Valve's Gabe Newell Really Hates Windows 8

[jrch2k8]

I don't think that linux desktops are more secure than win by definition. at least with physical access you dont need a livesystem to get full (root) access to user data - btw that works on os x as well. So lets think about remote access, there you are as save as the apps you run. Every app has flaws, most important for home users are most likely all web browsers, mail clients, instant messaging or office apps. Faults in those apps are used to install malware - currently mainly on windows because of much more users - but do you want to say that flash/java is more secure when you use firefox on linux than on win? You are just lucky that the malware authors target win in most cases, same for os x users. You see that same on android, every system that is popular has got lots of malware (often hidden in pirated apk). Currently you are usually save enough without any anti virus tool in the background - but you can be sure in the case that linux desktops are more popular this will change.

For web servers you already have got lots of attack vectors, mainly because of wrongly parsed vars. Most likely you don't read news about stolen passwords/sql databases. Do you really want to say all those systems run windows? Basically it would not matter much, the most exploited bugs are not inside the os kernel. Of course when you have got already a remote shell you want more, like root access...

mmm if you check firefox it is proven to be more secure on linux than on windows, i mean sure firefox can have crossplataform bugs[the source is not the same for every plataform just almost the same massive difference here] cuz like i said windows security concept is a bad joke, so lets say advapi32 has 1 critical security bug[normally is mined with those] and firefox has to use that API[same as any other windows app] cuz on windows it uses MSVC then firefox can't do squat about it[they can try to reduce or add extra check to try to stop a possible attack] but advapi32 doesn't exist on linux and the linux couterpart don't have that security flaw hence is not exploitable on linux or mac in this case and that same thing is true on any crossplataform application, another example could be Mono[i don't like it but for the sake of the example] is lots of time more secure on linux than using .NET directly on windows since the applications developed with it are 100% on the underlying .NET runtime which are mined with security issues too that no .NET app can protect.

this is most of the security issues present on crossplataform apps, so im not saying apps on linux are 100% secure cuz like i said you can have a crossplataform bug but the app security is as strong as the underlying weak slave of the OS chain and in this case linux/bsd/solaris/etc have a pretty stable chain[not perfect but lot closer than winblows].

now i agree if you have physical access to the PC you just put a firewire or easier just a livecd[work with any OS] and booom.

funny note almost any security issue can grant total control over the NT OS kernel, insane right?[that is what you call a well thought security layout]

[Figueiredo]

Not gonna happen. E-sports are here to stay, and E-sports means keyboard and mouse. And Valve has *just* committed with Dota 2....

Funny, because in Wikipedia's Electronic sports page cites under "Notable electronic sports games" plenty of Fighting games such as Street Fighter, Halo for Xbox and even Dance Dance Revolution...

Many leagues seem to embrace consoles also, so I dont get your point.

I don't know exacly what you mean by e-sports, but i don't see why it means keyboard/mouse. It seems to me most of them are really popular PC games, if the games were not popular, I doubt they would be there at all.

I also don't think you've read my post, because i sad several times this is not hapenning overnight, it is not like every desktop in the world is gonna explode. But as steam introduces their big picture interface and more and more games with support for alternative HIDs are introduced, gamers will wonder why the box is attached to a 22" monitor and not to a 42" tv...

[PeterKraus]

Street-Fighter et cetera are usually played with a dedicated arcade-style controller. Halo? Give me a break. MLG has even dropped it this year. Counter-Strike and Quake Live are the only notable competitive shooter e-sports. MOBA's and Starcraft 2 are PC-based.

[Figueiredo]

Street-Fighter et cetera are usually played with a dedicated arcade-style controller. Halo? Give me a break. MLG has even dropped it this year. Counter-Strike and Quake Live are the only notable competitive shooter e-sports. MOBA's and Starcraft 2 are PC-based.

So there are notable games that do not require a keyborad mouse! And if in the future most popular games are controlled with valve's tongue controller (http://allthingsd.com/20120725/valve...ws-8-and-more/), guess which games will be chosen for the leagues?

