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."
OK... (Score:5, Funny)
and now nothing will get done.
This is obviously effort to thwart Debian.
Re:OK... (Score:5, Insightful)
Games are one of the oldest and most powerful learning systems we have. Computer games obviously lose the physical benefit of RL game,s but they still have mental benefits.
They can teach Logic, promote social skills (as compared to TV), and can be good emotionally just ot blow of some steam.
I understand the drama with debian and non-free games, but surely you can seperate the two concepts.
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Re:OK... (Score:5, Interesting)
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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.
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No, as a matter of fact I'm better than Stallman. I'm not saying he should stop his idealism, only that it is stupid to push it onto others as hard as he does. He is entitled to his opinion, as I am entitled to mine. I am not disagreeing with his opinion, I am disagreeing with him trying to force / coerce other people into agreeing with him.
As for the complete bullshit about RMS using non-free software, no shit he had to build the first toolchain from non-free compilers et al. they won't spring up from noth
Re:OK... (Score:4, Insightful)
I am disagreeing with him trying to force / coerce other people into agreeing with him.
Well, then you're an idiot because you're disagreeing with him over something he doesn't do.
He does not try to coerce or force, he tries to persuade. Massive difference.
As for the complete bullshit about RMS using non-free software, no shit he had to build the first toolchain from non-free compilers et al. they won't spring up from nothing.
He could have bootstrapped, should he have chosen to. You know, you used to be able to buy Z80 systems where you could key in machine code on the front panel. I've actually used one.
He could have gone that route. It would have been much more painful and slower but it would have been possible. He chose to use a more expedient route.
Yet after that I know for a fact he has said, in the last decade no less - on multiple occasions, that he would rather use crippled hardware rather than use non-free drivers that are available gratis from manufacturers.
Yes, and? He's not forcing you to do the same.
He also said everyone should do the same, stating it in plain and unambiguous language no less.
Yes and? He's not forcing you to do the same. I think everyone SHOULD buy free range produce. I will argue (like RMS) why it's the ethical choice. I will state clearly and unambiguously that OI think you should live your life ethically.
Those are opinions which we both have a right to (as you so graciously conceed). What use are opinions if one is not going to voice them?
He's not forcing you to do anything.
So yes, his viewpoints are quite well known on the issues of non-free software - if it isn't open, do without.
Except again you misrepresent him with subtelty. I get the feeling you are not interested in an honest discussion.
You flipped smoothly from "crippled" to "doing without". The big distinction is you can work with crippled stuff but not with nonexistent stuff.
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Freedom is not an absolute. Your freedoms end where others' begin. You are not free to enslave people, deny education to women as the Taliban wants to do, recklessly endanger property and lives, litter, trespass, and so on.
In this case, should vendors have the "freedom" to keep customers and users in the dark? That's why we still don't have good open source drivers for some vendors' products. Nice DRM is no better than nice slavery.
Giving up our natural right and ability to share knowledge with one
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.
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How about using the law to prevent others from reverse engineering a product? Or jailing someone for investigating the security of a product, like what happened to Dmitry Sklyarov? That's not freedom, that's power no one should have, because it is too easy to abuse, and is abused. The DMCA takedown provision is routinely abused to hinder and silence perfectly legitimate competitors and critics. Many legitimate videos have been taken down from Youtube on the mere accusation of infringement, without any p
Re:OK... (Score:4, Insightful)
You are not free to enslave people, deny education to women as the Taliban wants to do, recklessly endanger property and lives, litter, trespass, and so on.
actually you are. You can do all of those things - there isn't anyone actively stopping you; there's no Tom Cruise watching everything you do and jumping in just before you do it; there's no robot 'guardian' following you around ready to zap you the moment it thinks you're going to do something bad.
Of course, society is also free to to lock you away, and/or otherwise punish you to ensure you don't do it again, or attempt to persuade you not to do it again once you're released.
That's what freedom is all about - the ability to make your own choices and not have someone decide for you, but it also doesn't mean there's no responsibility for your actions either.
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actually you are. You can do all of those things
Well then your definition of free is basically meaningless: by your definition, people in prison are free: they're free to try and leave and the guards are free to stop them.
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you misunderstand. You have the ability to do anything you want, even bad things that are proscribed by law, morals or consensus.
Its a natural-world form of freedom, not the legal version you're thinking of. Kind of like how you have free will to do whatever you like.
