10.26.13
Microsoft’s Common Carrier Dying While GNU/Linux on the Desktop Rising Because Steam Helps Eliminate Gaming Gap
Summary: How Torvalds and Stallman view the emergence of Steam on GNU/Linux and what it means to Apple and Microsoft
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.
Linux Torvalds believes that Valve’s new GNU/Linux-based operating system will help the platform as a whole on the desktop [1,2]. Richard Stallman too, back when he wrote about this subject, is careful not to judge Valve too crudely. Not even a free-of-charge Mac OSuX is a threat to GNU/Linux in Torvalds’ mind, based on these new reports, so the only barrier/milestone to GNU/Linux as a dominant force on the desktop right now is some additional momentum. Nvidia, for example, thought it could just give Linux the middle finger because not many people used it on the desktop; big mistake! Nvidia was widely shamed when Torvalds gave it the middle finger (it received plenty of coverage and a photo of it in included in one of the articles above) and now that we know how Nvidia intentionally crippled its drivers for Linux we should give it a good boycott. There are plenty of new games announced every week [3-13] and Nvidia’s intentionally-broken drivers (which are also blobs with potential back doors) will only be a barrier. Some try to explain why Nvidia did this [14] while the company releases a new driver [15] and in other Linux graphics news [16], both Wayland [17] and X.Org [18] are very much alive, showing that more than just one display server (there are several now) is needed when Linux goes mainstream, especially in mobile (servers rarely need a graphical front end). The biggest losers here are Microsoft and Apple and judging by current trends (both companies lose share in their key areas) we are heading towards a world of Linux (and often GNU too) everywhere! █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Torvalds gives the thumbs up to SteamOS
Linus Torvalds has given his approval to Valve’s Linux-based platform, SteamOS, and said it could boost Linux on desktops.
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SteamOS could really help desktop Linux adoption, says Torvalds
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.
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‘Monaco’ Holloween update brings zombies, Blondes, and Linux
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The 7th Guest, 11th Hour bundle up for safety on Steam
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Here’s your October 24, 2013 Indie Game Bundle Update
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.
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GamingOnLinux Reviews – Trine 2: Complete Story
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7 Days To Die Taken Down From Steam
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Trilobyte Games Titles Now on Steam
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Battle Worlds: Kronos initiates advance wars November 4
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.
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Forced’s Successful Launch on PC, Linux and Mac
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.
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War for the Overworld now supports Linux with Bedrock Beta 0.2.2
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.
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Secrets of Rætikon flies to Indiegogo
And Yet it Moves and Chasing Aurora developer Broken Rules has launched an Indiegogo campaign for its upcoming exploratory action adventure Secrets of Rætikon.
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Sweeney and Carmack chime in on Steam Machines
Valve’s long game could lead consoles to a more ‘enlightened path’
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Why did Nvidia cripple its Linux driver?
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NVIDIA Releases Major Linux Driver With New Features, EGL
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.
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Linux Graphics News
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.
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Wayland-Based Hawaii Desktop Is Still Active
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.
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The Re-Opened X.Org Server 1.15 Pushes Ahead
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.
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