General / Off-Topic Steam OS

[Majere]

There will be, however, still people who want to use Windows in order to have access to their programs that cannot be found in Linux (Photoshop, Corel PaintShop Pro etc.).

So they could not use GIMP then? It's free.

To be honest, 99% of users don't need Adobe Photoshop or equivalent at all, perfectly adequate editing available in even phones these days for most uses.
Almost all home users use Windows out of ignorance, fear or lethargy rather than need. (This does not mean you dear reader)

Windows is only used for games because of critical mass, once that is eroded it will fall away rapidly.
The original iPad, and the tablets that followed have kick started this sea change in home computing where John and Jane Doe realise they really don't need a PC. If you are reading this forum you are probably not one of them but people often have trouble in realising the landscape of home users and assume they conform in some way to their own perspectives. It's hard to so, this was the 'genius' of Steve Jobs in that he saw beyond that and was able push out the frontier ( not Frontier ;-) )

I am very interested in what Frontier are doing with Cobra, from what I understand it is a powerful abstraction layer that means they can easily port to any platform they wish. To perform it must be immensely powerful and ED is probably going to be a showcase for what must be the company's most valuable asset.
I don't see any technical, non-licensing reason why ED would be eventually ported to Steam.

 

[Alien]

Sorry to go off topic here, but I just noticed this thread is in the Elite: Dangerous General section ... why? (or rather, why has it not been moved?)

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I agree. Basically the only thing keeping gamers from migrating to Linux has always been the lack of AAA titles. With this block gone, I'd hope to migrate my systems in a timely fashion.

There will be, however, still people who want to use Windows in order to have access to their programs that cannot be found in Linux (Photoshop, Corel PaintShop Pro etc.).

You mostly don't need Photoshop anymore. If you casual photographer or one to stitch picture together, you use GIMP and Inkscape combo, both are very powerful raster graphics and vector graphics tools and get improved rapidly. Both available on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X. Both very powerful and in my opinion user friendly (GIMP even now has single window mode by request of Photoshop users). And there's Kira and Blender which are used by professional artists and other applications which are used for multimedia.

There's really no reason to stay on Windows. Only choices

 

[Oss133]

Photo editing is not the only other thing you can do with a PC. And if you have invested in a lot of software, you can't necessarily migrate to another platform without significant outlay.

 

[Ashley Barley]

As Alien mentioned, this should probably be in off topic. I'll move it over now.

 

[jabokai]

I agree. Basically the only thing keeping gamers from migrating to Linux has always been the lack of AAA titles. With this block gone, I'd hope to migrate my systems in a timely fashion.

Speaking for myself as a gamer, I hope that Windows remains well catered for even if Linux becomes a viable gaming platform. It does everything I need it to, and all the programs I want are on it. Yes, equivalents are on Linux but there's no point in changing for the sake of it, or because it's the cool thing to do... perfectly happy with Windows.

 

[Cody]

Speaking for myself as a gamer, I hope that Windows remains well catered for even if Linux becomes a viable gaming platform. It does everything I need it to, and all the programs I want are on it. Yes, equivalents are on Linux but there's no point in changing for the sake of it, or because it's the cool thing to do... perfectly happy with Windows.

<nods> I too am a contented Windows user.

 

[Susimetsa]

So they could not use GIMP then? It's free.

Gimp is free, but it is very limited and un-userfriendly in many ways (mainly in how unintuitive many of the functions are). I use it occasionally, but when I want to do something serious, I turn to the other programs.

 

[VictorT]

So it's basically a year later, and Steam (and SteamOS) are not just viable, but have over 600 games for linux, all selling steadily if not in large volume..

any new insight on whether or not Elite: Dangerous might come out for SteamOS/Linux?

 

[Dusty]

All I know is Window 7 right now is at its sweet spot for PC gaming and in general if SteamOS get to where windows 7 is right now then I may convert