Valve highly interested in Linux, porting Steam, Source
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 26th Apr 2012 18:23 UTC, submitted by Radio
Games "I am still struck by just how interested Valve is in Linux as a platform; it is certainly beyond my original expectations. This Linux work just is not some half-assed attempt by them to make it look like they are a Linux-friendly organization. Gabe's vision to support, embrace, and promote Linux are amazing, assuming they execute, which looks to be very high probability at this point." Nice scoop from Phoronix. Seems to all tie in quite well with the prospect of a Steambox running Linux.
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Nth_Man
Member since:
2010-05-16

hardware developers treat OpenGL as a second-class citizen on Windows because it is a second-class citizen on Windows.

I quote what Daniel Phillips said:
CAD is the engine that kept OpenGL going through the years of vicious attacks by Microsoft. Even though Microsoft achieved near absolute victory in the gaming space and played an instrumental role in bringing SGI to its knees, [even buying SoftImage, to sell it later when Microsoft couldn't drive it anymore], it failed to kill OpenGL entirely, in large part because of the entrenched high end CAD market. [...] During this period, Linux took over Hollywood's render farms from Unix, and that was another base of support for OpenGL, but it might not have been sufficient if Microsoft had ever succeeded in dislodging the tenacious grip of OpenGL on Windows-based CAD. And then there was John Carmack's famous refusal to switch to Direct3D, but that came close to the brink. Not any more.

A litle off-topic, I would like to remind that:
- out of Windows, there's the CAD in Linux (Maya, SoftImage, XSI, Mudbox, Houdini, Nuke, Renderman, etc) to interest hardware developers.
- out of PCs, there's OpenGL in Mac (Blizzard uses OpenGL on their Mac ports (*), etc.); the massively growing Android and iOS smartphone and tablet market, where OpenGL is the standard 3D graphics engine; etc.

(*) Also, Apple chaired the OpenGL 3.3 branch. They also chaired the OpenGL 3.1 branch. Khronos is fully embracing the move to OpenCL along with AMD. Nvidia is still kicking and screaming and pushing CUDA. PTC is starting to move its applications to OS X. It's not because OS X wasn't ready for OpenGL (as it had OpenGL throughout). It was the perceived market share for years and perceived resistance by IT to push OS X. That's all gone. iOS and OS X make it obvious that CAD companies can now push "fat" and "thin" client tools for their clients and actual technical users giving them a new vertical market for profits.

Edited 2012-04-27 09:13 UTC

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