[Gambas-user] SteamOS and GAMBAS

[Kevin Fishburne]

Valve just released the first beta of SteamOS, a Debian Wheezy-based 
distro which runs the Steam client in Big Picture mode (designed for 
televisions). SteamOS is Valve's attempt to circumvent the walled 
gardens that are Microsoft Windows and Apple iOS/OSX and allow the 
digital distribution of their games though Steam independent of a 
locked-down OS. Their plan is to allow third party OEMs and VARs to 
install SteamOS onto "steamboxes", which essentially are HTPCs (PCs 
designed for the living room). Valve is developing their own custom 
input devices (gamepads, etc.) for the OS and are pushing game 
development studios hard to port past and future games to Linux so they 
may be distributed through SteamOS.

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/12/14/0045211/valve-releases-debian-based-steamos-beta

I'm downloading the ISO now to test it in a VM:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:1e4dae83371ba704d5d89e1828068ef0c4151e32&dn=SteamOSInstaller.zip&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80%2Fannounce

http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/download/?ver=default

Currently GAMBAS can't run on iOS, OSX, Windows, Android or any game 
console OSs (PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, etc.). There is a strong possibility, 
especially if we contact Valve head Gabe Newell directly, that GAMBAS 
will be able to run on SteamOS with GAMBAS applications being 
distributed through Steam. I think it would be a serious mistake to let 
this opportunity slip by while SteamOS is still in beta. It's a very 
rare opportunity to increase the potential install base of GAMBAS 
applications that we may not see again.

One glaring issue however may be GAMBAS's required packages and 
dependencies. SteamOS is basically a console OS, meaning it is expected 
to work the same way throughout its lifespan with the exception of 
Valve-tested updates. I doubt Valve would allow an application to 
arbitrarily install packages. Is there a way to package a GAMBAS 
application such that all the dependencies and libraries are stored with 
the application and not installed system-wide? It would be like a 
Windows application having all it's DLLs stored in its installation 
directory, ignoring the Windows system DLLs.

Anyway, I'd like to hear everyone's opinion on this. I'm pretty damn 
excited!

-- 
Kevin Fishburne
Eight Virtues
www: http://sales.eightvirtues.com
e-mail: sales at ...1887...
phone: (770) 853-6271