Valve's Gabe Newell Talks Up Linux For Gaming

[dee.]

Valve will almost certainly continue to ship their games for X windows and rely on systems like XWayland and XMir for the foreseeable future. They will not make a switch until one system has become the new de facto standard for window managers.

I think (or at least it's the impression I'm getting, forgive me if I'm wrong) you misunderstand Xwayland and Xmir - Xwayland allows running X software on Wayland, not the other way around - and the same applies for Xmir. In order to be able to run Wayland software over X, you'd have to run an entire Wayland compositor or write some kind of new compatibility layer (WaylandX?) and to run Mir programs on X... well, since there's no such thing as "Mir compositor" and the only thing that supports Mir is Unity... the only choice would be running Ubuntu in a VM, or writing some kind of new compatibility layer (MirX).

Valve has stated that their Steambox ships with X, which indeed makes sense for the short term - it's a gaming-focused system, and so far X still has the best driver support, as the proprietary GPU drivers of Nvidia & AMD only support X for now. But in the long term, once we get good EGL drivers, they will want to move on to a modern graphics system, because of all the benefits - not only performance, but also tear-free frames, etc. Then it'll be a choice between Mir + Unity, and be compatible with Ubuntu; or Wayland + almost any other DE, and be compatible with Tizen + almost all other Linux distros.

[crymsonpheonix]

If the steambox runs a "normal" Linux distro, then there'd be nothing stopping you from installing and running non-steam games (or other software) on it. That's already more than can be said of any gaming console (barring mods and hacks).

Gabe has made it clear before that steamboxes will be normal PC's running linux. IIRC you could even install windows on a steambox if you wanted. Some of what I've heard has led me to believe it's more of a hardware standard than a concrete product.

It's just too bad, that Valve will now have to decide, will their Steambox OS be compatible with Ubuntu (Mir), or with Tizen + all the other distros (Wayland). If Intel releases their Tizen ultrabooks however, I think it'll make it an easy choice... which would be bad for Canonical.

Valve will almost certainly continue to ship their games for X windows and rely on systems like XWayland and XMir for the foreseeable future. They will not make a switch until one system has become the new de facto standard for window managers.

[dee.]

If the steambox runs a "normal" Linux distro, then there'd be nothing stopping you from installing and running non-steam games (or other software) on it. That's already more than can be said of any gaming console (barring mods and hacks).

It's just too bad, that Valve will now have to decide, will their Steambox OS be compatible with Ubuntu (Mir), or with Tizen + all the other distros (Wayland). If Intel releases their Tizen ultrabooks however, I think it'll make it an easy choice... which would be bad for Canonical.

[Figueiredo]

From the opening of Gabe's presentation slides:



What boggles my mind is how people don't see Steam as exactly this type of closed platform that controls market access, content, and pricing.

They take a huge cut of money, they really provide very little compared to what Apple/Google/Microsoft/Sony do with hardware/software on their gaming ecosystems.

Obviously Gaben makes it seem like they are much more open than, say, google with android.

Steam does indeed act as a portal between content producers and consumers, but it is not *currently* tied to the OS or hardware in the same way ios/macox, android and to some extend modern Windows machines (think UEFI, WinRT, etc...)

However, *if*, the steambox ships with a simple bios, or any other kind of unlocked bootloader, than it is already much more open than any other alternative.

Furthermore, you would be able to build Linux machines from parts and install the distro of your choice, and steam, desura and/or any other content that provides a Linux application on top of it, which does not need to go through Apple/Google/Microsoft to get to custumers. In this scenario, valve is just one between many content providers, and as long as the OS of the steambox is compatible with mainstream distros, whatever is made available for it would run on "unofficial" boxes as well.

Thus, instead of having a whole ecosystem tied to a single box, with a single spec/form factor, you have endless hardware and software possibilities, which neither Microsoft, apple sony or google provides.

[DanLamb]

From the opening of Gabe's presentation slides:

Several years ago we became concerned about the direction of the PC platform.

Proprietary, closed platforms were emerging (control market access, content, pricing, ...)

What boggles my mind is how people don't see Steam as exactly this type of closed platform that controls market access, content, and pricing.

They take a huge cut of money, they really provide very little compared to what Apple/Google/Microsoft/Sony do with hardware/software on their gaming ecosystems.

[curaga]

never saw a speech by him before...I've to say, his presentation style is actually worse than that of a 14 year old. Dafuq is that?! I'd have thought that someone would've teached him how to hold a presentation...really? Everything he says is printed on the presentation. And he is reading off of it.

Unrelated, but I was similarly disappointed when I first saw Steve Jobs give a speech. I assumed him to be some kind of godly speaker, and instead he never looked up from his papers.

[nightmarex]

Very interesting talk. When I first saw that the Valve on Linux rumours were for real, I thought Valve was insane to want to come here. But watching Newell explain how walled gardens hurt software vendors financially makes me think that any software vendor NOT getting behind Linux is shortsighted.

Couldn't of said it better myself. These companies need to wake up and jump ship to one of the last bastions of an open computing experience before it's too late.

Has nobody noticed or made the connection yet?

Gaben says in the video that they (ValvE) have certainly improved the Linux situation for the Call of Duty guys!
Well, remember when Infinity Ward posted pictures of the same prototype Steambox that ValvE showed off previously, albeit with their own logo printed on it?
If not, go ahead and Google it for yourself!

BTW, what ever happened to the Batman game Michael was showing pictures for on his Twitter account?

I hadn't thought of that but I remember someone saying something before that the box the CoD guys had was a Windows version but if you're right.... Linux has to have a higher first person shooter ratio than any other platform.

[Linuxxx]

Confirmed by Gaben: Call of Duty for Linux!

Phoronix: Valve's Gabe Newell Talks Up Linux For Gaming

Gabe Newell was one of the prominent speakers today during the first day of LinuxCon in New Orleans. Here's an upload of his presentation where he's trumpeting the benefits of Linux for servers and gaming. Gabe believes, "Linux is the future of gaming."..

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTQ2MzI

Has nobody noticed or made the connection yet?

Gaben says in the video that they (ValvE) have certainly improved the Linux situation for the Call of Duty guys!
Well, remember when Infinity Ward posted pictures of the same prototype Steambox that ValvE showed off previously, albeit with their own logo printed on it?
If not, go ahead and Google it for yourself!

BTW, what ever happened to the Batman game Michael was showing pictures for on his Twitter account?

[Detructor]

never saw a speech by him before...I've to say, his presentation style is actually worse than that of a 14 year old. Dafuq is that?! I'd have thought that someone would've teached him how to hold a presentation...really? Everything he says is printed on the presentation. And he is reading off of it.

[deri]

Well because of valve linux finally gets games and improved support. We have just only started.