Yes! Been waiting for this:
‘Valve, creator of the Steam gaming platform and a video game studio and publisher in its own right, is the latest company to join the Linux Foundation – a nonprofit organization tasked with nurturing and advocating the open-source operating system.
The move isn’t much of a surprise, given that Valve adopted Linux for its recently unveiled Steam OS, an operating system that will be used for a new range of third-party video game consoles called ‘Steam Machines‘ expected from mid-2014. Valve co-founder and CEO Gabe Newell described the operating system and open source movement as “the future of gaming” at LinuxCon a couple of months ago, following the release of an official Linux client for the Steam platform in February.’
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 
December 6, 2013 at 05:45
Yeah, I’ve been following this.
I do think Microsoft is stuck in the past and Windows is a needlessly dated OS. It’s what AOL is to internet browsers. Worst of all, it has caused the myth that PC’s get slower over time, when it’s just Windows that does.
Linuxboxes will prove to be more ergonomic and economic, and I can expect them to be the big thing in 2014. I guess every year people want a new gadget to buy (look at tablets), but if a $150 linux box the size of a few decks of cards can do everything a $450 PC the size of a shoe box can do, then it should become viral.
I think libraries and schools should switch to Linux to save tax dollars. But what a hypocrite I am: I currently use Windows and will stick it through with PC until it dies. I have Linux installed as a contingency option.
As for Linux for gaming, which is what Valve wants to do, it’s an uphill battle. A lot can change 5 to 10 years from now, but there’s no reason to get a Linuxbox over a gaming PC anytime soon as most of the big-budget games that people play aren’t supported by Linux.
your thoughts?
December 6, 2013 at 11:53
Well, I come from a family of Linux enthusiasts – from my dad, to my hubby, to my sons.
And, yes, I’ve had the pleasure to use different flavours, from Red Hat to Ubuntu to Mint (Cinnamon).
And, yes, now that I have a brand spanking new laptop, it’s got Windows on it….but I suspect that is more of a function of its newness and my hubby’s busy schedule right now than a state it will remain in.
For me, it is a question less of convenience and more of security. I simplly don’t want a machine with all the backdoors efficiently integrated into every keystroke. This computer, for all ts awesomness, wanted me to create a Microsoft account just so I could print. And while i bypassed that, I really don’t see how I can access my Skype account from it without first submitting and creating a Microsoft account, complete, with invasively private information in the ‘required’ fields.
So, to my way of thinking, it’s less about gaming and the specifics thereof and more about the wider acceptance of Linux. Steam/Valve is a brilliant way of doing gaming and, as such, attracts a lot of our youngest and brightest minds. There, they can grow and learn and have fun. But, by getting on-board with Linux, Steam/Valve will increase its acceptance and thus help make our society little bit more free.
December 6, 2013 at 17:15
yeah, right now i use windows solely because there’s a lot more software developed for it. and a little nostalgia. i can convert at any time, likely within the next few years. windows isn’t heavily supported because it’s better than linux though; it’s just had more popularity and more time.
definitely gaming is a big reason why people have avoided linux, so it’s good that Valve is trying to fix that weakness. it’s going to take a long while to get the core gamers aboard, because 99% of the games on there are low-budget indie games, but those are probably enough for most people.
i suspect in the next 5 years (if not next year) linux will be big. i think the main thing holding linux back is that Microsoft Office is corporate-standard.
December 8, 2013 at 05:56
Jugg, Xanthippa:
I think the best reason to run Linux is because you can compile it yourself from the ground up. You can read every line of code before you compile it, and know for sure that there aren’t any security leaks.
If you’re running so much stuff that there’s too much code to read, then you might as well stick with Windows. The user-level applications on Linux are no more secure than the ones on Windows, though the invasion of privacy isn’t so in-your-face.
Open source isn’t enough. If there isn’t a large international community of highly competent, independent programmers actively engaged with the code base, then it’s almost certainly compromised – that’s what the NSA does for a living.
As for performance… well, I have an XP box that I haven’t rebooted in years, and even then it was only because a hard disk blew a bearing. It doesn’t get any slower with time. Everything that could lead to that is disabled.
It’s my go-to system for working with documents that I need to share with other people – which is most of them. I rely heavily on equations and figures in my writing, and OpenOffice never quite gets the formatting right. Until that changes, Windows will continue to own the corporate desktop.
I can’t vouch for the more recent versions of Windows, because I’ve never tried them. They offer nothing I want that I don’t already have, but they have added a lot of crud that I definitely don’t want.
December 8, 2013 at 06:05
Xanthippa:
Microsoft bought Skype two years ago.
The first thing they did was put a back door in the encryption. So, not only does Microsoft already have all the data associated with your Skype account, they have a complete log of every Skype call you participated in over in the last two years or so.
December 8, 2013 at 07:15
CodeSlinger,
I do realize that. However, the info I needed to fill in to get my Skype account was nowhere near as invasive as what the Microsoft account requires.