If Steam is coming to Linux... more people will put games on Linux... which means I won't need Windows...
OH MY GAWWWWD
There are dedicated game distribution platforms on Linux? I've been using Linux for five years now, and I can't think of any.
But really, Steam for Linux can only be a good thing. I can't think of any legitimate negatives.
Gabe briefly mentioned he was working on a Linux project on the 7DCD podcast.
Wasn't this just the logical extension after porting Steam to Mac?
yeah good luck with that(and now to find an audio player as good as foobar)
[21:37:03] <wh1t3fang> that is wonderful that they are really taking linux seriously
Valve box. One step closer at a timeWell, if anyone can get ATI and NVidia to fix their messes on Linux, it's Valve. Hopefully they just throw together their own distro.
No matter what whoever at valve says this is gonna come down to one question. Are devs willing to build opengl engines as advanced as their DX ones? Especially considering the limited demographics.
Wait wait wait, and didn't someone get Linux running on mobile phones or something similar to that? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit.
Not at all, sorry
Yeah, just like they took "OS X seriously." Oh, wait, while the cilent/platform is there, the games didn't follow. And I feel that's going to be an issue for Linux as well. Outside of iD and Epic, who haven't done ports of their games to Linux in years. This leaves...?
[22:10:55] <birch> he's a former Microsoft employee though right?
[22:11:01] <michaellarabel> yes
[22:11:06] <birch> even funnier to hear then.
[22:11:45] <michaellarabel> A quote from my upcoming article already, " Listening to Gabe Newell talk about Linux for hours made me wonder whether he was a former ex-Microsoft employee (where he actually did work in his pre-Valve days...) or the director of the Linux Foundation. "
A meeting topped off the day with Gabe Newell regarding Linux where he sounded more like a Linux saint than an ex-Microsoft employee.
Not at all, sorry
Though how would they achieve it in the short term? Would Valve put WINE into Steam to allow you to run legacy games? As hardware gets more powerful, does WINE's task on older games gets easier? I'm not that familiar with Linux from a technical perspective, so I don't know.
I think Linux is an important cog in getting Steam to the living room. It cuts a not-insignificant cost out of a system. Isn't a Windows license between $30 and $40 for the biggest PC manufacturers? When you're selling hardware to go under people's TVs, that's a big expense you don't have to account for if you're using Linux.
In the long term, I think Linux is vital for the future of the platform, if it's to grow. The sooner Windows is made obsolete for gaming, the better.It also means we'd be shot of GFWL.
Though how would they achieve it in the short term? Would Valve put WINE into Steam to allow you to run legacy games? As hardware gets more powerful, does WINE's task on older games gets easier? I'm not that familiar with Linux from a technical perspective, so I don't know.
Lastly, one thing WINE can do is complement it's code with "real" Windows dll files - but the licensing for this is murky... one of the appeals of WINE is that you don't need a Windows license. Valve could potentially go down this route, and bundle together a package of the windows game and enough proprietory dlls to persuade it to run, but this would be a legal grey area.
Why did he name the article "Valve's Gabe Newell Talks Linux Steam Client, Source Engine" when it contains absolutely no quotes whatsoever?
How so? I've have a pretty comprehensive collection of 24 bit 96khz FLAC vinyl rips that I stream from a Solaris 11 server in my roof, and I use both regularly: Foobar when I'm booted into Windows and Banshee when I'm booted in to Linux. In my usage case, I've not noticed anything that I can do with Foobar that I can't do with Banshee. In your opinion, what exactly does Banshee lack that Foobar has?
so Windows 8 is soooooooooooooooo bad, that even Gabe hates it?
what else does the world needs, than a warning from the almighty Gabe?
Yeah, just like they took "OS X seriously." Oh, wait, while the cilent/platform is there, the games didn't follow. And I feel that's going to be an issue for Linux as well. Outside of iD and Epic, who haven't done ports of their games to Linux in years. This leaves...?
I would imagine that initially, they would add a flag and the Linux steam client would only display flagged games. Whilst it is in theory possible to run Windows games through WINE, it is in practice not ideal - even popular games like Portal can still be glitchy.
WINE is constantly evolving, and whilst 9 times out of 10, a new build means new features, sometimes new releases can, and do, break existing compatible apps. Therefore, with companies that sell a commercial distribution of WINE, such as Codeweavers, you'll notice that there are very few "officially" supported apps that are guaranteed by Codeweavers to run - usually Microsoft Office, Photoshop, Outlook, Steam, Half Life 2 and Portal. The more apps that are "officially" supported, the more potential work there is when WINE breaks something!
One possible option is to go to a company like Codeweavers and pay them to build wrappers around the windows binaries to do all the magic. This is the approach that Google took when releasing Picassa for Linux, and also Corel used to release their applications back in the day.
Lastly, one thing WINE can do is complement it's code with "real" Windows dll files - but the licensing for this is murky... one of the appeals of WINE is that you don't need a Windows license. Valve could potentially go down this route, and bundle together a package of the windows game and enough proprietory dlls to persuade it to run, but this would be a legal grey area.
In my ideal scenario this is what would happen. Microsoft has shown little regard for the platform, so the people actually developing games for it should make the switch sooner or later. But on principle alone it would be nice for Linux to be a more prominent OS in the home/desktop space. The direction Windows 8 is going worries me, both from an open platform/digital rights standpoint, but also a usability one. It really is a dreadful OS and I'm hoping I won't be forced into using it or any of its like-minded successors.Wine + Developers + platform (Steam box) = More compatibility.
We can only hope that if Valve evere releases a Steam box, it's linux based so they can press other developers to move onto OpenGL.
On the other hand, it seems almost impossible so at least we will get source games + other several games (Civilization, GTA, indie games) which is ok in my book. I only need Civilization in my linux box
What I was wondering is if this would get any easier as our hardware becomes more powerful (as emulation does), or if it's going to be problematic regardless..
Who cares? How is it relevant?That's nice.
But I'll be still using Windows, thank you.
Finally we will be free of the Windows tyranny.
I'll start holding my breath now.
Desura?
I know it's not too big but it's the best we got. Also the Ubuntu software center which has some paid game on it
One of my friends pointed out last night that tons of indies have linux versions of their games and anyone who has been purchasing the Humble Indie Bundles will already have a sizeable linux catalog when this hits.
Who cares? How is it relevant?
That's some hilarious stuff.
I'm not even a Linux user, but frankly I don't see the point of you entering this thread just to claim your loyalty to Windows.I care.
Seriously, I was just saying this, no need to get angry.
No, because Wine Is Not an Emulator.
The way Wine works is that it takes the windows api calls and natively converts them to linux system calls - so there is no machine level emulation required. Therefore, mostly Windows apps run at exactly the same speed under WINE as they would in Windows, and in some cases, they actually run a bit faster....
The main thing that keeps me from playing game on PC is Windows. I use it on laptops, but I won't pay expensive licences regularly just to play games. I will only buy PC games if they work with Wine...My thoughts exactly, the only thing thats keeping me on Windows is the games i have on steam.