37 ms·
Valve is a wonderful upstream contributor to Linux and the open-source community
- rs_rs_rs_rs_rs 3y agoThank you, Valve!
- BimJeam 3y agoI thank you too, Valve. Longtime Steam user here.
- appleaday1 3y agobased
- entuno 3y agoI don't have a Steam Deck, and I've never used SteamOS. But it's been incredible over the last few years how much better the support for games (both old and new ) on Linux has become, to the point where it seems more likely than not that a game will be playable. It's been great to see that Valve have been pushing so many of their improvements upstream rather than trying to keep them to themselves - long may it continue.
- bil7 3y agoI can't believe the current state of things is so good, that I'd default to using the Proton version of a game over the linux native port.
- yyyk 3y agoIt's more how bad the state of things is regarding Linux binary compatibility...
- johnnyanmac 3y agoI'd ask how we fix this as someone planning to make a linux port of their game. But a place full of consumers in a Valve thread may not be the best place for productive answers. Like, I've used Linux through college and dual-booted for a good decade, so I'm familiar with how Linux works as a daily driver. But what makes it so hard to distribute a Linux version? Even for devs who do think the same they seem to struggle with that compatibility.
- ric2b 3y agoThere is the extra complexity of differences between distros and such, but it seems like the biggest reason is simply that companies don't dedicate the same resources to a Linux version that they do to Windows, due to it being a much smaller market.
- johnnyanmac 3y agoAlright, thanks. I just want to make sure I'm not walking into some weird pitfall where suddenly some very niche Linux distro has some core graphical issue to address. I know I can't optimize for every flavor of Linux under the sun.
- ajvs 3y agoJust optimise for the Steam Linux Runtime, it's cross-distro compatible.
- mabbo 3y agoI saw a cool looking indie game the other day on steam and excitedly bought it. Then realized it doesn't support Linux. I can't install it. I was shocked. And then I realized how crazy it is that I had presumed a game would run on Linux. How far we've come.
- sickofparadox 3y agoIf you go into properties, you might be able to install it by choosing a specific version of proton (I think the option is properties> compatibility).
- sentimentscan 3y agoeven with proton?
- temp0826 3y agoI think there's a switch to flip in Steam's settings that allows you to use any game with Proton even if untested/unsupported. (Something to that effect, can't look now)
- mabbo 3y agoNo no don't tell me this. I had things I wanted to get done this weekend!
- murrain 3y agoYou can also check compatibility on protondb (https://www.protondb.com/ https://www.protondb.com/)
- LooseMarmoset 3y agoIf you go into a game's properties in Steam (the little gear icon), and and then choose "Compatibility" from the resulting window, you can choose a version of Proton to run the game, usually the latest stable is good, sometimes you have to play around to find a good version. Once you've chosen a Proton version, the option to "Install" will be available in your game menu. I gave up on Windows a couple years ago, and most Steam games run in Linux using Proton through Steam. Some modern titles with fancy DRM don't work, but I generally don't buy those anyway (Denuvo, certain anticheats, etc).
- coldpie 3y ago> It's been great to see that Valve have been pushing so many of their improvements upstream rather than trying to keep them to themselves - long may it continue. Yes, the Linux team at Valve really understands how open source incentives align with their own. Since they & their contractors upstream almost everything they do, they don't have to maintain a diff, or even build most of the software they ship (they just use Arch packages for most stuff, as mentioned in the article). Unlike many proprietary companies who try to keep as much as possible in-house, Valve understands you get higher quality software with a lot less work overall when you work with and are friendly to upstream projects, even if it means a bit more work and negotiation up front. I was the creator & lead dev on Proton for its first 5 years (2016-2021), and from day 1 Valve understood that most of the work we did for them would be going upstream[1]. It wasn't even a conversation point in the early meetings. They've taken the same approach with every other OSS project they've worked with, and it shows in the great results & community relations. Valve is a great open source citizen. [1] E.g. https://www.codeweavers.com/blog/aeikum/2019/3/27/how-proton-helped-improve-wine-42 https://www.codeweavers.com/blog/aeikum/2019/3/27/how-proton...
