You think Gabe Newell hates Microsoft so much that he has his company contribute to Linux and open source, simply out of spite?
sanpo@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
Yes, it is worth it to remember.
They naively expected publishers and developers to give a shit.
But after that failure they worked hard for years and contributed and donated to open source projects.
That allowed Linux to become a true competitor in gaming space with zero vendor lock-in.
Whatever their reasons were, the results are objectively positive for nearly everyone.
marighost@piefed.social 10 hours ago
tuckerm@feddit.online 10 hours ago
I don’t think that is true, but I certainly like the idea of it being true.
sanpo@sopuli.xyz 9 hours ago
Yes, actually.
www.bbc.com/news/technology-18996377
“We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well,” said Mr Newell.
“Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space.”grue@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
I don’t think that was Gabe “hating” Microsoft; I think it was him recognizing that the Windows Store/appx stuff that Windows 8 pushed was a threat to his business model.
hperrin@lemmy.ca 5 hours ago
He has stated as much, so, yeah.
frongt@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
I mean he quit working for Microsoft and started Valve because he disagreed with their direction.
XiberKernel@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Considering he helped create Windows while working at Microsoft, and allegedly left due to the direction it was going, yes.
BigTrout75@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
On the Windows platform, Valve has to do what Microsoft decides. If Microsoft decides all apps are required to go through the Microsoft store app then Valve would be toast.
ladicius@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Good reason to have an independent gaming OS, I suppose 😉
If Microsoft ever pulled this play at least EU probably would like to have a word. Microsoft already got kicked in the balls over here for such moves, and it hurt.
stupidcasey@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Yes, but also money.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Indeed. I would say the Gabecube is essentially just another PC and a little overhyped already. It‘s SteamOS that deserves a lot of praise. Especially with the upcoming desktop version.
Goodeye8@piefed.social 1 hour ago
I won’t be getting one (because I don’t need one right now) but I’m hyped for 2 reasons.
First is getting a company to come out with an official Linux gaming OS. Not because I want some kind of a corporate OS-s but because bigger game developers have a reason to target Linux as they will see there’s not only a market but a supported market.
And the second is standardized hardware for a Linux platform. It will make game development easier because you can target specific hardware and (together with the previous point) specific OS to make games for Linux. I can’t find the link anymore but a developer once said that the majority of their bug reports came from Linux while Linux was also the smallest platform they supported and most of the probably comes from the fact that you can have so many combinations of hardware and software that offering Linux support costs more than offering Windows support. If that can be reduced to specific hardware and specific OS that would give more of an incentive for developers to try out supporting Linux (even if it’s only SteamOS on a Steam Machine).
I don’t care what Steam Machines and SteamOS can do when they release, I care what they can do 5-10 years down the line. It’s all about getting the ball rolling and once it’s rolling it’ll get to the destination, making gaming on Linux as good as it is on Windows, on its own. I know, I know, gaming on Linux is already pretty good. But gaming on Linux is still dependent on Windows and if MS wants they can screw proton over (for example making UWP mandatory) so getting native games on Linux should still be a goal. And there’s also the lack of official support from other companies in the gaming space. The most obvious is most popular online games not working on Linux due to anti-cheat but there’s also the fact that some more niche peripherals are hard to use due to no official drivers. It took some tinkering to get my Thrustmaster steering wheel to run, which instantly is a no-go for the average gamer. We’re like 90% of the way there to make Linux a great platform for gaming but that last 10% is going to require collective effort to achieve and that’s really difficult to achieve.