https://venturebeat.com/games/valve-unveils-13-partners-for-...
Now that the ecosystem is more mature, there is again some interest towards it. A lot of tech reivew youtubers are now making content on how to get Steam OS to run on X device (X = GPD Win, low profile gaming PC etc..). Honestly, It is good enough to meet most of my "non technical" friends' requirements for their "Home Theater" PC.
They are using Linux to avoid paying the licences.
Windows already doesn't charge any license fees for screens less than 9" no?
It may have started out that way but I think with projects like DXVK, Gamescope etc.. it is also about controlling the whole software stack to provide a console like experience. Also allows them to do things without worrying about drivers from AMD or some random Windows update breaking their customization.
Another interesting thing maybe Valve's idea of reducing the friction. People used to purchase their games on steam even when pirated copies were easily available.
Now that there are more competitors to Steam (Windows Store, Epic, Uplay, Orign, Gog, etc...), Valve is creating their own vertical to make it easier for people to ignore those places when buying games.
Eg. I had the option of purchasing a DRM free copy of an old game on Gog vs. the same game on Steam Deck. On desktop, I'd have definitely gone with Gog. but on the deck, I actually went with Steam that day. Still baffles me.
Steam Machine was a PC-like piece of hardware aimed at competing in the console market. The gp is suggesting a gamer-oriented piece of software aimed at competing in the consumer OS market. The latter is definitely not something Steam Machines tried and/or failed at.
(Note: I fully realize Win7 had a ton of windows warts under the hood - I'm just talking about the user experience)
Or at least someone should upload a no-BS win11 ISO somewhere.
I don't know what kind of development you're doing, but this does not match my experience at all.
WSL just had lots of instability issues in my experience when I had to run a handful of services for debugging stuff locally. I tried all sorts of configs to get it to work but it was inconsistent at best. Tons of wasted time. Enough so that our teams got work to get us macs instead (we were a windows shop spinning up a new cloud product - so windows didn’t really make sense as our daily driver anymore anyways). This was about 2 years ago. Maybe things are better now but 6 months of dealing with that instability was enough to sour me.
If this trend continues, perhaps one day win32 will outlive Windows itself...
Between wine/proton and more engine OS cross compatibility in general this is starting to become a non issue. Not that hard anymore to find someone who plays exclusively on Linux and if some game is not there it's not going to buy it.