- solardev 3y agoDo you think Mac gamers would ever see similar love, like Game Porting Toolkit integrated into Steam?
- coldpie 3y agoI don't know anything about Valve's future plans, and I don't know anything at all about that toolkit (it was announced after I stopped working on Wine). My gut feeling is it's unlikely. There was a lot of incentive to target Linux with this tech, even though it's a smaller market than macOS, because you can control the whole stack and do cool stuff like SteamOS, which is what allowed the Deck to happen. On macOS, all you can do is sell stuff to end-users, where you also have to compete with the Apple store, which is owned by Apple, who also make the OS. Apple has also shown they're a bad partner for game companies (nuking 32-bit support; crummy OpenGL support; no Vulkan support; shaky record on OS updates breaking stuff). My experience is there's generally a lot of bad feelings and skepticism about Apple and macOS in the gaming industry due to that record.
- dcdc123 3y agoI have been a gamer my entire life and about three years ago I became a full-time digital nomad. I preordered the Steam Deck the moment the window opened and received mine in the first couple of batches. It has been absolutely phenomenal. It is not perfect and not everything runs great, but _almost_ everything I want it to run works and _almost_ everything I play on it runs pretty well. I have even been playing BG3 on it. When i do finally settle back down and build a new gaming rig it will run Linux.
- godshatter 3y agoI'd also like to give a shoutout to protondb.com. The combination of proton taking us 90+% of the way for most games out there plus the reports on protondb.com that show the tweaks that allow you to make it the rest of the way is huge.
- treis 3y agoIt's interesting to see people stay this. I tried switching over to Linux full time and Rocket League plays but stutters badly. It's about the only game I play these days so not sure if I'm unlucky or if it's a continuation of the "Year of Linux Desktop" stuff I've been hearing for like 10 years.
- ramesh31 3y agoValve can do things like this because they have a huge stable of some of the best and most experienced C++ programmers on earth, (and pretty much all SWEs on staff are expected to be at least fluent). World class culture and compensation will do that for you.
- diesal11 3y agoI'm pretty sure they outsource/fund a fairly large amount of the work, the article mentions Igalia & from memory Codeweavers are largely responsible for Proton. Valve itself is a pretty small shop. Although their own efforts & funding absolutely should be praised.
- ramesh31 3y ago> I'm pretty sure they outsource/fund a fairly large amount of the work, the article mentions Igalia & from memory Codeweavers are largely responsible for Proton. Userspace stuff for sure. But the drivers are mostly Valve.
- MegaDeKay 3y agoTake a look at the PDF of the talk from the article. There are numerous examples of Igalia contributions to the kernel.
- idontknoworcare 3y agoIn 2008 they outsource all the kernel work I read
- sickofparadox 3y agoProton is really an incredible project, and a great example of why Steam is such a beloved platform by the community! Expanding choices, increasing compatibility, and all for no direct profit motive. Now if we could just get those anti-cheat companies to support Linux, protonDB scores would explode upward overnight.
- variadix 3y agoThey definitely have a profit motive, mostly to avoid being subject to MS shenanigans. It’s just mutually beneficial for Linux users
- smoldesu 3y agoHonestly, I consider a profit motive to upstream open source work more altruistic than selling a proprietary graphics API.
- Avshalom 3y agoAnd they were pretty upfront about that when they started their Linux work. That said I'd bet they're pretty happy with that decision, I don't know that Linux has made them any money yet but Microsoft has definitely continued to shenanig
- mpixel 3y agoIt's making them money even if it doesn't up in a balance sheet. A push from MS that would threaten Steam's business model would only trigger a stronger push towards the Linux side of things and MS knowing that would tread carefully, which affects the Windows side of the business for Valve.
- HeckFeck 3y agoIf they profit in a way that gives back to everyone else, that's pretty good as I see it. Even RMS wouldn't be against this idea (though he'd hate the proprietary binaries of games ofc).
