Valve have announced that they are working on a new operating system specifically for their new Steambox gaming machine. This will be based on the Linux kernel; but with new components that will create a new OS for gaming. Will this make Windows obsolete? I wonder. It would be good if Valve would re-make the engine for the original Half Life so that it supported modern computers. That game had the best artificial intelligence and very good level design. Valve are also asking the coders of the ATI and Nvida drivers to lift their game and put more effort into coding the drivers for Linux. That would be a benefit for all Linux users, even if you are just a desktop user that wants to use compositing and some 3D modelling. But a large company like Valve that gave us Half Life 2 should be able to support Linux. It is more secure and usable than Windows right now. The Windows 8.1 search and GUI is abominable. Better to use the Linux Mint or Fedora distributions. They come with the MATE desktop. There are some lovely GTK themes available. That is why Mint is the most popular desktop.
I am assuming that this SteamOS will have a special GUI that is suited to the role of a lounge room PC. But playing games on Linux is the future. The enhancements that Valve want for the Linux desktop will benefit everyone.