Comments on: What does Steam mean for Linux users? Probably nothing

By: Bog Bog

Bog Bog — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:43:30 +0000

As as long-long-time Windows gamer, I can tell you that at least I, personally, would switch to Linux for gaming if the popular and indie games were made available on the OS. I’d be willing to sacrifice my ability to play SOME games, at least temporarily while waiting for more developers to develop for the OS, if it meant being further away from what is now the beginning of the end for Windows.

I love Windows 7, but Windows 8 really is putrid garbage. It takes the idea of simplicity, and finds itself requiring from a user more steps to access and perform basic functions, while improving on nothing truly important to push in an OS. Windows 8 is the new Vista. And as far as it seems, Microsoft has no intention on reeling back its obvious mistakes in Windows 8. Going forward, Windows will be worse, and worse, to the point where Desktop computing is a novelty. I’m for gaming on Linux.

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:09:55 +0000

lol at this title

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:34:42 +0000

I think the article misses an important point: Microsoft are trying to pull an Apple with Metro and the “Windows Store” (the only way to get Metro apps).
Effectively, Metro is the future and Steam is not invited. I’d be pretty p****d if I were Steam.
The answer? Run with Linux. The Humble Indie Bundle has proven the market. If you build it, they will come.

By: Links 1/8/2012: KDE Releases 4.9, Wine 1.5.10, MATE 1.4 | Techrights

Links 1/8/2012: KDE Releases 4.9, Wine 1.5.10, MATE 1.4 | Techrights — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 22:29:12 +0000

[...] What does Steam mean for Linux users? Probably nothing Valve co-founder and current managing director Gabe Newell recently made it pretty clear how much he really hates Windows 8. Two weeks ago, Valve officially announced that they would be porting their Steam distribution service to Ubuntu and would be working to natively support Valve games on Linux, starting with Left 4 Dead 2. Their drive behind the project: Newell’s belief that Windows 8 will be a “catastrophe” for PC users. [...]

By: Daniel Harvison

Daniel Harvison — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:20:36 +0000

Bit of a blunt article there, but the author has made up his mind about a few things like the state of video card drivers for linux. Firstly, if you’re going to play games, you’re not going to stick with the open source drivers. I see absolutely no reason to, unless you’re a pure open source idealist, and I don’t see any point in such an attitude, and even AMD’s drivers are somewhat useful in playing games, either natively or under wine. Also, as stated elsewhere, Valve are keen to work with the creators of open source drivers to improve this situation.
Secondly, even though Valve aren’t going to port over the entire steam game library, it will still make a big difference indeed to linux gamers, since a fair few games will now be available to us. So it does most certainly mean something, since it’s hardly trying to snuff out windows as a gaming platform. Also, Microsoft cannot keep making blunders and ignoring common sense with Win8. People will only take so much arrogance from a company like Microsoft.

By: beaverusiv

beaverusiv — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:58:10 +0000

“Why all the harsh rhetoric for Windows 8? Why the sudden push for open source?”

I believe Valve have been working Steam on Linux for well over a year, so not really sudden.
Valve’s Source Engine Coming To Linux – Published on May 07, 2008:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=source_linux&num=1

I also believe Gabe is more thinking of where Microsoft is heading overall, and that unless Windows 8 REALLY flops they will continue down that path.

“Why call yourself a supporter of the open source movement when you plan on releasing proprietary software anyway?”

I think you can support something without fully committing to it. Yes, there’s people who want everything open source, and that’s fine no one has forced binary blobs on them and no one will force Steam on them (unlikely they would use it as not every game is going to be open source either).
I don’t really think Gabe talks about Open Source per se, more like Linux, or open platforms in regards to restricting what APIs etc are available for use and the kernel/OS being biased towards certain software.

By: gr0undzer0

gr0undzer0 — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:47:03 +0000

Most of what you say is true but I’ve heard rumor of two things that would change this opinion a bit.
1. Valve is working directly with intel, amd, and nvidia to improve the drivers of all of many of their cards on linux.
2. From what I hear the goal is to make all 2500 games available on linux.. this is different then the osx release. It also means its very possible Valve will be using some different tech not just porting. One suggestion I heard was that Valve will have a vm like platform running without user configuration that will pass-through graphics cards. This would allow games for windows to run without porting or driver manipulation. This is all speculation of course.

By: Romeo Calota

Romeo Calota — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:01:55 +0000

Very nice article. Ubuntu user myself but nice to see an objective view on this topic. Cheers.