However, my examples show how your freedom (in both senses) could be subverted - I like the robot overlord following you around to ensure you really do not, no matter what, have the capability of performing an act that violates the rules that i
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Your principles seem to be in the right place.
However...
How does Valve restrict your freedom by giving you the option of using Steam?
Of course, Free is better than non-Free. You can't expect everyone else to bow to your every request, though. Feel free not to use their non-Free products and services, but don't expect them to waive their conditions just for you.
Re:OK... (Score:4, Informative)
Except Debian tends to be one of the more Free distributions out there - turning down a LOT of stuff.
In fact, it's why Ubuntu was created - Debian is a great distribution with very powerful open and free beliefs. Even when they get in the way of users. Ubuntu forked Debian, trying to apply a more "user-centric" view by adding appropriate non-free stuff to create something that users expect - including stuff like non-free codecs and such that users expect, and Debian lacks on purpose.
Hell, the non-free repos are barely tolerated.
Codecs (Score:2)
The codecs (etc) are avoided because Debian doesn't want to deal with liability or licences. Steam doesn't present that particular problem. The intellectual property owner is actively contributing the software.
Yes, it's non-free, and it needs to be in the appropriate repo. But this isn't a "destroy the project, bring on the wrath of **** **, and sue everybody into oblivion" level of non-free.
(Ubuntu, on the other hand, wants more than just to be a better Debian. They've got a specific vision of where Li
Re:OK... (Score:5, Informative)
I'll just add that Debian split the non-free stuff into a separate repository, not enabled by default. Not only are you free not to install non-free software, you get an easy way of making sure that non-free doesn't creep in by mistake.
Shachar
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To be fair, there is some confusion between people like yourself, who advocate the user's freedom to choose whether to use free only software, and the anti-GPL crowd, who advocate a developer's right to choose whether their addition are free or not.
While I am all for the user's freedom to not use free software (and, in fact, the non-free repository is enabled on my machines, and like I said, I do have some proprietary software installed), whenever I choose a license for free [lingnu.com] software [lingnu.com] that [sourceforge.net] I write [pgfoundry.org] from [github.com] scrat [sourceforge.net]
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and now this proposition to ship DRM!
No one is talking about shipping DRM as part of Debian (or even in non-free). Valve isn't talking about shipping its games inside Debian. Their games are proprietary, cost money, and contain DRM, and at least the last two make them technically incompatible with the Debian distribution system.
What Valve is offering is for Debian developers to get, free of charge, a Steam subscription to play (almost) all of Valve games. Assuming you are not a Debian developer, you will not see any actual difference in Debian
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If you've gotten the games through the Humble Bundle, then you might be even more interested in Steam. All (most?) of the Humble Bundle games come with Steam keys so you can immediately add them to your Steam library. Makes it much easier to keep track of your library and manage downloads between computers ... the downside is only 1 computer can be connected to steam at a time (although off-line mode is lovely for things like that).
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You lost me.
I already have the games. They are DRM free. I already have a way to keep track of my library. It's at https://www.humblebundle.com/h... [humblebundle.com]. All it takes is a single password. Why would I want another one, merely for the privilege of having another one?
Most of the games I have (at least, those I'm actually playing) have no multiplayer mode that I'm aware of.
The "single connection" limitation is not much of an issue for me (I do, actually, honor the conditions I bought the games under, which is that
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honestly, the biggest advantage Steam offers me are:
1) Making my library available on whatever computer I am using (provided the games support it), without me having to drag around an external drive of some sort.
2) Keeping my downloaded games up to date, and the saved games synchronized between computers.
Granted I'm probably an abnormal user in that I have a desktop at home and a laptop I use for travel/work, but it makes it easy to keep things in sync and start a game on one, then continue on the other, wi
This is a Triumph (Score:5, Funny)
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS
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: This is a Triumph (Score:4, Funny)
instead of free games, THEy should offer free food, something like CAKE. this IS A great way to attract linux coders, not gonna LIE.
5 years later ... (Score:5, Funny)
A: The entire development team was given dozens of free video games.
Typo in list.debian.org link (Score:5, Informative)
There is a extra 'v' in the link. The real link is https://lists.debian.org/debia... [debian.org]
A wise move.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Developer approval (Score:5, Interesting)
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which begs the question: Who is considered a developer?
1. Raises. 2. The page I linked answers your question. It appears that first you must get on an airplane and meet an existing Debian developer in person to get your key signed.
