5 ms·

I love what he'd done for linux gaming, but man the cult of personality for gabe is strong on the internet. gabe is not a philanthropy who want to see linux ga

by gryn 1mo ago

I love what he'd done for linux gaming, but man the cult of personality for gabe is strong on the internet. gabe is not a philanthropy who want to see linux gaming happen no matter what. he's a reasonable man who saw a threat to his business when every operating system started making their own store and windows was directly trying to eat his lunch starting from window 7 and going at it the strongest in window 8 when they had their dedicated to game store directly pinned in the windows bar menu.

overfeed 1mo ago
Microsoft's threat was more overt than that: the initial plan was for Microsoft to be the sole signing authority for Windows apps in Windows 7, while simultaneously locking down the OS from pre-boot onwards and not executing unsigned binaries. This would have killed not only Steam games, but Steam itself wouldn't be distributable. Microsoft forced Gabe's hand! Valve had to pivot away from being 100% dependant on Windows as a matter of corporate survival.
ThrowawayR2 1mo ago
The Windows Store was introduced in 2012, 14 years ago, and promptly went nowhere; Gabe Newell is ex-Microsoft himself and undoubtedly had a good understanding of how dim the prospects and how poor the execution was for it. Yet he persisted in pursuing the Steam Machine and Proton long after it was clear that the Windows Store was a flop. If you want philanthropy (or perhaps not), Gabe Newell has $1 billion worth of yachts and research ships.
- helpfulclippy 1mo ago
  So I dunno anything about Gaben’s actual motives, but I will say, I personally would not be assuaged just because the store flopped. The underlying problem is that Valve sells games, and games needed Windows, and that’s exactly the sort of dependent relationship that Microsoft (and others) use to extract value and dominate new markets. It makes sense to me that Valve looked at how hard it would be to break out of that, and decided that it would remain diligent regardless of how credible the immediate threat was.
  - ThrowawayR2 1mo ago
    Not a single one of the other gaming giants (Blizzard, EA, Epic, Activision, etc.) or marketplaces (Epic, GOG, etc.) who also depend on Windows bothered to counter this supposed threat? Doesn't sound like much of a threat then. Really, they're probably more displeased about the Valve near-monopoly as a marketplace for Windows games than displeased about MS.

by gryn 1mo ago

overfeed 1mo ago

Microsoft's threat was more overt than that: the initial plan was for Microsoft to be the sole signing authority for Windows apps in Windows 7, while simultaneously locking down the OS from pre-boot onwards and not executing unsigned binaries. This would have killed not only Steam games, but Steam itself wouldn't be distributable. Microsoft forced Gabe's hand! Valve had to pivot away from being 100% dependant on Windows as a matter of corporate survival.

ThrowawayR2 1mo ago

The Windows Store was introduced in 2012, 14 years ago, and promptly went nowhere; Gabe Newell is ex-Microsoft himself and undoubtedly had a good understanding of how dim the prospects and how poor the execution was for it. Yet he persisted in pursuing the Steam Machine and Proton long after it was clear that the Windows Store was a flop. If you want philanthropy (or perhaps not), Gabe Newell has $1 billion worth of yachts and research ships.

helpfulclippy 1mo ago
So I dunno anything about Gaben’s actual motives, but I will say, I personally would not be assuaged just because the store flopped. The underlying problem is that Valve sells games, and games needed Windows, and that’s exactly the sort of dependent relationship that Microsoft (and others) use to extract value and dominate new markets. It makes sense to me that Valve looked at how hard it would be to break out of that, and decided that it would remain diligent regardless of how credible the immediate threat was.
- ThrowawayR2 1mo ago
  Not a single one of the other gaming giants (Blizzard, EA, Epic, Activision, etc.) or marketplaces (Epic, GOG, etc.) who also depend on Windows bothered to counter this supposed threat? Doesn't sound like much of a threat then. Really, they're probably more displeased about the Valve near-monopoly as a marketplace for Windows games than displeased about MS.