Gabe Newell confirms release of SteamBox, likely with Linux OS
 

http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/8/37...room-steam-box
If that thing really runs Linux these are very good news for Linux gamers.

If it's Ubuntu based, then they could just set the Unity shopping lens to search Steam instead of Amazon ;)

I just read that and came here to expect the house to be on fire. If that's true it would be amazing news for desktop linux.
It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me when I heard that they were porting steam to linux. Didn't seem like an effort worth making - economically, however: If your plan all along was to make your own console and expecting that a competing company wouldn't just hand you over the Operating system to run on it for any reasonable price, it makes sense that they would at least look at linux as a potential candidate. If only as a strategical move to get a better deal for a windows license on it... which as a half-empty guy I kinda feel that that's what's happening, but I'd love to be wrong!