Phoronix is justifiably happy, now that Valve has confirmed Steam will be “available to Linux users in the coming months”. (We are assuming here the Telegraph is accurate in its reporting.)
I think this is a very positive development.
First Mover
For one thing it shows Valve recognizes that although Linux may be small proportionally, it is a growing and profitable user base. (More profitable per user than Windows or Mac according to some measures.)
I expect Valve hopes to stake out first-mover status in the online game delivery arena in the Mac and Linux market. That’s good because of all the DRM schemes game publishers employ, Steam is the closest to actually being helpful to the end-user.
The Gamers
Valve bringing Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress to Linux it represents the first breaks in one major dam where Linux falls short of Windows: games.
Many (probably the majority of) gamers have a particular mindset: they want to play the latest games.
I’m a bit of a gamer myself, and have had to adjust my mindset to enjoying the latest games that have Linux support - which means I have to be content with far far fewer titles. Especially the ”big brand” titles.
Don’t get me wrong, those that come (Heroes of Newerth, Doom, Quake, etc.) are fantastic and perform perfectly on Linux, but the selection is much smaller.
That’s a hard sell if you’re trying to move off of Windows – how many otherwise-Linux-users do you know that keep a Windows partition or “only boot to Windows for the games”?
The remaining dams
Corporate users.
Education.
In both cases, these are “lock-in” bases for Windows. People will tend to stick to what they are taught as children (thus Microsoft’s EDGI and other such bribery programs to make sure Windows is in schools), and people prefer to use the same stuff at home and work (thus home-office licensing plans).
Still, progress is progress and Valve bringing the Steam infrastructure to Linux along with a few “AAA” titles is progress indeed.
#1 by Lex on May 13, 2010 - 2:47 pm
I dont see the reason to get excited about DRM being ported to GNU/Linux. Games are good, DRM is bad. Simple as that. Having the priviledge to play Half-Life is not a good reason enough to open up your system to a potential rootkit.
What DRM files will be installed on your system? Will they require root access? What activities will they perform? Are they going send the data back home? Will they compromise your system security? The bottom line is you should never trust deliberatly obfuscated code.
Seeing how you like busting balls on everything hostile to free software, I would expect you to talk more about these points instead of conviniently ingoring them and perpetuating hype from other sources.
DRM is utterly against the very idea of free software. But you seem to be ALMOST defending it. Suddenly you are being PRACTICAL about DRM because it servers your short-term needs.
You know, there is another group of people practical about certain technology which is harmful to free software in the long run, but benefitial to them in short term… And if you keep this up you will be no better than them.
Please slap yourself, wake up, and get your priorities straight. You should be getting people to boycott the DRM, not condoning it.
#2 by Jason on May 13, 2010 - 4:29 pm
Lex,
Thank you for your comments!
I’m not excited about “DRM being ported to GNU/Linux”, nor am I defending DRM in general or in this specific instance.
I see games for Linux developing in 3 branches, with very little overlap:
1. FLOSS games (FreeCiv, Battle for Wesnoth, Alien Arena, etc.)
2. Commercial indie games (a la the recent Humble Indie Bundle)
3. “AAA” titles (Doom, Quake, etc.)
Not only are these 3 groups largely independent sets, but the 3rd group virtually requires a publisher to embrace Linux; and of the existing large publishers, Valve is probably the “best fit” for Linux.
That doesn’t mean I’m advocating #3 over #1 (or #2) or that I approve of DRM or anything similar.
I’m saying in the context of a major game publisher coming to Linux, Valve is – to be blunt – the lesser of other evils – especially since iD may no longer be supporting Linux under EA.
In my estimation this is very different from attempting to displace or even hinder existing Free and Open Source solutions (for one thing, there is no such thing as a major FLOSS game publisher.)
Similarly, it is unlikely that Valve will wage a war of patent FUD, bribery and astroturfing against FLOSS game developers.
A small tangent here: Valve is not Microsoft. If you think all proprietary software houses are equally destructive and vile, then I have to disagree and point out that is the sort of blind equivalence that I often take others to task for. (Example: When Team Apologista desperately tries to pretend that Microsoft is “just like any other company” or is “only doing business”.)
Thus, although I am opposed to DRM, it does not mean that I can not acknowledge that of all possible uses Valve’s is less odious than Ubisoft’s. If I were to say all DRM is equally offensive, I think that would be lacking in rigor.
I could have focused on the problems with DRM (in general and in this specific case), but I don’t think it is the most interesting thing in this context. Perhaps I gave off the wrong vibe by not being more critical, but I’m not trying to point out the cloud in every lining, either.
#3 by Nabil @ My Morning Sickness Remedies on June 6, 2011 - 5:38 pm
Hey, Jason! How are things going?
I just thought I’d let you know that Steam unfortunately won’t be coming to Linux.
All of that was just rumors spreading by the community. Steam actually crushed the rumor and wrote that they weren’t working on a version for Linux over here: http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/08/23/1237200/Steam-Not-Coming-To-Linux
Guess we’ll just have to keep on waiting…
/Nabil, from Sweden. Think I left another comment, except it got marked as spam.