Valve’s “fake Windows Linux device that just runs Windows games without paying Microsoft money – how is this not a violation of Windows TOS”
Valve uses a build of WINE called Proton, not Windows. Microsoft's TOS terms apply to Windows. They don't have anything to do with software that's simply able to run the same binaries.
stephenc@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Trolling? No. What part of my history makes you think that?
Wine (and by extension, Proton) is simulating a Windows install with no Microsoft license. How is this not a clear violation of Microsoft’s TOS? I can see if you are just using it personally how it can be a grey area, but VALVE IS USING IT PROFESSIONALLY, INCLUDED WITH THEIR INSTALL, FOR PROFIT. Microsoft should sue the fuck out of them.
If you think that’s a troll, you have issues with reality. You can’t just create your own version of Windows (even one like Wine) without repercussions. Get over yourself.
haagch@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Did we finally find the guy who unironically thinks APIs should be copyrightable?
stephenc@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Putting a bunch of APIs together in such a way as to create an entire copyrighted OS inside of another one 100% should be. You want to make DirectX itself for Linux, fine. But don’t tell me you think putting it and a ton of other Windows libraries together – even ones made “clean” – to run an OS very closely to its target OS (and this isn’t emulation, it’s making your own version of an OS) is not a problem.
Like I said, making Wine and using it casually for a single person isn’t the real issue here. It’s concerning, yes, but when a single user is using it for their own purposes, I think there’s nothing huge to be concerned with. When a major gaming corporation is using it as part of their own software running under a piece of their own hardware for financial gain – really? You don’t see the issue? How has Microsoft not seriously put an end to this already? If Microsoft is giving their blessing to this, they are opening up all sorts of copyright infringement across the board for software of all kinds.
Maybe if your mind is tainted by “Free software is holy and can never be wrong”, you have this idea that it’s fine. Free software is fine on its own as long as it follows a set of ethical and legal rules. Wine is definitely not doing this by allowing Valve to take their fork and making it part of their Switch-like hardware. Valve is specifically going full on Linux to avoid paying Microsoft for the rights to Windows on their machine, and this is simply wrong, no matter how you look at it.
I cannot believe anyone sees me as in the wrong on this issue. Valve should have pushed harder for native Linux gaming, but they failed, so they should have given up. Instead, they decided to do the wrong thing with something that should have been stopped from day one.