Valve Offers Free Subscription To Debian Developers: Paying It Forward

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

[tepples]

But Debian's approval process for developers [debian.org] might get swamped by people trying to gain Debian Developer status just for the free games.

Re:This is a Triumph

[AlphaWolf_HK]

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...

[Pav]

There are plenty of non-free choices... not so many free. I'd like to keep my little free sandbox thanks. Why do you want to take it from me? Obviously many feel the same way or else Debian wouldn't have such a vital community, and perhaps it follows that one of the historical reasons for this vital community is its philosophy and relatively uncompromising attitude (though too compromising for RMS apparently). I have contributed to Debian, though granted in very small ways, and frankly I'd be less motivated with the community soured and schitzophrenic with concerns completely unrelated to the Debian core mission [debian.org]. I have a friend who has abandoned desktop BSD because the community around it as collapsed after Apples involvement... I really don't want to see RMS being right AGAIN, this time about Debian not being strict enough.

Re:OK...

[mwvdlee]

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

[Trepidity]

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...

[serviscope_minor]

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.