Valve appealed, explaining the Steam Link app simply functions as a LAN-based remote desktop similar to numerous remote desktop applications already available on the App Store. Valve Software this week quietly began accepting applications for a forthcoming beta program aimed at testing its highly-anticipated Steam for Mac online gaming service, several AppleInsider readers have discovered. May 12, 2014 - Valve offers thousands of new and old games from hundreds of big name and independent publishers in one convenient place, its Steam.
Introduction to the SteamPipe Content SystemSteamPipe is the game/application content system that powers Steam. SteamPipe includes the following features:. Efficient and fast content delivery.
Unlimited public and private 'beta' branches, allowing multiple builds to be tested. Simple web-based management of builds - push out a new build or rollback to a previous build with just a few clicks. Ability to see the update size of a build before setting it live. Ability to share content between multiple applications. Ability to from public or beta content. Games/apps stay available offline even after an update download has been started. All content is always encrypted, and non-active versions are not visible to customers.
A which can be used during development. NOTE: There are a few concepts which are integral to SteamPipe, before getting started you should be familiar with all of the concepts outlined in the documentation. Having even a basic understanding of how these pieces fit together will be very useful when uploading your product to Steam. Steamworks Video Tutorial - Building Your Game in SteampipeThis tutorial introduces SteamPipe and steps through building a sample application for Steam via the Steamworks tools. Steamworks Video Tutorial - Adding New Platforms and LanguagesThis tutorial walks you through adding new platforms and languages to your game by adding depots to your app. SteamPipe Technical DetailsSteamPipe uses the HTTP protocol for content delivery.
Since downloads are regular web traffic, any third-party HTTP cache between the customer and Steam servers will increase download speed. Content can be hosted by external CDN providers, which can be easily added to our content network. Most consumer firewalls allow HTTP traffic and won't block downloads. SteamPipe has an efficient patching algorithm based on binary deltas, only changing the modified portions of existing content files. When this content is updated, only these deltas need be sent. This means both developer and user transfers are smaller and faster. Most partners will find that using a not necessary since they can efficiently patch builds on private branches.
Steam Build AccountBefore you can create any builds on Steam, you must have a Steam account in your Steamworks account with the 'Edit App Metadata' and 'Publish App Changes To Steam' permissions granted. For security reasons it's recommended that you have a dedicated build account with just those permissions, you may create a new Steam account for this purpose at.
Any administrator of your Steamworks account can add a Steam account and grant the necessary permissions. More information on this process can be found in the documentation. An example of what this account might look like is: Initial Setup for New SteamPipe AppsFollow these steps to set up new SteamPipe apps:. Find the app ID for your application (this can be found by selecting the application on your homepage in Steamworks). Go to the page for your app. Define at least one launch option (the path and optionally, any arguments required to launch the game).
Hover over the (?) to learn more about each field. The example below shows 4 launch options, 2 for Windows and 1 each for MacOS and Linux. Launch option 3 will only be shown on Windows if the user also owns the DLC specified. Go to the page and add depots as needed for this app. By default, a depot may already be configured for your application. Click the default depot and change the name of the depot to a proper and recognizable name (such as 'Base Content' or 'Windows Content').
Leave the language set to All language unless this is a language-specific depot. Leave the OS set to All OSes unless this is an OS-specific depot (if the app is all-in-one, or is just PC or just Mac, it should be left to All OSes. Only specify for OS-specific game depots. Click Add New Depot to create additional depots. Click Save Changes to save any changes made. Once you are done defining your depots, publish the changes that you have made from the page. Your newly defined depots will need to be included in a package to grant you ownership of them.
Each game on Steam should have a Developer Comp package which is automatically granted to the accounts listed within your publisher group. You can add the new depots to that package (and/or other packages that should have these depots) on the page. Note: If your executable is in a sub-folder of the main installation folder, add the sub-folder name in the Executable field. Don't use leading slashes or dots. Setting up the SDK for SteamPipe uploadsDownload and unzip the latest version of the Steamworks SDK on the machine you will be uploading builds on.
The SteamPipe tools can be found within the SDK in the tools folder which contains 2 relevant sub-directories. The ContentBuilder directory is where your game content and SteamPipe build tools will live.
This directory contains the following sub-directories:. builder - This directory initially contains just steamcmd.exe which is the command line version of Steam. builderlinux - The linux version of steamcmd. builderosx - The macOS version of steamcmd.
content - This directory contains all game files that will be built into depots. output - This directory will be the location for build logs, chunk cache, and intermediate output. NOTE: This folder can be deleted or emptied at any time, but after it's deleted, the next upload time will take longer. scripts - This directory is where you'll place all of your build scripts for building your game depots.