- micromacrofoot 3y agoThe way they've been pushing gaming forward on Linux is just fantastic, others have tried with some success here and there, but none have had quite the same weight. Thank you Valve!
- mathfailure 3y agoJesus Christ what a difference between Michael Larabel's old and new photo. So he's not Dorian Gray after all!
- reactordev 3y agoValve is a darling. Not simply because of steam (though, that enables them) but because from HL1, they truly cared about making good games, providing gamers a platform for good, working on problems outside their wheelhouse (Linux, VR, etc) for the betterment of gamers. Seriously. Yeah give them flak for steam’s store policies and such but Valve has always cared about gamers. They just don’t have the means to do it all (maybe they do?). I’m a fan. Not for HL1 or 2, not for Portal or TF2, not for CS, but for their never ending support on making sure “gaming” can be enjoyed by all.
- deelowe 3y agoSteam got so much flak when it first came out because it supported DRM, facilitated the death of physical media, and was generally kind of clunky and buggy. However, looking back, I'm thankful. I think Gabe did truly care about gamers/gaming and was worried about Microsoft's growing interest in gaming. I think he knew that that the transition to digital distribution was inevitable and made it his mission to get a platform out there before Microsoft did, because they would ultimately create something that was not gamer friendly. Perhaps this is all wishful thinking, but history has proven that Valve was perhaps the best steward we could have asked for in supporting the transition to online distribution. If we look at the alternatives be it Microsoft, Epic, or even GOG, no one has done it better. And, when tested, Valve continues to show they strive to do the right thing. For example look at returns. I never thought we'd see a no questions asked return policy for digital games and yet, with steam, it's a fairly simple process. On top of this, when the policy doesn't work (e.g. games which are broken outside of the return window), Valve again does the right thing and creates exceptions.
- andrewclunn 3y ago> The elephant in the room meanwhile is the countless improvements Valve engineers have made to the the Mesa OpenGL and Vulkan drivers as well as to the kernel graphics driver components. Not just to the AMD graphics drivers for benefiting the Steam Deck's hardware but also to Zink OpenGL-on-Vulkan and then other common infrastructure. But in this area of the Linux graphics driver support, Valve's contributions and those of their partners have been incredibly beneficial to the Linux desktop ecosystem even outside gaming. Yep. Vulkan (the open version of Mantel) for graphics, Proton for low level Windows emulation, driver support and controller customization and options (the Steam Controller was NOT a failed project, just a precursor), and giving it all away upstream... There's something to be said about the ability of a privately held company to execute a vision long term. Everyone from Canonical, to Nintendo, to Activision/Blizzard should be worried about Valve coming to eat their lunch, and they'll do it by giving customers a better experience and thinking long term.
- blibble 3y ago> There's something to be said about the ability of a privately held company to execute a vision long term. plus Gabe has so much $$$ already he doesn't care about Microsoft's cheques
- Jyaif 3y ago> Everyone from Canonical, to Nintendo, to Activision/Blizzard should be worried about Valve Valve have got their shit together regarding technical stuff, but not regarding creative stuff. Nintendo will be fine.
- johnnyanmac 3y agoCacnonical, maybe. But I don't think the AAA companies are shaking in their boots. Heck, It's a symbiotic relationship as long as they think it's not worth 30% rev share to roll their own store. And Valve already bent the knee there by offering lower share if you make over $Xm.
- sylware 3y agoToo much c++ though, I would have prefered plain and simple C (ofc course, without the latest ISO tantrums), for instance for mesa amd aco, or backporting some of dxvk in wined3d (even though vkd3d for dx12 seems the way to go on forward and forget about dxvk and wined3d).
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mdtrooper 3y agoThese last weeks, in several spanish webs was writing about Micro$oft tried to buy Valve. It is a easy plan, they cut green sprout to avoid the future forest.
- tomalaci 3y agoI think big reason Valve is so good is because they are a private company and that allows non-traditional management style. Unlike certain public companies that bring in executives that perform spectacularly bad decisions (cough, cough, Unity).
