SteamOS, Steam Link, and Steam Controller

[Welly Wu]

OK. So I bought into the whole SteamOS, Steam Link, and Steam Controller thingie big time and if you're expecting another typical thread of mine where I practice my usual odd traits, then I'm about to throw cold water on your face and slap you hard.

It sucks.

SteamOS is not fully baked in yet. The user interface is decent, but it's clunky. This is not Sony's PlayStation or Microsoft's XBOX for the PC. It's much worse. Navigating through it is like pulling teeth from a baby tiger. Compounding upon this problem, the Steam Link is also not fully baked in yet either. It recognizes my Sager laptop running Ubuntu 15.10, but it does not see my ZaReason Zeto desktop at all. Mind you, Ubuntu Linux 12.04 and up are supported. No idea why this is happening, but my desktop costs way more than my laptop and it does not work with Steam Link. The Steam Controller is odd. I'm used to the Microsoft XBOX 360 controller and it's intuitive and smooth to use. On the other hand, the Steam Controller is completely customizable and it is a pain to learn how to reprogram for each SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC game that I own. There are so many community submitted custom profiles for each title that it's overwhelming and it is a game unto itself to try to figure out which person who submitted a specific set of controls for the Steam Controller best suits the individual title itself. I'm using Gigabit Ethernet connections throughout my PCs and I have Verizon FiOS Quantum 150/150 MB/s Internet and it's slow as molasses on an icy January day. There are a lot of delays and lag and slowness all around. I have a Hisense 40" Roku HDTV and I use a HDMI 2.0 cable. Technically, I meet or exceed the recommended PC hardware and software requirements, but the whole platform itself is just not ready for prime time.

The biggest problem is the SteamOS UI. I just don't like it or care for it at all. It makes connecting social media accounts a pain in the butt. It's a pain in the **** trying to navigate through it because I have such a large Steam PC game library. The other major problem is that it is very challenging and difficult to get the Steam Link to work with both my desktop and laptop PCs. In order to get any hope of making the connection, I have to install beta software for the Steam Link firmware and the beta versions of the Steam desktop client on both my desktop and laptop PCs. The real trick is getting the one time PIN code to enter successfully into the Steam desktop client on my Sager laptop. I had to try at least 25 times to get the PIN code to be accepted before I could finally connect it to my Steam Link using beta software. Another significant problem is the delay and lag. It feels like SteamOS, Steam Link and the Steam Controller are out of tune with one another and everything is in super slow motion. Performance is bad at best. Playing SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC games is atrocious. I have a fairly modern and high end Sager laptop which I described in another thread here at Ubuntu Forums. It plays like a slow tortoise using SteamOS, Steam Link, and Steam Controller. My desktop doesn't connect at all. I think I might have to upgrade to Ubuntu 15.10 64 bit GNU/Linux just to get it to work. Why should I have to do this?

This is a terrible platform that will sink all current and future strategic business plans for Valve Corporation. It's poorly designed and very poorly executed. While not terribly expensive products, the amount of time wasted trying to fix these problems cost me more than what I paid which is roughly $100.00 USD for both the Steam Link and Controller combined.

Avoid.

[Welly Wu]

On my Steam Controller, there is a button with the Steam icon on located near the top. When I press it, it just turns on the Steam Controller without launching the Steam desktop client on my Sager laptop.

My friend Vincent V. owns both a Sony Playstation 3 and 4. He can press a single button to turn it on and be playing video games in under a minute.

I don't understand why Valve Corporation did not see it fit to include this most basic feature on the Steam Controller and Link.

The other problem that I have with the Steam Link and Steam Controller is that it crashes quite a bit. I can be in the middle of playing a SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC game and the game terminates itself randomly.

Finally, the last major problem with this platform is that it only plays SteamOS PC games. Sure, Valve Corporation is all in on this platform, but why not let it play Microsoft Windows PC games as well? Once you get the Steam Link, you're pretty much glued to SteamOS entirely. This was another stupid strategic decision on the company's part.

Sure, all of these problems will go away eventually on Valve Time. I've heard that one years ago.

