Gabe Newell now famously referred to Windows 8 as a "catastrophe for everyone in the PC space," which could work out great for Linux users. Based in part on fears that Microsoft will erect a walled garden around Windows 8 and lock out developers who don't want to play the Windows Store game, Valve has been hard at work trying to port Steam over to Linux, and the first beta run will kick off in October.

It's called "big picture mode," and it's how Valve intends to declare war on consoles. Launching in beta form today, big picture mode is a special interface for Steam that's more appropriate for viewing on a living room television set than the current one you see on your PC. It's Valve's answer to the walled garden approach console makers have taken with their platforms, and could be the first step towards the oft-rumored Steam Box that's talked about every so often.

For better or worse, Valve has officially decided to jump into the PC hardware business. We know as much because a job listing on Valve's website in search for an Industrial Designer spells it out in no uncertain terms, though details of the hardware project remain a secret. All we know for sure is that Valve is "frustrated by the lack of innovation in the computer hardware space," and to rectify that, the software developer is "jumping in."

Valve is forging ahead with plans to port its Steam distribution platform over to Linux and has even managed to tweak Left 4 Dead 2 to run faster on a 32-bit Ubuntu system than on a Windows 7 machine, but as far as John Carmack is concerned, the real challenge will be getting Linux users to open their wallets. Carmack, as you know, is the founder and technical director of id Software, and also an open source advocate. He's also a realist.