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Latest Comments by elmapul
Steam Deck hitting retail stores in Japan from April 29th, South Korea to follow
21 Apr 2023 at 9:20 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: crseNice!
I hope this will lead to many doujinsoft developer have Linux release in the future! Not to forget their own local game store as well.

For context, doujinsoft (≈indie games) in Japan are like their own world. They have their own distribution platoform with more experimental game scene that you will never see on international platform like itch.io or GameJolt. Yet, only less than 10% actually released globally, especially the one catering to Akiba-kei otaku --"

Most of those doujinsoft are only released to platform like DLsite (Windows-only DRM site 👎), booth.pm, Freem, or Tyrano's Novel Game Collection.

I heard Chinese, Taiwan, and South Korean also have their own unique platform with their own interpretation of gaming culture :)
i really hope that happens.
linux is already niche, japanese indie (doujin) games are niche, making japanese doujin games work on linux is a niche of a niche, a hell to find tutorials to setup then.
its like:
i cant wait to play this "kids anime game on my computer" years later, ok i can play it now, but im an adult i dont care about this anime anymore!

POSTAL 2 got a surprise 20th anniversary update with Steam Deck support
19 Apr 2023 at 10:57 pm UTC

its funny that they assume you customized the colors of your steam deck

Microsoft experiments with a handheld Windows 11 mode for Steam Deck
15 Apr 2023 at 12:00 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: InstallIs open gl still big an important? im new to linux.
a lot of devices (eg: old phones) dont support vulkan, so openGL will still important for a while if you want to target the largest possible audience.

newer video cards or drivers might use something like glove to translate openGL calls to vulkan, so they only have to care about supporting one api, and get support for both, with an better performance than if they tried to implement support for both.

Microsoft experiments with a handheld Windows 11 mode for Steam Deck
14 Apr 2023 at 10:44 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: CatKillerUntil Valve.
exactly what i said, but you might be right about mantle.

Quoting: CatKillerMicrosoft can't kill it, although they gave serious thought to how they might try (see, for example, the Halloween Documents). All they can do is try to marginalise its use and support, and keep developers dependent on Windows-only technology.
yeah and now they are trying with WSL.

i think that if microsoft had any chance to kill linux, it was when it was small.
as for they dominating game? well, if they try to eat too much, all other companies might try to form an alliance to fight against it.
the fact that even sony is porting their games to windows is scary, and the fact that companies couldnt resist puting their games on steam dont help either, if they cant find valve they have no chance against microsoft.

Microsoft experiments with a handheld Windows 11 mode for Steam Deck
14 Apr 2023 at 7:46 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: CatKillerthat consumers might do all their gaming and computing on something that doesn't come from Microsoft.
yeah, sony tried to turn playstation in an pc (remember Ps2 linux or the otherOS option on ps3?)
they failed at it and gave up, there werent any pressure to improve windows for gaming since then.

im not saying microsoft didnt had any incentive to improve directX, but to improve the windows version of it, they fought playstation with xbox instead of with windows, until valve came with steamOS, sundelly microsoft started to talk about dx12 in public, ported their xbox exclusives to windows pc and did many other moves like that.

Quoting: ElectricPrismMy popcorn and chips are ready to see how they "Solve" their little "Windows 11 devices MUST HAVE A WEBCAM AND TDP 2 or whatever the fuck it's called".
omg, you remembered something good, lol that is hilarious, sundelly microsoft will be forced to stop pretending that those requirements were really nescessary.

anyway, talking about microsoft with people feels like being the apocaliptic profet.
if linux died, then things could go really bad with computing, microsoft would no longer have an big incentive to maintain windows backward compatibility , they would start building an walled garden more and more, faster than they are trying to do that, they would have less pressure to improve windows security etc.

but linux will never die, so people will keep acting like they do, thinking that "linux is useless", that "windows is the only system that should exist" , stupid things like that.

we will never see the post apocaliptic scenario that an total windows domination would create to show to people how bad it is, but might never be able to show to people how much things could be better too.

Microsoft experiments with a handheld Windows 11 mode for Steam Deck
14 Apr 2023 at 12:25 pm UTC

Quoting: CatKillerMicrosoft releasing their own (Xbox-branded) handheld hardware would be the threat; they've got stacks of spare money, a whole bunch of games studios, and an established store that they're trying to juice. That's the way that a competitor could make the same pricing and platform play as Valve have done, and Microsoft doing it would be to try to sink Valve's lifeboat.
the question is:
it will run xbox and it subset of games? or it will run windows and all it games?
if it runs windows, valve still would make money since steam is king there, not to mention they would incentive their own audience to use other stores by doing that.

on the other hand if they try to lock it to xbox games, then steamOS will still have more games (not that the ammount is more important than the names involved)

Microsoft experiments with a handheld Windows 11 mode for Steam Deck
14 Apr 2023 at 12:20 pm UTC

