Thursday, July 26th 2012
Windows 8 a Catastrophe, Want Linux to Thrive: Gabe Newell
Gabe Newell is part of the crowd that's not impressed with Microsoft Windows 8, or the direction in which it's going to take PC gaming. Newell's concerns, expressed in an interview to VentureBeat, go beyond the God-awful UI, and predict that Windows 8 could reshape the computing industry in a way that's bad for high-performance desktops, at least those sold by major OEMs, which could affect game developers and distributors such as Valve, which took roots in the PC platform.
"I think that Windows 8 is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space. I think that we're going to lose some of the top-tier PC [original equipment manufacturers]. They'll exit the market. I think margins are going to be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that's true, it's going to be a good idea to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality," said Newell.
The alternatives he is referring to are the other platforms Valve is setting up its Steam content distribution platform. The company already has Steam client for Apple OS X, with quite a few of its games ported to, and enabled to existing buyers using SteamPlay. The company also recently announced that its client for desktop Linux (Ubuntu, to be precise), is up and running, and that it sees a future for PC gaming on Linux.
Moving the PC gaming to Linux is not a herculean task, and is just going to need a few few big companies to take initiatives. One of them is Valve, the others include companies governing Linux distributions, hardware vendors getting their act together and releasing fully-functional drivers, and lastly, for game developers to see the potential in all of it. The move to Linux doesn't change the machine, it only changes the software.
"One, we're trying to make sure that Linux thrives. Our perception is that one of the big problems holding Linux back is the absence of games. I think that a lot of people - in their thinking about platforms - don't realize how critical games are as a consumer driver of purchases and usage. So we're going to continue working with the Linux distribution guys, shipping Steam, shipping our games, and making it as easy as possible for anybody who's engaged with us - putting their games on Steam and getting those running on Linux, as well. It's a hedging strategy," said Newell.
Source:
VentureBeat
"I think that Windows 8 is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space. I think that we're going to lose some of the top-tier PC [original equipment manufacturers]. They'll exit the market. I think margins are going to be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that's true, it's going to be a good idea to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality," said Newell.
Moving the PC gaming to Linux is not a herculean task, and is just going to need a few few big companies to take initiatives. One of them is Valve, the others include companies governing Linux distributions, hardware vendors getting their act together and releasing fully-functional drivers, and lastly, for game developers to see the potential in all of it. The move to Linux doesn't change the machine, it only changes the software.
"One, we're trying to make sure that Linux thrives. Our perception is that one of the big problems holding Linux back is the absence of games. I think that a lot of people - in their thinking about platforms - don't realize how critical games are as a consumer driver of purchases and usage. So we're going to continue working with the Linux distribution guys, shipping Steam, shipping our games, and making it as easy as possible for anybody who's engaged with us - putting their games on Steam and getting those running on Linux, as well. It's a hedging strategy," said Newell.
110 Comments on Windows 8 a Catastrophe, Want Linux to Thrive: Gabe Newell
If that's not what people call mob mentality, I dunno what is (oh the irony). :laugh:
Also, as much as I like Vista (I used it until 7 came), it does have a very bad start and that leaves bitter taste for many. Of course if you use it today with latest hardware and update you're not gonna see why it was hated back then.
He was addressing the fact that user input device is headed for a change and thus will be a Catastrophe since users will move towards the new input devices and not be compatible with his games. The whole hitting on margins and OEMs dropping is a referance to that.
He just seams bitter. Technology is ever evolving and he points it out that he has to diversify to stay with the times and in the same paraghraph complains about doing just that because it hurts margins.
Simple solution. Develope games to be played with the evolving inputs like touchscreen and such.
There going to be doing it anyways on a small scale with mobile but hes just throwing a hissy fit that Windows 8 users might adapt a new input device and there game wont be used by that user since hes not using a KB & Mouse.
All about money.
New inputs to interact with and now he either think people will be too dumb to know which inputs work best with what game or he just want to make Kb & Mouse games and have a closed OS on those two inputs alone. The Irony..
It's like Windows 8. People look at it and go "uuuugggghhhhh were's my start button i'm blind". Some people actually use it and find it does cramp their style, those complaints are very fair. But it feels like a lot of people that try it have decided they don't like it before they try it.
I used to run Win XP on 32MB of RAM without an issue. When Vista came, I had to buy 4GB of RAM just to run the same as XP on 256MB. So?