5 ms·

Sorry, but this sounds like an extremely bizarre proposal to me. Everything I've learned about Gabe indicates he has absolutely no interest in this course of ev

Sorry, but this sounds like an extremely bizarre proposal to me. Everything I've learned about Gabe indicates he has absolutely no interest in this course of events. Why would he want to run Microsoft when he is head of a large, incredibly successful, innovative, growing company like Valve? This makes zero sense to me. "Yes, Gabe likes making games and selling silly virtual hats and guns that make big dimensional holes." I think this is extremely belittling of Gabe and Valve, and games in general, and completely mistaken to boot.

DigitalJack 14y ago
Because Gabe is an engineer and engineers have an insatiable need to fix things and microsoft needs fixing. But I don't buy it either. I think it would scare the pants off of the corporate customers of MS.
- nness 14y ago
  Fixing Microsoft isn't an engineering problem; if it were, I'd wager their thousands of engineers would've done it already.
  - tobylane 14y ago
    It may be an engineer on top kind of solution that is needed. Apple had a designer at the top of their structure, so design got its way. This even made up for mistakes made while Jobs wasn't there. Having Gabe in sufficient control of non technical managers may well work, but then you could switch Gabe out for any trustable non-manager.
- CamperBob2 14y ago
  I think it would scare the pants off of the corporate customers of MS. Ballmer's erratic leadership is scaring the pants off of customers, ISVs, and IHVs alike. In fact, the only people who still have their pants are Microsoft's competitors.
- rodolfor 14y ago
  He might be an engineer but he was at Microsoft for 13 years and served as producer for the first three releases of Windows.
BSousa 14y ago
There is one thing that is important here. Valve/Steam, even if they have a linux client, are at the hand of Microsoft/Apple. I think the reason they are moving to Linux is to see if they can get out of that stranglehold but I doubt it. They can convert us techies, but most people don't give a crap's ass about Ubuntu or Mint, they want Windows+Steam+Office+Visual Studio (or whatever combination). But make no mistake, if MS thinks of buying Valve/Steam (or Apple, but I think MS has a better chance) making Steam hard to install/use can kill it. Steam lives of Windows users and I don't see many people buying a Steambox (when they can either buy a full Windows PC or a Playstation 3/4 or Xbox 360(/720?))
- dhruvmittal 14y ago
  If I recall correctly, Gabe expressed his fears that Microsoft and Apple would move against Steam, as it provides an "App Store" that would compete with that shipping with the OS, motivating his desire for a Linux-powered steambox and to make Linux a viable gaming platform.
  - BSousa 14y ago
    Yes, I pointed to that, the thing is, people won't switch to linux because of that. I know Linux guys always want to say 'X is going to be the reason Linux will be adopted' but the thing is, it won't. Outside tech circles, and what I call technohipsters, Linux won't gain that much traction. Not at least to make Valve consider Linux only client. I have a Mac and PC at home. Steam on Mac has 76 games, Steam on PC 238. I don't know about Linux, but I'm guessing even less. And from those 76 Mac games, more than half are indie games. Few AAA games there were released on Mac Steam a good half year after the PC version. Do you really think the 50 million people that bought Call of Duty on the first weekend will move to Linux where they can't play those games?
    - gnarbarian 14y ago
      A Linux based steam console will get more publishers on board if people buy it. There were rumors going around that the PS4 OS was going to be Linux based too. If that's the case Linux will get pretty much everything.

DigitalJack 14y ago

Because Gabe is an engineer and engineers have an insatiable need to fix things and microsoft needs fixing. But I don't buy it either. I think it would scare the pants off of the corporate customers of MS.

nness 14y ago
Fixing Microsoft isn't an engineering problem; if it were, I'd wager their thousands of engineers would've done it already.
- tobylane 14y ago
  It may be an engineer on top kind of solution that is needed. Apple had a designer at the top of their structure, so design got its way. This even made up for mistakes made while Jobs wasn't there. Having Gabe in sufficient control of non technical managers may well work, but then you could switch Gabe out for any trustable non-manager.
CamperBob2 14y ago
I think it would scare the pants off of the corporate customers of MS. Ballmer's erratic leadership is scaring the pants off of customers, ISVs, and IHVs alike. In fact, the only people who still have their pants are Microsoft's competitors.
rodolfor 14y ago
He might be an engineer but he was at Microsoft for 13 years and served as producer for the first three releases of Windows.

BSousa 14y ago

There is one thing that is important here. Valve/Steam, even if they have a linux client, are at the hand of Microsoft/Apple. I think the reason they are moving to Linux is to see if they can get out of that stranglehold but I doubt it. They can convert us techies, but most people don't give a crap's ass about Ubuntu or Mint, they want Windows+Steam+Office+Visual Studio (or whatever combination). But make no mistake, if MS thinks of buying Valve/Steam (or Apple, but I think MS has a better chance) making Steam hard to install/use can kill it. Steam lives of Windows users and I don't see many people buying a Steambox (when they can either buy a full Windows PC or a Playstation 3/4 or Xbox 360(/720?))

dhruvmittal 14y ago
If I recall correctly, Gabe expressed his fears that Microsoft and Apple would move against Steam, as it provides an "App Store" that would compete with that shipping with the OS, motivating his desire for a Linux-powered steambox and to make Linux a viable gaming platform.
- BSousa 14y ago
  Yes, I pointed to that, the thing is, people won't switch to linux because of that. I know Linux guys always want to say 'X is going to be the reason Linux will be adopted' but the thing is, it won't. Outside tech circles, and what I call technohipsters, Linux won't gain that much traction. Not at least to make Valve consider Linux only client. I have a Mac and PC at home. Steam on Mac has 76 games, Steam on PC 238. I don't know about Linux, but I'm guessing even less. And from those 76 Mac games, more than half are indie games. Few AAA games there were released on Mac Steam a good half year after the PC version. Do you really think the 50 million people that bought Call of Duty on the first weekend will move to Linux where they can't play those games?
  - gnarbarian 14y ago
    A Linux based steam console will get more publishers on board if people buy it. There were rumors going around that the PS4 OS was going to be Linux based too. If that's the case Linux will get pretty much everything.