8 ms·
> Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer? I'm so happy to read this
by Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe 11mo ago
> Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?
I'm so happy to read this
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 11mo agoThat stood out to me too but my reaction was “whatever, just another promise that won’t age well”.
- Synthetic7346 11mo agoThis holds true for the Steam Deck, so I can't imagine why they would promise it and not follow through.
- gambiting 11mo agoI mean I'm sure it will be true for as long as Gabe is in charge, the moment he steps away I think all bets are off, depending on who takes over after him.
- serf 11mo ago>I'm so happy to read this it rings hollow from a company whose entire bedrock for existence is DRM procedures. does Steam still disallow accounts from playing more than one independently owned game at a time without special procedures?
- colordrops 11mo agoThis is my number one beef with steam. It's such a big thorn on a rose.
- Prickle 11mo agoNo. That restriction has been gone for a few years now. I can run rimworld and quasimorph via steam at the same time, as an example.
- akimbostrawman 11mo agoSteam DRM is weak, non intrusive and optional so complain to the devs for enabling it. I rather take steam DRM than securerom or denuvo.
- close04 11mo agoThe problem is for now more of principle. Any DRM means you depend on Valve/Steam to continue to legally play your purchased games. If Valve has a change of heart, or of leadership, or hits a financial rough patch they can easily become a rent seeking gatekeeper. That non-intrusive DRM is the thin line between perpetually accepting Valve's conditions or playing illegally. This isn't a Valve specific problem but they get a free pass today because of all the good things they've done and the good will they're continuously showing. If this ever runs out a lot of people will be very disappointed. I'm not judging them "by comparison" because it's hard to look bad next to Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, etc. Just looking objectively at the situation, even if Valve was alone on the market.
- scrollaway 11mo ago“Not having drm” is also a “for now” thing. Everything is “for now”. A person being good, a corporation being bad, everything can be appended with “for now”. It’s not an argument. You look at historical actions and willingness to change. Valve has been doing business this way forever.
- klez 11mo agoThe difference is that "Not having DRM" means the games I bought with no DRM is still there once they enable it. For example, with GOG I download the games I buy and there's no way they can enable DRM on the copies I made. On the other hand, if the games already have DRM and it gets worse or for whatever reason Valve goes under and you can't play your games anymore, well... you can't play any DRMed game without using whatever DRM mechanism they'll choose next. In other words "No DRM -> DRM" and "DRM -> Worse DRM" have different outcomes. > Valve has been doing business this way forever. And Google's motto was "Don't be evil" and for a good chunk of their life they weren't. That worked out well, did it? I'm not saying Valve will do a 180 and squander all the good faith it acquired. I'm just saying it's not beyond the realm of possibility.
- WithinReason 11mo agoIs going offline a special procedure?
- Neekerer 11mo agoYou need to click twice
- clayhacks 11mo agoYou can now have steam families and have two members play different games from the same library. Assuming you were using two machines you could just have a second account as a family member and play both. Or do you have a crazy beefy computer and are trying to run two different games on one machine?
- babuskov 11mo agoNot really. It still has a library level lock. What Steam Families has enabled is to play games from each other's libraries at the same time. For example, if my account has a game A, and your has a game B, I can play the game B while you play the game A. This used to be disabled before. You still cannot play a game C from my library while I play the game A from my own library. The only way to be able to play any game you want would be to create a separate account for each game.
- tete 11mo agoI agree. DRM sucks badly. I'd argue that it's a bit of a compliance thing though. Eg publisher lawyers saying DRM is needed, given that there doesn't seem to be much push from Steam for anything "draconian". At least it is for public broadcasters having online archives that also sometimes have DRM even where it isn't actually required (self-produced stuff). However, there is still a huge difference between buying hardware that literally "jails" you and force feeds you DRM and a system where even in the marketing says you can completely tear away all of that without jailbreaks, etc. and without stuff being super fiddly.
- babuskov 11mo ago> does Steam still disallow accounts from playing more than one independently owned game at a time without special procedures? Yes. I just tried launching one game on Steam Deck and another one on my desktop and it showed a message: > Error - Steam: You are logged in on another computer already playing Railbound. Launching Clutchtime™: Basketball Deckbuilder here will disconnect the other session from Steam.
- ragazzina 11mo agoThis is outrageous.
