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Add to SafariWhen comparing Plasma Bigscreen vs SteamOS, the Slant community recommends SteamOS for most people. In the question“What is the best set-top box OS?” SteamOS is ranked 10th while Plasma Bigscreen is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose SteamOS is:
The OS natively supports Nvidia, Intel, and AMD graphics processors.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Runs on cheap hardware
You can make any TV a smart TV with only a Raspberry Pi.
Pro A free (as in freedom) alternative
To all the proprietary set top box operating systems.
Pro Native graphics processor support
The OS natively supports Nvidia, Intel, and AMD graphics processors.
Pro Streaming service integration (under development)
Valve is in talks with streaming companies such as Spotify and Netflix to bring their features to SteamOS.
Pro For entertainment, it just works
What media center software do for videos, it does for games (and later videos).
Cons
Con Uses KDE applications
There are no Apps designed for the system, instead it modifies the way regular KDE applications are displayed.
Con GNU GPL
This License is much more restrictive than Androids Apache license, which will lead to less developers/interest.
Con Hard to install
If you've installed Arch you're probably fine, but for those used to simple installs like (Ubuntu to name just one) you should prepare some patience, determination, and painkillers. Good news is, it's getting better (it's very young).
Con Not built around the desktop experience
SteamOS is, first and foremost, meant to act as a gaming console - it doesn't ship with even some of the most basic applications, such as a file manager or image viewer. As a result, using SteamOS as your primary operating system would require a fair bit of work.
