Valve declares WIndows 8 "a catastrophe for PC", talks about migrating games to Linux

[Pyronick 21]

This will boost Linux development even more. It was always plagued by the fact that the graphics drivers and the game side of things never got attention.

With Valve opening their Source engined catalogue AND Steam to Ubuntu, the development of Linux will grow even bigger!

[PELHAM 10]

Since the FU statement on Nvidia by Linus Torvalds and the above Valve change in strategy, Nvidia seem to be more interested in playing fair these days and are sending people along to meetings.

If you haven't seen it, you must watch this, Torvalds FU/finger to Nvidia, he is a great man and it's such an unexpected moment:

_36yNWw_07g

[Haystack15 10]

Two things,

I won't be getting Windows 8, and I also order my games from Amazon or buy them from the store. So when it comes to me, it's a "I don't care"/"I don't care" situation.

But I can't wait to see how many copies of Windows 8 Microsoft sells. I would love to see the pie chart go unchanged.

[krycek 349]

Will wait for Win 9,they always get one right and fuck up the next version.Win 98-Win Me crap-Win Xp-Win Vista crap-Win 7 and now Win 8,yup its time to launch their usual crap OS between real versions.

[Tankbuster 1747]

Will wait for Win 9,they always get one right and fuck up the next version.Win 98-Win Me crap-Win Xp-Win Vista crap-Win 7 and now Win 8,yup its time to launch their usual crap OS between real versions.

There is a trend, certainly.

[PELHAM 10]

Buy the time Windows9 is available it's entirely possible that many if not most major games may be available on linux with the better performing OpenGL. So what would be the point of spending money on something when there is an alternative you can get for free along with vast libraries of free software? I see MS have slashed the price of Windows8 compared to previous releases but even so, why should we be bothered if there are cheaper and better products?

[Rak 0]

Will wait for Win 9,they always get one right and fuck up the next version.Win 98-Win Me crap-Win Xp-Win Vista crap-Win 7 and now Win 8,yup its time to launch their usual crap OS between real versions.

Except the only real "fault" of Windows 8 is it's new start screen, and it won't be going anywhere. Otherwise it's superior to Windows 7 in every other way. Microsoft will not give up it's foothold in the tablets for desktop users.

[dmarkwick 261]

Buy the time Windows9 is available it's entirely possible that many if not most major games may be available on linux with the better performing OpenGL. So what would be the point of spending money on something when there is an alternative you can get for free along with vast libraries of free software? I see MS have slashed the price of Windows8 compared to previous releases but even so, why should we be bothered if there are cheaper and better products?

No-one has spent any money yet on Win9, don't worry about it :)

[PELHAM 10]

No-one has spent any money yet on Win9, don't worry about it :)

I'm not? It was a point about Valve moving their focus to OpenGL and Linux that was made on the previous page and the research already done on the matter. A few posters said they would give 8 a miss and wait for 9.

How Valve Made L4D2 Faster On Linux Than Windows

Left 4 Dead 2 on the Valve Source Engine running natively under Linux with OpenGL is faster than running the game on Windows 7 with DirectX when both the Direct3D and OpenGL renderers are tested.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE1NzE

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE1ODI

You see what is the point of saying, I'm giving Windoze8 a miss and waiting for 9 if gaming has moved to Linux? Why bother with Windows at all when you get an equal product for nothing? Might be difficult for those new to linux to switch but for those of us that only boot into Windows to play games......

Edited August 19, 2012 by PELHAM

[krycek 349]

Valve haven't done anything yet,it's not like they'll pack up things and move to Linux if there are still millions of Steam users on Win unless they want to go kamikaze style.One thing is to eye other platforms and another thing is to move their focus(logistics,development)to Linux.For now they stay where the money is and right now it's Win platform.Regarding Win 8 I read some good things about it,but I'll wait until it grows up a little,then I'll decide if I'll wait for Win 9.

[Pyronick 21]

It's also a way to stay ahead of other distributing platforms such as Origin and the new Ubisoft thingy.

[Tankbuster 1747]

It's a great way of getting some free publicity too.

[PELHAM 10]

Valve haven't done anything yet,

They are hiring Linux game developers? Nothing released yet and maybe the project could be cancelled but saying they haven't done anything yet is not entirely true.....

Valve confirms Steam for Linux

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2012/07/17/valve-steam-linux/

Valve anounces Steam for Linux Beta (it will probably arrive before Arma3)

http://steamforlinux.com/?q=en/node/86

One Of The New Valve Linux Employees Is... 31/05/2012

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTExMDM

Valve Picks Up Another All-Star Linux Developer.....14/07/2012

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_linux_sdl&num=1

Also the Valve Linux blog......by the Valve Linux Team:

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

Nvidia also attended the recent graphics meetings which they have not done for several years and last year AMD increased it's Linux Driver Dev team from 2 - 5.

Edited August 20, 2012 by PELHAM

[Baff1 0]

LMAO @ Valve.

It's not going to get them the hacker purchase though, now is it?

Sour grapes.

MS is doing a Mac Shop on it's handhelds.

Who cares?

From a consumer point of view, Mac Shop, MS shop or STEAM, it all equals the same suck.

[Tonci87 163]

Very interesting for everyone who speaks german

It pretty much descibes why MS wants to introduce Win8/Metro and the misery they are in.

