57 replies to this topic 1 votes

[ChrisJ1968]

Simon-, on 19 January 2013 - 02:24, said:

Sounds pretty mild, approximately 0% normal users care sbout dependancies unless it is causing a problem. It uses a few GBs of space, and that is the price you pay for the client and the games which need it. How big is your hard drive? 10GB? Maybe you need a bigger drive. It makes sense that they use their own auto update, standard update managers don't support the DRM which Steam needs to make their platform a reality, and using their own auto update to test their DRM laden update process makes sense.

relax and give it time broski. it's new and as all new things go.. there are inherent bumps in the road. I would like to see how you feel about it in say...oh... a year from now?

[Simon-]

ChrisJ1968, on 19 January 2013 - 04:20, said:

relax and give it time broski. it's new and as all new things go.. there are inherent bumps in the road. I would like to see how you feel about it in say...oh... a year from now?

I think that you need to re-read my post.

[ozgeek]

Don't you get the meaning of BETA?

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[08993]

I just find it amusing that Gabe ranted about Windows 8 being a closed platform and then of all distro's to base development on chooses Ubuntu! I'm not going to slag Ubuntu off but it's guilty of a lot of what Windows 8 is apparently guilty of, has a store that sells games, it's x64 builds are multi-libbed by default etc. Of all the distro's you can choose Ubuntu is without doubt doing it's own thing and forcing it's internal ethos on the users, just like Windows 8!

Anyway, then there's the games, some of the ports are sloppy, not Valve's fault, HiB guys are guilty of rushing ports with really silly, lazy bugs, these all have Steam keys now. Also, game choice is not very good, apart from Valve's own and a few others you can get the rest of the games elsewhere and it alleviates a lot of the problems, can get a native x64 Amnesia-TDD for example that means you don't have to multilib, then again if you use Ubuntu you don't care about multilib.

The steam client doesn't adhere to EWMH, as such won't work on tilers properly, the Valve guys were given viable alternatives to updating outside of package managers but weren't interested, actually thinking about it Ubuntu and Steam perhaps belong together and target the same users who don't care about all of this stuff, and that's fair enough I guess.

I was mad at first but now I've realised that it's a mainstream product targeted to mainstream users who typically don't care if they are decent Linux citizens or not, the type of users who think Ubuntu IS Linux, and I hate to say it but a lot of the Linux users here on Neowin fall into that category which is why most reply's on this thread don't understand the grievances OP mentioned. I don't mean this in a nasty way, but most here have never stepped outside of a DE and discovered what really sets Linux apart, and if you've not done this how would you be expected to know any different?

[alwaysonacoffebreak]

Eins.MY, on 19 January 2013 - 02:33, said:

Ubuntu community seems impressed with Steam Linux Beta, some of them are calling death to Windows gaming after the release of Steam client for linux

not sure other distro users need to install extra libs and some kind of hacking just to play Steam games...

What the...? Steam CLIENT doesn't mean every game in Steam's library will magically work on Linux all of the sudden.

[+ViperAFK]

08993, on 19 January 2013 - 10:40, said:

it's x64 builds are multi-libbed by default etc.

why on earth is this a bad thing?

and regarding the store there's one important difference. You are *forced* to use the windows store for metro apps. You are *never* forced to use the store in ubuntu.

[tim_s]

I am more saden by the main principal's of Linux vanishing to usher in a more windows like enviroment all the time. The whole reason I built a windows machine in the first place was to play games. Mark S. made Ubuntu for ths masses to only point it in the same profit hungry direction as the other OSs.

[Simon-]

tim_s, on 19 January 2013 - 14:04, said:

I am more saden by the main principal's of Linux vanishing to usher in a more windows like enviroment all the time. The whole reason I built a windows machine in the first place was to play games. Mark S. made Ubuntu for ths masses to only point it in the same profit hungry direction as the other OSs.

