MICROSOFT, which suffered major losses even in the nineties (when it was said to be ultra-wealthy), is on its way out as a monopoly in operating systems. Microsoft is not just hugely corrupt; it is an odd entity because of its financial state. It receives large subsidies from governments (in the form of contracts) and very recent NSA leaks about PRISM show a simultaneous NSA Skype takeover, coinciding with Microsoft's purchase of the European company. A lot of businesses are created in and/or operating in losses, sometimes with government subsidies (if they have friends in government or some strong lobbying). Last year Microsoft publicly admitted losses (the key word here is "publicly"). Based on Microsoft's own words (to investors) in a new filing [via]; “D&C Licensing revenue decreased $335 million or 7%, due mainly to lower revenue from licenses of Windows OEM and Consumer Office, offset in part by increased Windows Phone revenue. Windows OEM revenue declined $237 million or 7%, reflecting a 22% decrease in OEM non-Pro revenue, offset in part by a 6% increase in OEM Pro revenue. Consumer Office revenue declined $217 million or 23%. These decreases resulted primarily from the impact on revenue of a decline in consumer demand.” They speak about revenue -- not income -- and moreover they omit the divisions/products that are losing billions of dollars each. Nobody except Microsoft really knows what kind of accounting goes o deepn inside. Even the impact of patent shakedown against Android is unknown; it is hard to confirm that Microsoft even makes money this way. Given how previous Microsoft CFOs were paid millions of dollars to just keep quiet (after former Microsoft accountants had blown the whistle on financial fraud) we might as well assume that Microsoft always does far worse than it publicly admits.
Linus Torvalds has given his approval to Valve's Linux-based platform, SteamOS, and said it could boost Linux on desktops.
This is a familiar refrain that has received new life in recent months thanks to Valve and its efforts to turn Linux into a gaming platform with the Steam client for Linux (shown above) and the Linux-based SteamOS.
Greetings everyone, for a timely installment of the Indie Game Bundle update. This week, sites are really getting into the Halloween mood. There are 12 bundles to choose from this week, and three get into the spirit of the season by filling themselves with horror games. Of those three, the just released Groupee’s Bundle of the Damned 2 is probably the best bet, because then you get an array of unsettling games, along with a graphic novel and some otherworldly music. Really though, it’s up to you. It’s a good week in the world of indie game bundles, and you’ll find something to amuse yourselves and add to your backlog.
Battle Worlds: Kronos, the hexy turn-based strategy game funded through a successful Kickstarter, will begin November 4 taking deployment orders to PC, Mac and Linux (Steam and GOG). Updating release windows developer KING Art provided to us at Gamescom, the mobile and tablet versions are now planned for early 2014. The studio previously told us mid-2014.
Danish developer, BetaDwarf Entertainment have officially released Forced on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux. In celebrating the launch this week, the action RPG will be available for a special 20% discount.
The developers at Subterranean Games are "on track for our spooky surprise" by the end of October, as well as extend the deadline on their War for the Overworld-themed pumpkin competition to November 3rd.
And Yet it Moves and Chasing Aurora developer Broken Rules has launched an Indiegogo campaign for its upcoming exploratory action adventure Secrets of Rætikon.
Valve's long game could lead consoles to a more 'enlightened path'
NVIDIA this morning unveiled their first Linux graphics driver beta as part of the 331.xx series. The NVIDIA 331.13 Beta that was released this morning for Linux systems is quite exciting in that it brings a whole lot of fixes, improvements, and new features. Perhaps most exciting is that there's finally (but limited) EGL support right now -- a precursor for handling Wayland and Mir.
The X.org Developer's Conference was held in Portland this September, providing a venue to discuss a range of topics relating to OpenGL, drivers, the X server, Wayland and Mir. Core X.org development has been in a bit of a lull, evidenced by the fact that there wasn't enough change to warrant a near-term 1.15 release of the server, but this is more than made up by increased progress made in Mesa at implementing OpenGL specifications.
While there's been a lot of Wayland announcements recently, there hasn't been much news on the Wayland-powered Qt5-based Hawaii desktop that's part of the Maui project. Though they have hit a roadblock in their "Green Island" Wayland compositor, the desktop shell continues to move forward with new features and functionality.
At the XDC2013 X.Org conference it was decided to postpone the X.Org Server 1.15 release until year's end to let more features land. Keith Packard has now gone ahead and merged some of the new code and issued a new development release.