[delecti]

Those will be cheaper and/or more powerful. If that's all you care about, then the Steam Machine probably isn't worth the price or wait.

But they'll also be bigger, louder, probably not support HDMI-CEC, may or may not support waking via bluetooth, and it's a gamble whether they'll support Linux as well. Both are totally valid options, it just comes down to which tradeoffs you prefer.

[rbanffy]

The "boring" business boxes from the usual suspects are usually well supported by Linux, even if HDMI-CEC and BBT wake might not be priorities for the manufacturers. The hardware is so unimaginative it's almost an Intel or AMD reference design.