4 ms·

That is just not always a possibility especially if you use apps that connect to online services, this is something that has quite recent come up again as Steam

by erk__ 4y ago

That is just not always a possibility especially if you use apps that connect to online services, this is something that has quite recent come up again as Steam is ending support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 in nine months which have caused some uproar in that community. I am surprised that the post about that have not gained any traction on here [0] since to touches the same topic as this one [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35337611 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35337611

distcs 4y ago
> I am surprised that the post about that have not gained any traction on here Unfortunately which posts get traction is very much a game of luck on HN. Some good samaritans have to hang out on the 'New' page and upvote interesting stories for them to have a chance to come on the front page. Once on the front page, the interesting stories get voted rapidly but coming to the front page itself is 90% of the battle. I like the Lobsters model here where every new post remains on the front page for sometime and then drops off if it does not get enough votes. Due to the volume of posts HN receives, naturally such a system won't work here! So it is all down to the good samaritans hanging out on the New tab.
maccard 4y ago
Windows 7 and 8 are both EOL by Microsoft. I don't think it's unreasonable of valve to drop support for OS's that Microsoft aren't maintaining, and the hardware requirements for 7 and 10 are the same today according to MS [0][1]. For a while you could officially upgrade to win10 for free, and it seems that even now, it still works 5 years after they stopped offering upgrades, and 3 years after win7's end of life. I'm not sure what your gripe is here specifically, if you want to continue to run steam, you can upgrade your OS once a decade, or you can install steam for Linux if your device doesn't meet the requirements. That's about as good a set of options as I could imagine. [0] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-system-requirements-6d4e9a79-66bf-7950-467c-795cf0386715 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-syste... [1] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-system-requirements-df0900f2-3513-a851-13e7-0d50bc24e15f https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-system...
- serf 4y ago
  >Windows 7 and 8 are both EOL by Microsoft. I don't think it's unreasonable of valve to drop support for OS's that Microsoft aren't maintaining it's not unreasonable until you realize that Valve offers no other method for audiences that may be stuck with older machines to play the games that they purchased, which at the time of purchase they had completely met all of the system requirements. A basic game should not have a set of rolling requirements that are ever-increasing. Valve decided that they wanted to hold the keys to the kingdom with regards to the games that they sold; thus it's a bit more unreasonable when they decide to nix a part of the audience without any recourse available to them other than "download what you need now, and unplug.". Leisure Suit Larry required a 286 and CGA graphics -- isn't it a bit ridiculous that a Steam purchased 'Leisure Suit Larry' is going to soon require an OS greater than Windows 8.1? Yeah; I get that it's only by virtue of requiring their portal to download the thing , but they offer no alternative to this .
  - wtetzner 4y ago
    I haven’t been keeping up, but how many games on Steam still require Windows? I wonder if SteamOS (or another Linux distro) would be a reasonable option for people on older machines?
    - ovao 4y ago
      I tried to see if this info was available in SteamDB (and it probably is somewhere — I’m just not finding it in an easily-accessible way), but my feeling is that most games on Steam are still Windows-only.
      - deadbunny 4y ago
        Your feeling is wrong. Here[1] are all the LSL games as supported on Linux via Proton, they are all playable (yes, even the red/borked one as that's actually Linux native). Most games are usually pretty well supported by Proton[2], for example all the big releases from Playstation games (God of War, Spideman, etc.) have had day 1 support as well as a lot of other big games Cyberpubnk 2077 had day 1 support as well. The main exception being multiplayer games with anticheat is the biggest roadblock right now. Though progress is being made with all the big AC engines (EAC, Battleye, etc.) working in Proton but needs to be enabled by each individual developer. 1. https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Leisure%20Suit%20Larry https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Leisure%20Suit%20Larry 2. https://boilingsteam.com/75-of-the-top-100-most-played-games-on-steam-are-playable-verified-on-the-steam-deck/ https://boilingsteam.com/75-of-the-top-100-most-played-games...

by erk__ 4y ago

distcs 4y ago

> I am surprised that the post about that have not gained any traction on here Unfortunately which posts get traction is very much a game of luck on HN. Some good samaritans have to hang out on the 'New' page and upvote interesting stories for them to have a chance to come on the front page. Once on the front page, the interesting stories get voted rapidly but coming to the front page itself is 90% of the battle. I like the Lobsters model here where every new post remains on the front page for sometime and then drops off if it does not get enough votes. Due to the volume of posts HN receives, naturally such a system won't work here! So it is all down to the good samaritans hanging out on the New tab.

maccard 4y ago

Windows 7 and 8 are both EOL by Microsoft. I don't think it's unreasonable of valve to drop support for OS's that Microsoft aren't maintaining, and the hardware requirements for 7 and 10 are the same today according to MS [0][1]. For a while you could officially upgrade to win10 for free, and it seems that even now, it still works 5 years after they stopped offering upgrades, and 3 years after win7's end of life. I'm not sure what your gripe is here specifically, if you want to continue to run steam, you can upgrade your OS once a decade, or you can install steam for Linux if your device doesn't meet the requirements. That's about as good a set of options as I could imagine. [0] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-system-requirements-6d4e9a79-66bf-7950-467c-795cf0386715 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-syste... [1] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-system-requirements-df0900f2-3513-a851-13e7-0d50bc24e15f https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-system...

serf 4y ago
>Windows 7 and 8 are both EOL by Microsoft. I don't think it's unreasonable of valve to drop support for OS's that Microsoft aren't maintaining it's not unreasonable until you realize that Valve offers no other method for audiences that may be stuck with older machines to play the games that they purchased, which at the time of purchase they had completely met all of the system requirements. A basic game should not have a set of rolling requirements that are ever-increasing. Valve decided that they wanted to hold the keys to the kingdom with regards to the games that they sold; thus it's a bit more unreasonable when they decide to nix a part of the audience without any recourse available to them other than "download what you need now, and unplug.". Leisure Suit Larry required a 286 and CGA graphics -- isn't it a bit ridiculous that a Steam purchased 'Leisure Suit Larry' is going to soon require an OS greater than Windows 8.1? Yeah; I get that it's only by virtue of requiring their portal to download the thing , but they offer no alternative to this .
- wtetzner 4y ago
  I haven’t been keeping up, but how many games on Steam still require Windows? I wonder if SteamOS (or another Linux distro) would be a reasonable option for people on older machines?
  - ovao 4y ago
    I tried to see if this info was available in SteamDB (and it probably is somewhere — I’m just not finding it in an easily-accessible way), but my feeling is that most games on Steam are still Windows-only.
    - deadbunny 4y ago
      Your feeling is wrong. Here[1] are all the LSL games as supported on Linux via Proton, they are all playable (yes, even the red/borked one as that's actually Linux native). Most games are usually pretty well supported by Proton[2], for example all the big releases from Playstation games (God of War, Spideman, etc.) have had day 1 support as well as a lot of other big games Cyberpubnk 2077 had day 1 support as well. The main exception being multiplayer games with anticheat is the biggest roadblock right now. Though progress is being made with all the big AC engines (EAC, Battleye, etc.) working in Proton but needs to be enabled by each individual developer. 1. https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Leisure%20Suit%20Larry https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Leisure%20Suit%20Larry 2. https://boilingsteam.com/75-of-the-top-100-most-played-games-on-steam-are-playable-verified-on-the-steam-deck/ https://boilingsteam.com/75-of-the-top-100-most-played-games...