SteamOS is what you might call an escape valve.<p>Valve make their money from selling games. Microsoft now have a store of their own. If Microsoft ever decide that they&#x27;re the one legitimate way of selling Windows apps and turn Windows into a locked platform, then Valve are dead overnight. Having SteamOS gives them an option which is not beholden to anyone else. I&#x27;m not sure if the Steam Machine is ever going to be a viable console competitor, but doing it this way is a relatively cheap approach to gradually attempting to do that.