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Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

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Re: Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

#61

Post by duaneb »

AJ007 wrote: post #59
icebraining wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux developers doesn't necessarily imply there'll be Steam for Linux Desktop™. It may be that Valve is looking to finally build their Steam Console and base it on Linux.

I'm going to take a guess that Valve is hedging their bets on a Windows 8 flop. I think it is very possible that Linux and OS X will become the two dominant desktop platforms over the next 5 years. Valve can not really enter the mobile marketplace in a meaningful way. Both Microsoft and Apple will likely try to put the squeeze on Valve with their own respective OS marketplaces. (I think neither will successfully be a…

I think that if Linux becomes the dominant desktop platform, it will be a new form (i.e. not based on Gnome or KDE). Just a (biased) hunch, though.

Re: Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

#62

Post by jsprinkles »

nitrogen wrote: post #60
s_kilk wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most commercial studios would be running either Pro Tools, Cubase/Nuendo or Logic. There is nothing in the open-source world that comes even remotely close to rivaling any of these packages at the moment.

Ardour is probably the most similar Open Source project.

Having used both, Ardour has a long way to go before it's remotely close to Pro Tools, even SE.

I think you might see interest in the platform develop if there weren't dozens of distributions to worry about. The distributions hamper Linux development, because you have dozens of different variants to try on, all with different versions of things and different bugs. As another commenter said, I bet you could get something Pro Tools quality if there was a consistent Linux-based desktop, not four or five frontrunners all doing GNOME differently.

Re: Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

#63

Post by barrkel »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #55
barrkel wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just quit Steam (so it was fresh in cache, never mind relying on SSD etc.), and started a Steam game. It took 20 seconds before the game launched (not playable, just started). That's massive. Pretty much any of my non-steam games will be launched and playable within 10 seconds. (I also hate unskippable intro videos; I'm fairly sure I've collectively spent much longer searching for ways to delete / skip such videos…

With Steam already running the moment I double-click an installed game from my list it's taking about 2-3 seconds before they pop open full screen. If you're taking 20 seconds then it may or may not be Steam's fault, but it certainly isn't an intrinsic property of the software.

Sure, but my point is that I tried it without Steam running (most of the time seems spent on logging in to my account). I don't run Steam by default - it'll be updating, downloading patches, popping up notifications and all sorts interfering with my daily life.

Re: Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

#64

Post by freehunter »

duaneb wrote: post #61
AJ007 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to take a guess that Valve is hedging their bets on a Windows 8 flop. I think it is very possible that Linux and OS X will become the two dominant desktop platforms over the next 5 years. Valve can not really enter the mobile marketplace in a meaningful way. Both Microsoft and Apple will likely try to put the squeeze on Valve with their own respective OS marketplaces. (I think neither will successfully be a…

I think that if Linux becomes the dominant desktop platform, it will be a new form (i.e. not based on Gnome or KDE). Just a (biased) hunch, though.

Ubuntu is positioning itself for that possibility. They've been playing the long game, and it's still not finished, but they've broken from Gnome, broken from X.org, and with the Software Center, are really steering away from the terminal. Of course, they've pissed off a lot of Linux traditionalists, but that could be a net gain for the desktop market.

Re: Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

#65

Post by felixthehat »

twog wrote: post #10
moistgorilla wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, some people refuse to work if they aren't using photoshop/illustrator/autocad/etc. But yeah, I'm with you, I use gimp and inkscape but I'm no professional.

A perfect example are front-end developers. It can be tough for anyone to make a living in that line of work without being able to edit/open photoshop and illustrated without having to configure wine. I truly believe Adobe holding back their products is one of the largest roadblocks linux has to get widespread adoption amongst the design/developer community.

Exactly this, I'm a designer, and I like the look of ubuntu, but it's no macOS, it's hard to see an advantage that linux has over macs apart from the price - but designers need fast (expensive) machines anyway. No Adobe is the reason I can't even contemplate a switch.

