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Updated the post to note a small change in the text Valve did after publishing.

@ampersandrew I doubt this is something that would be sold bundled with a PC in Walmart like that, since you have to think of the audience.

Your average Walmart PC buyer just wants something that can play games, they're not thinking of Microsoft's tracking, or the slight performance gains from not having Windows' overhead.

I do think Steam would probably make an easy-to-use tool for flashing it to a USB drive so anyone can retroactively install it anywhere, though.

@boltx You know, more and more, I suspect average people are getting fed up with X, Y, or Z in the modern Windows experience and still want to play games. It's a tough hill to climb if they're interested in going after that market though, I agree.

@ampersandrew Not to mention that gaming often isn't the primary or sole purpose of computers people are buying. They want to use a web browser, or do some video editing, or maybe just have general office-type products for document work.

That's technically possible on SteamOS, but by its very nature, it's designed around gaming, so it's likely not going to fit in well with anyone who wants a general-purpose PC.

I think most average people would likely prefer dualbooting to a solely SteamOS PC.

@boltx For the people who just need a web browser and some office software, Linux has done that really well out of the box for a long time.

@ampersandrew Yes, but this isn't just "Linux," it's "Linux but specifically designed for gaming where the primary interface is a game store and where the UI is designed to be navigated by controller"

So yes, technically it can run these things, but the *interface* of the OS isn't designed for that as a core feature. It's designed primarily for gaming in every way possible, with anything else being secondary.

@boltx It's only a couple of clicks to get to desktop mode, and then it's a desktop OS. If they want that use case, they're most of the way there.

@ampersandrew That's true, but remember that the target demographic here isn't savvy linux users, it's people who want things that just work.

Linux has made big strides in this direction, but if you show a random, average person a PC, one of which has the interface they're used to, and one where they have to specifically switch to an unrecognizable desktop mode, then switch back every time they want to go between games and a browser, a lot of people will just pay for the convenience factor.

@ampersandrew I'm not saying this will never work for anyone that would otherwise pick Windows, I just don't see it being a big enough feature that it would justify having stock in store that's preloaded with an entirely separate OS from the one 99% of PC buyers are already familiar with.

The system that would be much more cost effective for in-store retailers, and provide identical functionality would be to let people choose between a PC that has a Windows licensed USB stick, or a SteamOS one.