It's recommended that you run steamcmd.exe directly in the builder folder for your platform once to bootstrap your build system. This should populate your builder directory with all the files it needs to build depots. The ContentServer directory contains the tools for running your own if you choose to do so. SteamCmd on macOSTo enable SteamCmd on macOS you must complete the following steps:.
From the terminal, browse to the tools ContentBuilder builderosx osx32 folder. Run chmod +x steamcmd. Browse up to the parent folder (tools ContentBuilder builderosx). Type bash./steamcmd.sh. SteamCmd will then run and update to the latest build, leaving you in the SteamCmd prompt. Type exit and press return to exit the prompt You can then follow the rest of this documentation (substituting paths as appropriate) to create depot and app config files for uploading your content to Steam. Creating SteamPipe Build Config FilesTo upload your app with SteamPipe, you must create scripts which describe your build and each depot that will be included in it.
There are simple example scripts in the ContentBuilder scripts folder for an app with one depot. NOTE: You can name these scripts what ever you want, but we use the names appbuild and depotbuild for consistency. If you know that you'll be building apps on this machine, it might be a good idea to create sub-directories in your scripts directory for each application, to help organize each application's build scripts. SteamPipe GUI ToolIf you're running on Windows and would prefer a GUI tool to help create these config files and upload your builds you can use the SteamPipeGUI which is available in the tools folder of the Steamworks SDK. Included in the zip are additional instructions to get you started.
If you choose to use the GUI tool then reading the following sections is still recommended to help you become more familiar with how the SteamPipe system works. Depot Build ScriptFirst create a depot build script for each depot you are wanting to upload. Start by duplicating the depotbuild1001.vdf script and renaming it with the depot ID that it will be uploading. Example depot build script. Builder steamcmd.exe +login 'account' 'password' +runappbuild. Scripts buildscriptname.vdf +quit NOTE: Your first attempt at running a build may fail due to Steam Guard. If the logon fails due to Steam Guard, check your email for the Steam Guard code, and run steamcmd as: steamcmd.exe 'setsteamguardcode ', and try again.
After logging in with Steam Guard once, a sentry file is used to verify the login is genuine. After you run runbuild.bat, your build output should be in the directory specified in your build script file. If the preview build produces the expected manifest, run the build again with 'preview' '0' in your app build script. The following steps occur during a SteamPipe build:. Steamcmd.exe is logging into the Steam backend using the given builder Steam account. The app build start is registered with the MDS (Master Depot Server), which will ensure the user has the proper privileges to modify this app.
For each depot included in the app build, a file list is generated based on the files in the content folder and the filter rules defined in depot build config file. Each file is scanned and divided into small chunks of about 1MB. If the depot has been built before, this partitioning will preserve as many of the unchanged chunks as possible.
New file chunks are compressed, encrypted, and then uploaded to the MDS. A final manifest is generated for this depot version; each manifest is identified by a unique 64-bit manifest ID. Once all depots have been processed, the MDS finishes this app build and assigns it a global buildID.
After the build is done, there may be.csm and.csd files in the build ouput folder. These are temporary and can be deleted, but they speed up subsequent build times. Managing UpdatesAfter your app releases to customers, your customers will be receiving the build marked as the Default build. When uploading a new build it's always a good idea to test it before shipping it to your customers, for more information on how to successfully do this see. Advanced File Mapping RulesThere can be multiple file mappings that add files to the depot. They should be listed first.
Files or subfolders can be excluded with filter expressions. Steam can be marked during the build process so the Steam client knows to run them for any application which mounts the Depot. Files or folders can be remapped, so sub-folders in the content folder can be mapped to anywhere in the depot. Files can be tagged with special flags:.
userconfig - This file is modified by the user or game. It cannot be overridden by an update, and it won't trigger a verification error if it's different from the previous version of the file.
readonly - This file will be marked as read-only for the client file system. hidden - This file will be marked as hidden for the client file system. executable - This is an executable file (for OS X only). Buildinstaller skugoldmaster.txt 'D: retaildisks' The build can take a while since all depots are re-downloaded the first time. If you're building a GM using a local content server, run: @localcontentserver 'webserver' buildinstaller skugoldmaster.txt 'D: retaildisks' local The spew refers to 'Backup' since 'Retail install Disk' and local game backups are basically the same. Once you see 'Backup finished for AppID.'
