Steam OS to have limited functionality with no outside programs

The Steam OS and Steam Machine prototypes will soon be sent out to people all over the globe and Engadget has recently got a hands on with the console and the operating system that it will be using. They have said that anyone who uses the “Big Picture” mode on Steam at the minute will feel right at home on the Steam OS as it all looks exactly the same. The OS is built off Linux and it won’t be built off Ubuntu, but it will be entirely custom made. That of course means that it will have the limitations of Steam and you it won’t be a replacement for Windows 8, if anyone ever believed it would be that is. There are very little standard OS functions other than being able to browse the web. There is no sort of file browser or image viewer of sorts, it is just the big picture style operating system and that is it. The Steam machine will be very much a beasty PC inside of a games console, and that is awesome. If it sells for a decent enough price then I can see myself actually ripping the parts out of it to build an entirely new PC, as some of those components inside of it aren’t cheap. To read more about the hands on, head over to Engadget.