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Thanks to PC Gamer we have been pointed to an interview that Tim Sweeney the founder of Epic Games did, and he's blasting Microsoft yet again.

What I do have issues with here, is that yet again a major developer is basically saying a PC is Windows (bold emphasis mine):
QuoteThe risk here is that, if Microsoft convinces everybody to use UWP, then they phase out Win32 apps. If they can succeed in doing that then it’s a small leap to forcing all apps and games to be distributed through the Windows Store. Once we reach that point, the PC has become a closed platform.

No, there is far more to the PC than Windows. I really wish developers would stop this ridiculous merging of the PC platform with Windows the operating system.

I don't honestly think Microsoft could ever stop Steam working, without Valve doing some kind of major lawsuit, but Mr Sweeney stated it has happened before:
QuoteSlowly, over the next five years, they will force-patch Windows 10 to make Steam progressively worse and more broken. They’ll never completely break it, but will continue to break it until, in five years, people are so fed up that Steam is buggy that the Windows Store seems like an ideal alternative. That’s exactly what they did to their previous competitors in other areas. Now they’re doing it to Steam. It’s only just starting to become visible. Microsoft might not be competent enough to succeed with their plan, but they’re certainly trying.


Also, for the amount of complaints Mr Sweeney has, maybe it's time for him to be productive about it and start moving his company towards an open platform. Anyone know an open platform? Lin-something? Oh yes, Linux, that's it. Linux gives you SteamOS too remember now.

Only Unreal Tournament (the new one) looks like it will have Epic's support and possibly not even officially. The Linux version has been seriously lagging behind the Windows version, repeatedly breaking with major graphical issues and it still has no launcher on Linux. It may still be early, but they don't seem like they're really putting any effort into it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Comandante Ñoñardo Jul 27, 2016
Quoting: tmtvlPeople will stop using the term "PC" to mean "Windows", as soon as people stop using the term "Linux" to mean "GNU/Linux".

I still say Linux, so it might take a while.

Well.. From a commercial point of view, "GNU/Linux" is longish...

Imagine to pronounce GNU Slash Linux several times in the same paragraph

Just "Linux" sounds perfect.

About the topic, I wish and hope that Mocosoft will break Steam someday..
edo Jul 27, 2016
It wont happen, that would be a bad idea, we know than windows has a great compatibility with old software, so even if win32 becomes legacy (and this wont happen anytime soon), they would support it properly.

QuoteAnyone know an open platform? Lin-something?
Lin-Lin-FreeBSD? yeah, I was thinking about that one too.
Creak Jul 27, 2016
Anyone against Linux would have said the same kind of "in five years, they'll control the whole universe!" would have been accused of FUD'ing.

We've got to be fairplay and not accept this kind of arguments because it pleases us.
STiAT Jul 27, 2016
Quoting: neowiz73this was a $9 billion increase in profits from the year before for Apple, while MS has been showing rocky gains and losses.

Thats wrong, its the 1st and 2nd quater 2016 the profit was declining by about 15 % for Apple.

The results were better than expected, not making it a better result compared to the years before.
STiAT Jul 27, 2016
[quote=wvstolzing]
Quoting: MadeanaccounttocommentA really dirty trick M$ could play, though, would be to limit the use of DX12 only on UWP (or whatever it's called) applications. In that case, M$ wouldn't even have to bother sabotaging Valve; since Steam would thus be rendered irrelevant for new games, as long as those don't use Vulkan, of course.

Too risky. A lot too risky. Having a similar API like Vulkan and Steam with a huge client base, EA only publishing in their Origin that could certainly kill off DX12 in favour of Vulkan in a very small timeframe. If companies like EA do not like something it would be sharing their profits. This is why we do not see EA games on Steam anymore.

Vulkan is the threat of the Industry to Microsoft not to do anything wrong with DX. Anything like exactly this. Because then the technology becomes a business decision, a decision for or against their own profit. And porting DX12 to Vulkan is "pretty easy", not saying it isn't a good amount of time for the engine devs, but being platform agnostic already (most engines), if Microsoft goes that way that transition would be very quickly done. The business case (give away 30 % of your profit or not, in EAs case) does not even need to be calculated to know that in such a case Vulkan was to favour. Especially because most engines will have a Vulkan renderer in the future anyway, because of Android.

And killing off Vulkan is hard, because it's completely in the hands of the driver developers, and not Microsoft. And the driver developers do not have any interest in Microsoft, they're not making money because of them, but because of the games requireing high-end graphics cards. So they'd rather listen to the game industry than on Microsoft.


Last edited by STiAT on 27 July 2016 at 5:36 am UTC
Purple Library Guy Jul 27, 2016
Quoting: CreakAnyone against Linux would have said the same kind of "in five years, they'll control the whole universe!" would have been accused of FUD'ing.

We've got to be fairplay and not accept this kind of arguments because it pleases us.

Normally, you would expect different arguments to be plausible about a loose group with 2% of the market than about a monopolist that has been convicted of using illegal practices to maintain said monopoly. See, if you say "This person may be about to leverage their monopoly power to gain still more control and revenues!" that is basically a plausible thing to say about the monopolist, but probably not about the group with 2%.

If you wanted to say Linux was going to plot to use their near-monopoly of the supercomputer market to do something, that might be plausible--if it weren't for the fact that open source platforms make Microsoft-like shenanigans very difficult in the first place, and that "Linux" isn't a unified entity.
Luke_Nukem Jul 27, 2016
Quoting: edoIt wont happen, that would be a bad idea, we know than windows has a great compatibility with old software, so even if win32 becomes legacy (and this wont happen anytime soon), they would support it properly.

QuoteAnyone know an open platform? Lin-something?
Lin-Lin-FreeBSD? yeah, I was thinking about that one too.

LinGNUBSD??

Lingnubsed.....
rick01457 Jul 27, 2016
We all know that Amiga/Workbench is the real PC. Everything else is a pale imitation.
tuubi Jul 27, 2016
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Quoting: LeviIn theory they don't, in practice they do dictate policy. You remember that whole UEFI thing back when windows 8 was released. Only because the EU intervened did Microsoft amend their required implementation guide to include a section about being able to disable the secure boot functionality on x86 systems.
You said it. They try, but as long as they're large and important enough to have such influence, they're also likely to get pushed back due to monopoly concerns. Their lobbying machine get these lockdown measures declared legal in the thoroughly corrupt system we call the US government (Please don't shoot me! I'm an endangered species!) but then slightly saner governments in the EU force/allow hardware manufacturers to leave these locks wide open. They're not much saner and are almost as corrupt, but they still hold on to a semblance of sanity.

Hmm. Is it possible to be both cynical and an optimist in the same paragraph? I think I might just have done that.
wvstolzing Jul 27, 2016
Quoting: rick01457We all know that Amiga/Workbench is the real PC. Everything else is a pale imitation.

I beg to differ:

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