I understand why. The biggest problem of the convential desktop is the ugly compomize between freedom, power users and professionals on one end, and casual consumer usage at the other end.
But that does mean, many of Valves current customers, that buy midrange devices, will end up on RT or iOS.
And the crowd on this site, will likely find the devices aimed for them moving to a more expensive and exclusive niche.
Amazon sells a Mac Mini for 600EUR (at least Amazon.fr does). That's about what an unsubsidized iPhone costs, right?
So where is this doom-and-gloom everything-is-locked-down-except-the-ultra-expensive actually coming from?
Do you want an iPad/iPhone/WinRT/Android tablet with "apps", or do you want an x86 device with the ability to run whatever binary code you want and an OS that enables that.
It's not about price, because you're right, I can find devices in both categories at literally all sorts of data points. But it is about the experience.
Valve's business RELIES on the experience that enables users to run, in this case, native code. Since they're being pushed out as a result of this shift... they're naturally trying to warn people and shift interest to a platform where they can more easily operate... or survive.
In fact, your example is ironic. People are more likely to go buy a $500 iPad than they are a $300 full featured Windows laptop. That's exactly what worries Valve. Or it should.
Your argument is completely fallacious.
The article speculates that the emergence of Windows Store app platform from the Windows desktop could become similar to the emergence of Windows from DOS, and that newer technologies will similarly only be available on the Windows Store app platform.
It describes the locked-down properties of the Windows Store, and, extrapolating from the current certification requirements for Windows Store apps, it asserts that a game like Skyrim would be denied certification on Windows Store in 2032 because of its PEGI rating.
I use closed devices with some mixed feelings about it, the thing I'm most sad to support is the move toward devices with bigger barriers toward tinkering than what I had as a kid. I'm probably more accepting of it when it's a device I never had as a kid, but when barriers are constructed for once-open platforms it starts to irk me.
If I had a choice between a C64 with BASIC and an iPad with a browser, I'd take the browser every time.
Within twenty seconds you can have http://jsfiddle.net/ up in a window and be programming JavaScript.
Within a few minutes you could create a Linode account and be using vi through ssh.
Within a few days you could be creating a much more significant application using the enormous selection of open-source tools that never, ever existed on the same platforms that GORILLA.BAS came from. You could do things that were virtually impossible in the 1980s in a matter of days or weeks, even with no prior experience.
People decry the App Store as "closed", but it's basically open to anyone with a hundred bucks and the ability to ship an executable to Apple. Sure, theoretically you could've shipped your game on your C64 on floppy disks, as some people successfully did, but the enormity of this undertaking is well beyond the ability of most beginner programmers. It was basically impossible to go it alone without a publisher for distribution. Now anyone can self-publish.
If you ask me, the ecosystem has never been more open and accessible to developers of all ages and backgrounds. It's also more open, more friendly to users of all stripes, not just enthusiasts. Your grandmother can buy apps through the app store. This sort of thing simply didn't happen in the so-called glorious old days of "open" computers.
I didn't even have to know I wanted to learn to program.
I agree with you that there are tons of awesome things at our fingertips for shipping applications to people, or for learning to code once you know that's what you want to do. jsfiddle looks great, if you know you want to learn JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Linode is awesome, once you know you want to host a site. The App Store is incredible, once you can write an acceptable app.
Those are all great things, and they are all a few steps beyond the stage I'm talking about. You're talking about learning to walk; I'm talking about learning to crawl.
Middle-man distributors, however, don't typically profit from platforms. Valve's position on platforms that have built-in preferred digital distribution systems isn't surprising, they're using their position as OS vendor to boost their digital software distribution business.
Steam?
I don't know if the title has been changed since it was posted—I suspect not, since it matches the URL—but what it actually says is that Linux is more viable than Windows for gaming (which is probably more surprising; but, in any case, is certainly a different point).
Especially considering that anything not from an app store is much easier to install on Windows (double click on GUI installer) than on Ubuntu (mess around with dependencies, and compiling stuff). Everything on Ubuntu comes from the Ubuntu store, or the Aptitude store. Not an easy task to download something like an exe off the web and install it
First of all, every damn time someone brings up the "you just have to double click the installer on Windows" argument, they leave out the steps before that (most prominently, locate and download a safe copy of said installer).
Second, I don't know what FUD you have been told about Linux on the desktop, but contrary to what you assert about it, no, installing applications on almost all widespread Linux distributions I can spontaneously think of - except Gentoo - requires neither compiling nor messing around with dependencies.
Third, no, not everything on Ubuntu comes from the "Ubuntu store" or "Apitude store" - in fact, neither of those exists. If you are talking about the Ubuntu Software Center, that's basically just a fancy front-end for APT - as is Aptitude. If I remember correctly, the UCS also allows purchasing of some commercial software as of recently (I don't use Ubuntu).
In addition, Ubuntu (and derived distributions) have a thing called Personal Package Archives, whose very concept is to make it possible to easily add your own package sources to complement the official repositories. The UCS can handle those, too.
Also, there's a very important distinction between a package repository as used in many Linux distributions and a closed app store: the former is, at least to an extent, managed by the community and the users. You cannot say that of the latter.
And if someone wants to give you simply a precompiled binary, they can do that too. Though in Linux you need to set the executable flag on it so you don't shoot yourself in the foot like you so easily can with malicious .exe files.
He did say that Microsoft and Apple are moving away from the open platform model and that Valve has always been in favor of open platforms. Linux is the best option for a continuing open platform in the future.
Actual video of the talk will be online within a day or so, so I suggest you watch that instead of reading contrite stories like this one.
Here is a much better article about the talk from OMG Ubuntu: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/10/valve-talk-steam-for-linu...