Valve Offers Free Subscription To Debian Developers: Paying It Forward 205
sfcrazy writes "Valve Software, the makers of Steam OS, is already winning praise from the larger free and open source community – mainly because of their pro-community approach. Now the company is 'giving back' to Debian by offering free subscription to Debian developers. This subscription will offer full access to current and future games produced by Valve. Since Steam OS is based on Debian GNU/Linux it's a nice way for Valve to say 'thank you' to Debian developers."
Developer approval (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This is a Triumph (Score:4, Interesting)
Could be...for Valve, though that's not a bad thing. I'm not even angry; I'm being so sincere right now.
If the debian developers were more interested in something consumer focused like games, then Linux could have a better chance at entering the consumer space (whereas right now it is mostly enterprise focused.) Free games that work with the thing you created isn't a bad way to attract that.
Re:OK... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:OK... (Score:4, Interesting)
In this case, should vendors have the "freedom" to keep customers and users in the dark?
Yes. They do.
I don't like it, but that's what "freedom" means; not being able to force others to do as you'd like.
The problem here isn't vendors being evil, it's customers paying them to be evil then complaining about it.
Re:Now all we need is rolling release (Score:4, Interesting)
No, Debian unstable is equivalent to a nightly build. At times it is usable, but many times it is broken so bad that you cannot even install it.
No, breaking changes are tested in experimental first. Unstable is usable by an end-user absent some really rare breakage. I've been using it as a regular user who isn't any kind of Debian developer as my desktop system for 10 years.
Re:OK... (Score:4, Interesting)
when it comes to his rabid idealism that that is how the world absolutely has to be.
Yay it's the daily "make up random shit about RMS day" today, same as every day.
If you want to not be an idiot, don't parrot lies you read on the internet, actually find out what RMSs views are before talking about them.
RMS is not forcing you or anyone to do anything or even trying to. He believes that non-Free software is user hostile and unethical. He is also putting his money where his mouth is and doing his level best to bring the world of Free software about.
He's quite clear about what you should do if you have no choice: he himself used proprietary software to build the GNU userland system, and continued to use proprietary software until the kernel came about. In fact only very recently has he been able to get a computer which runs nothing but Free software end-to-end, meaning that he has kept up his use of proprietary software until able to do otherwise.
It's not about how the world has to be it's about how the world should be.
to eat my ass when it comes to his rabid idealism
Basically you're mocking him for trying to live his life as ethically as possible and helping others do the same. That makes you worse than any insult you could lay upon him.