[Welly Wu]

My understanding based upon more intense research is that these are software bugs that need to be fixed through regular patches and updates in the future which is why Valve Corporation strongly recommends using the beta quality version of their firmware and software code to receive faster updates for customers. I am thinking that I will need to upgrade my ZaReason Zeto desktop to Ubuntu 15.10 64 bit GNU/Linux sometime in the near future or I can wait for Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux and just hope that it will just work with my Steam Link and Controller.

It's not the fault of my hardware. My desktop and laptop are modern and powerful enough to run SteamOS. The Steam Link and Controller do work. It's just that this is a first generation lineup of products and the software code has yet to be improved and optimized later down the road.

Don't get the impression that the SteamOS, Steam Link, and Steam Controller are faulty pieces of hardware. Valve Corporation should clearly state that Ubuntu 15.10 64 bit GNU/Linux is required to get it to work with the Steam Link and Controller.

I think that I will keep these products and keep them up to date. This is still a relatively novel idea and it is interesting to me on its own technical merits and future promise. That's what I plan to do anyway.

[Welly Wu]

I'm upgrading my ZaReason Zeto desktop PC to Ubuntu 15.10 64 bit GNU/Linux gradually. I just hope that it doesn't make my desktop PC explode in my bedroom. If the upgrades are successful, then I will try to connect the Steam Link to my desktop PC again. Fingers crossed. Last time I heard someone say those words, something bad happened.

[Welly Wu]

The upgrade failed. I had to reinstall Ubuntu 14.04.3 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux from scratch again. I think that I'll try this some other time to upgrade to Ubuntu 15.10 64 bit GNU/Linux.

[Welly Wu]

Late last night, I reinstalled Ubuntu 15.10 on my ZaReason Zeto along with my favorite software. This time, my Steam Link will connect to my desktop PC and I can play SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC games on my Hisense 40" Roku HDTV. I can also stream my SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC games onto my Sager laptop as a nice bonus which I did not expect. I plan to upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux on my desktop and laptop after April 21st, 2016 and stick with it for the next two years or so. Hopefully, the upgrade will be successful this time around, but I will download the ISO file and create two Ubuntu startup disks and a DVD-R disc just in case I need to do another clean installation again. Streaming SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC games from my desktop PC is wonderful as there is very little lag and it is more than powerful enough to run almost any SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC game at ultra graphics settings at well over 60 fps.

[Welly Wu]

I figured out by enabling hardware encoding and prioritizing network traffic features in Steam's In Home Streaming feature that these two things dramatically improve the speed and performance of the Steam Link and SteamOS PC gaming experience. By enabling these features, all of my previous criticisms of this platform and these products are mostly eliminated by now. SteamOS performs much better and PC game play is very significantly improved as a direct result. It is now possible to emulate the SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC gaming experience on my desktop or laptop on my Hisense 40" Roku HDTV. It is a lot of fun to be able to play SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC games on a big screen HDTV using the wireless Steam Controller from the comfort of my bedroom. I am happy and content with these products now. I do recommend them with some reservations to other fellow Ubuntu users for their consideration. This is a fairly low cost way to utilize your SteamOS + GNU/Linux desktop or laptop PC and bring it to your bedroom or living room. Just be sure to download and install the latest beta firmware and version of the Steam Link and desktop client and do be sure to use Ubuntu 15.10 64 bit GNU/Linux or higher for maximum compatibility and performance. Don't forget to turn on hardware encoding and prioritize network traffic within the Steam In Home Streaming feature.

[Welly Wu]

There are times when I wished that I bought two Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 bit product keys and ditched GNU/Linux altogether. SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC gaming can be an incredibly mixed bag at times. A very small number of new PC game titles are released for Microsoft Windows and SteamOS simultaneously each year and it tends to be the case that the GNU/Linux port is either a hit or miss. More often than not, GNU/Linux PC gamers have to wait a longer period of time for a specific game developer to target SteamOS + GNU/Linux for a specific title months or even years after it has already been released for Microsoft Windows. I also noticed that a lot of the current SteamOS + GNU/Linux PC game titles are new ports of very old Microsoft Windows PC games that were released several years ago. The other thing to keep in mind is that the quality of each port varies greatly depending upon each title. In general, PC gaming performance suffers when a SteamOS + GNU/Linux title is ported over finally compared to Microsoft Windows 10 and DirectX 11.2 or 12. You'll lose a lot of key features and performance by playing the SteamOS + GNU/Linux version. You won't get nearly as much content either. It's more of a feeble attempt by a game developer to get extra copies sold to us GNU/Linux PC gamers down the road in order to milk us dry of our money.

