Quoting: MintedGamerI'm done with GOG thanks to their Linux Galaxy client farce.

Hey, as long as they keep giving away free stuff I'll cut them some slack. I now have 40 games in my library, and only eight of them are paid for (on GOG itself; there are a few linked from Steam, but not that many), most of those on discount, and none at all since June 2016.* The only reason I opened an account in the first place was to take advantage of their classic Fallout giveaway a while back.

I suppose if it keeps their sales ticking over it must work for them.

*Frustratingly, the last game I bought there was... Grim Fandango Remastered. No joke.

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Quoting: throghWell? Cheers up for another game available throughout STEAM as complete proprietary platform.

Reunion and X3TC are DRM-free.* (In fact, running them outside of Steam was the only way I could get them to work.)

I keep saying this: Steam's DRM isn't mandatory unless the developer wants Workshop support (although obviously a lot of publishers use it anyway). Just off the top of my head, I know Kerbal Space Program and FTL don't have it either. It might be worthwhile to compile a full list.

*Edit: You know, the more I think about this... I'm going to have to double-check. They definitely don't start Steam if it isn't running already, which Steam-DRM games certainly do. But... well, if you haven't already followed my train of thought I'm not going to spell it out, because Deep Silver might have done something incredibly stupid here, and I don't want to make it any worse for them.

However, my second paragraph stands. Steam-DRM isn't mandatory.

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%#@&*! I noticed they were on sale, but didn't spot the free weekend. I've missed a whole evening now. :><:

Anyhoo... I've always suspected these might be the kind of thing I'd like, but never got round to trying any out. So thanks for the heads-up, Liam.

That's my weekend sorted, then.

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Quoting: WorMzyIf I start wishlisting non-Linux games, I'm inevitably going to end up receiving Steam gifts that I can't play. :(

I'm in much the same bind. But I'm pretty careful about arranging my list with the stuff I want most at the top, and everyone who buys from it knows that, so it might be safe to put a few non-Linux things on the end.

On the upside, it's another sign that Valve hasn't given up on Linux.

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Quoting: Kuduzkehpan

Quoting: Dunc

Quoting: AlveKattHowever, remember the whole "Firewall of China" thing? An OS that gives full control to the user might be heavily frowned upon by the rulers in China. People have been put in jail for less over there.

That's actually a really good point that I hadn't considered. We all love Linux because of the freedom. The Chinese authorities are likely to hate it for exactly the same reason.

freedom of what ?

The freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things. To coin a phrase.

freedom of to live as the capitalists describes what is living heh ? Lolz. i prefer more logical describitions as in communism. no religions no radicals no money no mercanarys.

So You think [External Link] the PRC [External Link] respects freedom [External Link]? “Lolz [External Link]”.

But yeah, way off-topic.

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Quoting: pete910Not sure why people are bitching about it on YT though.

Geez. What is wrong with people? There are some reasonable comments, mind you.

I've never played Bridge Constructor (although I liked World of Goo, which is vaguely similar... kind of), but mixing it with Portal sounds like a fun idea. Looks like they've nailed the art style, too, basing it on the in-game diagrams from Portal rather than the 3D “reality”. That's pretty cool.

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Quoting: meggermanAlthough people still want those F2P, AA, AAA games. Unless valve make a move to wrap games up in WINE and port using say flatpack...

While I don't subscribe to John Carmack's idea that everyone should just forget porting to Linux and rely on WINE instead, I think there is a case to be made for a standardized WINE setup as part of Steam's Linux runtime to encourage adoption. A lot (a lot) of Windows games would just work straight out of the box, and it might encourage reluctant developers to dip their toes in the water if “porting” to SteamOS were just a case of tweaking their existing code a little.

Obviously some games don't work too well under WINE, so there'd have to be some kind of testing and certification process before a Windows game got its SteamOS logo (maybe in collaboration with the existing AppDB), otherwise the program could actually do more harm than good with SteamOS gaining a reputation for running games poorly, but I think it's definitely somthing Valve should be considering at this stage.

To be clear: I'm absolutely not suggesting it as a long-term solution, but as a sort of kick-start, maybe restricted to existing titles rather than new ones (think of the way GoG bundles DOSBox, but for more recent games), it might help.

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Quoting: AlveKattHowever, remember the whole "Firewall of China" thing? An OS that gives full control to the user might be heavily frowned upon by the rulers in China. People have been put in jail for less over there.

That's actually a really good point that I hadn't considered. We all love Linux because of the freedom. The Chinese authorities are likely to hate it for exactly the same reason.

That said, I don't think it's currently anything to do with the low adoption over there, but if Linux were to become moderately popular I wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of crackdown.

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Quoting: sarmadThis chart means Linux is completely ignoring the Chinese market.

It's more that the Chinese market is ignoring Linux. Because, as adamhm says, nobody's bothering that much about Microsoft's copyright over there.

Quoting: meggermanIm still going to put my money into Linux & use it for computing but i can't say im not tempted by the current crop of consoles ^_^

I'm not. And I did all of my gaming between about 2005 and 2015 on console.* Seriously, there are some titles I'd like to see on Linux, but it's not like I'm running short of games here. Maybe when I can pick one up second-hand for under 100GBP I might think about it, but not right now.

*Mind you, if the PC Master Race had been a thing back in the '80s, that would have been me to a “T”. Or not. If there was one thing we looked down on more than consoles back then, it was “IBM” games. CGA graphics, man... :sick:

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Quoting: ColomboWould be fun if Ataribox was sneaky Steambox, where Valve is trying a bit different concept of Steambox, with specific brand image and specific target group.

My impression is that that's what it is, regardless of Valve's active support. I just hope they have the sense to recognise that themselves and put their weight behind it.

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