Hence, the fact that there are professional e-sports leagues does not mean that the desktop will be the main platform forever.

[johnc]

SteamBox is definitely what this is about.

They're not porting this stuff over just because they're bored or because they want to throw a bone to the 25 Linux gamers in the world. And they're not dumb enough to think there's going to be a mass exodus from Windows to Linux.

[varikonniemi]

Quoted for truth.

It's a lot harder to infect a linux system due to how the permissions work. If my linux laptop gets a virus, it has to survive first the virus scanner I have installed, but then it's trapped. my major bineraries and config files are only writable by root... and I don't run as root. So to get rid of the virus, all i have to do is delete my user account.

In Windows, you have to format every drive windows has touched. Painful.

Remember how 2.6.x series kernel had multiple escalation of privilege root shell exploits? SElinux/apparmor not helping as it is the kernel that is compromised. I even sometimes think that was the real reason for the 3.0 kernel rename AFAIK no such things have been found in 3 line of kernels.

[maldorordiscord]

I'm not that naive , in that sense, yeah sure, i paid for it but if you go back to 1st versions of IE ever made , it wasn't part of the OS and it wasn't paid either (it was just like any other WWW browser that we could install, so, in that sense, it NEVER was paid and if it wasn't ever paid as an extra then it can be considered free)....but for me that is kinda of irrelevant because, IMHO, MS would charge same price anyway with or without IE in Windows (because it is indeed free of charge)

In fact, IIRC, i might be making a confusion, when MS was 1st attacked because Netscape and all, there was in at least a country where they sold a version of windows w/o IE....and they sold it at same price than regular version w/IE.

The reality show that its in the way i told you they calculate all costs of IE into the windows license.
And the people think its "Free-Beer" no its not free-beer they make "profit" and they make more profit than "Firefox" because they earn money from the windows license and from the ads from the start page.

Your argument is only "History" back in the time of windows95 IE was not a part of the OS but today it is a part of the OS.
A Historically argument do not have any relevance to the today reality.

" i might be making a confusion, when MS was 1st attacked because Netscape and all, there was in at least a country where they sold a version of windows w/o IE....and they sold it at same price than regular version w/IE."

thats prove you wrong because if they sell the windows version without IE at the same price than the windows version with the IE then my argument is right microsoft earn money for the IE with the windows licenses and they don't care if you use the IE or not! because you pay the bill anyway!

You can not beat Microsoft by using Firefox in a windows OS! they win anyway!

You also can not win against Microsoft if you use Linux on windows hardware intel-x86 because then you do a cross-platform substitution of 95% of your support money in the beneficial of Microsoft.

You can only beat Microsoft if you use Linux and Firefox with windows incompatible hardware.

[AJSB]

I guess that we have to agree in to disagree...in your opinion Ms makes money with IE, in my opinion it doesn't , they do with the OS itself....hell, if i want , i can just install IE in Linux via WINE and i'm sure that Ms won't get a dime for me doing it !!! (not that i want do it, i will not)

However....

You can only beat Microsoft if you use Linux and Firefox with windows incompatible hardware.

...taking in account that a XBox360 is actually a kinda of PC with specific hardware and taking in account the talk about a Steam console....how about a SteamBOX running SteamOS (Linux) ? Possibly using a ARM CPU (with build-in GPU ?)...



Anyway, tonight i will get rid once and for all of Windows and go full Linux for good

[bug!]

Quid pro quo.
Valve will help Linux, and we will help Vavle!

This is a very smart move of theirs.
Now that Windows 8 has an App store, they will become obsolete, so they are saving their existance with Linux (as others have already pointed out).

I wonder what EA will do, as they also have a similar service like Steam, called Origin .

[Figueiredo]

I think EA is too large. They are also too much invested into the current consoles and consequently too much dependent on MS and Sony to upset them. I can't see EA inovating to the point of creating their own platform (software and hardware). If MS closes up Windows real good, they will carve some agreement with MS and Origin will be incorporated into the MS App Store.