Microsoft’s AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, has shared his opinion after recent pushback from users online that are becoming frustrated with Copilot and AI on Windows. In a post on X, Suleyman says he’s mind blown by the fact that people are unimpressed with the ability to talk fluently with an AI computer.
His post comes after Windows president Pavan Davuluri was recently met with major backlash from users online for posting about Windows evolving into an agentic OS. His post was so negatively received that he was forced to turn off replies, though Davuluri did later respond to reassure customers that the company was aware of the feedback.
Which aspect of that confuses you? That it uses a Desktop Environment to do desktop things, or that they are using KDE Plasma instead of something else (say, gnome)?
So steamOS is in fact not an operating system it’s just a program that runs on plasma. Or is steamOS actually an operating system, but just quite a limited one, and you dual boot into plasma.
KDE Plasma is just the desktop environment. It’s not an OS. SteamOS is a full OS, built off of Arch Linux. It has both a Gaming mode, which looks a lot like Steam Big Picture does these days, and a desktop mode that uses Plasma as the graphical shell/interface. It doesn’t matter OS-wise which one you “boot” into, as both are SteamOS.
A desktop environment is just a GUI program that your computer boots into by default. SteamOS just boots into Steam Big Screen Mode by default instead, and you can launch into the desktop afterwards. Plasma is the program that Valve chose to use for their desktop environment.
If you wanted to, you could skip all this entirely and launch your games or programs directly from the terminal without ever loading into your desktop.
SteamOS is a linux distro based on Arch Linux, similar to any other. It’s a amalgamation of different pieces of software, including a traditional desktop environment (plasma). But it does not boot into the desktop mode by default, instead it boots into their own graphical environment (gamemode) by default, running their steam client.
That’s because their main focus is gaming machines, and that’s why they want gamers to be greeted with a consolized, 10-foot UI.
I think you’re confused because you think of steamOS being the UI (i.e. “Desktop Environment”) that welcomes you when you boot into it, instead steamOS is the entire package, including a “traditional” desktop environment (which is KDE Plasma), as well as their own (gamemode), etc.
A desktop environment is not a prerequisite for an operating system.
I mean it kind of is. If I have a gaming focused operating system it still needs to occasionally be able to do all the other computer things otherwise I have to have two computers or dual boot or something. If I had a console I would still need a computer, well the saying this can be all things and we can just switch from windows to this, so it also has to be able to do all of the other stuff too.
I think you’re quite confused about what an operating system actually is.
People need a system that is capable of all things, it needs to be able to run games but it also at the same time needs to be able to open the word document your manager has sent you.
If it cannot do both of those things it is not an operating system, it’s a games console. Which is a fun thing to own, but it’s not the same thing as a fully fledged computer. He fully capable operating system is necessary in order to replace a windows system. In order to replace Microsoft it has to do all of the jobs of windows, or else it will never succeed.
It’s ok to be ignorant. It’s not so great to defend rather than remedy your ignorance.
Kiddy, computer gaming existed WAY before any desktop environments. Imagine, even multiplayer online games existed before Windows 95…
Which it is, it is a fully fledged OS that runs steam in big picture mode when you start it. It also says on the page for this device that if you want you can install any OS onto it.