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It appears that first you must get on an airplane
Whether an airplane is needed rather depends on where you live. In your case it looks like a car would suffice.
https://wiki.debian.org/Keysig... [debian.org]
Thanks! unit tests, naming standards, documentatio (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks for contributing! I've contributed very little code directly to Debian, but it may well be like some open source projects where developers are expected to spend ten times as much time on a feature than it takes to submit a patch.
In Moodle, for example, I added a feature that took about two hours to develop a working patch. Just before submitting the patch, I became an official developer. Seven MONTHS later I was done with that two hour patch. First, I needed to document the proposal for the new feature, then get (documented) community feedback. I had to apply a huge list of style rules to the patch, covering things like variable naming standards, whitespace, etc. Then I needed the component owner to review it. He pointed out that while it complied with the CURRENT standards, it didn't use the newly developed APIs that were chosen for the upcoming release. I recoded it to use the upcoming standards, and some design changes the component owner wanted. This process involved rebasing against master at several times - any time someone else needed to look at it. The new feature required very minor tweaks to some existing classes. Since I had touched those classes, I needed to update those old classes to the new coding standards as well. Then the integrator pointed out I was missing the suites of unit tests, etc.
In all, a two hour patch submission turns out to be 80 hours when you do all of the "official developer" stuff like unit tests and all. So that's one distinction between a developer, who is on the hook for all of that stuff vs. a contributor who graciously submits code.
Please understand I'm in no way devaluing any contributions. For most open source projects, I contribute patches only. I now have a new appreciation for the committed developers who do the grinding work required to have my code integrated into a high quality project.
Ps - a LOT of what I mentioned above are tasks a non-programmer or newbie programmer can help with, if anyone is looking for ways to contribute to projects you enjoy or are interested in.
Re:Developer approval (Score:5, Informative)
which begs the question: Who is considered a developer?
Debian Developer is a well defined status with full upload rights and voting rights. The application process is also documented but well basically it consists of
1: get your key signed by a couple of existing debian developers (in a pinch one debian developer and one
2: find an existing dd to advocate for you
3: make your application
4: wait to be assigned an application manager
5: go through a questioning/testing process with the application manager
6: wait for final approval, account creations etc from front desk, DAM and keyring maint
Nowadays it's generally reccomended to go for the lower status of "Debian Maintainer" (restricted upload rights, no voting rights) first and then move on to applying for Debian Developer (I went straight to DD myself so it IS still possible to go directly in the right circumstances but it's not considered the normal route anymore).
The process of becoming a Debian Developer can take quite some time both in terms of overall process length and the ammount you will have to learn about debian and the contributions you will have to demonstrate you have made to pass it. If you are serious about contributing to Debian then it's worth it, if you are just doing it for the handful of goodies (the ones i'm aware of are lwn subscription, ghandi.net hosting discount, and now valve games) that are given out debian developers then you are wasting your time.
Valve vote stacking? (Score:2, Funny)
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Agreed. I'm sure internally, Valve deals with the same circus of foibles that every other tech company sees. But externally, looking at their overarching business strategy, it's really satisfying to see them playing the long game, and knowing that in all probability the PC gaming market will continue to benefit from their efforts.
What's required to be recognised as a Debian dev? (Score:2)
The announcement on the mailing list says that developers need to send a signed email (signed with a key in the Debian keyring) to the Valve contact to request a redemption code. So my question is, what does it take to be recognised by Debian as a developer and get your key added to their keyring? Is this just for core Debian coders, or do documentation authors, package maintainers, etc, count too? This could be a great incentive for more people to get involved with the more mundane tasks that people usuall
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Looks like tepples comment [slashdot.org] answers my question. The Debian New Member process is outlined here [debian.org].
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I'm guessing its not that big of a deal.
Steam itself is free. And how many valve games are there actually? 2 left for deads, 2 portals, and the half-life/counterstrike series? Anyone who wants those can pick them up for 75% off during any of their many sales... its what $20 or 30 bucks worth of games tops?
Not to diminish the act, or my appreciation of Valve's recognition of the Debian developer team... but I can't really see a FLOOD of people trying to get on the debian development team over a few games, mo
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You missed DOTA 2, Day of defeat, team fortress classic and deathmatch classic (granted you might consider some of those part of the "half life/counterstrike series").
When I look on steam the "valve complete pack" currently costs £50. Of course if you wait for a sale you can probablly pick it up much cheaper than that.
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You missed DOTA 2, Day of defeat, team fortress classic and deathmatch classic (granted you might consider some of those part of the "half life/counterstrike series").