This is the golden age for Microsoft Windows PC gamers and things have never looked better in terms of hardware products and software titles. The sheer amount of cutting edge hardware never seems to end if your bank account is big enough. There are literally several thousands if not a few tens of thousands of old and new PC game titles available for Microsoft Windows customers. Hardware and software compatibility issues still do exist, but most of the stuff just works the first time with a little bit of Googling and some hacking of Microsoft Windows .ini files or the registry hacks.

I have thought about switching back to Microsoft Windows 10 Pro on my desktop and laptop for quite some time now. What's holding me back are the horror stories that I read on various Facebook PC Master Race or Gaming pages and groups that I joined. When using any Microsoft hardware or software product, service, or subscription, a million things can go wrong and they often do. It's gotten so ridiculous that blaming the end user is useless.

This is why I have stuck it out with Ubuntu 64 bit GNU/Linux because it makes PC gaming a bit easier and simpler. For Valve Corporation and SteamOS to succeed, we need more people like myself and others to get behind GNU/Linux PC gaming and to attract more attention and interest by both hardware manufacturers and software developers to make products and services catered to us. Quitting now would be a bad move that only reinforces the Microsoft monopoly over the PC industry worldwide. I expect that SteamOS + GNU/Linux to become a force to be reckoned with in due time, but that may be several years in the future. For now, we are like a brand new startup company and we're getting our feet under us as an alternative PC gamer crowd worldwide. The beauty of Linux PC gaming is that I can focus on playing the PC game titles that I own or will own in the future without worrying or messing around with Microsoft Windows issues at large as showstoppers.

[Welly Wu]

1. https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3629-RIAV-1617

I found this helpful Steam guide on which specific UDP and TCP network ports to open up in my Ubuntu Uncomplicated Firewall and I entered these exceptions into my desktop and laptop:

sudo ufw allow in 27031/udp
sudo ufw allow in 27036/udp
sudo ufw allow in 27036/tcp
sudo ufw allow in 27037/tcp
sudo ufw enable

Now, both my desktop and laptop can connect to my Steam Link without any problems and do so reliably each time. Now, I have mastered the Steam In Home Streaming network and Steam Link connectivity issues. My next goal is to learn how to program my Steam Controller. Slowly but surely, I am getting the hang of these new Steam hardware devices and it's becoming easier to use SteamOS on my HDTV. It's coming along quite nicely. It's been a learning process so far, but I am gaming on my HDTV a little bit with each nugget of information that I learn. I find that the SteamOS PC gaming experience to be much improved after all of the information that I learned thus far. This totally smokes a Sony PlayStation or Microsoft XBOX console system by a long shot.

Now, I do recommend the Steam Link and Controller for anyone that wants to go the do it yourself route and build your own SteamOS gaming desktop or laptop. I don't think that Ubuntu 15.10 64 bit GNU/Linux is a prerequisite, but it does help to use the latest Ubuntu 64 bit GNU/Linux desktop operating system version at the current time just to rule out software compatibility issues. I do plan to upgrade my desktop and laptop to Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux on April 21st, 2016 or thereafter one at a time and stick with it until the next major Ubuntu 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux version is released sometime in April 2018.

SteamOS is growing on me. There are still a lot of unexplained little technical issues with the Steam Controller that need to be worked on at the moment, but it is usable. I feel that there are a lot of improvements that still need to be worked on with regard to the SteamOS platform as a whole, but I am happy and content with it so far. This is not wasted time or money for me and the learning process has been fairly shallow and quick to overcome.

This means that I can still get the benefits of the powerful Ubuntu Uncomplicated Firewall and Netfilter firewall while being able to use my Steam Link and Controller. It's the best of both worlds thus far.

[mastablasta]

but, Steam OS is based on Debian not Ubuntu.