Valve's SteamOS will be available for individuals and OEMs on December 13th

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse#announcements/detail/1930088300965516570

Steam is coming to a new operating system

So Valve are going with their own OS. I think it's a interesting move but i'm not sure its the right one.

Still if they push it hard enough it might work. I'm guessing it's going to be a skinned Linux (probably based off Ubuntu).

It'll be interesting to see what they do about graphics driver support. Thats usually a bug bear of many linux gamers although the quality of them have come a lone way in recent years.

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

Also they have released an image of their new controller design:

It looks weird to say the least! Again it's a bit of risk as PC gaming is designed around a keyboard mouse combo.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/27/valve-steambox-announcement-3/

Steam claim Faster Zombies under Ubuntu linux...

Doesn't really sound like a fair comparisona dn there are way too many variables for a fair test but it's interesting to see they are working with hardware manufactures to improve their drivers overall for the platform. It'll be interesting to see how OpenGL keep up with a AAA grade developer on their back for new feature sets to be included in the API (OpenGL's last release was Aug 2011)... Then again Valve might even end up writing some in!

Blog post here: http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

Valve brings steam to Ubuntu Linux

Well the rumours have been going around for months so now we have an official confirmation and blog:

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/steamd-penguins/

There were also rumours about them going into hardware development so a linux derivative in a custom made console maybe coming our way in years to come. They sure as hell have the right platform for it in steam.