You don't exactly have to be a debian developer to get Dota2 or TFC for free.
The other two titles you mentioned are pretty minor, and usually obtained via a bundle anyway.
When I look on steam the "valve complete pack" currently costs £50.
And if you buy during any of the regular sales you can pick up everything Valve offers for 75%
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It is also open to debian maintainers
Hmm, the announcement on Debian-devel-announce only mentioned Debian Developers not Debian Maintainers.
Ain't nothing wrong with free (Score:2)
Mark my words: When the Xbone and Paystation 4 are historical artifacts, there will be young people playing games on their Steam Boxes, most likely Hotline:Miami VII.
And then a meteor will hit earth and nobody will be playing anything.
Seriously, Steam Box will overtake the other gaming platforms. Plus, you can dual-boot and get work done. We will look at the consoles of 2013 approximately the way we look at the Dreamcast.
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We will look at the consoles of 2013 approximately the way we look at the Dreamcast.
With a sudden, and overwhelming, desire to find a copy of Power Stone?
Platform fighting (Score:2)
We will look at the consoles of 2013 approximately the way we look at the Dreamcast.
With a sudden, and overwhelming, desire to find a copy of Power Stone?
Does Super Smash Bros. or Custom Robo come closer to carrying on the platform fighting legacy of Power Stone?
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We will look at the consoles of 2013 approximately the way we look at the Dreamcast.
You mean as a set-top gaming device that allowed running homebrew with just a CD burner and no modchip?
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OK, on second thought, it won't be exactly as cool as a Dreamcast.
I'll just put the analogy aside and say in a few years, when Steam Boxes are still being enjoyed widely, the main consoles of 2013 will be seen as really lame.
It's a trap (Score:2)
SteamOS is a good thing, since it will reduce the amount of proprietary software used by many gamers. Eventually, Debian may reach the stage where SteamOS and Steam become obsolete, in which case those gamers can switch to regular Debian. However, DDs are *already* on regular Debian, so this would be a step backwards, for short-term gratification.
I don't want to deny DDs this gift, but they should be aware those bearing it may be Greeks.
The first thing that came to mind when I saw 'gratis licenses for Free
Typo in link (Score:2)
The link in the article points to https://lists.debian.org/debia... [debian.org]
The correct link is https://lists.debian.org/debia... [debian.org]
Not that anyone here would ever rtfa.. :)
Linux viruses ? (Score:2)
If Steam for Linux becomes popular, maybe more users will use Linux and it will then attract malware programmers.
Let's hope we won't have a new array Debian-powered botnets.
Re:Now all we need is rolling release (Score:5, Informative)
Debian unstable is the rolling release. Debian testing is a slightly more conservative rolling release, with updates screened mostly automatically. Stable is for people who want a manually "release-managed" approach with multi-year support lifetime.
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.
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I tried being on unstable for a while, and it's actually pretty stable. In fact, I have no complaints at all besides the too-frequent updates, which was what eventually drove me back to testing.
That, and the fact that things in Gnome seemingly kept breaking, only to find out later that it was intentional and part of Gnome's strategy to slowly make their desktop experience less and less usable.
I fixed that by moving to KDE, which improved considerably since I last tried it years ago.
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I didn't see or hear an auto-playing ad. But then I use the Flashblock extension for Firefox, so advertisers have to keep it static to reach me.
Whereas I actually contribute to slashdot's running costs by subscribing so I get to turn off ads across the board :)
Re: So only a small subset of people get this (Score:2)
It means the state of gaming on Linux will improve.
Re:So only a small subset of people get this (Score:5, Insightful)
This is news because it is someone giving free stuff to open source developers!
Solely as a thank you for being developers that helped them succeed.
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Debian [is] the ONLY major distro that makes a central point of keeping strong to its open source principles.
Richard Stallman disagrees, primarily because non-free exists. Besides, how does Fedora compromise free software principles?
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Poo, poo Ubuntu dev didn't get late Chweesmas plesent from Valve.
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I find your lack of humor disturbing.
Okay, let me make up for poking fun of you by providing some constructive criticism of your original comment.
You know, 98% of stories on Slashdot -or stuff I read in practically any news source, for that matter- doesn't really apply to me and has no impact on my life. I think this is a pretty obvious thing. Yet it doesn't diminish the wish and the value of staying informed about things, because it's good not to be an ignorant, assumptive piece of shit about stuff.
