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| Valve to offer applications through Steam |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-08-08 18:45:24 |
| Valve has just announced it will start selling applications through Steam. "The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you. More Software titles will be added in an ongoing fashion following the September 5th launch, and developers will be welcome to submit Software titles via Steam Greenlight." I feel like a broken record at this point, but guys and girls, Valve is going to release specifications for a 'Steambox'. A set of minimum specifications a Linux or Windows machine has to adhere to, either self-built or by an OEM. Steam pre-installed, can be used as regular PC and as a console. With Windows 8 locking itself down, this is their only option - and I applaud it. |
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| RE[5]: Windows 8 is not a lockdown |
| By jbauer on 2012-08-09 15:13:53 |
|
> > Denying Microsoft is working to lock Windows down entirely is short-sighted, and completely out of touch with reality. True, but the same could be said about Apple and, despite all the "thumbs up" Valve is getting both here and around the web, the truth is that Valve is free to change their ToS at will, and since Steam is really a subscription service, if you don't agree to the new terms... puff! all your software is gone (see http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/c... and http://i.imgur.com/YM7Hq.png in particular). I wouldn't mind too much if it's just games that I completed and I'm non likely to play again anyway, but productivity software is another matter altogether. Hey, but they like Linux now. That makes them cool. |
 - Score: 2 |
| RE[2]: ARM? Good things come to those who wait |
| By rbenchley on 2012-08-09 15:24:22 |
|
> I don't think the Steambox will be X86/AMD64 based. I also don't think it will run Windows. It makes sense for Valve to wait until more games run on Linux and wait until PS4 and Xbox 720 have been released. With the evolution of ARM SOCs accelerating (Tegra4 with A15 and Kepler looks very promising and Ouya should have picked it) they just need to wait a year and they might offer a machine with similar specs than what Sony and MS offer for a much lower price. If they go the $99 route they could release an updated version every year. That is against conventional wisdom that consoles shouldn't change for a long time, but Steam games live in the PC ecosystem where every year hardware gets more powerfull and games take advantage of that. The steambox also should. Hardcore gamers won't mind paying 99 bucks a year for the latest kit and casual gamers will be fine with a few frames per second less. The ARM platform has advanced nicely and is capable of some pretty decent visuals, but it's nowhere near close to being on par with today's x86/x64 PCs or the next gen consoles. The PS4 is rumored to be based on a quad core x64 CPU from AMD running at 3.3 ghz with a GPU based on the Radeon 7970. It will be quite a while before an ARM SOC is capable of matching that. ARM chips work damn well in phones and tablets and something like the Ouya could wind up being a big hit for casual gamers in the living room, but ARM chips have a way to go before they can support something like Crysis 3, Watchdogs or Star Wars 1313. |
| - Score: 3 |
| How long till the "PC Software is Dead" Articles |
| By Chrispynutt on 2012-08-09 15:53:47 |
|
Just like with Games, because Valve doesn't publish stats, every sale transferred to Steam is lost from the total software sales. We will have to put up with even more nonsense about the traditional PC software market dying. When if gaming history is considered, it might actually become a silent boom. Edited 2012-08-09 15:54 UTC |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE[5]: Package management |
| By ilovebeer on 2012-08-09 16:16:41 |
|
> Admittedly I don't boot into Windows (Vista on my laptop, 7 on Desktop) that often - however, for me it is a common experience when I shut down Windows will inform me that it is installing x number of updates I should not shut down and this usually takes 5 - 10 minutes. When I restart it then informs me its installing x number of updates and I have to wait 5 -10 minutes sometimes longer, infrequently less. Even if it was only 3 minutes is this acceptable? In Linux this never happens. Your system does seem to be unusually slow. You ask, is 3 minutes acceptable? Sure, why shouldn't it be? No updates occur instantaneously. It can easily happen in Linux too. Don't update your Linux packages in a while and when you finally do, it's going to take a few minutes. Btw, Linux also has it's own big problems and annoyances so be careful how much you try to put it on a pedestal. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[3]: ARM? Good things come to those who wait |
| By kragil on 2012-08-09 17:10:27 |
|
Well, for the first year they just need to be as fast as the X360, PS3 and Wii U, because most games will be crossplatform in that time frame. I think the Tegra4 with enough RAM might stack up nicely against those. If they release a new version of the Steambox each year they get to PS4 power in a few years. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[6]: Package management |
