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Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

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Re: Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

#101

Post by MartinCron »

estebank wrote: post #82
MartinCron wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wish I could figure out how to get the Radeon/whatever graphics drivers right on this Lenovo Ideapad. I gave up The fact that things like this are still an issue makes me think that it will take more than just Steam to make desktop Linux more than a tiny niche in the gaming market.

Au contraire, having Steam available might be just enough to push for better driver support from nVidia and AMD.

I honestly hope so. Even though I don't use Linux on the desktop anymore (I'm Mac, mostly) I appreciate the pressure that competition brings.

Re: Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

#102

Post by sakopov »

petitmiam wrote: post #86
sakopov wrote: post #70

Back in my more involved gaming days, Steam was a catastrophe for PC gaming. Other than picking up a game at a good price and automatically getting game patches from Steam, there was really nothing great about it. They had virtually no support. Your best bet was the forums. Throttled downloads were really fun too. Especially when you download a 5-gig game pack and have to sit there and resume your download every 5 mi…

I've never had an issue with throttled downloads. Doesn't your ISP have a Steam mirror? Also, Counter-Strike: GO is being released on Aug 21. http://store.steampowered.com/app/1800/

The last game i purchased from Steam was roughly a little over a year ago and up to that point any game downloads would take days. I'm not on any kind of uber-fast connection (10mb) and never had any issues with any issues streaming or downloading content from any other service.

P.S. I have heard of CS:GO which is nothing more than old CS:Source with improved environment. It isn't a bad game by any means, but it is lagging behind multiplayer shooters like CoD, Battlefield.

Re: Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

#103

Post by CamperBob2 »

megaman821 wrote: post #5

I don't understand this sentiment. If you don't like Metro, launch the desktop and forget it even exists. For rarely launched apps, hit the Win key and start typing the name and for frequently used apps, pin to your taskbar. Steam still works exactly the same on Windows 8.

For rarely launched apps, hit the Win key and start typing the name

There should be an app for that. It could be called... oh, I don't know, how about COMMAND.COM?

Re: Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

#105

Post by ralfn »

cooldeal wrote: post #27
bcbrown wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A business catastrophe, not a usability or market catastrophe. "I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people."

You're right, and I also wouldn't trust anything he says about Windows 8 since he has a vested interest in keeping easy distribution restricted to Steam. He will face no such competition on Linux.

The headline is misleading. He was talking very much, from his vested interest point of view. He was not dismissing the quality or value of win8 for consumers.

But he is allowed to be a bit upset: Steam is effectively not allowed on Metro.

And there was loyalty between Valve and Microsoft. In general, he dislikes the verticalisation in the market; how consumer devices will all be (media,game,app) consoles. But to see Microsoft make this move, just hurst more, when your company has invested so much in the windows ecosystem. And lets not forget that without Steam, pc gaming would have died completely 5 years ago.

Personally, i dont like it either. I think its anticompeteive in nature, and bad for innovation. Appearantly operating system vendors are becoming the new cable companies, charging for access to consumers.

But unless one of them (apple, google, microsoft, amazon) has a monopoly, its not illegal to operate in this manner.

Re: Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

#107

Post by notatoad »

fpp wrote: post #77

After the Vista Candy shop its toy blocks now... - haven't looked under the hood of W8 yet but if MS wants to limit me what I can install on my computer / take over boot / BIOS control this one will certainly find no home on any of my computers. Call me old fashioned but if I go to a shop and buy a computer (or have it send to my place) I actually want to own it and not find a clause on line 432'678 of the license ag…

None of those things are true. Microsoft will not limit what you can install, take over your bios, or control your boot. In fact, windows 8 is the first windows to play nice with Linux boot loaders. Windows RT (aka tablets) is the only space where bootloaders will be locked. Don't get me wrong, locking it down anywhere is a shitty thing to do, but spreading misinformation is also a shitty thing to do.

Re: Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

#109

Post by fooey »

learc83 wrote: post #96
huggyface wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure of his reasoning, but he is not saying that Windows 8 is a catastrophe for users directly. I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we'll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people. Sounds more like all it is a problem for all of the many players in the Windows space. Now of course Microsoft can do w…

What would cause OEMs to leave the market, other than mass migration by users because of a bad user experience?

Win8 is targeting touch, which means it's targeting tablets. It's nearly impossible for a Win8 tablet to compete when it has licensing overhead that Apple and Android devices don't have.

Re: Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

#110

Post by ralfn »

alt_ wrote: post #52
recoiledsnake wrote: post #12

I think the headline of the article is pretty misleading as he means that Windows 8 is a catastrophe for Steam because of the Windows 8 app store. Looks like everyone's upvoting the article because they seem to think that Gabe meant that Windows 8 will be a failure. Instead of having to go through Steam's distribution, games will have the option of going directly to the Windows 8 app store and get featured there, not…

I would be more afraid of Xbox Live than the app store. Buying is just a one time deal. Achievements and other social features of Xbox Live are constant and, if shared with the large Xbox network, will be very desirable for consumers.

They are not afraid of losing the competition, they are afraid of not being allowed to compete.

Steam cant be on Metro, and the x86/classic-desktop will likely end up, only in the high end of the market.

Just like Apple, the common win8 consumer device will be in the 200-600 dollar range .. running on ARM, and completely block any competition from selling content. The privileges of backwards compatibility and "side-loading" will be available only on 800+ dollar devices.

So, Steam on windows has no future.

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