Steam's Linux Efforts Were Influential To Microsoft, Other Companies

[Dr_ST]

I'm a seldom gamer with little time to dedicate to it, switching mostly to windows for skype and some games. I've played a lot of games under linux, including WarCraft III for instance, they were working better than with windows, and I could easily switch to another window for email follow up when needed for instance, without a glitch.
With Valve in the place, I'm playing more and more directly using linux (Ubuntu for now, but used Mandriva or Suse also), some are older games (Serious Sam), but some are more recent, like Civ V for instance :-).
Steam numbers are probably underestimated in their survey, all the time, since I do not autostart steam on linux, but this is the default behaviour for windows, on average windows in on probably one fith of the time (linux is my working platform also). Thanks Steam...

[ldo17]

Unfortunately WINE wont cut it.

Why not? Even “native” Win32* APIs on Windows are just an emulation layer on top of the deeper kernel. So why can’t Linux implement them just as well?

*And why is it still Win32? What happened to Win64?

[theriddick]

Umm its not all Valve's fault, AMD and NVIDIA drivers are just not up to snuff on Linux, OpenGL and Vulkan is HARD for MANY developers, Ubuntu was/is devouring itself with many fragmented issues causing confusion for people coming to Linux (what distro do I use sort of deal.. then OH NO BLACK SCREEN, LINUX BROKEN).

Lets not forget that Valve doesn't prohibit companies from selling their games on other platforms, MS has shown the desire to LOCK developers into their platform only if possible, if by no other means then massive incentives! (anti-competitive).

I think one of the major hiccups Valve did was making their SteamOS a media center and not an actual, you know, OS with desktop and all for people to use. Sure you can make it so now but it's out of the box experience isn't very attractive for people who want a 'desktop' PC for gaming and not a DUMB consolized interface! (why wouldn't they just buy a PS4 or XB1 if that's the case?)

[ldo17]

What you don't realize is the magnitude difference between Microsoft and Valve. If Microsoft were really commited to making a push with their store, Valve would disappear in 5 years. Dead. Gone.

We’ve seen Microsoft try that sort of thing before. Remember “PlaysForSure™”? Or how about the Kin?

[L_A_G]

What you don't realize is the magnitude difference between Microsoft and Valve. If Microsoft were really commited to making a push with their store, Valve would disappear in 5 years. Dead. Gone.

If pushing the store as a default install and making many of their games and other applications exclusive to it isn't being committed to it, then what is? Do they need to turn Windows into iOS where you can't install applications from any source other than Microsoft's built-in app store without jailbreaking the OS?

Microsoft's history is full of things they've poured a lot of money into, but have seen little in terms of returns. Windows Phone, the Kin, Windows RT and Edge spring to mind.

[Passso]

What you don't realize is the magnitude difference between Microsoft and Valve. If Microsoft were really commited to making a push with their store, Valve would disappear in 5 years. Dead. Gone.

Like they did on the mobile phone market?

[ldo17]

Like they did on the mobile phone market?

I think Master5000 has had it well and truly pounded into them by now that the days of automatically assuming that anything Microsoft does should be taken seriously are gone.

[Passso]

I think Master5000 has had it well and truly pounded into them by now that the days of automatically assuming that anything Microsoft does should be taken seriously are gone.

I do not think anymore about Master5000 because he has a chaotic and nihilist mind

[duby229]

Umm its not all Valve's fault, AMD and NVIDIA drivers are just not up to snuff on Linux, OpenGL and Vulkan is HARD for MANY developers, Ubuntu was/is devouring itself with many fragmented issues causing confusion for people coming to Linux (what distro do I use sort of deal.. then OH NO BLACK SCREEN, LINUX BROKEN).

Lets not forget that Valve doesn't prohibit companies from selling their games on other platforms, MS has shown the desire to LOCK developers into their platform only if possible, if by no other means then massive incentives! (anti-competitive).

I think one of the major hiccups Valve did was making their SteamOS a media center and not an actual, you know, OS with desktop and all for people to use. Sure you can make it so now but it's out of the box experience isn't very attractive for people who want a 'desktop' PC for gaming and not a DUMB consolized interface! (why wouldn't they just buy a PS4 or XB1 if that's the case?)

Well, my opinion with Steam's big picture mode is that it needs to become an actual media player too. It needs Hulu and Netflix and Soundcloud and etc, If they want to compete with xbox and ps they need to actually be capable of using the services people are actually using.

[Passso]

Well, my opinion with Steam's big picture mode is that it needs to become an actual media player too. It needs Hulu and Netflix and Soundcloud and etc, If they want to compete with xbox and ps they need to actually be capable of using the services people are actually using.

I gotta + this. SteamOs alone is good, but all consoles since 10 years include this kind of stuff.

I already have a laptop connected on TV so I can Stream games, watch videos, surf the web, and of course Netflix -> this one is VERY important.
Another good point would be a uPnP server included, else I will never switch to SteamOs, a Linux distro is way more flexible.