Valve to (finally) reveal Steam Box plans next week

"There are sets of issues to making sure whatever platform you have works well in a living room environment. There are thermal issues and sound issues, but there also a bunch of input issues. So the next step in our contribution to this [the promotion of Linux for gaming] is to release some work we've done on the hardware side.

"Next week we're going to be rolling out more information about how we get there and what are the hardware opportunities we see for bringing Linux into the living room, and potentially pointing further down the road to how we can get it even more unified in mobile."

Don’t put in that pre-order just yet. This is not necessarily a pledge to have a finished console out by Christmas. Just a firmer commitment to Linux by Valve, and an incoming roadmap to the possible release of the Steam Box. Or whatever it ends up being called. Still, more gaming options are always better than less, and there’s no company better placed to more interestingly disrupt the current status quo than Valve.