I'm aware. This time, SteamOS is much more mature and consumers are primed for such a move. Especially if it's more tightly controlled by Valve instead of allowing 3rd parties more leeway.

Those were capable of nothing but streaming games(didn't even have a native web browser). Why would it be comparable at all to a machine that runs games locally?

You are mistaking the Steam Link hardware with Steam Machines which were real computers made by several 3rd party vendors (Alienware, Asus, Gigabyte etc.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Link

https://web.archive.org/web/20151008050254/https://store.ste...