Valve's New Games Hardware not as Open Source as Expected

way to mis-interpret the quote, Valve aren't making a closed system for any reason other than being able to provide a working gaming PC out of the box, think of it as a console that runs PC games. They've realised that, in order to succeed in the living room, simplicity is the key.

It has nothing to do with creating an open system that others can copy (a la IBM), which is what the article implies.