This is a dumb headline and a dumb article. Valve is making ripples in handhelds, yes, but to say the same on PC is moot. Microsoft still has an iron grip on a large amount of PCs. There’s so few that will bother with SteamOS as OS of choice since it is a one-trick pony compared to Windows, even though it is shit right now. They still need Windows to run nearly 99% of games.
In my own personal experience, as a gamer and having switched my main machine at home to Pop!OS some months ago, it’s more like “need Windows to run nearly 5% of games” thanks to Wine and Proton which work as adaption layers to let Windows programs (not just games) run in Linux.
(Curiously I use a lot more Wine with Lutris than Proton and Steam, so my success rate is even down to how far the main Wine project got, rather than any special juice that Steam might have added on their Proton branch of Wine - you don’t really need Steam or Proton to run most games in Linux and the success rate for just running games from GoG or even pirated ones is just as good and from some games it’s even the case that the Steam version won’t run but a pirated version runs just fine, probably because it was the DRM that the pirates cracked that caused the problems).
Mind you, at least in my games collection only maybe 1 in 20 have native Linux versions (which is still better than 99% of games being Windows only), but because of adaption layers like Wine and Proton, for most games you can run the Windows version of it in Linux.
Absolutelly, in the old days it definitelly was the case that Windows was needed for nearly 99% of games (I should know: I’ve been trying to switch my gaming to Linux since the late 90s), but that’s not at all the case anymore.
Your idea of how hard it is to game on Linux is at least 1 decade out of date.
honestly steam os is in many ways better at running old ass windows programs than windows.
Case in point, Steel Panthers (WinspMBT or WinspWW2) is an ancient DOS game that can’t run in fullscreen without crashing on Windows and honestly I prefer it on my deck because it inherently runs the game in fullscreen and overall seems to run it better than my windows computer ever did.
You’re missing the point, while everyone plays on windows, valve makes all the money. Now with handheld valve is looking to own the OS and Marketplace.
In the first one Microsoft gets very little benefit for all the gamin on their OS, in the handheld it’s possible they’ll own nothing.
It is very strangely worded and structured. I mean, the point is fairly obvious and by extension not… wrong, but the analysis and the writing aren’t great.
Which I guess is on par for what’s left of Kotaku these days.
This is a dumb headline and a dumb article. Valve is making ripples in handhelds, yes, but to say the same on PC is moot. Microsoft still has an iron grip on a large amount of PCs. There’s so few that will bother with SteamOS as OS of choice since it is a one-trick pony compared to Windows, even though it is shit right now. They still need Windows to run nearly 99% of games.
In my own personal experience, as a gamer and having switched my main machine at home to Pop!OS some months ago, it’s more like “need Windows to run nearly 5% of games” thanks to Wine and Proton which work as adaption layers to let Windows programs (not just games) run in Linux.
(Curiously I use a lot more Wine with Lutris than Proton and Steam, so my success rate is even down to how far the main Wine project got, rather than any special juice that Steam might have added on their Proton branch of Wine - you don’t really need Steam or Proton to run most games in Linux and the success rate for just running games from GoG or even pirated ones is just as good and from some games it’s even the case that the Steam version won’t run but a pirated version runs just fine, probably because it was the DRM that the pirates cracked that caused the problems).
Mind you, at least in my games collection only maybe 1 in 20 have native Linux versions (which is still better than 99% of games being Windows only), but because of adaption layers like Wine and Proton, for most games you can run the Windows version of it in Linux.
Absolutelly, in the old days it definitelly was the case that Windows was needed for nearly 99% of games (I should know: I’ve been trying to switch my gaming to Linux since the late 90s), but that’s not at all the case anymore.
Your idea of how hard it is to game on Linux is at least 1 decade out of date.
No you don’t? Literally that’s what proton does
The biggest holdouts are specific kernel anticheat solutions.
honestly steam os is in many ways better at running old ass windows programs than windows.
Case in point, Steel Panthers (WinspMBT or WinspWW2) is an ancient DOS game that can’t run in fullscreen without crashing on Windows and honestly I prefer it on my deck because it inherently runs the game in fullscreen and overall seems to run it better than my windows computer ever did.
99%?
I’d say SteamOS/Linux is closer to running 99% of games. Mostly just anti-cheat standing in the way.
And what does the majority of players use to install and play games? Yes, Steam.
Also 78 of the 100 top games on Steam just run on Linux and 90 with some tinkering. Not really sure where that 99% comes from.
You’re missing the point, while everyone plays on windows, valve makes all the money. Now with handheld valve is looking to own the OS and Marketplace.
In the first one Microsoft gets very little benefit for all the gamin on their OS, in the handheld it’s possible they’ll own nothing.
It is very strangely worded and structured. I mean, the point is fairly obvious and by extension not… wrong, but the analysis and the writing aren’t great.
Which I guess is on par for what’s left of Kotaku these days.