, the install disk images are ready. You can find more details about the backup build in logs backuplog.txt. There are new folders (Disk1, Disk2, and so on) in 'D: retaildisks', each not bigger than 640 MB, as specified with 'disksizemb'. Each disk folder contains a 'sku.sis' file and a.csd and.csm for each depot.
Bigger depots span across multiple disks. All retail install disk content is always encrypted (unlike local game backup files).
Copy the SDK GM setup files (setup.exe, setup.ini, etc.) into the folder of your first disk and the retail disc installer is complete. When creating a GM for OSX, be sure to open the goldmaster/diskassets/SteamRetailInstaller.dmg image on a Mac. Then take the app that is in there and copy it to the root of your media. You will probably want to change the name of the install app, brand the icon and decorate the window to only show the installer. When creating a multi-disc GM for OSX, be sure the volume name for each disc matches.
The volume name becomes part of the mount path, and if the names don't match the installer won't be able to find the next disc. Optionally building a retail installer from a beta branchThe process above will create a retail installer based on the default branch. If you need to create an installer based on a beta branch, you must first create a beta branch named 'baseline'. Then use the following command to build from the baseline branch.
Buildinstaller steamcmd ex: buildinstaller skugoldmaster.txt 'D: retaildisks' baseline superSecret script ex: steamcmd.exe +login username password +buildinstaller '. Build GameDataSku.txt' c: destination betakey betapassword +exit Installing DLC from a retail installerIn some circumstances, you may wish to create a retail installer that includes your DLC packages. In such cases, the process to create the installer requires only a few changes. In 'skugoldmaster.txt', include the DLC AppIDs under the 'includeddepots' section.
Once you have run the 'buildinstaller' process, find the generated sku.sis file for the installer and open it with a text editor. Add the DLC AppID in the 'apps' section. For example, if I had a game with AppID 1000 and DLC AppID 1010, I would adjust the 'apps' section as follows.
Valve it will start selling applications through Steam. “The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.
More Software titles will be added in an ongoing fashion following the September 5th launch, and developers will be welcome to submit Software titles via Steam Greenlight.” I feel like a at this point, but guys and girls, Valve is going to release specifications for a ‘Steambox’. A set of minimum specifications a Linux or Windows machine has to adhere to, either self-built or by an OEM. Steam pre-installed, can be used as regular PC and as a console. With Windows 8 locking itself down, this is their only option – and I applaud it.
Valve is just extending their offers and is becoming another App store. Not that i mind. Their offers werent bad and a lot of good titles that never hit the shelf got deserved money. Good decision there. They did now extend their Market into the Linux world which is a great step for users and valve. I hope their App store will also be Linux friendly and also the quality of software they provide. Linux has great software already but it often doesnt have that well polished feeling Windows or Apple apps have (For example in Audio Production).
I think this will add to the user experience and as well as a good platform for smaller dev studios or startups to have a chance at the market. I wish Valve best of luck there. I don’t think the Steambox will be X86/AMD64 based. I also don’t think it will run Windows. It makes sense for Valve to wait until more games run on Linux and wait until PS4 and Xbox 720 have been released.
With the evolution of ARM SOCs accelerating (Tegra4 with A15 and Kepler looks very promising and Ouya should have picked it) they just need to wait a year and they might offer a machine with similar specs than what Sony and MS offer for a much lower price. If they go the $99 route they could release an updated version every year. That is against conventional wisdom that consoles shouldn’t change for a long time, but Steam games live in the PC ecosystem where every year hardware gets more powerfull and games take advantage of that. The steambox also should. Hardcore gamers won’t mind paying 99 bucks a year for the latest kit and casual gamers will be fine with a few frames per second less.
I don’t think the Steambox will be X86/AMD64 based. I also don’t think it will run Windows. It makes sense for Valve to wait until more games run on Linux and wait until PS4 and Xbox 720 have been released. With the evolution of ARM SOCs accelerating (Tegra4 with A15 and Kepler looks very promising and Ouya should have picked it) they just need to wait a year and they might offer a machine with similar specs than what Sony and MS offer for a much lower price. If they go the $99 route they could release an updated version every year. That is against conventional wisdom that consoles shouldn’t change for a long time, but Steam games live in the PC ecosystem where every year hardware gets more powerfull and games take advantage of that.
The steambox also should. Hardcore gamers won’t mind paying 99 bucks a year for the latest kit and casual gamers will be fine with a few frames per second less.
