Bad new for Steam Machine hopefuls. Suspending and resuming applications has been an extremely beloved feature on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. This allows users to avoid long load times when starting applications. A Github user identifying themselves as an employee of Valve has claimed that this feature will not be supported by SteamOS.
Apparently the lack of support for suspending and resuming applications originates in Linux, which the SteamOS is based on. “Given the state of hardware and software support throughout the graphics stack on Linux, we didn’t think we could make this reliable,” explained the Valve employee.
A developer explained the issue more in a Slashdot post, explaining that the OS is unable to suspend the state of controllers with the application. “It doesn’t probe and reattach the controllers to the same point in the device tree that they were in when the system was suspended. Since those are the device nodes that SteamOS has open at the time of the suspend, and they route to The Noplace(™), the controllers become unresponsive. This is a general problem in the Linux device model.”
At GDC 2015, 15 models of Steam Machines were revealed with modifiable and scalable hardware. Manufacturers include Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Asus, and Digital Storm. These systems are expected to release in November of this year.