Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

kotaku.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 199 posts

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

#161

Post by Goronmon »

_delirium wrote: post #51
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."

Possibly even good for consumers in that case. It's not really an ideal situation that software distribution would be a high-margin business in the first place. Typically you want distribution and infrastructure businesses to be competitive spaces with prices driven down towards costs, since they're just overhead from the perspective of getting stuff from sellers to buyers. For example, container shipping and grocery…

It's not really an ideal situation that software distribution would be a high-margin business in the first place. Typically you want distribution and infrastructure businesses to be competitive spaces with prices driven down towards costs, since they're just overhead from the perspective of getting stuff from sellers to buyers.

Does "low-margin" for software really make sense? These aren't physical goods that have a inherent value. The "cost" of any given piece of software is the price you are willing to pay the people building it.

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

#162

Post by CrazedGeek »

zanny wrote: post #119
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…

They won't be able to just jump 2,500 DirectX and DirectSound titles off the Windows API onto Wine. Maybe if they spend a few million dollars working on bringing Wine up to date with DX11, and then they have to deal with all the development houses not switching off Visual Studio and DX12 in the coming years, because they won't want to make the jump off the M$ platform.

There's already a pretty good amount of Steam games that have native Linux versions[1], at least one developer has already announced a port of an existing game to Linux through Steam[2], and the company that handles a lot of Mac "ports" (via a Wine-like layer) has a Linux version of said layer pretty much ready to go[3].

It's not gonna be a wasteland by any measure.

[1] http://steamlinux.flibitijibibo.com/index.php?title=Native_G...

[2] http://www.joystiq.com/2012/07/25/serious-sam-3-bfe-runs-scr...

[3] TransGaming makes Cider: http://transgaming.com/cider and Cedega/GameTree Linux: http://gametreelinux.com/

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

#163

Post by chousuke »

csense wrote: post #134
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…

Most EULA's contain a clause that says "This EULA may be changed by us at any time without notice to you. Your continued use of the product after any such change constitutes acceptance of such terms." Seems like, if you don't have a script polling their website hourly for EULA updates, they can insert terms like "By continuing use of our product, you agree that we now own your computer, your house, your bank accounts…

EULAs can contain arbitrary demands, but that doesn't mean they're enforceable. The particular statement "without notice" sounds like something that would simply be ignored in court.

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

#164

Post by james4k »

msh wrote: post #144
james4k wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam's cut is 30%. However, for that 30% you get to update your game whenever you want, and virtually as often as you want. By that I mean they don't impose any direct limits on how often you update, but the general rule is no more than once a week aside from hotfixes and the like. I'm not aware of any digital marketplace that gives you this much control, especially as video game updates will often be hundreds of me…

The windows app store gives unlimited free updates. It's only xbla for Xbox where they charge for updates.

Do you know if there is an approval process?

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

#165

Post by Goronmon »

SCdF wrote: post #62
ericd wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can tell you that it would be very hard for Microsoft to make me choose to use their app store over Steam without resorting to anti-competitive tactics. Steam, from a gamer's perspective, does almost everything right, and I have a huge number of games "stored" there. Then again, laziness might trump for most people.

I don't understand that perspective, and I honestly think there is a bit of a double standard going on here. People hate on Origin and 'meh' the rest of the competition, but are in love with Steam. I know people who will only buy games if they're on Steam, it's bizarre. Your games are locked into steam, and they may never be removed from there. You own none of them. The only way to play them is to open Steam (presumi…

In addition to the other posts, Valve has built up a solid amount of good will with the gaming crowd. They might not have the best support, but their actions up until this point suggest they take gaming seriously and just don't see all their users as a revenue stream, like you see with EA and Microsoft. They aren't beholden to shareholders so as long as guys like Gabe are around, people are less worried that Valve will start fucking with customers in the way you see other companies do.

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

#166

Post by ShellfishMeme »

trobertson wrote: post #158
ShellfishMeme wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> RELEASE ANOTHER DAMN HALF LIFE 2 EPISODE Probably not going to happen before they release their new gaming console. They need a good launch title and you know how long it takes them to build a game.

They have stated, publicly and clearly, that they are not working on a game console.

Interesting, I didn't realize that. Thanks for informing me. I guess 'hype' travels a lot faster than truth.

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

#167

Post by Goronmon »

sakopov wrote: post #102
petitmiam wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 l…

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.

You're the first person I've ever heard say that Steam throttled downloads, and I've heard and had a lot of complaints about Steam in the past. That's just not one of them. In fact, the only thing close to throttling I've heard is users wanting the ability to manually throttle game downloads.

I'm not saying your lying, I'm just not sure that it was as a result of something on Steam's end.

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

#168

Post by _delirium »

Goronmon wrote: post #161
_delirium wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly even good for consumers in that case. It's not really an ideal situation that software distribution would be a high-margin business in the first place. Typically you want distribution and infrastructure businesses to be competitive spaces with prices driven down towards costs, since they're just overhead from the perspective of getting stuff from sellers to buyers. For example, container shipping and grocery…

It's not really an ideal situation that software distribution would be a high-margin business in the first place. Typically you want distribution and infrastructure businesses to be competitive spaces with prices driven down towards costs, since they're just overhead from the perspective of getting stuff from sellers to buyers. Does "low-margin" for software really make sense? These aren't physical goods that have a…

I was thinking just of margins on the distribution part, not the creation of software. Getting an app from the creator to the purchaser seems like a logistics/retail type business, like Wal-Mart is for physical goods, and high margins on that just means more overhead for everyone (except the operator of the distribution network).

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

#169

Post by archangel_one »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #103
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?

Not many application executables in Windows are in your PATH, so cmd is not going to find them. Even for the ones that are, you have to type the name of the .exe which is not necessarily obvious; eg. Visual Studio -> devenv.exe.

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

#170

Post by JackpotDen »

ginko wrote: post #160
ArcticCelt wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve is not a public company so there is no shareholders nor investors who can pressure Gabe to sell. There is also absolutely no insensitive to sell for him. Even if he gets tired of Valve he can simply start a new venture by using the insane cash-flow raining directly in his bank account.

The fact that it is a private company is a very interesting aspect of Valve. I wonder why there are not more companies going that route. It seems to be sort of expected nowadays that every large company must incorporate.

Because most companies hemorrage money. Valve was built after Gabe and the other co-founder got rich as hell from working on microsoft. They didn't need funding while valve was bleeding cash, so they don't have to do that.
Post reply on HN