The ARM platform has advanced nicely and is capable of some pretty decent visuals, but it’s nowhere near close to being on par with today’s x86/x64 PCs or the next gen consoles. The PS4 is rumored to be based on a quad core x64 CPU from AMD running at 3.3 ghz with a GPU based on the Radeon 7970. It will be quite a while before an ARM SOC is capable of matching that. ARM chips work damn well in phones and tablets and something like the Ouya could wind up being a big hit for casual gamers in the living room, but ARM chips have a way to go before they can support something like Crysis 3, Watchdogs or Star Wars 1313. I’m sorry but even the lowest end AMD quad can drink ARM’s milkshake while it cries in the corner so no way its gonna be ARM based. It may have an ARM CPU for low power mode, so you can watch a video or do light web surfing without firing up the whole system, similar to what Splashtop had there for awhile, but to give up X86 would frankly give up the major advantage Valve has which is the huge amount of games and publishers all lined up.
Not every company wants to only make popcap style games and ARM simply can’t run something like Saints Row The Third or Just Cause II. My guess is they’ll have a little bidding war before they settle on a system. The question for me is whether they’ll go Intel or AMD, AMD can give them cheaper prices and hybrid crossfire but Intel has the IPC lead by a pretty large margin. While I’d love to see a Liano with hybrid crossfire for insane graphics most likely we’ll be seeing a low end i5 with Nvidia graphics, reason being an i5 quad with a decent midrange Nvidia GPU would give them a pretty big leap on the competition and give the box some legs. In the end I think old Gabe is doing this to get back at Ballmer who is trying to screw Valve with the Windows appstore so by coming out with a Steambox old Gabe can take a big chunk of MSFT’s customers by offering lower prices and compatibility with the Windows and Linux PC Steam client. It ultimately boils down to: for games, what is more important, CPU or GPU power?
So, while Intel might have a clear CPU lead, for a console the AMD tech would be probably more balanced, with their better GPUs And I’d guess it will be most likely a CPU+GPU integrated on one chip. Also not necessarily Intel and AMD being the only choices new Nvidia ARM maybe ( ) – or some other multicore ARMs as well (considering that, again, the CPU power isn’t even that crucial; but yes, x86 compatibility itself would be an important factor) Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if Valve eyes moving Steam also to Android (as in, onto phones, playing there a similar role as it did on PCs for the last few years). If they go the $99 route they could release an updated version every year. That is against conventional wisdom that consoles shouldn’t change for a long time, but Steam games live in the PC ecosystem where every year hardware gets more powerfull and games take advantage of that.
The steambox also should. Many of the best-selling games on Steam aren’t like that at all – certainly most “casual” or indy titles, and Valve itself is actually fairly atypical: more console-like for a long time, more about gameplay than bling. The requirements of Valve games move very slowly, lag behind typical “premier” PC house games – even the latest Source titles can be played quite decently on a nearly decade-old hardware. Overall, on the PC sid, games don’t so much take advantage of constant upgrade cycle, but can also simply get away with more lousy coding & not being able to optimise so much (for what? Nv/ATI low/middle/high or maybe latest Intel GFX? But that will likely be much less of a problem with Steambox).
Ha, you realize that upgrading Gimp from 2 to 3 isn’t exactly the same as upgrading Photoshop from 4 to 5? As for hundreds of update services – wtf are you doing? No wonder you hate Windows and probably advocate Linux as being faster. I just use two ways to update software – Windows Update or opening an application a pop up shows saying that there’s a new version and downloads it. Ofcourse from time to time you get crapware like that one from Google that comes with Chrome, but I replaced that POS with Edited 2012-08-08 21:55 UTC. No he’s telling the truth, nobody is gonna give you Photoshop 5 for free because you bought Photoshop 4 so a lot of the package management simply won’t work. Linux software is free as in beer so nobody cares if its in the repos, when that software is $600+ you damned right they care.
That said for all the free Windows software you can get your updates just as easy as on Linux, its called Filehippo Update checker. I’ve been using it for ages and frankly don’t have a single updater running in windows as filehippo takes care of all that for me. For new installs I recommend ninite as it takes care of all the initial installs with a fully automated “check boxes, click run” that can’t be simpler. But you can’t expect to have a Linux style package manager unless you want to tie it to your CC and have it just taken out of your account because most of the popular software on Windows is paid apps.
The question is how are the Linux guys gonna like DRM and paid apps as that is pretty much Steam in a nutshell. Sure i love it and its certainly nicer than SecuROM or Starforce but it IS DRM and every app that goes through it will be using DRM as well.
