Comment by mort96

Comment by mort96 2 days ago

If it's going to be primarily a gaming device then that makes sense, but if not, what do you gain from SteamOS? And why do you want Steam to start on boot?

I use Fedora for this purpose, used to use Debian. You really just need a system with a web browser, file browser, media player and torrent client, and some way to remote control the computer from the couch (ideally from a phone).

Sadly, I don't know of any nice off the shelf solution for that last part. KDE Connect is an option but it kinda sucks. I've always had my own Remote Desktop web interface service type thing running on the machine (though Wayland has kinda thrown a wrench into that for now...)

lunias 2 days ago

> some way to remote control the computer from the couch (ideally from a phone)

If you use Kodi then you could try Kore (their remote app). I tried it once a long time ago and it was alright, but it's hard to beat a keyboard. I think similar apps exist for VLC and other media players, but I haven't looked into a solution that allows controlling the entire computer via a phone.

Reply View 1 reply

mort96 2 days ago

The huge problem with Kodi is that it requires playing media from within Kodi. The advantage of using a PC for this is that it works with anything you can play from a PC, regardless of whether someone has made an app for it for Apple TV or Samsung's smart TV stuff or Kodi.
You need to be able to provide keyboard and mouse input from a phone. Not just control Kodi or VLC.

Reply View | 0 replies

threetonesun 2 days ago

You can add any applications to Steam's Big Picture mode and the UI is relatively couch friendly. Yes, you could install Steam on any distro and do this but SteamOS is pretty nice out of the box if you want a TV friendly solution.

Reply View 3 replies

mort96 2 days ago

Steam Big Picture is very couch friendly, if you're using a game pad and what you're launching supports a game pad. That's why it works for a couch gaming PC. Firefox has pretty bad gamepad support last I checked.

Reply View | 2 replies
- threetonesun a day ago
  
  It's been a while since I've had to customize it much but I believe the Steam overlay allows you to map controller inputs to anything, uniquely for every given app you run through it.
  That said, at some point I think yes, you just get a bluetooth mouse/keyboard to go with it.
  
  Reply View | 1 reply
  
  mort96 7 hours ago
  
  And how well have you been able to get this to work with Firefox?
  
  Reply View | 0 replies

alistairSH 2 days ago

I use a Logitech K400 BT keyboard+touchpad for remote control of a PC I have connected to my TV. But, it's not used as a streaming device - it's a file share + home automation hub, so the keyboard makes sense.

Reply View 0 replies