I love blender though, my 3D tool of choice so at least 3D artists are well catered for.

Re: Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

#66

Post by mitchty »

binarycrusader wrote: post #28
prezjordan wrote: post #8

Sort of off-topic, is there a reason Steam on windows is so unresponsive? Mac, too, but I think that's because it's a port. It seems to me that Steam is not written in native windows code and that's why it runs so sluggishly. Some say they have no idea what I'm talking about, while others agree. What does HN think?

Steam itself works great; the only time I see problems with it is when the flashplayer plugin is involved. They desperately need to drop their reliance on flash. Once they do that, I think it would vastly improve.

Agreed, I nuked the flash player on all my osx/linux/windows machines (chrome deals with that decently enough) and now I can't view videos in steam.

Re: Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

#67

Post by jiggy2011 »

AJ007 wrote: post #59
icebraining wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux developers doesn't necessarily imply there'll be Steam for Linux Desktop™. It may be that Valve is looking to finally build their Steam Console and base it on Linux.

I'm going to take a guess that Valve is hedging their bets on a Windows 8 flop. I think it is very possible that Linux and OS X will become the two dominant desktop platforms over the next 5 years. Valve can not really enter the mobile marketplace in a meaningful way. Both Microsoft and Apple will likely try to put the squeeze on Valve with their own respective OS marketplaces. (I think neither will successfully be a…

Perhaps they want to port to platforms like the new chromebox (or a future variant).

I think we are about to see a divergence in desktop/HTPC/semi-mobile platforms.

For example, ChromeBook/Box , Raspberry Pi , Android , Ubuntu Devices and I'm sure many others as time goes on.

it seems reasonable that people will want to run games on these platforms beyond what is currently possible just with JS/webGL.

Now think about it, what do all of these plaftorms have in common?

Another point to bear in mind , is that one of the significant advantages Steam has over OS specific marketplaces is that it allows you to sync the same games over different devices.

For example it would be nice to be able to buy a game for your Windows PC and then be able to also run it on your HTPC or Tablet device which may well be running non Windows OS.

Re: Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

#68

Post by shmerl »

The problem of Valve is their usage of DRM. I won't use them just because of that, whether they release Linux client or not. I.e. it's better to run a non DRM-ed Windows game (let's say from GOG) on Linux using Wine, rather than native one from Valve but with DRM.

But their entering to the Linux scene in general is good, since it might encourage others to do it as well, and eventually non DRMed distributors like GOG will push for more Linux games too.

Re: Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

#69

Post by jiggy2011 »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #55
barrkel wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just quit Steam (so it was fresh in cache, never mind relying on SSD etc.), and started a Steam game. It took 20 seconds before the game launched (not playable, just started). That's massive. Pretty much any of my non-steam games will be launched and playable within 10 seconds. (I also hate unskippable intro videos; I'm fairly sure I've collectively spent much longer searching for ways to delete / skip such videos…

With Steam already running the moment I double-click an installed game from my list it's taking about 2-3 seconds before they pop open full screen. If you're taking 20 seconds then it may or may not be Steam's fault, but it certainly isn't an intrinsic property of the software.

Steam performance seems to very inconsistent.

It often runs like a dog on my Core2Quad but is usually butter smooth on my P4 laptop.

Re: Valve hired their first wave of Linux developers, hiring more

#70

Post by jiggy2011 »

shinratdr wrote: post #50

So that thing that this very same site has insisted is in full development and is near ready to go... is going through a hiring round for devs to build the thing? Right. I'm so sick of these articles. Ever since the Mac version came out this site and other Linux focused blogs have insisted Steam for Linux is minutes away. Every single time they've been proven wrong or miss their timeframe. It probably is being built,…

IIRC they actually went to valve's office and showed screenshots of source engined games running under Ubuntu natively.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have it "90%" ready-to-go and just need some serious domains experts to do the last 90%. Not to mention for bugfixing , updates down the line as well as maybe porting some of their new tech (HL3 engine?) to Linux.

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