Quoting: CatKillerIt's not the first time. As alluded to in the article, Microsoft had allowed DirectX to languish until Valve plugged their own game through their own DirectX to OpenGL wrapper on Linux and had it run faster than DirectX on Windows. Then suddenly DirectX was super important to Microsoft again.
worse than that.
consoles are an platform with tons of Non Disclosure Agreements, so we dont know what happens there.

now think with me:
why would microsoft improve directX for windows, if they already have an monopoly on OS for desktops, and dont make money directly from games being sold for windows?
why would microsoft improve DirectX for Xbox, when they DO make money on each game sold for it?

i think DX12 already existed in someform on xbox, we just didnt knew/heard about that, from microsoft point of view PC was an platform where they make money seling operating systems but couldnt make selling games, so if playing the latest AAA games with an decent performance on xbox was cheaper than playing then on PC, many gamers would chose an Xbox and they would make more money.
sure, maybe some people would prefer an playstation or switch, but those people wouldnt stop using windows anyway.

then, valve anounced SteamOS and sundely microsoft had an reason to care about DX for windows, and announced DX12 for it (wich might already exist but this info not being public avaliable)

Microsoft experiments with a handheld Windows 11 mode for Steam Deck
14 Apr 2023 at 12:02 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: GuestWell it's not great news as it increases the risk of devs not putting any effort in proton compat, but as long as it's still closed source bloated crap that does everything possible unrelated to gaming it's not a direct competition to gamescope running on a Linux kernel.

the issue is that the competition is not "runing an game on windows vs runing an game on linux" if that were the case, microsoft would be dead of arrival.

the competition we currently face is:
the entire industry being an windows stack.
the competition is:
having games runing nativelly on windows with driver makers prioritizing the performance on windows.
vs
having an translation layer that translate their crap stuff into good code.
translate dx calls into vulkan calls.
fortunatelly the drivers on the deck prioritize linux and even then some games run faster on windows.

Quoting: GuestPersonally I have the feeling windows will fall on its face sooner or later anyway due to the amount of crap it contains and the obtuse ways it has to everything, as a sysadmin it's just a nightmare to manage. Logs mean nothing (when they exist at all), bugs are impossible to troubleshoot, very little makes sense.
if it happens overnight then they wont have time to react, but i doubt it will be overnight.
if they have time, maybe the future versions of windows would be just another linux distro runing and superset of wine (just like proton) but much better since they have access to windows code, with some parts of it only working on microsoft distro, so they will still have exclusive content.

but even if that happens it will be an victory for us... it will suck like android wich have an different ecosystem than the rest of linux, but still , it will show their monopoly have weakness and they were forced to change their system much like edge nowadays is just an chromium in disguise.

the issue will be that their reputaiton will be intact, everyone will use linux without realizing and thinking linux sucks...

Quoting: GuestTo actually survive it will need to be completely rehauled from the base and finally break backwards compatibility with ancient NT tech. And then, likely no old game will run anymore while they will forever via proton.
not even proton can guarantee that, but at least valve care since they make money from game sales including old stuff.

Quoting: GuestI think it's part of the reason valve went with Linux, I also think that in the not-so-distant future rigs with modern amd GPUs/Apus will likely have on par fps with windows, if not better with all the Mesa and vulkan progress made and the OS not getting in the way.
for sure, microsoft can break windows backward compatibility at any moment they want.
if they wanted they could do something like:
purchase games on our store and have an guarantee they will work forever, or try your luck with steam and the rest, and maybe something you want to play dont work anymore.

some companies may even delist their old games from steam since they dont want to sell an game that dont work anymore, nor have to sink the cost of supporting something that almost no one is purchasing nowadays but the ones who do generate an big cost of support.

by building their own system valve can guarantee they are in control of the runtime tech beneath their store.

Microsoft experiments with a handheld Windows 11 mode for Steam Deck
14 Apr 2023 at 11:58 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: LoftyThe title of the article should have been: "1000's of free Viruses are now available on Steamdeck"

:grin::grin::grin:

Microsoft experiments with a handheld Windows 11 mode for Steam Deck
14 Apr 2023 at 11:53 am UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: JustinWoodI don't get why folks are so opposed to this. While I appreciate wanting support to go towards Linux/Proton, some stuff just isn't going to make the transition (Looking at you Genshin Impact and other titles that require anti-cheat and such), so having a Windows UI that doesn't require I carry a 65% keyboard and try to pinpoint my mouse with the deck trackpad is a benefit in my eyes. Granted it's Windows 11 but still.
a lot of people say competition is healthy, but in my opinion, its only health when both companies can compete and indeed do.
when an company control 90% of an market like microsoft, there is no real competition.
people dont use windows because they want, they use because they HAVE TO , they dont have other choice.
the option we had was something like: "sure you can chose linux and have nothing to play, no support for your hardware and the programs you need to work to pay your bills wont work" is that really an option?

we need some competition for windows, and we are finally geting it, linux is finally geting competitive, turning into an option for the masses.

steamOS need competition to improve? sure, but what if such competition "kills it"? what we dont want to see is all that progress made start to reverse, for example, new games that launch not running anymore, online games baning us again and no longer supporting steamOS (in the cases that do)...