- coffeebeqn 3y agoPrivate and they didn’t just grow for the sake of market cap or “because they can” until it’s a unwieldy behemoth
- toomuchtodo 3y agoParallels to Craigslist. Lots of value, profitable, not beholden to the ghouls who would squeeze everything good out for every last dividend or share buyback.
- atomicfiredoll 3y agoI think this is part of the equation, no investors means enshittification hasn't come knocking. But there also seems to be an element of vision at Valve that's been allowed to flourish. Where other companies would produce an MVP and walk away if there's not enough money being made, Valve seems to have consistent enough resources and vision to dedicate itself to long term research, development, and planning. In a sea of public companies that are always getting greedier, Valve appears to have made the open source world and maybe the world at large a better place.
- VyseofArcadia 3y agoHaving the leeway to dedicate itself to long term R&D&P, regardless of vision and resources, is also an effect of no investors demanding quarterly profits. Long term thinking is basically impossible for publicly-funded companies.
- atomicfiredoll 3y agoAbsolutely. But, just because it's impossible for publicly traded companies doesn't mean a private company can't chase the short term. Private companies don't necessarily behave like Valve is by default. So, I'm also praising them for choosing to take the risk on and invest in the long term.
- mastax 3y agoHere is a link to the presentation, it starts at 4:12:04. https://www.youtube.com/live/L98v4epQmrg?si=T-snMWdtnDLpN_TJ&t=15124 https://www.youtube.com/live/L98v4epQmrg?si=T-snMWdtnDLpN_TJ... And here are the slides: https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/osseu2023/83/steamos-and-linux-oss-eu-2023.pdf https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/osseu2023/83/steamos-a...
- bastardoperator 3y agoPress F in chat to pay your respects to Gaben/Steam.
- theandrewbailey 3y agoThey are still alive?
- bastardoperator 3y agoGabe Newell aka Gaben, Founder and CEO of Valve, is alive and well.
- 1-6 3y agoShameless plug for Steam Remote Play: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/remoteplay https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/remoteplay Here's a case where there were no good alternatives (in linux) to remotely play latency free. Now, some prefer this method for remote desktop more than VNC.
- ireallywantthat 3y agoLook at https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine
- nullwarp 3y agoLooks awesome but sadly limited to NVIDIA GPUs
- ireallywantthat 3y agoNo. I run this on AMD GPU and it works great. It's GPU agnostic.
- nullwarp 3y agoOh shoot you are right, the FAQs really heavily implied it's just NVIDIA and I just left it at that. I will add this to try this week.
- figmert 3y agoFor PS owners there's also Chiaki for Playstation Remote Play. It can be launched from Steam OS as with everything else.
- Sakos 3y agoSunshine and Moonlight are fantastic though?
- o0banky0o 3y agoAnd the fact that they aren't stopping the use of scene cracks in distribution is cool too, that is awesome.
- pmarreck 3y agoGabe knows that gaming deserves a home on an open-source OS and not a proprietary one. And he's right, you know. 100 years from now, the only OS that will be easily resurrectable will be some flavor of open-source OS.
- hedora 3y agoIn particular, that OS will have a 150 year back catalog of video games, and the closed ones probably will not.
- johnnyanmac 3y agoYou never know. Disney survived for 100+ years. It's only getting easier to survive these days, short of apocalyptic disaster.
- artyom 3y agoPC gamers, and gamers in general, owe a big one to Gabe forever. For an industry this big, we have countless examples to know very well that it could have gone much, much worse.
- Ekaros 3y agoJust look at pretty much any other big player and quality of their products. I think GOG is only one that comes comparably close and they are much smaller.
- artyom 3y agoThey're there for the storefront alone and it shows. Valve's vision was to become the _platform_ for the PC and then add a store. GOG at least tries to do things right with far less resources. The rest are simply abysmal.
