14 DAY TRIAL // Valve has announced that it's planning to release its Linux-based SteamOS on December 13, along with the first shipment of Steam Machines.
A small portion of the gaming community, 300 Steam users from the United States, will be receiving a Beta version of this new hardware product, Steam Machine.
It's sold as a PC / console hybrid and will run an operating system that is very similar to the Big Screen in the regular Steam client.
“SteamOS will be made available when the prototype hardware ships. It will be downloadable by individual users and commercial OEMs. (But unless you’re an intrepid Linux hacker already, we’re going to recommend that you wait until later in 2014 to try it out,” reads the official announcement from Valve.
This means that, even if you will be able to install SteamOS just like any regular distribution, it's not yet ready to be used by the average user and it will need a lot of work before it becomes more friendly.
Stay tuned for the official download links, which should be up soon.