Considering that System76 chose to unveil its new design plans to The Linux Gamer — no invite went to FOSS Force, BTW — we can’t help but wonder if a System76 Steam Machine isn’t in the works.
The Screening Room
Gardiner Bryant, famed Linux gamer in Maine, recently produced this interesting video hinting at upcoming new Linux hardware from System 76.
System76 already has a large fan base in the open source world. My place of work (public library) buys System76 laptops. It’ll be interesting to see this company grow its market share with its new computer designs.
For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.
We lack pre installed x86 GNU/Linux tablets
And there is not here yet an affordable enough x86-64 SoC or CPU – GPU combo to make a console price Steam Machine able to at least run at 720p AAA games.
Perhaps AMD can make a good SoC for the Steam Machines in terms of price performance or Intel can make a good Intel + Radeon combo, but until then Steam Machines will not be able to compete with MS and Sony consoles in store sells.
I am always thankful for companies making Linux machines- Dell, for instance will pre-load Ubuntu on a new machine.
The problem I have with System76 is their prices- I mean I can go buy a quad core i5 Intel machine- or even a dual core i7 from the local computer recycler for half the price of a basic system from them new.