This is why I think the goal will be a Steambox, we’re already seeing in the forums how much DRM hate the Linux community has so I seriously doubt valve will make much off that already tiny market, but a Steambox will be just another console where DRM is expected. I just use two ways to update software – Windows Update or opening an application a pop up shows saying that there’s a new version and downloads it. Because everyone just loves pop ups. I personally love it when you start working and some application starts flashing on your task bar for you attention. You open it and its a damn application updater, you click OK the screen dims and a windows dialogue pops up asking for permission.
I really enjoy the break it gives when I’m concentrating. I also love the way that shut down and restart time in Windows is about 20 minutes because Windows is updating. Other OSes can learn a lot about the best way to do package management from Windows.
Edited 2012-08-09 06:29 UTC. What universe does this happen in? My hardware is 7 years old and I have to reboot maybe twice a month, it takes about 2 or 3 minutes to update at most. Service Pack installation takes about 10-15 minutes at most on a reboot and that happens once every 2 years.
Also the auto-update is an absolute lie, most application prompt you on launch these days there is a newer version, anything else you have installed that nags you for an auto-update is running a service or a background process to check for auto-updates which usually means it is utter crap. If you use crap software on any platform you are going to have a crap experience what a surprise Edited 2012-08-09 07:14 UTC. What universe does this happen in? Admittedly I don’t boot into Windows (Vista on my laptop, 7 on Desktop) that often – however, for me it is a common experience when I shut down Windows will inform me that it is installing x number of updates I should not shut down and this usually takes 5 – 10 minutes. When I restart it then informs me its installing x number of updates and I have to wait 5 -10 minutes sometimes longer, infrequently less. Even if it was only 3 minutes is this acceptable? In Linux this never happens.
Also the auto-update is an absolute lie, most application prompt you on launch these days there is a newer version. Java updater immediately comes to mind – but even with your best case scenario when I start an app I want it to start not inform me it wants to update. You do realise calling someone a liar is offensive?
Last time you responded to a post of mine you told me to f.K off. You seem to have great difficulty responding appropriately. Edited 2012-08-09 08:12 UTC. 10 minute boot up time after a service pack on my 7 year old machine, that is one big update and It happens once per install, other updates install silently in the background and the boot-up is only slightly longer than a minute or two afterwards. I am sorry but I simple don’t believe them. It not my experience using Windows 7 and my hardware is “old”. First gen Core 2 duo and an ancient nForce 6 motherboard.
My laptop is a 1.2ghz Core 2 duo, with a 4200rpm drive and even then the updates don’t take that long. Also lets not forget, the system asks you whether you want to postpone the reboot. As for the semantics between surprised and annoyed, they usually come together being part of a negative reaction towards something in anycase arguing semantics when the meaning is quite clear is pointless and doesn’t really move the conversation on. Edited 2012-08-09 12:05 UTC. But a 20 minute bootup time still seems awfully long in my eyes.logic?
Ten minutes to shut down whilst downloading updates and installing updates then ten minutes to start up while windows configures updates 20 minutes in total. So you don’t reboot into it regularly and you are surprised that there are more updates and they take longer to install? I am sure if I didn’t boot my fedora core installation in 3 months it would take a while to download and install all the updates. I’m sure if I didn’t run my Ubuntu or Debian box for a while it would take a while to download and install updates. What it wouldn’t do is take 10 minutes to shut down while it was downloading the updates with no get out option and then take 10 minutes to apply them on next start up again with no option for just starting. I’m sure if I didn’t run my Ubuntu or Debian box for a while it would take a while to download and install updates. What it wouldn’t do is take 10 minutes to shut down while it was downloading the updates with no get out option and then take 10 minutes to apply them on next start up again with no option for just starting.
That is because it over writes the files that are in use. This can create un-expected results.
I had firefox die during a Yum updates. Windows doesn’t do that it overwrites them when they aren’t being used. It applies them safely and that is why it takes longer. 10 minutes outside of a service pack, I still don’t believe, I waited maybe a minute or two. Edited 2012-08-09 18:19 UTC. This happens with all package management systems. Not just yum.
This doesn’t happen to me in Firefox, as I told before. Or maybe you are not talking about that, maybe you are talking about what you wrote “I tend to stop doing anything mission critical when doing an update in Linux”. In that case, if it can be helpful for you: I see what programs are going to be updated, and I close them if I have them opened; I update and open the programs again if required. I don’t have this worry in Windows.
But people have a way to know if they have to restart Windows so that all the updates are applied? 馃槙 I’m curious. Possibly a way exists?