Funny
Re:"Rewarding" free software with non-free softwar (Score:5, Informative)
Cough cough: http://linux.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
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The linked article says 'unspecified open source license'. Not all open source licenses are free (as in libre). Even if it is free, it doesn't change the fact that Valve primarily makes non-free software.
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People like you are really, really unpleasant to be around. Just seeing the negative in anything and everything.
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I expect the tweaks and changes they've had to make have been or will be posted upstream in due time. Who would want to keep applying patches instead of submitting them to the source projects for integration?
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Somehow I lost my rating points between loading the page and reading your post. Sorry I couldn't mod you up.
In the future we're going to have locked down devices running proprietary drivers, with proprietary apps and DRM'd content. But it'll run on open-source software. And the community is happy because "we finally got the manufacturers to write drivers for Linux".
And the free game was nice too.
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If I were a Debian developer I'd insert a logic bomb that hosed SteamOS until Valve gave in.
Tragedy of the commons, perhaps. I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO FUCKING BARNEY
Re: The FOSS community is praising this move? (Score:2)
Free Textures Foundation? Free Meshes Foundation? (Score:2)
why the hell should the open source community praise Valve for bringing proprietrary software to its most famous platform?
For one thing, video games help ease the transition to a free platform. For another, video games by their nature are going to be proprietary [pineight.com] because there isn't currently as much of a reciprocal sharing mentality around the components of a video game other than code (meshes, textures, maps, audio, and the like) as there is around code.
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That's fine, no one is expecting them to publish the art portion of the game under a free license. It would be nice to get the actual code, but that is not the problem here either. What makes this a farce is the Digital Restrictions Management. Once I buy the game I should be able to run it without running another binary that I cannot audit or even relink and whose professed function - communicating with Valve and possibly preventing me from doing what I want with my computer if they do not send the right r
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If your gaming PC does not connect to the internet, I'm guessing you don't do much multiplayer...
That said: Steam's DRM is the least evil of them all, since it lets you re-download your games on any PC, anywhere as long as you remember your password. The "freedom" to not care if my gigs of games are wiped out in a hard drive failure, to copy the steam directory as-is to any PC on the same architecture and being able to straight up play, and to arbitrarily delete game files if I temporarily need the space i
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"If your gaming PC does not connect to the internet, I'm guessing you don't do much multiplayer..."
Not recently but no, I've done plenty of multiplayer this way. You can hook up a LAN with no WAN you know.
"That said: Steam's DRM is the least evil of them all,"
And even if that's true it's still by your own admission evil.
"The "freedom" to not care if my gigs of games are wiped out in a hard drive failure, to copy the steam directory as-is to any PC on the same architecture and being able to straight up play,
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The first and last of these things I can do with any game I have purchased, either via a physical disk or via a persistent login/download link from e.g. shrapnel. The middle one is the only one that is at all unique and it doesnt seem important at all in context of the DRM.
Disk is useless if lost, damaged, or 1000 miles away in a cabinet while you're on a business trip. The middle one is very useful if you want to play games on a PC in a computer lab or library. Back in my college days, being able to plug an external drive into a lab PC and play counterstrike was quite handy for killing time between classes. And the steam DRM is basically: it needs to phone home about once a month. So once a month it uses about 2 megabytes of bandwidth for DRM, big friggin deal. It's akin
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"Back in my college days, being able to plug an external drive into a lab PC and play counterstrike was quite handy for killing time between classes."
But I have done that myself on a number of occasions. No STEAM needed.
"And the steam DRM is basically: it needs to phone home about once a month. So once a month it uses about 2 megabytes of bandwidth for DRM, big friggin deal."
It's sending 2 megabytes a month, I have no way of knowing exactly what is in that 2 megabytes, I cannot audit it, I cannot even look
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Since you seem to have a habit of cutting out half my comments to distort their meaning, and failing to address those parts which you cut out, I can only assume you are incapable of a proper debate. I bid you adieu...
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If your gaming PC does not connect to the internet, I'm guessing you don't do much multiplayer...
I don't see how not [pineight.com].
Step 1: Connect PC's HDMI, DVI, or VGA output to the HDMI or VGA input of a television.
Step 2: If DVI or VGA was used, connect PC's output to the audio input of a television or stereo system.
Step 3: Connect two to four wired Xbox 360 controllers, an Xbox 360 PC wireless receiver, or other USB game controllers to the PC.
Step 4: Start game and choose single-screen multiplayer mode.
