Posted on 09/17/2013 6:15:59 AM PDT by ShadowAce
New Orleans: If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times: The reason why desktop Linux hasn't made it is because of its lack of games. Thanks to Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve and its Steam game platform, that's not true anymore.
As a keynote speaker at the Linux Foundation's 2013 North American Linuxcon, Newell explained that the old proprietary ways are no longer working for gaming companies. In no small part, that's because the economics of games are changing. Newell said, "Games are becoming nodes in a linked economy where the majority of digital goods and services are user generated, rather than created by companies."
In fact, Newell said that the Team Fortress Community is already creating 10 times the content of Valve's Team Fortress developers. Newell has no doubt that in head-to-head competition, Valve could take on any of the other gaming companies. But there's no way that it can beat the content of its community and companies that don't realize it's the gamers, and not the developers, who are calling the shots.
While Newell wouldn't go so far as to repeat his claim from last year that "Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space," he made it clear that he thought he disapproved of the current direction of the PC platform.
"How to be polite ... we think that has been some bad thinking. Platforms are becoming more controlled, the software developer market is controlled, the content is controlled, and [so is] the pricing." He believes that Microsoft and the PC vendors think that this is the right way, but they're wrong. "They should have leveraged the strength of open systems, rather than going to proprietary platforms."
As a consequence, "We have had significant year-over-year declines in PC units". And, "PC vendors and software programs have a deer-in-the-headlight look in their eyes." While PC sales decline, gaming sales have continued to increase, and Steam itself has seen a 76 percent year to date gain in usage.
At the same time, "The Linux desktop is painfully small for the gaming market. It's insignificant by pretty much any metrics players, players minutes, revenue it's typically less than 1 percent." So, if gaming continues to do well, despite Mac and Windows overall declining sales, why did Valve decide to go with Linux? Because Newell has seen the future and it's open.
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Newell pointed out Valve has actually been using Linux since 1999. "We use several hundred thousand game servers and use it internally as well for game servers. Internally, we have 20TB of content, we go a year between reboots, and we delivered over an exabyte of data on the internet in the year to date, which comes to 2 to 3 percent of the world's internet." He added, "In all game companies, you'll find more reliance on and higher percentages of Linux usage."
"Linux is the future of gaming for gamers on the client as well, because, besides Microsoft moving to a more locked-in style of computing, "Open systems were advancing much faster. The old console guys are not competitive, and there's huge tension in proprietary systems." For example, Newell said, "It took us six months to get one update through the Apple store. Closed systems are at odds with the evolution of gaming."
So, Valve has been bringing its Steam games to Linux. There are now 198 Steam games running on Linux. The issues of bringing the games to Linux have been solved.
The next step, from where Newell sits, isn't so much bringing games to Linux, but rather working on the hardware side to create a living room gaming device based on Linux. This device, which we'll find out more about next week, is designed to span the gap from the desktop to the living room TV.
In Valve's future, players will run their games on Linux systems. They may not know they are running Linux any more than nine out of 10 Android users know they're running Linux but it will be Linux under the hood. These devices, whether PCs, tablets, or dedicated game consoles, will all play the same while running the same Steam-based games on top of Linux.
Linux will go nowhere until installing software and hardware is universally as easy as Windows or Mac.
I’m a computer geek and getting something to “just work” on Linux is often troublesome.
>>>> What portion of software on linux manages its own dependencies?
>> All of it.
Bu!!$h!+. *IF* the software provider has built the yum package to include all dependencies, but how many do that? About 1 in 100.
All of the Red Hat / Suse versions do.
The Debian-based distros use apt-get. Same thing, different program.
A lot of the smaller distros use their own version.
>> but how many do that? About 1 in 100. <<
> All of the Red Hat / Suse versions do.
No, All Red Hat versions have a yum command. That is quite a different thing than being able to yum all software.
No exceptions.
That would be cool. Have to see if I can set up a Linux box at home and find this Mint GUI.
MINT sounds good, Ubuntu is very stable and I hear that OpenOs 4 is very friendly for those with Windows withdrawal
Then please show me the solution for playing (on Linux) a Blu-ray from the original disc without ripping it, along with supporting BD-J and HDMV.
To handle the various DRM strategies that are out there on a commercial electronics device you’re looking at serious complexity: HDCP, DTCP-IP, AES128, AACS, per device encryption keys, etc.
Hint: I know what I’m talking about.
TF2’s been touching off errors on map change for me for a year or more. Nothing else is being troublesome, just that game.
TF2 just doesn’t work on some computers, usually over a graphics problems
Yep. With mine it runs the game fine, but triggers a protection in the OS on map changes and falls over. Very annoying...hl2.exe is obviously a legit process and I’ve forced it to redownload multiple times, so it’s just being pissy.
Not a huge deal...I could only take that game in small doses anyway.
bump
If youre running the latest version of Ubuntu (13.04 Raring Ringtail at the time of writing or any future release), getting Blu-Rays to work is as simple as installing the VLC Media Player. Already famous as the most popular open source media player, VLC is capable of playing literally everything under the sun.and...
Libbluray is an open-source library designed for blu-ray discs playback for media players, like vlc or mplayer. this research project is developed by an international team of developers from doom9. libbluray integrates navigation, playlist parsing, menus, and bd-j.You must have missed my point about Android, which has no issue with various DRM content including HDTV. You also neglected to address hardware solutions, which may be proprietary and secure even if the OS is open - many Android devices included closed components and proprietary drivers.
At any rate, straight digital distribution is the future - even Apple is ignoring Blu-Ray in favor of direct download.
http://www.linuxmint.com
I like their approach, it's a Ubuntu based distribution but with a much better desktop environment. I've been using it daily for months and it's been very stable.
If you want the easiest/best experience I have to recommend NVIDIA for the video card. AMD is catching up, but their drivers aren't as stable yet.
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