Knock-on effects
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| jacog Jul 21, 2012 8:02 AM EDT |
As much as war is a bad thing, it often works out that money poured into warfare ends up with long-lasting unrelated benefits to the rest of us. SImilarly, one might not be a gamer, but gaming is a technology sledgehammer, and is evident here. Valve's move to build and grow a Linux gaming market is resulting in improvements (so far) to the Nvidia closed drivers, the Intel open-source driver, and Valve has also been in contact with the folks at nouveau to ask how they can help. |
| Koriel Jul 21, 2012 11:27 AM EDT |
Yep it does look Valve is going in all guns a blazing with their push on the Linux platform due probably to their concern with Microsofts plans for having their own digital delivery platform on Windows 8 and not allow anyone elses. Please note such a thing would be in direct contravention of European competition regulations and MS will be in front of the European Commission before you could say Joaquín Almunia if they try it, the DOJ maybe in their pocket the ECC is not or at least they weren't when Neelie Kroes was at the helm will wait and see if new boy Joaquin is just as entertaining as Neelie was. I'm hoping this flanking manoeuvre becomes a permanent thing and not just a lever to force MS to open up their new platform. I'm giving Valve the benefit of the doubt as their past history has been pretty much exemplary or about as good as it gets for a profit making corporation. |
| BernardSwiss Jul 21, 2012 6:53 PM EDT |
Quoting: "The funny thing is Valve guys say the same thing about drivers. There were a couple times where we felt like they were trying to convince us that open source drivers are a good idea. We had to remind them that they were preaching to the choir. :) Their problem with closed drivers (on all platforms) is that it's such a blackbox that they have to play guess-and-check games. There's no way for them to know how changing a particular setting will affect the performance. If performance gets worse, they have no way to know why. If they can see where time is going in the driver, they can make much more educated guesses." I wonder what "hairyfeet" would make of this? I may be misunderstanding -- but this doesn't sound like the question of a stable API/ABI is the big problem. |
| jacog Jul 21, 2012 6:58 PM EDT |
hairyfeet just likes to hear himself talk, just ignore and move along |
| BernardSwiss Jul 21, 2012 7:57 PM EDT |
Well, I've heard the argument from others, too. Which is why I found the quoted bit so interesting. |
| helios Jul 22, 2012 12:56 AM EDT |
HF does make perfectly good sense from time to time. Sure he resides firmly in the Windows Camp but everything I've read has been mostly fair...a bit harsh sometimes but fair. He even spoke up about the Gnome/Unity thing. And it wasn't with his thumbs sticking in his ears with finger-wiggling taunts...it was an honest assessment of the situation, more honest than I heard from some Linux folks in the blogosphere trenches. http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2012/02/rant-ur-doin-it-right.... I enjoy reading his stuff....he is rarely without opinion, regardless of if he knows what he's talking about. Most times, he has a fairly good idea. |
| caitlyn Jul 22, 2012 1:56 AM EDT |
@helios: I read your quoted rant and boy was it off target in the worst possible ways. 10 years of support is his big thing? Guess what? Red Hat offers 10 years of support and so do the free clones of Red Hat. SUSE is offering 7 years. He complains about the death of GNOME 2 (which is alive and well in Mate and still supported by Red Hat among others) and KDE 3. In case he hadn't noticed that desktop paradigm has died across the computing landscape (meaning Microsoft and Apple as well) but is still alive in Linux. You know what? He's dead wrong about Metro and Unity and GNOME 3. They are catching on and they are what younger users expect. Old fogeys like you and me may not like the paradigm shift but younger people do. It's based on what they know and like already. Oh, and as I wrote a while back, that shift started in Linux and was copied by Apple and Microsoft: http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2012/04/the-new-desktop-paradig... The world is changing. Those who adapt thrive. Those who are stuck in the past do not. The nice thing about Linux: you can have a modern desktop or a retro desktop or whatever you want. |
| jacog Jul 22, 2012 7:00 AM EDT |
Dunno BernardSwiss - I have heard this too, but I also know that some people are still playing Loki games from 2001 successfully on modern systems. The only thing that changed to make them work, are the installers. Well either way, good on Valve. Instead of saying "We're not going to develop on this platform because [insert obstacle here]" they instead are helping to correct whatever obstacles there might be. It's a sign of "getting" what this crazy Linux thing is supposed to be about. |
| Fettoosh Jul 22, 2012 11:56 AM EDT |
Quoting:You know what? He's dead wrong about Metro and Unity and GNOME 3. I certainly agree with Caitlyn. The Classic Desktop Interface and the new paradigm brought by Unity & Gnome 3 need and will coexist. They are supplemental to each other and depend on the hardware & Applications a certain user is handling at the time. There is a place for Touch Interface just like there has been a place for Classic Desktop Interface. |
| BernardSwiss Jul 22, 2012 6:40 PM EDT |
@jacog But we (and the Valve devs) are actually talking about the graphics drivers, here, not the games, right? |
| jacog Jul 23, 2012 6:00 AM EDT |
Bernard - them helping to fix driver-related issues is just a side-effect of their intention to port their own games catalog over. With any luck, the side-effect of that will be that more studios jump onboard. |
| Bob_Robertson Jul 23, 2012 11:22 AM EDT |
"As much as war is a bad thing, it often works out that money poured into warfare ends up with long-lasting unrelated benefits to the rest of us." Yes, that is what is "seen". And then there is what is "unseen", all the things that would have happened if those resources were not wasted on war in the first place. |
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