Valve has the resources; it's more a issue of internal commitment, which I agree they don't seem willing to make. To make SteamOS a serious contender to NXE Dashboard or CellOS they'd need to:
* Develop a XrossMediaBar like UI
* Devote resources to Wayland or Mir to reach production quality
* Create a new audio subsystem, or bring OSS v4 up to date for Linux
If I heard something like Valve dedicating 5 programmers on Wayland and 2 on OSS, SteamBox could be a serious contender for my next console purchase.
They don't really need Wayland right now, and OSS isn't required for gaming on Linux. I've been pretty happy with xorg + pulseaudio + alsa and their Steam for Linux client. I've been surprised at the quality this early in the game.
I'm still a bit amazed that they've released a Steam for Linux client that works as well as it does, and that they are iterating and improving it so quickly. They've done everything right so far, let's see where it goes.
According to an X11 dev, Daniel Stone, Wayland reduces the latency and eliminates tearing issues associated with X11.[1] This is exactly the kind of upgrade to Linux that will make SteamBox a viable alternative to PS4.
As far as audio goes, PulseAudio is fine for playing music, but a real PITA for many hardcore gamers[2][3] including myself. I found latency was terrible with Wine + PA and later saw the developers had an issue with PA too.[4]
I've been playing native and Wine game on Linux with for about 6 years now and by far the best experience I had was with OSS4 and my old SB Live. When I eventually "upgraded" to ALSA, I immediately noticed some latency in games like OpenArena.
I'd think that maybe this issue was just me, accept Steam said in their announcement, they were "targeting audio performance". If they do put some resources to clean up the linux audio subsystem, it will be a win for us all.
What's wrong with Big Picture? It's very usable and has replaced XBMC as the primary interface on my HTPC. It's already almost as functional as any console or media center's interface, all it really needs is a system settings area.
* Develop a XrossMediaBar like UI
* Devote resources to Wayland or Mir to reach production quality
* Create a new audio subsystem, or bring OSS v4 up to date for Linux
If I heard something like Valve dedicating 5 programmers on Wayland and 2 on OSS, SteamBox could be a serious contender for my next console purchase.