Valve Starts Publishing Packages For Its Own Linux Distribution 310
An anonymous reader writes "In preparation for the "Steam Box" game console that will make necessary their own Linux-based software platform, Valve developers have started publishing Debian packages for their platform which looks like their first-generation operating system will be derived from Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS. So far the packages being published include a new "Plymouth" boot splash screen as the operating system loads, a Steam desktop wallpaper, auto-updating system scripts, and experimental NVIDIA Linux graphics drivers."
Re:Debian? EWWWWW... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Debian? EWWWWW... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Year of the Linux Desktop? (Score:4, Informative)
Unless you are really willing to spend $1000 on a software tool, most of what you posted is nonsense.
Games are an interesting problem but that's being addressed by Valve.
Obscure vertical market apps are interesting of course but only for small subsets of the total market of Windows users. For people that don't need to run some sort of office of some particular type, those vertical apps might as well not exist.
That's why you can't name drop any of them, in stark contrast to perhaps to a single video,audio, or CAD tool that costs more than you are willing to spend.
Small business may remain Microsoft's saving grace as end users defect to tablets and larger corporations migrate to platform independent solutions.
Re:Maybe (Score:5, Informative)
As desktop, Linux still sucks
...for you. Which is fine. I love it and use it every day.
Windows have serious security problems, etc etc but it does not break the existing applications on each relevant update and have behavior/interface consistence
There's an argument to made that this has happened in the Windows world a few times, but I digress. Gnome fucked up badly with Gnome 3. We get that. A lot of us still hold a grudge against them for that. That sort of update is in the minority. Most (as in 99.9%) updates I install work without any sort of configuration changes needed, and as an additional nice point, don't require a reboot (usually only kernel updates need a reboot in Linux).
I'm not trying to sell you, I'm just pointing out that what you've heard doesn't mesh with my experience.
Re:Year of the Linux Desktop? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, they've said this is the exact reason they're jumping ship. Microsoft doesn't want a cut of Steam's sales. Microsoft fully intends to replace Steam and other digital distribution channels with the Windows Store. Simple as that.