<p>On Monday, the developer responsible for possibly the most critically acclaimed video games of the modern era Half-Life and Half-Life 2 announced that it was building its own Linux-based operating system to deliver PC games to the living room. Tomorrow, Valve is widely expected to announce hardware as well, possibly creating a new class of low-cost computers with small form factors that you can play from your couch using a wireless controller. In short, Valve is building a game console.</p><p>Valve pulls an Android</p><p>However, the box itself might not be the most interesting part. Valve is also laying the groundwork for a gaming ecosystem to support it, freely distributing its so-called "SteamOS" to any person or any manufacturer who wants to load it onto their hardware. If that strategy sounds familiar, it might be that you've seen it before. Over the past five years, Google used the very same idea to put Android on the vast majority of the world's smartphones flanking Microsoft's attempts to keep marketshare in that space.</p><p>Now, SteamOS has the potential to challenge Microsoft where it hurts. Valve is not only taking on the Xbox, but also attacking on a more surprising front: the Windows PC business. If SteamOS and its promise of living room PC gaming take off, that could cut into Microsoft's biggest purse. PC sales are already drastically down, and neither consumers nor companies have embraced Windows 8 the way that Microsoft hoped. Now, under the guise of a console, Valve could end up sneaking copies of Linux into gaming households. Once there, some of those users might discover that Linux does everything they need from a computer after all. This could be a window of opportunity for Linux like never before.</p><p><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/24/4766874/valve-steam-os-threatens-windows">Keep reading...</a></p>