IIRC, the only open source driver they contributed to was Intel's, but the AMD & NVIDIA proprietary drivers still benefited from the work.
Another big advantage to GABENIX could have is security. Might help avoid the kind of piracy issues that Android is having (which contradicts Gabe's convenience theory of anti-piracy). Granted, I have no idea how anti-piracy measures work, and if Valve would even need anything from the OS to better lock things down, but at least that's an option if they do roll their own distro. But, rolling their own is really only suitable for a console, and I don't think they'd spoil this goodwill with Linux PC users by not delivering for at least Ubuntu.
I think you're comparing apples and oranges when you're talking PCs vs. Mobile Devices.
You'll notice that some of the steam sales cause full fledged games and older AAA titles to go on sale for roughly the same price as an Android application or two.
The convenience theory isn't just about ease of purchase, but also hitting a price point that consumers are willing to spend their money purchasing your application/game. Part of this is a societal thing, where the prevailing attitude for many (correct or incorrect) is that mobile applications just aren't worth the same as a full fledged PC application.
The only way you're going to be more successful in the DRM sphere is to make it more pervasive, which seems to be something Valve as a company is trying to avoid.
I see the "gabenix" distro as very likely since valve actually just announced that the first software that are not games on steam will be released soon. Seems suspicious to me on why they would release non-gaming applications even though we don't know what the actually applications are.
I see the "gabenix" distro as very likely since valve actually just announced that the first software that are not games on steam will be released soon. Seems suspicious to me on why they would release non-gaming applications even though we don't know what the actually applications are.
I find the idea of a generic Steam-based distro highly unlikely. The amount of diversity in PC hardware would make this almost impossible to launch a generalized OS with such a specific goal in mind.
I can, however, definitely fathom a Linux-powered Steam-specific console. This would make a LOT of sense.
Small correction, the 303fps number on Windows was not just due to further optimizations on Windows. That number came from the OpenGL version, with the optimizations done for Linux, running on Windows as opposed to the Direct3d version which posted the 270.6fps number. Slight difference, but one that provides important data suggesting that developing for OpenGL may be wiser than using D3D.
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Another big advantage to GABENIX could have is security. Might help avoid the kind of piracy issues that Android is having (which contradicts Gabe's convenience theory of anti-piracy). Granted, I have no idea how anti-piracy measures work, and if Valve would even need anything from the OS to better lock things down, but at least that's an option if they do roll their own distro. But, rolling their own is really only suitable for a console, and I don't think they'd spoil this goodwill with Linux PC users by not delivering for at least Ubuntu.
You'll notice that some of the steam sales cause full fledged games and older AAA titles to go on sale for roughly the same price as an Android application or two.
The convenience theory isn't just about ease of purchase, but also hitting a price point that consumers are willing to spend their money purchasing your application/game. Part of this is a societal thing, where the prevailing attitude for many (correct or incorrect) is that mobile applications just aren't worth the same as a full fledged PC application.
The only way you're going to be more successful in the DRM sphere is to make it more pervasive, which seems to be something Valve as a company is trying to avoid.
I can, however, definitely fathom a Linux-powered Steam-specific console. This would make a LOT of sense.
I am thoroughly excited about Steamboxen, so I'm willing to take a few words for lunch in light of all the recent news.