Valve & Intel Work On Open-Source GPU Drivers

[XorEaxEax]

there's likely no hope for the Linux desktop ever going truly mainstream and posing serious competition to Windows on the desktop.

I don't see Linux (or anything else) really posing serious competition to Windows on the desktop, I'd love to be wrong though but seriously it's pre-installed in just about every consumer-pc out there and I don't see that changing.

On the other hand I don't see why Linux has to pose serious competition to Windows on the desktop, it's NOT as if the Linux desktop can 'break'.

If this new game push by Valve fails to gain traction, the Linux desktop will continue to chug along and slooowly increase it's market share just as it already is, if Valve succeeds I don't think for a second that it will pose a serious threath to the Windows desktop, even Apple with all their billions at their disposal haven't been able to do so, however it will make it alot nicer for those of us using Linux and it will certainly get more people onto Linux due to lowering the barrier of entry, but nowhere near enough for Microsoft to start sweating.

Again that's just my personal cynical/realist view, I would dance a jig if I was wrong and Linux gained massive desktop market share, but I just don't see it, not unless Microsoft would effectively abandon the desktop outright to start chasing Apple in some 'pad' goosechase but not even Ballmer could be that stupid... right?

So, for those of us already using Linux on our desktop, and those on the fence considering a switch to Linux, what Valve is pursuing could indeed have huge impact on our desktop experience so it's certainly exciting times ahead. Meanwhile looking past the desktop, Linux future couldn't be brighter in my opinion so if we are strictly talking 'Linux', it's already a incredible success.

[johnc]

I think Linux would have to provide some sort of advantage (other than cost) to bring people over, but it's possible. E.g., the HPC sector has gravitated around Linux because it's extremely customizable. So maybe there's some advantage that can be exploited for better gaming (low latency kernel, network stack, whatever... I'm not competent enough to know), then you could certainly get the more hardcore gamers to come over, provided other things are in place (games of course, and hardware / driver support, and non-retarded broken applications / desktop environments). Eventually that could build hype and momentum that draws over some less-hardcore gamers as well, since they tend to follow what the pros do.

It seems it's less a question of what Valve can do for Linux, and more about what the Linux community can do to make Valve's ventures (and those of other game developers) successful and as smooth as possible.

It has to be better than the status quo to get people to switch.

[AJenbo]

I think you're wrong, Valve can do damage to Linux if they fail. They will be an example for other companies not to follow. They will think: wow Valve such a big company and they failed, we will probably fail too so we better stay out of Linux.

I think we should contact other companies now and tell them that Valve is porting Steam and games to Linux and they should follow them before seeing the end result of Valve's endeavour.

I just hope that all the games ported to Linux can be played on older distributions, in my case Ubuntu 10.10 - latest with Gnome 2.32.
Btw, fuck Gnome3, GTK3, Arch linux, Debian, Mark Shuttleworth and software patents.

11.04 is the last ubuntu with Gnome 2.32, new uses will default to unit but you can switch it on the log in screen (i will remember your preferences) 10.10 is out of support so don't bed on any thing coming to it. 11.04 will be EOL in October then you cold move to 10.04 that should have you going until April. Have fun.

[benmoran]

Seeing as how Valve has been keeping track of Wine users on Steam for a long time now, they must already have some idea of an expected user base. However much it is, they must think it worthwhile.

[d2kx]

Agreed. But how do they differentiate or separate Linux+Wine users from Windows users? If they are using the same Steam client?

So how do they know the percetange of Linux users vs Windows users if they are using the same client?

The Windows Steam client explicity asks for the Wine version string. A native Windows will report nothing, but wine exposes this information if the app requests it.

[kwahoo]

Steam client can detect Wine. My "Steam - System Information"

    
Operating System Version:
    Windows XP (32 bit)
    Wine version: wine-1.5.9
    NTFS:  Supported
    Crypto Provider Codes:  Supported 323 0x0 0x0 0x0
    
Video Card:
    Driver Not Detected

    DirectX Driver Name:  ati2dvag.dll
    Driver Version Not Detected
    DirectX Driver Version:  6.14.10.8681
    Driver Date Not Detected
    Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
    DirectX Card: AMD Radeon HD 6600 Series
    VendorID:  0x1002
    DeviceID:  0x6758
    Number of Monitors:  1
    Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
    No SLI or Crossfire Detected
    Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1080
    Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
    Primary Display Size: 20.00" x 11.26"  (22.91" diag)
                                            50.8cm x 28.6cm  (58.2cm diag)
    Primary Bus Type Not Detected
    Primary VRAM: 1024 MB
    Supported MSAA Modes Not Detected
    
Sound card:
    Audio device: Pulseaudio

Has anyone seen "pulseaudio" soundcard under Windows? I don't think so

[AJSB]

I knew it !!!! thats why they wanted to me fill in a survey.... i finally did it and they collected a bunch of info about my Slackware PC


I bet that Valve has being collecting info about our hardware for a long long time


I bet they collected not only info about hardware but also about the the games types that LINUX players play under WINE....

[Kano]

Well the game types... Basically every source engine title is the same gametype, just some are better for single player and others are better for multiplayer. All are first person shooters, did you see something else directly from valve?

[Licaon]

Very nice.

yeah, that's 2011, but guess they're doing it for a longer time: http://phoronix.com/forums/showthrea...367#post214367

[GreatEmerald]

Has anyone seen "pulseaudio" soundcard under Windows? I don't think so

Actually yes, yes I have. Not Wine, though.