| By Gone fishing on 2012-08-09 17:52:55 |
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> Your system does seem to be unusually slow. You ask, is 3 minutes acceptable? Sure, why shouldn't it be? No updates occur instantaneously. It can easily happen in Linux too. Don't update your Linux packages in a while and when you finally do, it's going to take a few minutes. Btw, Linux also has it's own big problems and annoyances so be careful how much you try to put it on a pedestal. I don't believe my Windows is slow - in fact I know it isn't my Windows is actually quite fast as it doesn't have loads of crap installed, just NOD AV, Office and a couple of other Windows only apps, the update on Windows I am talking about is normal, so lets not pretend it isn't. Now on Ubuntu updating is great I'm warned of updates (to the whole system apps and all). I click update and it updates I can run other apps whilst this is happening and my boot up and shut down are not effected at all. Linux/Ubuntu is great you should try it. Ubuntu and other Linux have problems one of them is lack of apps such as games, this valve steam news is very interesting, I'm not absolutely opposed to proprietary software and am interested to see where this goes. Other OSes are great too FreeBSD and BeOS come to mind, BeOS was a great OS largely killed by lack of apps dirty tricks by MS. |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE[8]: Package management |
| By lucas_maximus on 2012-08-09 18:16:50 |
|
> I'm sure if I didn't run my Ubuntu or Debian box for a while it would take a while to download and install updates. What it wouldn't do is take 10 minutes to shut down while it was downloading the updates with no get out option and then take 10 minutes to apply them on next start up again with no option for just starting. That is because it over writes the files that are in use. This can create un-expected results. I had firefox die during a Yum updates. Windows doesn't do that it overwrites them when they aren't being used. It applies them safely and that is why it takes longer. 10 minutes outside of a service pack, I still don't believe, I waited maybe a minute or two. Edited 2012-08-09 18:19 UTC |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[6]: Package management |
| By lucas_maximus on 2012-08-09 18:31:32 |
|
He was lying unless he has a pentium 3 system and a 4800rpm hardrive. We all know that those times might apply to a massive first update only or a service pack ... the same as been true since Vista. Updates in XP were slow and painful, yes. However it just isn't true since Vista, updates happen almost silently. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[7]: Package management |
| By ilovebeer on 2012-08-09 21:14:46 |
|
> I don't believe my Windows is slow - in fact I know it isn't my Windows is actually quite fast as it doesn't have loads of crap installed, just NOD AV, Office and a couple of other Windows only apps, the update on Windows I am talking about is normal, so lets not pretend it isn't. If regular updates is taking your system that long, then your system is slow. Thinking otherwise is the only pretending going on here. I have several Windows 7 boxes with various hardware configurations and none are as slow as you claim. > Now on Ubuntu updating is great I'm warned of updates (to the whole system apps and all). I click update and it updates I can run other apps whilst this is happening and my boot up and shut down are not effected at all. Linux/Ubuntu is great you should try it. What exactly are you trying to say here? That Windows users can't run apps while an update is going on? If so, that's completely false. Btw, I also have several Linux boxes. However, I have absolutely no interest in Ubuntu and very little interest in Linux desktops -- they just don't measure up in my opinion. > Ubuntu and other Linux have problems one of them is lack of apps such as games, this valve steam news is very interesting, I'm not absolutely opposed to proprietary software and am interested to see where this goes. When I said Linux has it's own big problems & annoyances, I wasn't referring to lack of games -- though that is one of them (for many people) as you pointed out. I was talking about more technical issues for example, constant breakage & regressions, and dependency hell (which is in many cases absolutely pathetic). There's a lot of laziness in Linux and it definitely shows. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[9]: Package management |
| By Nth_Man on 2012-08-10 11:42:24 |
|
> I had firefox die during a Yum updates. Mmm... in that case I wouldn't use Yum :-( . Maybe it's an advantage of apt updates. Last time I tried to update the system (Firefox included) having forgot to close Firefox, Firefox opened a bar saying that it was updated and needed to be restarted, showing a button for the user to do so. |
| - Score: 2 |
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