Valve has pulled the curtains down today on how the company is planning to bring Steam to the living room, and it's doing so via a new operating system called SteamOS. The operating system "combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen." Valve plans to make the OS available soon as a free stand-alone OS for living room devices.

With SteamOS installed on a living room machine, users will be able to carry their games, online friends, and Steam features to the television.

Read more here: http://www.gametrailers.com/side-mission/62035/valves-announcement-today-is-the-steamos

I'm a little disappointed.  I was thinking that they were going to announce the SteamBox.  How is a SteamOS going to be any better than if I just built me a dedicated HTPC running Win7 giving me the access to my Steam library as well as all of my other Win7 apps that I would have on there.

So, build a box and load SteamOS on it to run my Steam library, or build a box and load Win7 to run my Steam, Origin, and productivity apps?

I'm not seeing how the SteamOS is adding any value.

Edit: I just noticed the last sentence of the article - The second of three announcements will be made on Wednesday, September 25 at 10 am PT.

Maybe the SteamBox is still in the works!

I think they kinda sorta are. They keep saying that once steam is running as usual on your PC, you can stream it to the "Steam OS machine". Nowhere are they saying what that specific hardware actually is. Doesnt mention consoles , tablets, anything.  

Steambox probably is the next announcement. Lots of speculation on reddit right now about what the next two announcements are but I'm thinking that Valve will either produce or have another company produce several 'levels' of steambox. A low end that streams from your main computer to offset performance, a mid that can play lower end games without assistance, and a high that will be essentially a gaming pc in a steambox package.

More speculation here: http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/09/valve-steamos/

With the next gen consoles being priced up into the stratosphere, I'm hoping that Valve will keep the pricepoint of the SteamBox ?$200 or even less.

It would be cool if they come out with a box in the vein of a Roku that did the Steam streaming AND Roku style TV apps as well.  Heck, affix a BD player on it and it would rule the home theater in my house!