That would be cool.
Video games are the only reason I even have a Windows partition.
Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix
121–130 of 220 posts
Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry but this post strikes me as fantasy. Your social circle must be vastly different from mine. >and with the recent news that will be the end of GIMP complaints What news is this? Photoshop is still on a complete other plane of existence and that gap gets further every year, not closer. If you're playing with cat pictures then GIMP is probably ok, but if you're a professional who's livelihood depends on your p…
I forgot one important point. >Linux is the most powerful of the main three OSes but it also requires the most administration if you're doing much with it. Too many weasel words to reply with certainty, but I like this one: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/29/munich_linux_savings... Munich's mayor claims €4m savings from Linux switch Lower costs and fewer support calls than Windows
Point: there isn't much malware for Linux (and the virus scanners for it scan for /windows viruses/), and there is no easy dtrace/strace/lsof for Windows (afaik...sysinternals tools aside kinda.)
If all you really need is a web browser, mail client, IM client/Skype, a PDF reader, and libreOffice (try it before you knock it)...Linux is great for non-techies in office environments, and can be locked down very easily.
Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix
#123Looks like this is going to be reality, Phoronix just published the promised article[0] which basically claims that Valve have ported L4D/Source over to Linux already! Exciting news indeed, AAA-titles for Linux could turn the desktop OS market upside down. [0]: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve...
From what I've seen, the majority of Windows gamers who are technical run pirated copies. The rest of the non-tech users who buy prebuilt PCs won't have the inclination to switchover.
For that reason and seeing that PC vendors get an adequate commission from Microsoft, it shouldn't bring any change to Microsoft's bottom line.
Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is interesting news, but turn the OS market upside down? You can't be serious.
Currently, games are /the only/ thing holding me and a few people I know back from Linux as our only desktop os. At work, we're at ~90% Linux usage for desktops and >99% for servers.
Agreed. I keep a windows install around mainly to play games. I also use it to test Windows desktop applications that I occasionally write, but I'd happily use a VM for that if I didn't have a windows install.
Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not all businesses. I've worked for and with plenty of small businesses where the norm was OpenOffice, running on top of Linux and Mac OS X, with non-technical people having no problem using it (after a period of bitching about it, because people in general are conservative). For example I helped a local kindergarten switch all their computers to Linux and OpenOffice (one in every classroom, plus 4 others used for ad…
"The one problem Linux does have in regards to businesses is integration with Exchange" You're forgetting active directory and group policy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_Policy
If you grill people hard on "why do you need all that complex, expensive crap anyway?" you can switch them over to Google Apps, or Zimbra, or LibreOffice + Evolution + SLES and have all the same functionality. Share point? What does share point do that WebDAV + Samba + Apache + some kind of CMS + MediaWiki can't, besides requiring an expensive share point admin and lots of licensing fees?
LDAP and kerberos have Linux implementations, but throwing the *nix way of doing this out the window in favor of the AD route is a really silly idea unless you need to integrate with existing windows crap. Basically, Windows perpetuates itself, and the solution is to drop it entirely and across the board.
Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix
#126Lack of gaming support was (and still is) in my opinion the main reason Linux didn't get properly accepted into the consumer sector. (every gamer had to keep Windows dual-boot ) Because of that there were problems with the drivers and snowballed to other areas.
As well as: * Poor web browser (not an issue now) * Poor flash support (better than it has been) * No Microsoft Office (partially surmountable) * Video and sound configuration issues (sound is still hit and miss for me) * Inconsistent desktop UIs and administration tools * Lack of simple point and click system control panel And that you couldn't easily find consumer hardware pre-installed with a Linux desktop (which…
More than anything else, I'd just say that doing any task in Linux is a battle. Once you understand the system and configure things to your liking it is a dream, but as a new user you'll be spending hours in config files and searching Google, and users don't want that.
This is Hacker News. Most of us know our way around a terminal. But real users don't, any real users drive the market.
Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix
#127That would be cool. Video games are the only reason I even have a Windows partition.
Makes me wonder if this is too little, too late. Anyone who is an avid steam user already has a Windows partition for their games, and probably has a large library of games that will not work in Linux.
It's great that Valve games will work on Linux, and it'll likely unify the Linux gaming experience, but Windows is the #1 OS for PC gaming and that isn't going to change anytime soon.
Heck, look at OS X. They've been a gaming-capable platform for far longer than Linux and they're still in single-digit Steam adoption rates.
It's a positive feedback loop - gamers choose Windows because developers support it the most, and developers support Windows the most because there are more gamers on it.
Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix
#128Part of the problem is that the dev tools most game developers use are still centered around Windows. Visual Studio is still the hallmark IDE for Game developers everywhere. In addition, the tools developers in gaming studios still build mostly Windows tools that augment the IDEs the engine programmers are already using.
That ecosystem has to be disrupted substantially with viable dev tools for game developers on Linux before gaming on Linux can really become a first class citizen.
Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
yes it will - Steam is a juggernaut which will trigger purchase/usage decisions. Creators of libraries and frameworks will have to comply with the standards that Valve will come up with (and come up they will). For example what audio framework will your distro use - Jack? OSS? Pulseaudio? They will have to use what Valve wants you to use, if you want to play their games. Multimonitor support ? HDMI? use the toolkits…
No it won't. Login to steam from a mac some time and watch the awesomeness unfold as 1/10th of your games are available. Now make it 1/10th of 1/10th! Unless they convince a significant number of other publishers to do linux versions (while they won't even do mac versions) it's not going to be very exciting.
What if Valve expanded "Source" from an engine to more of a platform? If you create your game for Source you can release on Win, Mac, Linux, and a SteamBox/console with relative ease?
It's pie-in-the-sky, but that would be a game changer. A linux steam client would be one piece of that plan.
Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is interesting news, but turn the OS market upside down? You can't be serious.
"I would use Linux only, but I like game X and Y." is incredibly common attitude among people who use dual boot. I'm not making this up, the phrase pops up very often on various forums, especially in context of linux ports for newly announced games. You don't see many complaints about GIMP being inadequate (and with the recent news that will be the end of GIMP complaints), or OpenOffice/LibreOffice incompatibility. Y…
> I predict a surge in Linux popularity once Steam is ported, bypassing OSX.
Why bypassing OSX? And why would linux support cause a flood of Linux games when it hasn't worked for OSX?