Linux update mechanisms simply replace files in the file system. Mmm I’ve seen the update mechanisms of apt stopping services, converting files from one format to a newer one, downloading additional files (like the Flash ones), restarting services; warning Firefox that it has been updated and so Firefox showing a “you must restart Firefox” and a restart button; warning the user that he has to reboot his computer (due to a kernel update); etc. I was told that apt can also compile files and install them, though I have not seen it.
Anyway, about programs don’t work as a “service”: I see what programs are going to be updated, and I close them if I have them opened; I update and open the programs again if required. I also asked if people have a way to know if they have to restart Windows so that all the updates are applied. This was not an evil question 馃檪, I was just curious. Edited 2012-08-10 22:21 UTC.
Admittedly I don’t boot into Windows (Vista on my laptop, 7 on Desktop) that often – however, for me it is a common experience when I shut down Windows will inform me that it is installing x number of updates I should not shut down and this usually takes 5 – 10 minutes. When I restart it then informs me its installing x number of updates and I have to wait 5 -10 minutes sometimes longer, infrequently less. Even if it was only 3 minutes is this acceptable? In Linux this never happens. Your system does seem to be unusually slow. You ask, is 3 minutes acceptable? Sure, why shouldn’t it be?
No updates occur instantaneously. It can easily happen in Linux too. Don’t update your Linux packages in a while and when you finally do, it’s going to take a few minutes. Btw, Linux also has it’s own big problems and annoyances so be careful how much you try to put it on a pedestal.
Your system does seem to be unusually slow. You ask, is 3 minutes acceptable? Sure, why shouldn’t it be? No updates occur instantaneously.
It can easily happen in Linux too. Don’t update your Linux packages in a while and when you finally do, it’s going to take a few minutes. Btw, Linux also has it’s own big problems and annoyances so be careful how much you try to put it on a pedestal.
I don’t believe my Windows is slow – in fact I know it isn’t my Windows is actually quite fast as it doesn’t have loads of crap installed, just NOD AV, Office and a couple of other Windows only apps, the update on Windows I am talking about is normal, so lets not pretend it isn’t. Now on Ubuntu updating is great I’m warned of updates (to the whole system apps and all). I click update and it updates I can run other apps whilst this is happening and my boot up and shut down are not effected at all. Linux/Ubuntu is great you should try it. Ubuntu and other Linux have problems one of them is lack of apps such as games, this valve steam news is very interesting, I’m not absolutely opposed to proprietary software and am interested to see where this goes. Other OSes are great too FreeBSD and BeOS come to mind, BeOS was a great OS largely killed by lack of apps dirty tricks by MS.
I don’t believe my Windows is slow – in fact I know it isn’t my Windows is actually quite fast as it doesn’t have loads of crap installed, just NOD AV, Office and a couple of other Windows only apps, the update on Windows I am talking about is normal, so lets not pretend it isn’t. If regular updates is taking your system that long, then your system is slow. Thinking otherwise is the only pretending going on here. I have several Windows 7 boxes with various hardware configurations and none are as slow as you claim. Now on Ubuntu updating is great I’m warned of updates (to the whole system apps and all). I click update and it updates I can run other apps whilst this is happening and my boot up and shut down are not effected at all.
Linux/Ubuntu is great you should try it. What exactly are you trying to say here? That Windows users can’t run apps while an update is going on? If so, that’s completely false. Btw, I also have several Linux boxes. However, I have absolutely no interest in Ubuntu and very little interest in Linux desktops — they just don’t measure up in my opinion.
Ubuntu and other Linux have problems one of them is lack of apps such as games, this valve steam news is very interesting, I’m not absolutely opposed to proprietary software and am interested to see where this goes. When I said Linux has it’s own big problems & annoyances, I wasn’t referring to lack of games — though that is one of them (for many people) as you pointed out. I was talking about more technical issues for example, constant breakage & regressions, and dependency hell (which is in many cases absolutely pathetic). There’s a lot of laziness in Linux and it definitely shows. What exactly are you trying to say here? That Windows users can’t run apps while an update is going on? If so, that’s completely false.
He’s talking about updates really happening when a Windows computer is being shut down, and later when it’s booted (Windows tells you to wait). In that time the user cannot do anything. Constant breakage & regressions, and dependency hell (which is in many cases absolutely pathetic). I’m using Kubuntu for years, in several computers and virtual machines, and it doesn’t have what you say.
