to Valve on every boot. That's fine on my Steam Deck but not on my HTPC.

    Will definitely test the power consumption and wake up on Steam Controller power on in third party distros.

    I assume the low power carries over since they did a lot of work in the kernel.

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