Valve and Linux... my, my, things are getting interesting! - by lost_soul
Ahris on 31/7/2012 at 02:12
It's been obvious for a while that Microsoft want to move people from PC to Xbox and mobile platforms and and they will succeed if no other OS takes over as a PC gaming standard.
While Valve and Blizzard do have financial concerns regarding this, they are right that we should be worried if we want a lot of games to be developed for PC's in the future.
MS do of course have a strong position on the PC market but compared to how much money the mobile devices and console markets has to offer, Windows for PC isn't worth squat. Consoles and mobile devices eliminates piracy completely as far as the OS is concerned since all units includes it.
If they can move PC users by getting them used enough to Metro to prefer it on their other devices they will hit the jackpot with a market they have complete control of. Since Metro apps have to go through their store they'll also have complete control of the developers as well as direct control of what software the end user 'are allowed' to use according to their policies.
polytourist97 on 31/7/2012 at 03:21
Quote Posted by Renzatic
Truthfully, people with 2GB of ram or more wouldn't notice the difference between it and XP if they didn't have a number informing them 7 is using more.
Not necessarily true. I have friends that run 7 on their (relatively new) laptops, and games/programs that are heavy on memory usage routinely crash. However with my 6 year old laptop I can run those same programs with no issue using XP. I'm sure you're right about 7's ability to "intelligently" use the memory it takes up, but I've still seen people having plenty of issues with 7's performance on machines with less resources (much like the problems encountered with vista).
Quote Posted by Renzatic
Seriously? How can you not like type to search? It's literally "I want to launch this program or find this file...tap tap...there it is".
I never said I don't like the feature, I said that I don't like it being implemented as a replacement for expanding menus (which is the argument I see people use when those like me clamor for a classic-style menu). Do I think the type to search (as it appears in 7) is a great tool? Absolutely. And I would love for it to be integrated within an otherwise classic-style menu. However I'm very much a visually/spatially inclined person, and expanding menus are a great representation of my file structure and program locations. To that point, I
like being able to browse through all of my programs using simple sweeps of the mouse.
Also, another difference I have is that unlike you, I prefer to keep my taskbar free from clutter, so pinning things to my taskbar is completely useless to me. I don't need quick links in my start menu to commonly used programs because...that's what I use desktop icons for. So now here is an area where my biggest gripe with 7 (feeling boxed in to a specific way of interacting with the OS) comes into play: I can choose to not use quick-links in the start menu, but then I'm basically left with a big unused white area of the start menu. It's obvious that 7 meant for you to use that area for quick-links (and/or commonly accessed programs), and nothing else. If you don't want to use them? Or if you find that their function is needlessly repetitive due to similar ways of getting the same functionality within the OS (by using desktop shortcuts or pinning to task bar)? You get stuck with a "not-how-it-was-meant-to-be-used" os. And that is very frustrating and alienating for me.
Koki on 31/7/2012 at 15:05
Quote Posted by Ahris
Consoles and mobile devices eliminates piracy completely as far as the OS is concerned since all units includes it.
Consoles don't have OS to speak of and among mobiles Android already holds 59% of the market.
Ahris on 31/7/2012 at 17:41
Quote Posted by Koki
Consoles don't have OS to speak of and among mobiles Android already holds 59% of the market.
I work in the mobile devices business, most people don't really care what OS are on their phones but the majority prefer to go with what they use on their computer if they get an option.
That's what Apple has been doing, most people who has a Mac will automatically get an iPhone since they are familiar. The current trend since about a year back is that more and more people ditch their laptops and PC's in favour of tablets and do their gaming on consoles.
About a month ago Microsoft announced their new Win8 tablet:
(
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx)
polytourist97 on 31/7/2012 at 19:58
I don't know anyone using a tablet that sees it as a total replacement for their laptop/desktop. In fact, of the people that do use tablets, I have been told by them that they find they're using it for less and less things than they thought they would when they first acquired one. Most of them seem to tow around a combination of tablet, phone, and laptop in order to fill all of their computing/technology needs (which sort of defeats the selling point of the tablet).
It may be the "current trend" for more and more people to use tablets in place of their desktop/laptops, but I certainly haven't seen anything that suggests it is a significant amount of people.
EvaUnit02 on 31/7/2012 at 21:00
Ahris, I believe that Koki's point was that Android is a pirate's paradise. Android has the biggest marketshare, so...
lost_soul on 2/8/2012 at 07:29
More info is revealed. (
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/)
Apparently they got L4d2 running faster in Linux than Windows 7 now on the same hardware. It was something like 270 and 310 FPS. That's pretty damn impressive actually. Although the speed difference seems worthless at such a high speed, if it were on low end hardware and 20 vs 30 FPS, it would be a big deal.
june gloom on 4/8/2012 at 06:41
Oh, someone tell him go shave his damn beard.
Neb on 4/8/2012 at 07:40
stallman gonna stall
