I had an alienware Steam Machine and it was perfectly fine.
I think the criticisms of the Steam Machine suffered from what I would call the Verge Syndrome, which is only being able to comprehend things in a binary of instant success or failure, with no in between and no comprehension of other definitions of success.
Steam Machines were a low risk initiative that were fine for what the were. They did not have a ring of death, they didn’t have a blue screen, the OS itself was not glitchy, they didn’t lose money, and they didn’t fail any stated goals. They got the Proton ecosystem up and running, and got the ball rolling on hardware partnerships, which led to the smash success of the Steam Deck which would not have been otherwise possible.
I am sure they were fine machines. I don’t think they were profitable for Valve (that is what I meant with “not worked out well”). On the other hand, the Steamdeck might not exist without the Steam Machines, so maybe I am wrong and it did work out well.
Didn’t work out that well last time. But Valve got a lot better with Hardware since then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Machine_(computer)
And the software ecosystem, much of which they have funded/developed. In 2015, there was no proton, no DXVK, no vkd3d, and most important, no Vulkan.
True. Better allaround.
I had an alienware Steam Machine and it was perfectly fine.
I think the criticisms of the Steam Machine suffered from what I would call the Verge Syndrome, which is only being able to comprehend things in a binary of instant success or failure, with no in between and no comprehension of other definitions of success.
Steam Machines were a low risk initiative that were fine for what the were. They did not have a ring of death, they didn’t have a blue screen, the OS itself was not glitchy, they didn’t lose money, and they didn’t fail any stated goals. They got the Proton ecosystem up and running, and got the ball rolling on hardware partnerships, which led to the smash success of the Steam Deck which would not have been otherwise possible.
I am sure they were fine machines. I don’t think they were profitable for Valve (that is what I meant with “not worked out well”). On the other hand, the Steamdeck might not exist without the Steam Machines, so maybe I am wrong and it did work out well.