- hoppp 11mo agoYup. Sounds like its just a PC and not a locked down platform. Its easy for them and convenient for everyone.
- Cthulhu_ 11mo agoExcept that (I believe) "just a PC" was a bit offputting for a lot of people - when you buy a PC you can't just turn it on and play video games, especially not after Microsoft's shenanigans. I'm honestly surprised nobody else tried a "boot to game library" PC, but then, you also need the name and reputation for it. Microsoft could've done it, but they chose to make a console. Which is mostly a PC, but you need xbox games, a separate ecosystem.
- snvzz 11mo ago>Except that (I believe) "just a PC" was a bit offputting for a lot of people - when you buy a PC you can't just turn it on and play video games, especially not after Microsoft's shenanigans. Steam deck is "just a PC" as well, which can be turned on to immediately play video games. Thanks to its reputation, the masses will trust the Steam Machine to do this much. Valve know what they're doing.
- valesco 11mo agoThat machine would be very different from my gaming PC however. I could use it exactly like a console, which is a different use case than a desktop PC.
- badsectoracula 11mo agoI have a Steam Deck. All you have to do to use it like a desktop PC is to connect a cheap hub with power delivery, HDMI and USB ports for keyboard and mouse, then boot into KDE Plasma which is a regular desktop environment. Honestly, my SD has seen more use as a stationary PC than a handheld :-P
- xxs 11mo ago
- syx 11mo agoI'm sure someone will install OpenStep and recreate a NeXT computer 2.0
- xattt 11mo agoIt just won’t torch the same (1). (1) https://simson.net/ref/1993/cubefire.html https://simson.net/ref/1993/cubefire.html
- masfoobar 11mo agoGNUStep is still going.
- actionfromafar 11mo agoIf a single GNU steps in the forest, does it make a sound?
- masfoobar 11mo agoIf anyone was around to hear it... yes
- p_l 11mo agoInstall Previous and boot into it, voila ;)
- igravious 11mo agoI mean the Steam Machine's got a replaceable front cover so why not? :) https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8094437/next-computer https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co80944... https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine
- speed_spread 11mo agoOr stack eight of them and build a Connection Machine
- HexPhantom 11mo agoProps to Valve for not treating freedom like a "pro" feature
- tete 11mo agoFingers crossed for a smartphone next. So sick of that force fed walled garden crap from Apple and Google. Might also help to slow down enshittification by a bit if there was a popular alternative. Maybe something like Waydroid could even ease with transition.
- davedx 11mo agoSteamPhone sounds…… metal as fuck. I’d buy it for the name alone
- trevorhinesley 11mo agoSigned in just to upvote this. Amen homie
- carlos_rpn 11mo agoDamn, a smartphone made by Valve would make me splurge for more than middle-low end, for the respect they give us alone. It just needs my banking apps, and and I'll be happy to pay for it.
- spacebanana7 11mo agoIt's actually not that impossible, given how the DRM ecosystem trusts steam I could imagine banking apps doing the same. Some banks might even be up for putting children's banking apps on the steam deck to start with.
- surajrmal 11mo agoStarting an application ecosystem is not trivial. Banks aren't going to rush to write a new app for an OS with such a small market presence. Banks also like and guide security features they rely on in phone apps.
- spacebanana7 11mo agoYeah it would still be difficult. But I could imagine that if steam offered to give a few million to cover development costs and gave projections of 20k new customers, they might be able to convince one of the not very profitable children's fintech banks to develop for the platform.
- redbell 11mo agoWas going to post, exactly, this statement but found it is already spotted! I just hope Google & Apple read, understand and follow this.
- lentil_soup 11mo agoit's so refreshing to read something like that from a big company, it's weird, but felt like there's still hope? that there's people in power that still care? strange feeling, still curious about it the last few in years in tech have been depressing, like no one cares to make something that's actually better for the consumer, it's made me into a cynic and I hate it
- Quothling 11mo agoValve is a private company. I'm not going to say that every public company lacks a product focus, but I think there is a danger in public companies where it becomes natural to promote MBA's over product and even sales roles. I know MBA is treated with hatred here, but I don't think they are necessarily bad or evil, but I do think they have an advantage in obtaining power naturally because it's basically their profession and espesially product people are often bad at corporate politics. In many public companies there is the added level of investor interest, and it can often be a challenge for the C levels to remain in power during periods of slow or even negative growth. Challenges that companies like Valve simply don't have as long as the CEO is fine with it. On the flip side, I'm happy with my own stock portfolio so there is that.
