Quoting: Quote from IggiMix that with the fact that you don't _buy_ games, but only subscribe to the platform (where you can spend an unlimited amount of money, but will loose everything if you cancel the subscription) makes me wonder why anyone is willing to accept those terms...

The only thing I have to say is that this debate is a part of a much bigger picture. We buy a lot of things that we don't own, but yes I understand that we basically rent games from steam. But unless you're being stupid, you'll always have access to those games (praying Valve doesn't shut down).

Happy Linux Birthday Steam! 

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Quoting: Quote from philip550c

Quoting: Quote from HamishI think my thoughts on Steam have been made quite clear here already: I do not use it, and do not plan to.

My gaming world really opened up more with the Humble Indie Bundles than anything else - and while I do have more games purchased over the past few months than I can currently play, something which was unthinkable a few years ago, I really do not know if Steam's arrival can take any of the credit for it.

Obviously since I am not using Steam I will not receive any direct benefits from Valve's work, but there are claims by some that Steam alone is the champion of the Linux gaming industry, and that even those who do not use it will feel the effects. Well, for me the industry was growing long before Valve showed up, and almost all of the games I am playing and have purchased recently seemingly arrived on our platform independent of Valve's efforts.

So for me the past year has been great in terms of games, but not due to Valve.

You use the open source drivers right?

Yes he does.

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Love it. Beat it back in the day, and now I'll have another go.

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Quoting: Quote from DrMcCoy

Quoting: Quote from n30p1r4t3it's impossible to live in the modern world without DRM.

This is completely besides the point; just because it's impossible to do something 100% doesn't mean it's foolish to even try.

It's impossible to live completely vegan, without profiting from any exploitation of animals. The majority of people would say vegan alternatives pale in comparison to "the real thing". Yet you'll find people living as vegan as possible, and while I'm not one of them (I'm a happy omnivore, so not even a vegetarian), I still find it laudable in principle.

Likewise, it's not possible living in our societies without contributing to global warming and the general wasteful exploitation of resources, third-world countries and people. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to keep your carbon footprint low; that doesn't mean projects like the Fair Mouse [External Link] are stupid.

I agree. But no matter what I try, it always feels like a losing battle.

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Quoting: Quote from hero900i dont like the design i prefer stand up device with smaller body

Me too, but I imagine other steam machines of different designs are right around the corner. But you try fitting a titan in anything smaller! :D

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Quoting: Quote from Shmerl

Quoting: Quote from scaineThat's an admirable stance, but not one I can get behind, sorry. It's a little too Stallman for me. If you take that stance and apply it to everything in your life you'll be giving up a fair list of things. In fact, off the top of my head: every console, Steam, some Desura, all Apple products, most Android products (unless you bypass Play and take your chance on the malware infested third party appstores), every Bluray disk, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Lovefilm (pretty much every online film repository bar Youtube), most DVD's (the ones encoded with CSS certainly, and good luck knowing which are before you buy them), most e-books and certainly anything to do with Kindle. There's probably lot of other examples, but most of that list affects me directly.

In fact, about the only thing that isn't governed by DRM digitally these days is music. And probably that only because of radio stations.

So, yeah, pretty admirable. But not for me. I like a balance, and a little DRM is acceptable provided it in no way gets in my way. And for me, Steam doesn't.

That's what I do :) I reject DRM in general. DVDs are an exception, since that DRM is obsolete essentially, so I don't consider that to be DRM really. libdvdcss is anyway the only way to play DVDs on Linux. Blurays? Never used those, I think they are irrelevant since disks are dying out anyway.

Apple? Oh, horror, I don't even come near that for many other reasons besides DRM. Netflix? No go (clear DRM which even aggressively attempts to push it into HTML standard - even more reasons to reject it). E-books? I buy DRM free only (no Kindle or anything like that). There are DRM free e-books available, the situation is much better than movies which are limited to DVDs mostly.

I don't use Android for mobile, but not so much out of DRM concerns, but because I prefer proper glibc mobile Linux (Harmattan, Nemo, upcoming Sailfish and so on, but that's another story).

So, obviously I don't buy any games with DRM as well.

I don't really think it's extreme - it's the only way to actually vote with your wallet, since if you are indifferent, DRM only strives more.

Please note that I am in no way making fun of you, or saying you are wrong.

What OS do you use? Is it free (as in Stallman)? If not, it technically has DRM/Non-free software. Now away from that.

Imagine this, someone decides to live using only products 100% made (components included) in the United States. Now they give up their car, television, phone, appliances,and every other modern convince they own. As you can probably guess, this doesn't work out so well, which brings me to my conclusion. 

Granted DRM isn't exactly the same as the scenario above, but it's impossible to live in the modern world without DRM. Sure, you can use all the DRM free content/software you want, but let's face it, most of the time that software is barely passable compared to the DRM'd alternatives. 

If someone chooses to live their lives DRM free that's fine by me, but the best products in terms of usability use DRM. Why? Because if someone creates something, they want to make money on it. And without DRM, the only way to make money is by the honor system.

If you wish to share a product, that doesn't help the developers. Granted I love sharing, I can see where developers are coming from.

In an ideal world, where software is free and sharable by all, DRM wouldn't exist. But for now, the closet one can get is The Pirate Bay. All the software is "free," and you can share it as much as you like, but does that really help anyone in the end?*

*Yes I understand that my avatar is from TPB, but please know I pay for every piece of software/games I use/play. I just believe in the power of free and open information.

I know this post was long, but can we please get back to the real news here? A Triple-A Gaming Title was released on Linux. Whether you will buy it or not, just know that this is great news for Linux.

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Quoting: Quote from Caldazar@shmerl
Sure, same priority here.
All I'm saying is: Voting with your wallet has the great advantage of providing more fine grained answers than just "yes" and "no".

No freedom to lend it to a friend? Minus 5$.
(As long as DRM doesn't come as malware or has any negative impact on my system of course)

And Hey! No disrespect for Stallman please! :) He's right, it's unethical.

Yeah, because Stallman also believes in a lot of weird things, such as child porn not being child porn in some cases etc. Yes he was a visionary at the time, but his stances are a bit too far for me. Just my two cents on that issue.

http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/361173/online_only_richard_stallman_-_no_censorship_good_censorship/ [External Link]

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Quoting: Quote from tigerpanzerThis deal has gone sour, looks like Valve used us. It's a custom OS like Android with no assurance of compatibility with desktop Linux. And with no exclusive titles there is zero reason to even use it. Linux users should be outraged at the hope valve fed us when it was actually poison.

Don't you have something better to do? It's a custom OS BASED on Desktop Linux. Therefore why wouldn't it work on Linux?

Why would valve spend all this time porting games to "desktop" Linux, just to create another OS that is not able to play those games?

Trollolo;

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Buying as soon as I get home (again).

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Perhaps they learned their lesson with The orange box, L4D, etc on PS3. Exclusives (whether planned or not) aren't valves style anymore.

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