If you don't agree with a game's licensing, etc, you will never be forced to use it.
I was forced to use specific computer games in school, many of them published by MECC.
Re:The FOSS community is praising this move? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because if anything is going to bring users to Linux it'll be games. Games are what tie me to Windows, and I'd be more interested in testing Wine on my existing library if I can get my newest games out of the (proverbial) box on Linux.
Not as much of a threat as Microsoft's exclusive ownership of the PC gaming world.
Please stop talking as if the "FOSS community" was a unified front. I would love to move to a FOSS operating system if I could still play my proprietary games on it. Valve may actually give me a chance.
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Because if anything is going to bring users to Linux it'll be games. Games are what tie me to Windows, and I'd be more interested in testing Wine on my existing library if I can get my newest games out of the (proverbial) box on Linux.
So this offer might get some Debian developers to switch to Linux?
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"I would love to move to a FOSS operating system if I could still play my proprietary games on it. Valve may actually give me a chance."
You think you need Valve to give you WINE? How strange.
The game run through WINE the same whether you set it up yourself of pay valve to do it for you. But if you let them do it, they get control of your computer in the deal.
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You're right, the FOSS community doesnt give two squirts about this.
Valve does, however, and they would very much like you to as well. If they can generate a little buzz and fool you into thinking you should be 'praising' them for this then their marketing folks have done their job.
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Let's see...
Better drivers.
Better hardware support.
Improved API sets.
Improved platform awareness in the big software houses.
Better cross platform and porting toolkits.
Larger userbase for the basic OS tools (which means more unintentional bug-hunting and more amateur developers).
More money sloshing around at Debian HQ / Canonical / whoever.
Sounds good to me. I don't believe anyone's going to be confiscating my existing FOSS stuff because of any of the above. Just more good things on top of what I already hav
So who funds Free games? (Score:2)
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Try to remember that we are talking about Free as in Freedom, not free as in beer.
No one is expected to work for free. But we want to pay them with money, rather than with our rights.
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Try to remember that we are talking about Free as in Freedom, not free as in beer.
Please explain how that would work in practice for video game development. If the code, meshes, textures, maps, scripts, and audio of a video game are Free as in Freedom, including end users' Freedom to make and distribute copies, then how is the game's developer supposed to be paid for more than the first copy? Or if a developer is expected to sell only one copy, how can any developer make a game compelling enough to charge millions of dollars for one copy?
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"If the code, meshes, textures, maps, scripts, and audio of a video game are Free as in Freedom"
There's your false postulate. What if the code is free but the artistic content is not? Then there is no problem on either side.
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What if the code is free but the artistic content is not?
A free game engine is useless without a "mission pack" of artistic content. For example, a Doom source port is useless without WADs. If all mission packs for a given engine are non-free, the game will be excluded from repositories because it requires a non-free component in order to be useful. For example, a free video game engine uploaded to F-Droid that requires or strongly recommends the use of non-free mission packs would be marked with the NonFreeAdd antifeature [f-droid.org], and applications with antifeatures wer
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"A free game engine is useless without a "mission pack" of artistic content. For example, a Doom source port is useless without WADs."
*Useless* is pushing the matter, but yes, you need the artistic content to play. With the Doom engine alone, and no missions, you would have to build your own missions before you could play them - and that's fine, as long as there is no requirement to install DRM in order to create missions!
"If all mission packs for a given engine are non-free, the game will be excluded from
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With the Doom engine alone, and no missions, you would have to build your own missions before you could play them - and that's fine, as long as there is no requirement to install DRM in order to create missions!
That and build the tools to build the missions in the format expected by the engine.
There are plenty of ways to distribute your stuff and I dont really care - until you try to sneak DRM onto my machine.
Which raises the second question: How should the developer of a video game with a free engine and all-rights-reserved artistic content deter unlawful copying of the all-rights-reserved artistic content?
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"Which raises the second question: How should the developer of a video game with a free engine and all-rights-reserved artistic content deter unlawful copying of the all-rights-reserved artistic content?"
And that's an interesting question, but it's not as if it is the question is any different, or any easier, if the entire ball of wax is proprietary. You can search for unauthorised distribution on the web, bittorrent, etc. and issue take down notices and if you are smart about how you do it it might not eat
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"Because Debian is about the only Linux distro that doesn't suck giant sweaty gorilla balls."
Nonsense. Slackware is still going strong, and all other distributions are non-standard variants of it.