Valve Writes About Their Linux Client Plans

[Kristian Joensen]

With Duke Nukem Forever the entire System folder takes up approx. 43 MB's and that includes others things than just executables, like shaders for example.

[curaga]

It really sounds like they build their entire assets in their binaries, for supposedly better protection. At least I can't come up with any other reason, no matter how PR- or managerially buzzworded.

Having that AES-encrypted zip file included in the binary comes with many downsides, and doesn't really improve security. It's only more obfuscation, hardly an effective security measure. The fact that none of the "big guns" do that and instead have a few meg executables instead should speak for that.

[Kristian Joensen]

Who are they here?

[curaga]

gamerk2 and other devs like them. I have never seen such an abomination, but he said there are others beside them.

[Kristian Joensen]

Ahh, okay. I didn't know that Gamerk2 himself was a dev. Well in that case he is generalizing from their practices to those of others. Games in general don't have binaries that take even a fraction of that.

[cwj717]

Around 1.5 to 2GB, depending. Varies a LOT by game though. Still, 1.5GB is 16% of your total disk capacity.

What game has 2GB binaries? I just had a look at my Crysis install, the 64bit binaries are about 37MB and the 32bit binaries are about 34MB (that is not just the exe but the dll files also).

[Naib]

LOL yes, I think Micheal has some really deserved 'I told you so!'s to pass out to those who mocked him for such a long time.

Actually he doesn't, if anything he should take note an improve his "journalism skills"
You really should understand where the naysayers were coming from. They were coming from the complete lack of confirmation from valve of steam for linux WHILE phoronix/michael was "it is coming listen to me" in the presence of "no plans" being posted.

THIS blog and the info from Gabe is exact the citable info that is great. What Michael/Phoronix need to take away from this is to not jump the gun and not be a jackass when faced with a reasonable request for independent citation

[Larian]

Actually he doesn't, if anything he should take note an improve his "journalism skills"
You really should understand where the naysayers were coming from. They were coming from the complete lack of confirmation from valve of steam for linux WHILE phoronix/michael was "it is coming listen to me" in the presence of "no plans" being posted.

THIS blog and the info from Gabe is exact the citable info that is great. What Michael/Phoronix need to take away from this is to not jump the gun and not be a jackass when faced with a reasonable request for independent citation

Really? I thought he posted inside information, people misunderstood his colloquial use of the word "official", and jackasses subjected the rest of us to incessant whining every time the mention of a Linux port surfaced.

And asking for an independent citation when dealing with inside info is just faulty logic. Demanding (and actually expecting), something that can not exist by definition is neither a reasonable request nor expectation. Being told things that nobody else knows or can know ... well that's what "inside information" is. That's what it means.

Where the naysayers were coming from was a position of poor comprehension and willful ignorance. You guys simply got it wrong - and in the face of overwhelming evidence to boot. This is not a position to crow about or be proud of; it's an example of blinkered, stonewalling, vicious degenerate groupthink appropriate for young earth creationists and people who deny we landed on the moon.

[GreatEmerald]

Embedding resources into executables is plain stupid. You accidentally added a low quality texture where a high quality one was supposed to be? Well, enjoy your 2GB patch!

[Vadi]

Why is it stupid? Binary patches aren't a new idea... see: rsync, dropbox, any cloud syncing service - and I believe Chrome was working on reduced update deltas as well.