- birracerveza 3y agoWhen they initially stated they wanted to bring games on Linux, I was ... skeptical, to say the least. It seemed like posturing to fend off Microsoft's predatory policies, but ultimately an empty promise that would never work out, despite every good intention they had. I mean Linux? Running Windows games? Without hacks and tricks and magic and stuff to make it run maybe good enough to say "yeah, it kinda runs sometimes if you don't pay attention to the bugs"? Absolute lunacy. But they did it. The absolute madmen did it in just a couple years. That's incredible. Congratulations to Gabe, Steam devs and proton devs.
- CivBase 3y ago> Without hacks and tricks and magic and stuff I'd say Proton absolutely qualifies as "hacks ans tricks and magic and stuff". It's just polished and packaged so increadibly well it doesn't feel hackey. I'm constantly amazed at how well it all just works.
- birracerveza 3y agoIt's meant from a user perspective, it's a very polished experience that I couldn't fathom even 5 years ago. Even if there's dark magic lurking beneath, it's seamless.
- Sakos 3y agoI feel like you're unfairly underplaying all the hard work and success of Wine. None of this would be possible without it. It allowed a lot of games to work on Linux that didn't have native ports. Proton and SteamOS are bridging the last mile (particularly in regards to polish and ease of use), which is important because of the Pareto principle, but I wouldn't credit Valve with everything.
- sh79 3y agoEverything builds upon Wine, but when it comes to games it alone wasn't doing so well outside older dx9 titles. It's mostly DXVK/Proton's VKD3D that actually allowed a lot of games to work on Linux with little overhead, both are funded by Valve. So I don't think calling upon Pareto principle in regards to Valve is fair either.
- charcircuit 3y agoIt's easy to be open when you have a money printer by practically having a monopoly over PC gaming. If competitors are just as open they no longer have a competitive advantage and are essentially just helping improve Steam.
- thrdbndndn 3y ago> It's easy to be open when you have a money printer by practically having a monopoly I'd argue it's actually hard(er), based on history.
- smoldesu 3y ago> If competitors are just as open they no longer have a competitive advantage and are essentially just helping improve Steam. Isn't that basically an admission that all of Valve's most meaningful developments are Open Source? To the contrary, why are competitors having such a hard time when stuff like Proton and pressure-vessel is freely available?
- charcircuit 3y ago>Isn't that basically an admission that all of Valve's most meaningful developments are Open Source? Source 2 is still closed source and they still haven't released the SDK despite it now being over 3.5 years since HL:A released. >To the contrary, why are competitors having such a hard time when stuff like Proton and pressure-vessel is freely available? Because Valve already has the user content flywheel going. Valve has most content that people want and has a large install base that developers can target. There are a lot of gamers who only want to buy games on Steam due to the integrated experience doing so offers. Convincing AAA devs to release on your platform is not easy to do. Adding Proton to your platform won't convince developers to use it.
- hedora 3y agoValve got where they are by having a solid software packaging and installation stack for games. I don’t know of any other software companies that are trying for “just works” on Windows, Linux and MacOS, other than the electron / web ecosystem. Valve’s stuff also cares about exposing low-level performance optimizations, unlike that stuff. If I could buy ahead-of-time compiled slack and zoom clients from steam, I’d do it.
- bobse 3y agoYou don't own games rented on Steam. Sage!
- ronnier 3y agoReddit speak has twisted the meaning of words, when I read "Valve is a wonderful upstream contributor to Linux" I don't know if it literally means that or if it's saying the opposite.
- taink 3y agoI had to dig a little so here's the link to the talk the article is mentioning: https://youtu.be/L98v4epQmrg?t=15121 https://youtu.be/L98v4epQmrg?t=15121
- syklep 3y agoThe talk mentioned in the article starts here: https://youtu.be/L98v4epQmrg?t=4h12m6s https://youtu.be/L98v4epQmrg?t=4h12m6s
- howinteresting 3y agoThere's the whole dialectic in history between structural and contingent factors. Valve and PC gaming is massively, massively contingent. It could very easily have been a much worse player at the helm.
