Valve is a juggernaut in gaming thanks to Steam, the dominant online marketplace for PC games, and we’ve been excited to see the result of its hardware efforts since we first caught wind of its mythical PC console back in 2012. When we eventually sat down with CEO Gabe Newell, he outlined an exciting vision for the future: a gaming PC with all of Steam’s killer features that would be as convenient and comfortable to use on the couch as a console.

The company got off to a fine start. Big Picture mode makes the PC more television-friendly with large text and easy-to-navigate menus. And its unique controller, coming in October, merges the traditional video game controller with the precision of a mouse. Those two things with a little polish might be enough — but Valve’s long-term vision is a PC gaming world without Windows, and that makes things complicated.

Valve's long-term vision is a PC gaming world without Windows

The official Steam Machines run SteamOS, which is basically Linux with Steam’s Big Picture Mode. Even though Valve is working to bring more games to Linux, most popular titles aren’t available for it yet, and there’s really no reliable way to predict which games will be supported in the future. Of the top 10 games you can buy on Steam right now, only one, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. There’s no Grand Theft Auto 5, or Skyrim, or DayZ. Hell, you can’t even play games that are compatible with Linux but aren’t on Steam, which includes Blizzard’s popular catalog. If you care about playing anything relatively new and popular, the Xbox One, PS4, Wii, and Windows-based PCs are all clearly superior options. And games aren’t the only compatibility problem. If Valve and HTC’s virtual reality headset is anything like the Oculus Rift, it’ll need powerful hardware, and it’s possible lower-end Steam Machines won’t support it.