I don’t update from one version of Kubuntu to another, I do clean installs. I, also, if I’m updating Amarok I go and close Amarok windows, for example. He’s talking about updates really happening when a Windows computer is being shut down, and later when it’s booted (Windows tells you to wait). In that time the user cannot do anything. The user can’t do things while shutting down or booting in Linux either. And, to say that Windows updates only occur at shutdown and boot and also untrue. In many cases a reboot isn’t actually required to apply & use an update.
This is why rebooting was greatly reduced in Windows 7 from say Windows XP. Constant breakage & regressions, and dependency hell (which is in many cases absolutely pathetic). I’m using Kubuntu for years, in several computers and virtual machines, and it doesn’t have what you say. I don’t update from one version of Kubuntu to another, I do clean installs.
I, also, if I’m updating Amarok I go and close Amarok windows, for example. While I have no experience with Kubuntu, I’m still willing to bet it suffer from the same plagues or nearly all Linux distros. Changelogs, including that of the Linux kernel itself will show the massive amounts of regressions that occur, and the dependency hell is old news with countless complaints about it, from both devs and end-users. In the event that Kubuntu somehow escapes the Linux plagues, then my hats off to it’s maintainers because they’re investing a lot of time into it and most certainly are applying patches to fix all the design laziness. Again, nothing I’ve said is news. It’s the same old Linux song and it’s been sung for ages.
You don’t have to bet. I even gave you the link to a virtual machine if you want to see by yourself how system updates go in Kubuntu. Just a couple posts back I mentioned that I have very little interest in Linux desktops so while I appreciate you providing links, I doubtfully would use them (though someone else might). I’ll reiterate — if the Kubuntu maintainers have managed to free themselves from the plagues of Linux then they get my thumbs up because that’s quite a daunting task. I would imagine all (or at least a good portion of ) Kubuntu users appreciate it. One thing though, I hardly ever hear praise or compliment being given to Kubuntu for that reason so I’m inclined to have my doubts. Or maybe I simply `run with a different crowd`.
I used Windows 8 on a touch screen / laptop (HP Touchsmart TX2) and it is serious amounts of crap. I mean combine the hatred toward ME and Vista, add in some vomit and feces, and you have Windows 8.
It really is crap for a game platform, unless you have an Xbox 360 or something. It really is a platform that is made to sell the Xbox, and to make application writers cringe. Gabe is just seeing the writing on the wall and going multiplatform before it’s too late. Microsoft is in such a rush to try to ‘catch up’ with Apple, that they’re losing sight of the one reason that they are still in business, their Desktop Operating system monopoly.
The fact that their new ‘Desktop’ OS is in fact a wannabe Tablet OS, will hurt them (They have so many customers now, I don’t think it’ll kill them, but it sure will drive a lot of users to Mac or Linux.). It will drive users to do nothing, literally. People will just keep their current (Windows 7) systems and not bother until whatever comes next (after Windows 8) just like they always do. Why exactly was this modded down? At least in the corporate environment, many have just finished migrating to Windows 7, or are still in the process of doing it. If Win8 bombs or just doesn’t fit their needs people.will. just stay put.
I can tell you right now, my organisation is certainly in no rush to go to the next version and if we do move anywhere it’s gotta be able to run all the applications Win XP and 7 are capable of running now. You should be modded up to 50, because you just nailed it.
Win 7 has been out barely 3 years, most businesses are just NOW getting it deployed, and the home users? They’re happy with it. I can tell you in my little shop I have a Win 8 system for people to play with alongside the Win 7 units and frankly it doesn’t take long for Win 8 to tick them off and they are back onto the Win 7 machines. It has nice features, better memory management than previous versions, and is supported until 2020why EXACTLY would they want to go to Linux or Mac, where their programs don’t run, in the case of Linux they’ll have to learn forum hunts and bash fixes, and for what? What does it give them above Win 7?
Nothing, just more hassle. Win 8 is the new MS Bob, Win 7 the new XP. Just as XP is just now dying out after a decade plus of use so too will you see plenty of Win 7 machines in 2017 as there really isn’t any reason to switch. I used Windows 8 on a touch screen / laptop (HP Touchsmart TX2) and it is serious amounts of crap. I mean combine the hatred toward ME and Vista, add in some vomit and feces, and you have Windows 8. Vista sold hundreds of millions of copies, hatred is a gross overstatement.
Accepting Applications For Single Men
It really is crap for a game platform, unless you have an Xbox 360 or something. It really is a platform that is made to sell the Xbox, and to make application writers cringe. I’m curious as to why you say this. If anything, it opens up the door to massive indie development with an exposure to potentially millions of paying customers. Gabe is just seeing the writing on the wall and going multiplatform before it’s too late.
