Valve Is A Wonderful Upstream Contributor To Linux & The Open-Source Community

[Chewi]

There is a MS studio that makes Linux games?

Games studios under MS tend to operate quite independently. They generally don't release for Linux, but Minecraft Java Edition is one example. Psychonauts 2 is another, and Double Fine did a fantastic job with that. As an "insider" who doesn't work on games, I have spoken to a couple of people about this, and I think it really comes down to the business case at the end of the day. They don't think the costs involved would make it worthwhile. It's not just the work of initially porting either, but the ongoing support after that. We could say we don't care, the community will handle some of the teething problems, but I don't think they'd be happy with just chucking something over the wall.

[zcansi]

Been a Linux-only desktop user for over a decade, and have spent well over a thousand dollars on Steam games which mostly just run. Thank you Valve, and I'll keep supporting your work with my money.

[V1tol]

Microsoft has enriched Linux and brought many amazing technologies to Linux!

Now I am interested what is amazing MS could provide.

They gave us VS Code

Which is Electron, which is Chromium+Node. MS did nothing for crossplatform support there.

.NET, ASP.NET Core, EF Core, PowerShell

My sincere condolences to those who are forced to use this. I wish you all the best, especially escaping this... wonderful stack.

Edge, etc.

Which is a Chromium reskin. Again no effort from MS for crossplatform support.

Microsoft also have their own Linux distributions

Now we are talking. MS is just (ab)using opensource software to make money.

and they contributed Hyper-V support to the Linux kernel

Another extremely useful thing implanted into Linux kernel.

They probably contributed to Mesa, Wayland and X.Org Window System too with all their work around WSLg.

They did. But while everyone contributes in Mesa to work with open technologies like Vulkan or OpenGL, MS patched it to run over its proprietary D3D12.

I actually loved WSL1 - that one that didn't require VM to run. But then MS devs showed they are not capable of ^{not breaking sound and printers every week} working with real code and just decided to throw Linux inside a VM. That was the last drop making me move exclusively on Linux.

[skeevy420]

As a long time Linux user, it's been the combination of Valve and AMD that has made everything so nice. While Steam was OK back in the day on Linux and we had a handful of native games, it wasn't until AMD released AMDGPU and opened up Mantle that things really started looking optimistic in regards to Linux gaming. Valve's Linux gaming and open source development took off like a rocket once AMD took out all the proprietary bullshit and provided an open source base for everyone to work with.

While Valve is a great contributor to the open source world, AMD really helped get the ball rolling and deserves an honorable mention.

Heck, AMDGPU is why I buy AMD hardware and use Linux and Valve for playing games. Back in 2013 I'd have gone back to Sony or NVIDIA/Windows for gaming needs if it weren't for AMD and AMDGPU. A decade later and I'm on my 3rd AMD graphics card, 2nd AMD processor, and I really have no desire to go back to game consoles or Windows.

[skeevy420]

I'm not a gamer but I bought a Steam Deck just for support them.

I say this in jest:

That's kind of like me, someone who doesn't drink, saying, "I don't drink, but I bought a fifth of Jack just to support them."

That said, if you have that kind of money to spend in corporate support, have you considered buying Steam Keys and donating them to people like Michael or Joshie or Phillip or some of the AMD driver developers that frequent these parts?

[NomadDemon]

M$ too.

With wsl you can learn the basic commands and interactions. And Microsoft is one of the largest sponsors of Linux - it has a platinum membership in the Linux Foundation.

Microsot also does not block games from its studios from running on Linux, and could if it were a bad company.

This monent, when MS is less hostile to linux than adobe (trash company)

[kpedersen]

You can do that with any Linux distro and won't have to pay MS a dime.

To an extent but when the Steam DRM platform inevitably disappears; the only way to still play the games you paid for will be on Windows because traditionally this platform has the most cracks available

Microsot also does not block games from its studios from running on Linux, and could if it were a bad company.

Mainstream no; but in the past we commonly had to turn down contracts involving the HoloLens because they artificially refused to allow support from other platforms. Check out "Microsoft Developer License".

And with Windows RT, they certainly tried to restrict everyone. Luckily Apple had already captured that consumer market so Microsoft failed hard here.

[vextium]

People do not realize that Microsoft and the Xbox/Gaming division of the company have two entirely different cultures and priorities and ideas. If Microsoft Windows team had a hand in gaming they would kill compatibility with Linux in a heart beat, but it isn't in Xbox's best interest to have their games blocked from being purchased in other platforms hence why they push Linux compatibility, in conclusion, Microsoft is a pretty fractured place with tons of different factions and groups with different priorities, people really do underplay how much office politics has to do with what Microsoft does as a whole.

[Jumbotron]

Valve's policy is to upstream everything. This.

[Anux]

They generally don't release for Linux, but Minecraft Java Edition is one example. Psychonauts 2 is another, and Double Fine did a fantastic job with that.

Both games were in development/existed before MS took over, so we would have to see about future games from them.

To an extent but when the Steam DRM platform inevitably disappears; the only way to still play the games you paid for will be on Windows because traditionally this platform has the most cracks available

If the game runs with wine/proton, the cracked version most certainly does as well. In fact most games need to be cracked under wine because the DRM is not working there.