- graemep 11mo agoThe problem is that public companies have different incentives. They take a more short term views. Their shareholders are not in it for the long term. Investment managers tend to look at anything more than two years as "long term", and they are conscious of their position in annual league tables. Even private equity and venture capital are usually going to be thinking about the value at which they can exit reasonably soon. The management of the company will be thinking about bonuses and options they get between now and when they move to the next job. A private company can often take the view that what really matters is how much they will be making in five or ten years time. Maybe even how much it will be worth when the current shareholder’s kids inherit it. The management are often either owners, or are closely monitored by the owners.
- udev4096 11mo ago
- qiine 11mo agoAnd just like that, valve will keep winning spectacularly.
- lazyfanatic42 11mo agoValve respects its customers. It is so insane that this isn't a norm; what a world we would be in if all companies did so.
- godzillabrennus 11mo agoDon't sugarcoat it. Valve has to make sure this is advertised as a PC to keep the licensing good on the games you've bought and that they are allowed to sell. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have closed ecosystems with their consoles. Well, Microsoft seems to be throwing in the towel on consoles.
- ehnto 11mo agoBut it is also a PC, so I don't see the issue even if this were true. It's just a box running an Arch Linux flavour.
- justin66 11mo ago> keep the licensing good That’s an imaginary issue.
- jmkni 11mo ago> Well, Microsoft seems to be throwing in the towel on consoles. Can you expand on this? I'm not a massive gamer, I thought xbox was doing well?
- mlacks 11mo agoHalo was announced for PS5 recently
- LollipopYakuza 11mo agoAlso they state that the console will remain the centerpiece, they want to make Xbox a "platform" to reuse their own term. It becomes an ecosystem rather than a hardware product. They idea is that as long as you have a gamepass, you can play on whatever you want - except macOS and Linux...
- AdmiralAsshat 11mo agoMe, too. I've been meaning to upgrade my HTPC for years, but I kept holding off because I had hoped that NVIDIA would release a new ShieldTV (the last one used the same chip as the Switch, so the community had quietly hoped that the Switch 2's release would coincide with a new Shield--no such luck). Assuming the Steam Machine is reasonably priced, I could easily see it also becoming my new Kodi box when not gaming on it.
- ShakataGaNai 11mo agoTheir "launch trailer" shows the Steam Machine running Windows.
- arvinsim 11mo agoWasn't that the desktop mode of SteamOS?
- Cyphase 11mo agoDo you mean this (~3m04s)? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmKrKTwtukE&t=184s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmKrKTwtukE&t=184s That was the desktop mode, showing KDE Plasma (a linux desktop environment). Also, Blender on the left screen and Godot on the right screen!
- mmis1000 11mo agoMeanwhile Microsoft be like: we are going to ship AI to your computer, eat all the resource, lag your game despite you don't use it and neither you don't want it at all.
- BlindEyeHalo 11mo agoTurns out that a company that is not publicly traded and run by people that only care about stock prices, can actually care about their customers.
- rkangel 11mo agoThere's all sorts of things you can do if you don't care about money. The more interesting point is that if you aren't driven by investors to care about short term financial stuff (stock prices) then you can make long term decisions. Caring about your customers is a classic one for this - costs you money in the short term, but in the long term gets you a great customer base.
- Shorel 11mo agoThey care about money. They definitely care about money. They have achieved a steady cash flow that can sustain their business forever, unless something really bad happens. What they don't care is the endless growth that MBA guys always try to achieve, and the quarterly profit driven decision making that ultimately destroys their customers loyalty, for short term profit. A business can be very profitable without being exploitative. It's the people in Wall Street who can't seem to understand this. For them a hundred million dollars of profit is good if last year it was only fifty million dollars, and a dying business if last year it was also a hundred million dollars. It really makes no sense.
- tnel77 11mo agoJust thinking out loud, but I wonder if Wall Street would be less awful about ruining companies if we were able to get a more meaningful dividend out of your average company? So perhaps the stock price itself stays relatively flat or boring, but the dividend paid out makes up for it. Or perhaps it would be the exact same issue and they’d be squeezing companies to maximize dividends. I just know that I expect stock prices to go up because most “dividend stocks” give such a small amount of money per share.
- 11mo ago