I’m all for him going multiplatform, I just think his comments were a bunch of hot air. Microsoft is in such a rush to try to ‘catch up’ with Apple, that they’re losing sight of the one reason that they are still in business, their Desktop Operating system monopoly. The fact that their new ‘Desktop’ OS is in fact a wannabe Tablet OS, will hurt them (They have so many customers now, I don’t think it’ll kill them, but it sure will drive a lot of users to Mac or Linux.) Just like users fled to OSX and Linux with the supposedly hated Vista? Keep dreaming. Vista sold hundreds of millions of copies, hatred is a gross overstatement. And how many of those hundreds of millions were people buying Vista off the shelf without it being bundled with a PC.
Not many I’ll bet. The vast majority I’m sure were people buying new PCs, and we all know that for a couple of years there the average Joe had no choice but to buy Vista when they wanted a new PC. Bearing in mind that this was a time of massive reductions in the prices of laptops, and when you could see everyone and their granny getting new laptops, it’s no wonder Vista had good sales figures. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t hated. I’ve “fixed” dozens of people’s laptops over the past 5 years or so by wiping Vista from them and putting XP or 7 in instead. Everyone’s been delighted. I also know a few more computery types who bought laptops during this time, and wiped them straight away for XP or 7.
Still counted as a Vista sale. I’ve been developing something on Windows 8 for the last 8 months, and i’m getting really tired of the bad journalism about Windows 8 being locked down. Windows 8 on the PC is almost exactly the same as Windows 7 on the PC with the exception that your start menu is now a full screen app which is easily navigable with the keyboard.
I won’t go into detail on how much i prefer the new ‘start’ screen than the old start menu, but i’ll just say it’s a big productivity boost. I have Steam running, and played some Limbo yesterday. A colleague of mine has tested a wide range of games including Rage, Starcraft 2, Just Cause 2 and Diablo 3 and all run without issue. He even got Baldurs Gate running without issue, something that wouldn’t work on Windows 7 for him.
From the Metro standpoint, I have Chrome as my default browser, NOT IE. Because I told Chrome it should be my default in the desktop, Windows now automatically launches all links in Chrome, even from Metro apps – which now launch in the Metro version of Chrome. The lockdown is a lie.
The integration of a store is no different from the Mac AppStore ( and its fullscreen apps ) or Ubuntu’s Software center ( with the exception of software freedom ). Valve are only complaining because it’s a first point of sale which is integrated into Windows, their biggest platform. Oh and don’t get me wrong, i’d rather be running Steam on Linux, so i’m all for what they’re doing, i’m just annoyed at people posting stuff about an OS they haven’t used.
Denying Microsoft is working to lock Windows down entirely is short-sighted, and completely out of touch with reality. True, but the same could be said about Apple and, despite all the “thumbs up” Valve is getting both here and around the web, the truth is that Valve is free to change their ToS at will, and since Steam is really a subscription service, if you don’t agree to the new terms puff! All your software is gone (see and in particular).
I wouldn’t mind too much if it’s just games that I completed and I’m non likely to play again anyway, but productivity software is another matter altogether. Call me a pessimist, but it seems to me that we’re heading slowly but surely towards a future of locked down hardware and rented software — which just makes me appreciate open source even more. Edited 2012-08-09 14:04 UTC. Denying Microsoft is working to lock Windows down entirely is short-sighted, and completely out of touch with reality.
True, but the same could be said about Apple and, despite all the “thumbs up” Valve is getting both here and around the web, the truth is that Valve is free to change their ToS at will, and since Steam is really a subscription service, if you don’t agree to the new terms puff! All your software is gone (see and in particular). I wouldn’t mind too much if it’s just games that I completed and I’m non likely to play again anyway, but productivity software is another matter altogether.
Hey, but they like Linux now. That makes them cool.
That is how I used to think, until I discovered all corporations behave the same, and many of them use open source as a mean to reduce costs without giving anything back. Microsoft deserves some hate,as they mostly promote their APIs instead of interoperating with standards.
Apple use to have only proprietary APIs back in the old days, became the beloved of many open source geeks after adopting NeXTStep, and now takes the competition to court instead of winning in the market. Google promotes the “do no evil” motto, yet it is a pain to do business with them, specially if you really on their APIs. Intel supposedly promotes open source, yet many of their products are as commercial as it gets and target only Windows.
The same can be stated for many other companies.