Valve's Source Engine Runs Better on Linux Than Windows

[Don Reba]

The thing is that Microsoft is planning to kill Steam in Windows 8 by forcing all Metro apps, including games, to be sold through its own store, so Valve is hyping up Linux to save some of that juicy revenue stream.

Unless this Metro thing is also blocking classic desktop apps from running in fullscreen, the only thing poised to "kill" Steam in Windows 8 is publishers deciding to make only tablet games instead of real ones. Which, if that was going to happen, would have happened already when the iPad came out.

It only blocks classic desktop apps on ARM processors, which are only used on tablets at this point. Although, it is also true that there are no classic desktop ARM apps to begin with. Windows 8 will not kill Steam immediately, but it will leave it a shrinking part of the market. It is hard to make a case for buying games from your online store, when your users buy all their other apps from another.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

It only blocks classic desktop apps on ARM processors, which are only used on tablets at this point. Although, it is also true that there are no classic desktop ARM apps to begin with. Windows 8 will not kill Steam immediately, but it will leave it a shrinking part of the market. It is hard to make a case for buying games from your online store, when your users buy all their other apps from another.

From what I've heard, the app store is only used for Metro-style tablet apps anyway, so probably most users and certainly most gamers will not be buying all their other apps from it. And anyone who wants to keep their software backwards compatible will be either avoiding Metro or releasing a separate desktop version anyway for that reason. To say nothing of the huge market that still exists for software sold in good old fashioned cardboard boxes at Your Friendly Neighborhood Electronics Store.

 

[NKRevan]

Doesn't anyone else think it is a little suspicious that Valve is trumpeting Linux?

I mean here we have a platform that, so far, has been completely free. You had basically no native applications that cost you anything.

Enter Steam...the first Linux-native application which makes you spend money. How convenient for Steam, isn't it?

I could just be jaded, but I am certain that there is a lot more financial reasoning behind the sudden appreciation of Linux and the bashing of Windows.

Other than that, I honestly don't care which OS I use, as long as I don't have to have a multitude of them. I mean, multiple download services are fine and dandy, but multiple OS? No thanks.

Not sure what you mean by suspicious. And Steam wouldn't be the first. Desura has been on Linux for a while now, and the Ubuntu Software Center also has some paid-for applications, and it even sells music.

I do think Valve have other plans though. They're not stupid, and certainly would not be betting the farm on a platform with such little market share, unless the long-term plan is to actually release the oft-denied "Steam Box".

I mean to say, it is kind of funny how Mr. Newell starts bashing Windows 8 when it serves him the most, namely when he wants to head to another platform. The complaints I have heard voiced against Windows 8 are pretty much baseless (been using it for months now).

Yes, the Metro UI takes time getting used to, but hey, you can choose to not use it. And there is literally no application I couldn't install. For all intents and purposes, it was just Windows 7 with an optional new skin.

So I am wondering why the bashing? Why the actually quite baseless accusations? Personally, I agree with what you say. Or in other words, they probably want to dominate the Linux market where there's little to no competition for them at all (arguably there is none on PC, but there is even LESS on Linux).

Basically, I'm just saying what Steam is doing appears to me much more like a clever little PR stunt than genuine appreciation of one platform versus concerns about another.

 

[-|-]

So if we're done talking about apples and oranges, try and keep your comparisons to the PC gaming world to explain why you feel that Linux will never catch on.

The most obvious reason it won't catch on is that despite being free it hasn't already.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

So if we're done talking about apples and oranges, try and keep your comparisons to the PC gaming world to explain why you feel that Linux will never catch on.

The most obvious reason it won't catch on is that despite being free it hasn't already.

The only reason Linux hasn't caught-on is because there's no reason for it TO catch on right now. Plenty of things been available to the general public for a long time before one catalyst or another caused it to suddenly have some mainstream appeal.

If developers all decide that they want Linux to be the gaming OS of choice, it's going to happen. Nothing else to say about it.

 

[alj]

Having to enter shell commands just to get a program to install is fuckin stupid.

I think having to click next next next next ok yes when installing firefox is stupid, rather than just doing "pacman -S firefox" to install Firefox now ok you have to be able to type and read to know that but windows is about as user unfriendly as you can get. We have windows application in work where you have to add in global defaults edit the registry and register dlls just to get them to load. I bet you the window 8 store will be a ball ache too, want to install application a (lets call it fuzzybum)

In metro you would have to go to the search bar (if it even has one) type what you want click on it click install wait click next next next and then you are done.

In arch "pacman -Ss fuzzybum" returns a list of apps with this string in them with a short description

pacman -S fuzzybum

done

see windows is a pain in the ass, now i still use windows most of the time for work and games but i always always find it user unfriendly

 

[Braedan]

Having to enter shell commands just to get a program to install is fuckin stupid.

I think having to click next next next next ok yes when installing firefox is stupid, rather than just doing "pacman -S firefox" to install Firefox now ok you have to be able to type and read to know that but windows is about as user unfriendly as you can get. We have windows application in work where you have to add in global defaults edit the registry and register dlls just to get them to load. I bet you the window 8 store will be a ball ache too, want to install application a (lets call it fuzzybum)

In metro you would have to go to the search bar (if it even has one) type what you want click on it click install wait click next next next and then you are done.

In arch "pacman -Ss fuzzybum" returns a list of apps with this string in them with a short description

pacman -S fuzzybum

done

see windows is a pain in the ass, now i still use windows most of the time for work and games but i always always find it user unfriendly

Well of course it's more efficient to use the terminal when you know the commands.
But trying to teach my Grandmother what you just told me would probably take several weeks. I'm not saying that Windows is faster or better, I'm saying "click next to Install" is a bit more friendly that "Download complete, now you figure out what to do with it".
Expecting average users to remember terminal commands is a little naive considering a lot don't know that Internet Explorer is a browser and not "the internet button".

 

[Roxor]

Well, this is great news for Valve. Once they launch, they'll be able to drive every PC gamer bankrupt instead of just five sixths of them.

For an explanation of the figures, take a look at the pie charts for the Humble Indie Bundle sales. The average seems to be 4/6 Windows, 1/6 MacOS, and 1/6 Linux.