Sometimes in life you've got to compromise. It's either going to be closed-source/DRM on Linux, or not on Linux at all. The endgame is that Gabe is trying stop gamers from being dependant from Windows, so Valve can control the gaming market (vs. Windows 8 store), and save licensing costs for Steam Box. Unfortunately not many game developers work for free so that's how things work. At least it brings users that wouldn't normally use Linux at all get closer to the platform, and maybe dabble in the Open Source/Linux side of things when they aren't on a game, as oppose to not getting anywhere close to Linux at all. If the gamer gets a taste of Linux and really wants to get into it, they can dump the Ubuntu and go with a pure distribution instead, or dual boot/Virtualise as they would have done with Windows.

[tim_s]

I get it,

People want Linux
People want games


The two are challenging to operating within the same "Open Source" premise and by allowing larger companies to control and use "Proprietary Source", we are technically servicing the new up coming majority. I just wonder if the conversion Ubuntu is under-going – becoming more and more windows like in user fan ship. Will this only bounce back to Ubuntu users becoming Window users once more.

Right now Linux is clearly not Windows but in my opinion is reaching to become a strong alternative to Windows and within this growth – adopting some of the principals.

The 3^rd party hosting company I use, informed me their Windows technicians almost out number them 3-1 currently (This did not use to be the case 5 years ago). LinkedIn sent me an email recently informing me that my skill set has seen a 14% popularity drop.

I am just wondering if the lines are becoming blurred.

[+ShMaunder]

I've not been overwhelmed by the Beta so far, but that is only because of the lack of games on it. As someone else said, once Portal 2 comes about, I will change my view point with that.

The thing I love is being able to use Steam chat nativity which is much better than using WINE. But I'm aware this is a Beta (more an Alpha tbh) and luckily Valve decided to make it an open one as well.

I run desktop Ubuntu so can't see the problems with libs etc. I can't see myself running any other distro when it comes to the desktop neither.

08993, on 19 January 2013 - 10:40, said:

I just find it amusing that Gabe ranted about Windows 8 being a closed platform and then of all distro's to base development on chooses Ubuntu! I'm not going to slag Ubuntu off but it's guilty of a lot of what Windows 8 is apparently guilty of, has a store that sells games, it's x64 builds are multi-libbed by default etc. Of all the distro's you can choose Ubuntu is without doubt doing it's own thing and forcing it's internal ethos on the users, just like Windows 8!

Luckily, if Canonical decide to lock their distribution (to run only stuff from its store for example), then an unlocked fork would appear quickly whilst maintaining application compatibility. Whereas if Microsoft take this approach, then there is no guarantee of somebody being able to hack an unlock for it whilst maintaining application compatibility. We assume that Microsoft won't do this as it would probably spell commercial suicide, though they have done so in the ARM version.

[thealexweb]

Stop using it on an unsupported OS then, Ubuntu only for now.

[Colin McGregor]

ChrisJ1968, on 19 January 2013 - 04:20, said:

relax and give it time broski. it's new and as all new things go.. there are inherent bumps in the road. I would like to see how you feel about it in say...oh... a year from now?

This same argument is said every year about Linux itself. 20+ yrs later and people are still saying "Give it time this will be the year of Linux".

[Kyang]

I think all that would be needed for this to take off is for a game that's exclusive to the Linux Steam to become a hit. That said, I'm not sure if that means it would have to come from some big publisher, or if any other circumstances would have to be met.

[Colin McGregor]

Kyang, on 20 January 2013 - 18:00, said:

I think all that would be needed for this to take off is for a game that's exclusive to the Linux Steam to become a hit. That said, I'm not sure if that means it would have to come from some big publisher, or if any other circumstances would have to be met.

who would do that? There's no way in hell theres ever gonna be a COD or GTA or Saints Row exclusively on Linux. The best you can hope for would be a pokemon or maybe an angry birds addon.

Plus I just jumped onto my Gentoo box and Steam installed just fine. Nothing to play though but whatever.

[syobon999]

Arch linux
now i'm disappointed.