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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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| Not going to reinvent the Wheel... |
| By Gestahlt on 2012-08-08 19:40:41 |
|
Valve is just extending their offers and is becoming another App store. Not that i mind. Their offers werent bad and a lot of good titles that never hit the shelf got deserved money. Good decision there. They did now extend their Market into the Linux world which is a great step for users and valve. I hope their App store will also be Linux friendly and also the quality of software they provide. Linux has great software already but it often doesnt have that well polished feeling Windows or Apple apps have (For example in Audio Production). I think this will add to the user experience and as well as a good platform for smaller dev studios or startups to have a chance at the market. I wish Valve best of luck there. |
 - Score: 7 |
| ARM? |
| By transami on 2012-08-08 19:48:58 |
| Will "steambox" be Intel only? Or will ARM be supported? |
| - Score: 1 |
| could see this as BIG |
| By robojerk on 2012-08-08 20:03:55 |
|
I could see this as BIG deal. Currently if you buy software on the Apple Store it's tied to only Apple machines. Same with Windows 8. If the software being bought could work on different OS's this could be a big deal. Example, buy Adobe Photoshop on Steam, decide to buy a new PC using a different OS you could install that software on it still. I'm not saying Adobe is porting anything to Linux. I just used them as an example between MacOS and Windows. |
| - Score: 5 |
| Comment by shmerl |
| By shmerl on 2012-08-08 20:12:52 |
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If they'd drop their DRM - that could be better news. Edited 2012-08-08 20:16 UTC |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: could see this as BIG |
| By shmerl on 2012-08-08 20:13:47 |
|
It is tied to Steam, since it has DRM. So not much better really, except that they seem to be interested in porting Steam to more platforms. But if you can get same software without Steam - there is no much point in it really. What I won't appreciate, is that some software will be distributed through Steam only, requiring you to subscribe to it if you want to get it. That's already bad. Edited 2012-08-08 20:16 UTC |
| - Score: 4 |
| Package management |
| By jessesmith on 2012-08-08 20:43:01 |
| What excites me about this announcement is it means someone might finally be bringing a decent package manager to Windows. One of the big reasons I use Linux is the ease of managing (and updating) software. If Valve can bring similar functionality to Windows, allowing users to easily find, install, remove and update software without a hundred different update apps running in the system tray it would be a huge step forward. |
| - Score: 3 |
| Comment by marcp |
| By marcp on 2012-08-08 21:13:43 |
| Well, let's hope they won't dominate Linux app market. It seems to be a very distant threat, but it is possible I guess. People usually choose convinience over security and privacy. But hey - we have package managers and application centers. |
| - Score: 4 |
| Comment by Wafflez |
| By Wafflez on 2012-08-08 21:50:04 |
| el ou el |
| - Score: 0 |
| RE: Package management |
| By Wafflez on 2012-08-08 21:52:09 |
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Ha, you realize that upgrading Gimp from 2 to 3 isn't exactly the same as upgrading Photoshop from 4 to 5? As for hundreds of update services - wtf are you doing? No wonder you hate Windows and probably advocate Linux as being faster. I just use two ways to update software - Windows Update or opening an application a pop up shows saying that there's a new version and downloads it. Ofcourse from time to time you get crapware like that one from Google that comes with Chrome, but I replaced that POS with http://www.srware.net/forum/view... Edited 2012-08-08 21:55 UTC |
| - Score: -4 |
| RE: ARM? |
| By Moredhas on 2012-08-08 21:56:43 |
| I don't think anyone, at this stage, even inside Valve, could answer that. I would assume their first release would be an x86 unit, so it would be compatible with all previous software offerings. I wouldn't rule out an ARM tablet or something running Steam in a couple of years though. |
| - Score: 2 |
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