'Valve: Linux more viable than Windows 8 for gaming'
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 29th Oct 2012 23:34 UTC
Games I'm not 100% sure this is actually word-for-word, but alas. "In a presentation at Ubuntu Developer Summit currently going on in Denmark, Drew Bliss from Valve said that Linux is more viable than Windows 8 for gaming. Windows 8 ships with its own app store and it is moving away from an open platform model." I feel like a broken record by now but here we go again: keep an eye on Valve, even if you're not into games. This is the company pushing NVIDIA and AMD to improve their Linux support, with enough clout and name to actually get stuff done. Valve doesn't mess around.
E-mail Print r 4   134 Comment(s) http://osne.ws/kgf
Permalink for comment 540559
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE[5]: It's a Valve's game
by lucas_maximus on Tue 30th Oct 2012 17:52 UTC in reply to "RE[4]: It's a Valve's game"
lucas_maximus
Member since:
2009-08-18

It isn't when you take long-term into account, something many people refuse to do here. Long-term, Windows is going Metro-only. That effectively kills any serious gaming on Windows - and Microsoft is okay with that, because they've got an Xbox to sell you.


No it isn't. There is always going to be something like classic mode. There is just too much existing code to kill it off.

Which is exactly why Valve is working with AMD, NVIDIA, and others. The breakage is not something that's unstoppable or insurmountable - just look at Android.


Android is a completely different, they aren't even comparable.

Android development is controlled via Google. What sits underneath Android Layer could be anything ... It could be a modified OpenBSD, QNX or something else. When you develop for Android ... you develop against the Android SDK ... the fact that it is Linux is irrelevant to those who release Apps and Games.

Valve could easily work together with the parties involved to come to a - for Valve - stable platform for developers to target. If Google can, then Valve can


Only if there is a Steam Distro or we are using Ubuntu (which tends to push stuff buggy crap out early, like the pulse audio fiasco, and in another 6 months wayland).

Especially with the help of major other game companies with which they're already working anyway through Steam. Remember, a Metro-only no-serious-gaming Windows is disastrous for especially NVIDIA. Nobody needs a powerful graphics chip for Metro and Cut The Rope.


Oh great, so Valve now dictates what hardware will work best with their games, brilliant!

There is C++, Direct X and probably a lot of other stuff. There is no reason why triple A titles can't run in Metro. Considering the Unreal 3 Engine can run in Flash ... There is no reason why say the CryEngine or the Unreal 3 engine can't run in Metro.

You are stuck in the present, unable to look beyond the horizon. Windows' viability as a gaming platform will end in the very near future when Microsoft pulls the plug on the desktop. They've made it very clear they intend to do so, and luckily for us, Valve has the brains to start addressing that situation NOW, instead of when it's too late.


I just don't think the future is the same as you are predicting. That isn't the same as the fact that I don't understand what you are saying, I just disagree. Who is right or who will is wrong we will find out, pretending you are some sort of oracle just makes you sound like an arsehole.

I don't think anything like the Traditional Desktop is going to go away for maybe another decade, because there is just too much stuff written out there for the current Desktop.

Anyway, all my steam games work on Windows 8 perfectly fine, so that alone disproves Gabe's "viability argument".

Edited 2012-10-30 18:00 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 3