[BasileyOne 10]

thats why all devs should had own framework/engine/library/approach that allow them port flawlessly/effortlessly port their appz between platforms. PC/consoles/mobiles/mainframes/HPC/GRID stuff -ambivalently efficient/transparent. just like cookies from owen ';)

last [real-world] examples i seen is Axiom from [deceased]Meta-creations and Qt from Troll-tech :/

attempts of mainstream dev's fullfil that incomplete, incoherent, not easy to use and hard to manage/evolve, such as UE4-related stuff and so..

Edited August 25, 2012 by BasileyOne

[krytosss 1]

I doubt it'll ever happen, but I would be glad to see valve move to linux. It'd help me make the switch more easily to Linux.

[BasileyOne 10]

I doubt it'll ever happen, but I would be glad to see valve move to linux. It'd help me make the switch more easily to Linux.

well, its actually happen ;)

both ways, ironically =)

just watch how EA[basically Redmond Entertainment [hard-liners faction]division ;-] enjoy employing Qt in recent products.

and how Valve enjoyed latest Khronos API's feats too =)

OpenCL 1.2 [and other OpenGL/OpenMAX 4.3 branches]improve LOT of things to make/deploy/enjoy -)

[PELHAM 10]

I doubt it'll ever happen, but I would be glad to see valve move to linux. It'd help me make the switch more easily to Linux.

Steam Linux Beta is out soon - read previous page for info.

[Baff1 0]

LMAO Linux plus Steam!

Together.

Could computers actually become any less user friendly?

It's hard to imagine how.

[krycek 349]

This sums it up pretty nicely,even though I don't like where Win is going the conclusion is:still beats the crap out of Linux in user friendly department.Was actually surprised,I was expecting this a few years ago but it's like the time stopped for them in this department.Not sure that even Steam will bring too many to their OS for gaming if they're still in the stone age of user-friendly.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/04/the-problems-we-had-with-gaming-on-linux/#more-123010

[PELHAM 10]

This sums it up pretty nicely,even though I don't like where Win is going the conclusion is:still beats the crap out of Linux in user friendly department.Was actually surprised,I was expecting this a few years ago but it's like the time stopped for them in this department.Not sure that even Steam will bring too many to their OS for gaming if they're still in the stone age of user-friendly.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/04/the-problems-we-had-with-gaming-on-linux/#more-123010

Doesn't sum it up at all - that is about getting windows games to work on a different OS which is of course not straight forward, if the games are designed to work on Linux, it will be as straight forward as using windows, that is 2 completely different situations. Valve are proposing a Linux steam version with Linux game versions designed to work on Linux, see the difference?

The article is written by someone who doesn't seem to understand the basics of dual booting, why he was attempting to use wubi as an installation method for gaming is beyond me, it's a bad idea and isn't designed for that as a simple search will tell you, and the next steps he talks about are utter rubbish, changing boot order in bios??? WTF???. (edit: thinking about it he probably was doing something this strange because he didn't want to overwrite the windows MBR with GRUB2, It's slightly complex to uninstall Linux and restore the windows MBR but is pefectly simple for someone who works with PC's and I can't understand why someone who writes for this publication wouldn't be able to do it?)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

The GRUB2 bootloader works perfectly well without any manual editing and I have no idea how he got into that mess as the dual boot method of install is well known? You can simply select which OS you want from the boot menu, I have 4 different OS's on this machine and select them at boot - that is standard and how Linux installs with the dual boot method. If you really want it to boot Windows by default it takes 1 minute and a reboot to change it. Less time and less complex than installing an Arma2 beta.

As for the complaints that games designed for Direct3D will not work/have limited functionality in Linux..........well QED genius. Maybe he was also astonished that games designed to work with OpenGL worked well. lol what a tool, can't even read the basic installations instructions properly.

As for Arma2, it is possible to get it to work as Dwarden and another forum member have a thread describing the method somewhere and some have reported success on the Wine website. Not tried it myself as Arma2 isn't designed to work with Linux so I don't see the point. When a Linux version is available, I will ditch Windows altogether.

Edited September 4, 2012 by PELHAM

[krycek 349]

The RPS guys are one of the remaining gaming sites that I watch and bother to consider their opinion,really doubt he's talking rubbish just because he doesn't believe Linux The Second Coming.Also they're the few guys remaining around that are open minded enough to consider other platforms(well except consoles).Would be good to have alternative to Win,right now M$ can do whatever they want,if they want Win closed platform just like they did on Xbox then they'll do it(they already tried that trick with Win Live).So having Linux as a worthy competitor would be good for everyone,sadly they can't escape their niche mentality and thinking it's cool enough to still use command prompts just to install some programs.

Btw I doubt you read the whole article because in the end he states "I want to choose choice. Even with all the trouble I’ve had and the failures I’ve faced. I’m going to keep messing around in Linux and hope that I’m not too old to learn new tricks. I hope you’ll all come with me."

[PELHAM 10]

Btw I doubt you read the whole article because in the end he states "I want to choose choice. Even with all the trouble I’ve had and the failures I’ve faced. I’m going to keep messing around in Linux and hope that I’m not too old to learn new tricks. I hope you’ll all come with me."

Did read it all, just questioning his competence, someone who works in the industry should have a higher level of computer literacy than the average user and not make such basic errors of judgement. Glad he is sticking with Linux but he really should do some more research before writing such silly things. You also miss the point about what OS games are designed for, yes getting windows games to work on linux is difficult. That isn't what steam are proposing, they will be selling games designed to work on Linux so the situation described in the article will not occur.

[batto 17]

sadly they can't escape their niche mentality and thinking it's cool enough to still use command prompts just to install some programs.

Eh... we use it because it's fast & easy =)