- marcodiego 3y agoNo kernel has ever had such a gigantic mind share and adaptability as Linux. Very few tasks demand so much of different areas of an operating system as games. The moment game developers, especially the ones who deeply optimize engines, start contributing and tuning Linux to get as much performance, throughput and low latency as possible will be the moment when games will improve in ways that current option can't compete or offer anything close. If any of the big vendors of AAA is reading this, please consider that there is a severely under served community who is willing to collaborate, help and improve everything that is needed to make your product run better. Consider that your company would have the power to tune the environment in ways that the competition can't even dream of. Consider what we did to servers, mobile and HPC and enable us to do just the same with games.
- 29athrowaway 3y agoMany entities deserve appreciation: Valve, the Proton community outside Valve (e.g.: Glorious Eggroll), the Wine community, the DXVK community, Lutris and others.
- ho_schi 3y agoI would love to see some kind of Native Linux Game Awards by Valve. * Best native game for Linux gets an award, highlight in shop and 50% discount on shop fees. * Best native - platform exclusive - game for Linux gets an award, highlight in shop and 100% discount on fees. Why? Proton is helpful like WINE but it is an aid which needs a lot work (and even more by Valve) and hinders *high-quality* native ports. We need more games like HL2 and CSGO natively. Valve shouldn’t do the work of application developers. The resources of Valve are in long term needed for Linux, Mesa, SDL and other utilities. I respect the amount of work in Proton but Valve cannot do that for another decade. The job of Proton should be making itself superfluous? Isn’t that is unfair? Not as long others use incompatible APIs (Mantel and Direct3D) and enforce users to switch platforms (all consoles). Apple, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo use platform exclusive titles for decades. PS: Great native games? HL1, HL2, CS1, CSGO, Civilization, Tomb Raider, OpenRA. Especially Day-1 ports are important.
- johnnyanmac 3y agoHey, someone who thinks the same way I do. Never thought I'd run into another native port advocate in 2023. That said: it's funny you talk about rewards offered by Valve and then list 4 Valve Games. I know they wouldn't do that, but it'd be hilarious to think about. > Isn’t that is unfair? Not as long others use incompatible APIs (Mantel and Direct3D) and enforce users to switch platforms (all consoles). Apple, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo use platform exclusive titles for decades. I don't see it as unfortunate, since very few devs are going to make games specifically to compete for saving 15% on rev-share. That's a huge gamble. And no one is going to bet on Linux exclusives for a chance to save 30% The only potentially unfair issue may be that some AAA game ends up getting the rewards, the sort of studios who'd need that money the least. But that is ultimately what we want to encourage, so IDK. Maybe 2 rewards, one for general and one for "small teams" (defining that term will take a lot of fanagling).
- ho_schi 3y agoI hope for both and the categories are aiming for both. I assume “also Linux” for AAA and the “only Linux” for small independent developers :) What I expected for 2023 was Half-Life 3 with a Linux port. And the press release stating that a Windows port “may” follow later but not now.
- james2doyle 3y agoI really only bought a Steam Deck because I wanted to support the _spirit_ of a Steam Deck. I thought it could be a really fun and interesting computer. I am happy that Valve has been contributing back. I think the sales of it clearly drive that attitude. Not that they weren't before, but it helps to have a successful product to drive the work. I have ended up buying 2 dozen games since it arrived and have gotten back into games. It is a life saver when travelling. At home, I leave it on the dock and actually use an old Stadia controller as the main input. The Steam Deck is a special device.
- jzb 3y agoPretty much same. I bought a Deck primarily because I wanted to support the company putting them out and to tinker with it. I'm not a hardcore gamer or anything like that - I've been using it a bit to play a few games but mostly when I have time I play on the Switch or my gaming laptop that has a higher-end NVIDIA card (works great on Pop_OS!). I do wish that the desktop stuff was a bit more polished. TBH a lot of people could probably just use the Deck as a primary computing device in addition to playing games.
