Valve Announces Steam Goes Beyond Gaming

[AJenbo]

In my opinion the current package managers are awesome for servers, but they lack on the desktop space.

Ingo Molnar had a few good posts about this (and desktop Linux in general):
https://plus.google.com/109922199462...ts/UDxdhK8xT63
https://plus.google.com/109922199462...ts/HgdeFDfRzNe
https://plus.google.com/109922199462...ts/VSdDJnscewS

Don't get irritated by the "App store" buzzword, it is nothing more than a package manager on steroids .

I really hope Valve releases their client under the GPL, then we could possibly see adoption of their "package management" on the Desktop space.
(if it meets the criteria, of course)

Well, lets wait and see where Valve takes Linux!

Steam already does this on Windows. They make fake installations entries in Windows witch soul purposes is to evoke Steam when you hit uninstall. The same could be done wit apt. Applications installed via steam would show up in your favorite package manager tool but the actual installation would still be handled by steam. This could even be used as a good way to leach on to the dependency resolving of the system instead of how it is done on windows where every game reinstalled the same 3 libraries over and over again.

[Cyborg16]

I just wanted to say, that as far as package management goes, Valve probably doesn't truly need to integrate with any package management. They could probably just ship Steam for every distro and then it creates a folder(/usr/steam , /steam, /home/user/steam , who knows ) where it puts all Steam applications, possibly with a few libraries for easier compatibility. This may not be according to the current spirit of Linux, but I think it would make it easier for them to care for every distro and have compatibility. They'd just needto port Steam and it would be like their package manager, possibly even providing some necessary libraries that will differ greatly between distros(I mean like the same we use now, but the version they compiled the program with or they know it works better). Especially if they are to going to also have their own system to upgrade their software.

Well said. Especially the point that SDL libraries, sound libraries, OpenGL support and even libc vary — though that doesn't mean Valve can just ship their own libc library and be done with it. I can foresee quite a few shared libraries like SDL and even Qt getting installed twice though!

[AJSB]

Steam not only uses a DRM system it also uses an anti-cheating system for games called VAC similar to PunkBuster....

VAC, as opposite to PunkBuster was always tolerant to LINUX and no one playing on Steam was ever banned just because he/she used LINUX OS.

What it was said here about banned accounts and all, it's purely related with VAC cheaters and even so, they are NOT truly banned....they can not play online in VAC protected servers but still can play SP modes of the games and even can play online in no-VAC protected servers.

[curaga]

Even though i understand the anti-DRM crowd is there a different way for someone to protect the work that he chose to sell for profit?

There is no such way. Even hardware dongles are circumvented. If you've ever been to Estonia or Russia, you know you can buy there say Photoshop unlocked on a cd for 5$, and this was already that way 20 years ago. It has not changed, if anything it's gotten stronger and faster.

DRM is defective by design.

[AJenbo]

There is no such way. Even hardware dongles are circumvented. If you've ever been to Estonia or Russia, you know you can buy there say Photoshop unlocked on a cd for 5$, and this was already that way 20 years ago. It has not changed, if anything it's gotten stronger and faster.

DRM is defective by design.

Nepal has massive stores stilling nothing but pirate-software for next to nothing. I actually tried to find a legal version of a couple of programs but the closest i got was a store that had a few MS products that had to be per-ordered (had plenty of pirate-software in stock), and one store that insisted that 3ds MAX comes on burned CD's in a single plastic sleeve and a cover printed on an ink jet that is out of yellow.

[madjr]

I don't see this as competition to the ubuntu software center.

In fact I see it as a big win for ubuntu (the first supported linux platform). It may even get featured in the ubuntu software center as it's a big deal and will even bring many new users. They may even partner and/or affiliate too (why just compete when you can complement/partner?).

It will be interesting to see what kind of software they plan to ship and if some of those developers might become interested in multiplatform and port to linux.

[89c51]

There is no such way. Even hardware dongles are circumvented. If you've ever been to Estonia or Russia, you know you can buy there say Photoshop unlocked on a cd for 5$, and this was already that way 20 years ago. It has not changed, if anything it's gotten stronger and faster.

DRM is defective by design.

Yes but that doesn't mean that they cannot or shouldn't try to protect themselves (their profits). Its a fact that people will not pay for anything that they can get for free (legally or illegally).

[Cyborg16]

Yes but that doesn't mean that they cannot or shouldn't try to protect themselves (their profits). Its a fact that people will not pay for anything that they can get for free (legally or illegally).

Thanks for supporting the notion that linux isn't a platform commercial vendors can actually try to make any money on. It's just not true, though. We all know that we can download a lot of music over bittorrent, yet there is interest in Amazon MP3 for its DRM-free music. Some of the humble-bundles have been pretty successful, despite the noted trend for someone to put all the software up for download somewhere pretty-much immediately. Reasons for paying for things "unnecessarily" vary I suppose; sometimes its convenience, sometimes wanting commercial support, sometimes loyalty or conscience. Do you avoid buying a coffee when you're out because you know you can have one for practically no cost when you get back home?

[GreatEmerald]

Not to mention that DRM hinders only legitimate users and not pirates...

[89c51]

Thanks for supporting the notion that linux isn't a platform commercial vendors can actually try to make any money on. It's just not true, though. We all know that we can download a lot of music over bittorrent, yet there is interest in Amazon MP3 for its DRM-free music. Some of the humble-bundles have been pretty successful, despite the noted trend for someone to put all the software up for download somewhere pretty-much immediately. Reasons for paying for things "unnecessarily" vary I suppose; sometimes its convenience, sometimes wanting commercial support, sometimes loyalty or conscience. Do you avoid buying a coffee when you're out because you know you can have one for practically no cost when you get back home?

I didn't mention anything about platforms. Linux users usually go for the FOSS alternative (ie Gimp, Blender etc). And yes there are people buying things that are available "for free" but that doesn't mean its the majority or that companies don't see this as lost profits.