“All of this work is broadly applicable to the PC platform, and it’s going to continue to expand over time. Supporting multiple platforms, multiple chipsets, controllers for different machines that are out there and even ones that aren’t out yet.”
[…] Valve’s goal with the OS is to have it compatible with traditional PCs, laptops, portable consoles and any other formats.
It’s about having a plan B incase MS starts locking in the customers into their own gaming services.
Tim Sweeney warned about this when they tried to push the Windows Store on Windows 10.
Gaming on windows is about gaming on the os I already have for work/non gaming entertainment. I’m not out choosing different os like buying a new shirt or something.
If my gaming handheld came with steam os that’s fine because I’m not doing productivity work on there.
These days I barely interact with the os outside of clicking the icons to open things. Os have become increasingly desktop only environments. I barely even use the start menu anymore.
These days I’m trying to remember what I found so useful with the start menu back on XP and 7. Maybe the problem is Microsoft making it less useful and full of ads.
Remember when you had to install things and not just open a bookmark in a web browser.
I hate that now I have to make weird registry changes to get rid of ads and disable searching the Internet when all I want is to find the installed application.
They say that as if trying to kill Windows is a bad thing.
It’s funny in a way, seeing as how Gabe Newell was at Microsoft from ~’83 until ‘96, working on the early versions of Windows.
Makes sense though - to see what subsequent teams have done to your original project, and feel the need to ‘right those wrongs’.
Windows: 95
Gabe: imma head out
Do your thing Valve. Linux has been around for 30 years. It’s a marathon to 70% marketshare, not a sprint.
OK, we’ll, we’re not having a great experience on windows, are we?
That’s what they’re implying
So there IS a problem, valve 😡
Replace Windows with masochism. If someone enjoys masochism, who are we to stop them?
This is really nice comparison. Using windows really is a masochism, not only in terms of suffering you take but also having this huge dominant corpo figure inflicting said suffering with new inventive methods day by day.
That’s pretty much the difference of philosophy in a nutshell.
Microsoft: We gotta kill the competition.
Valve: We gotta make our customers happy.
Valve makes money whether you use windows or Linux - that’s probably more their attitude.
I mean sure, but you could definitely conceive a Microsoft/Google/Apple style business model where they try to lock people into an ecosystem where they control both sides — the OS and the software — so that the OS can discourage third-party software and the software offers benefits for using the OS where they have home field advantage.
They don’t really need to, cuz they’re the de facto standard for Windows anyway. Specifically because they never went the Microsoft way. So now their OS is just another nice perk instead of another way to control their customers. And it’s also way cheaper for Valve this way.
SteamOS is all well, and good, but does it have a dedicated button to launch an AI app (but not the one you can use at work) that can be reprogrammed to only do other things that also don’t need a dedicated button? I think not. Check and mate Gabe.
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the other thing that drives me nuts about steamos is that it doesn’t even come with a dedicated chat button pinned in the bottom bar. and even if it did, i bet it would support work accounts and personal accounts. windows knows exactly what i want, which is a giant button that only supports personal accounts for the chat program is literally only ever used for work
It other words they are saying be better or we will destroy you.
They’re saying that they won’t even have to try.
SteamOS: You’re saying I can destroy Windows?
Gabe as Morpheus: No, SteamOS. I’m saying when you’re ready, you won’t have to.
All this talk about a gaming centric operating system “replacing” one designed to handle everything is just ridiculous.
Everybody here is debating whether Valve is trying to crush windows.
I took it more to mean that Valve realizes that Windows is the dominant PC OS and so they’re trying not to appear as if their goal is to crush Windows, on account of how if that’s their goal Microsoft could just make Steam inaccessable on Windows.
Now you could argue that there will be a patch, and a hack and blah blah blah the average user ain’t got time fo none-a-dat!
User installs steam. Windows blocks installation. 70% of users just give up. “Oh, I guess this only runs on steamdeck. Oh well.”
And just like that Valve loses 100% of potential purchases from that average windows user who hasn’t even done so much to their system as changing the theme.
Personally, I think Valave has no reason to try to compete with Windows right now, regardless. Steam has a market capture that the Xbox store could only dream of, even with gamepass, and SteamOS expands their market into new areas outside of the Windows PC group.
I could also see a Streisand effect/TikTok to Red Note if Microsoft tried to prevent people from installing Steam where they draw more attention to SteamOS and people start jumping ship for other options - whether that’s SteamOS or not.