- james2doyle 3y agoIn my experience the keyboard solution is just a bit too awkward to use for anything other than short sentences. I do enjoy the keyboard experience but for me to use it as a computer would require a lot of accessories. I have used it on a plane to watch movies though! Something I needed to switch to the desktop for (used VLC) and it worked perfectly.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y agoSimilarly, I'd stopped playing computer games as I couldn't be bothered/find the time to go and use my desktop windows PC. As soon as the Steam Deck was announced, I put my deposit down, but was a way down the queue. However, I was on holiday when I reached the front of the queue and missed the notification, but instead saw the refund three days later of my deposit! Somewhat annoyed, I paid the deposit again and joined the back of the queue, but luckily they were ramping up production and I didn't have to wait too long. It's the sheer convenience of it that makes it a winner. You can just pause/resume it and even just play a bit of a game during a TV ad break. It's great for exploring old, unplayed games from my Steam collection. Now, if I can just figure out how to enter a cheat code to get me past a Half-Life 2 save point (in Ravenholm) where I don't have enough health (or more likely skill) to survive.
- gmerc 3y agoWithout valve we would have to pay per download/install. Because that’s what the publishers wanted. Or what Unity is trying to bring about. Valve is privately held. Thank god.
- camdenlock 3y agoI’ve been terrified for years that MICROS~1 is going to figure out some way to do a hostile acquisition of Valve…
- heyoni 3y agoValve isn’t publicly traded so I think they’re safe.
- wejick 3y agoIgalia once again proving themselves as the right partner for companies seeking to work with opensource projects. I'm curious how big Igalia's influence on this "good" oss way of working.
- qwertox 3y agoI wasn't aware of this. Good to know.
- Symmetry 3y agoProbably just as much a wonderfully successful effort at commoditizing their complement[1] as altruism. But the fruits they gather are good, so they get my good will regardless. [1] https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/
- carapace 3y ago> Igalia is an open source tech co-op success story. We have been around for 22 years; we have 140 members. We play an essential role in several open web platform projects such as Chromium/Blink, WebKit (WPE & WebKitGTK), Firefox and Servo. We have contributed to GNOME / GTK+ / Maemo, WebKit / WebKitGtk+ / JSC, Blink / V8, Gecko / SpiderMonkey projects, amongst others. > ... > We hope that this talk will expand the limits of your imagination on what a company can look like, and that next time you think about starting your own company or looking for a new job, you consider a co-op! https://archive.org/details/fossy2023_Inside_Igalia_Scaling_a_CoOp_B https://archive.org/details/fossy2023_Inside_Igalia_Scaling_...
- bachmeier 3y agoIt's great to see what Valve is doing, but in some sense the gratitude should also be flowing in the other direction. The origin of this was concern about Windows having control of their main revenue-generating platform[1]. Valve was lucky that all those developers put the hours into making Linux what it was, so they had a good alternative platform to build on. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18996377 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18996377 https://web.archive.org/web/20230709000125/https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18996377 https://web.archive.org/web/20230709000125/https://www.bbc.c...
- pc2g4d 3y agoValve's work is what let me ditch Windows completely earlier this year.
- deafpolygon 3y agoI love Valve. I love Steam. It's not because of the Linux support. That's just gravy on the cake. It's because I feel good about buying my games from Valve. It's like, I know they'll be around for a long time. I also know they'll do everything they can to keep the games working on existing platforms. How do I know? Their track record speaks for itself. I don't feel the same way about Microsoft Store or Apple's App Store. I also don't feel the same about GOG or Epic Games. Epic Games feels like I'm buying games from an unsavory drug dealer on the street corner, so I don't do that. I do take all the freebies they give out though. GOG is like the little kid on the street, kicking the ball down, shouting "Hey Mister! Wanna play?" Valve is the quiet, dependable shopkeeper waiting for you to come by and buy the latest game. Even offering discounts and sales on occasion. They've built up a lot of goodwill with gamers and continue to do so - even at their own expense at times. It costs money to do this, and they don't seem to have any short-term plans to rake in cash from it.
- arendtio 3y agoIf you are looking for the presentation, here is the YouTube link with the start timestamp: https://youtu.be/L98v4epQmrg?t=15125 https://youtu.be/L98v4epQmrg?t=15125