Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gabe Newell (Formerly Microsoft, Now Valve's Head) and Intel Declare GNU/Linux Desktop Victorious

Gabe Newell
Source: Official GDC



Summary: The long-ridiculed claims that GNU/Linux has reached its year of desktop prominence are becoming mainstream

Valve is shifting away from Windows and will soon reveal its GNU/Linux appliance [1-10], which will be a gaming machine. Intel, the largest chipmaker, is meanwhile showing increasing levels of support for GNU/Linux leaders [11] (except Canonical's forks with Ubuntu [12]) in order to sell chips on devices [13-14], desktops/laptops [15], and servers [16]. There is clearly a lot of work going into kernel-level improvements [17-20] and Intel now foresees a future of GNU/Linux as the dominant desktop platform [21-22]. Given that even allies of Microsoft (or former staff-turned-entrepreneur with net worth of $ 1.1 billion) switch to GNU/Linux so enthusiastically, can anyone still say with a straight face that GNU/Linux will never "make it"?



Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. Half-Life: Source & Half-Life Deathmatch: Source Come To Linux
    Valve are making another Linux push towards having their full library available on Linux, this time it's Half-Life: Source & Half-Life Deathmatch: Source.


  2. Valve Hints at Steam Box News for Next Week


  3. Postal 2 DLC Details Revealed
    Running With Scissors has revealed some but not all of the details of what will come with the Postal 2 (Steam, Desura) DLC!


  4. Gabe Newell At LinuxCon 2013, Linux Is The Future Of Gaming


  5. Valve CEO: Why Linux is the future of gaming
    Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve declared that proprietary software and closed platforms are gaming's past, its future is open and on Linux.


  6. Valve Linux-Based SteamBox Details Coming Next Week
    For those that didn't yet watch Gabe Newell's talk about Linux gaming, at the end of the presentation he notes next week will be more information from Valve about their plans to bring Linux into the living room.


  7. Gabe Newell: Linux is the future of gaming, new hardware coming soon
    Valve chief blasts PC market, promises big news is coming next week.


  8. Valve's Gabe Newell Talks Up Linux For Gaming
    Gabe Newell was one of the prominent speakers today during the first day of LinuxCon in New Orleans. Here's an upload of his presentation where he's trumpeting the benefits of Linux for servers and gaming. Gabe believes, "Linux is the future of gaming."


  9. The State of Linux: Game On at LinuxCon
    Linux is landing on gaming systems and embedded devices, but challenges still remain as leading technology thinkers detail the state of Linux at the LinuxCon conference.


  10. Gabe Newell talks about Linux as the future of gaming; teases "Steam Box" hardware
    The gamers among us waited... very... patiently... for Steam to come to Linux. This week, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell came to LinuxCon to talk about Linux, gaming, and how important open source is to the future of gaming, which given the audience, he described as "sort of like going to Rome and teaching Catholicism to the Pope." In even better news, he also strongly hinted at a Steam Box announcement next week.


  11. Intel, Red Hat working on enabling Wayland support in Gnome
    Open Source is all about collaboration and contribution and two leading communities are working towards making Wayland a reality.


  12. Intel not to support Ubuntu's XMir
    As a major set-back to Canonical's plans for Mir, Intell has pulled the carpet from underneath Canonical by announcing that they won't support XMir.


  13. Atom-based PC/104 SBC runs Linux hot or cold
    EMAC announced a fanless, Linux-ready PC/104 format single-board computer built around Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, available in a wide temperature (-40 to 80€°C) model.


  14. Expandable Mini-ITX SBC runs Linux on 1.8GHz Atom
    Acrosser announced a Fedora Linux-ready Mini-ITX single board computer (SBC) equipped with a dual-core 1.86GHz Intel Atom D2550. The AMB-D255T3 supports up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, can run dual displays via VGA, HDMI, or 18-bit LVDS interfaces, and offers both PCI and Mini-PCIe expansion.


  15. Google announces Haswell powered Chromebooks
    Intel and Google have announced new Chromebooks powered by the much talked about Haswell processors. Two major PC vendors ASUS and Toshiba have joined the Chrome OS club which include Samsung, Acer and HP. While HP and Acer are offering new Chromebooks, ASUS is brining new Chromebox to the market.


  16. Intel Uses Open Source, OpenStack Cloud to Its Advantage
    At LinuxCon, Dirk Hohndel, Intel's chief Linux and open-source technologist, explains why Intel is invested in open source and what his company is doing with the OpenStack cloud.


  17. Intel Is Still Working On Linux Power Capping
    It's been a while since last hearing anything from Intel engineers about their proposed Power Capping Framework or Running Average Power Limit driver for the Linux kernel, but that changed today. New patches have been released for the power monitoring and limiting kernel code.


  18. Intel Iris Pro Linux Performance Doubles With Driver Upgrades
    Last week I ran a System76 Galago UltraPro Preview with some benchmark results and a special article looking at the Intel Iris Pro 5200, the Haswell graphics cores with 128MB of dedicated video memory stacked onto the die itself. Those tests were done remotely but now with having a System76 Galago UltraPro ultrabook review sample in the labs, here are some fresh tests looking at the very latest state of Haswell Iris Pro graphics under Linux. The benchmarks cover the state of Ubuntu 13.04 going through the latest open-source Linux graphics driver code with the yet-to-be-released Mesa 9.3 and the Linux 3.12 kernel.


  19. Intel "Haswell" Iris Pro Linux Graphics Yield Some Wins Against Windows
    For the past few days at Phoronix we have begun looking extensively at the Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics under Linux, since receiving the System76 Galago UltraPro. The Iris Pro 5200 are the new high-end Intel Haswell graphics that have 128MB of embedded video RAM on the die, which should yield a nice performance boost when properly implemented within the Intel Linux driver. Already our testing has found the Iris Pro performance on Linux has doubled with open-source driver improvements since Haswell's launch. Now we're out today with our first Intel Iris Pro OpenGL gaming benchmarks between Ubuntu Linux and Microsoft Windows 8 for this Intel Core i7 Ultrabook.


  20. Linux Still Needs Better OpenGL Debugging Support
    Intel's Ian Romanick will take to the Linux Plumbers Conference tomorrow with a plea to work together to provide better capabilities across the Linux stack for better debugging and profiling of graphics applications/systems on Linux. The open-source Intel Linux Mesa developer himself calls the current graphics debugging situation on Linux a "disaster" to be fixed.


  21. Is the year of the Linux desktop finally here?
    Today in Open Source: Intel thinks the year of the Linux desktop is here. Plus: Linus and Moore's Law, and Tiny Core 5.0 screenshots


  22. Intel: The year of the Linux desktop is here
    New Orleans: The Sept. 18 LinuxCon keynote sessions were kicked off by Intel Chief Linux and Open Source Technologist and Linux kernel developer Dirk Hohndel who said that client computing today is mostly Linux. Thanks to Android on smartphones and tablets, plus the rise of Chromebooks, Intel sees Linux as the leading end-user operating system.




Recent Techrights' Posts

SLAPP Censorship - Part 64 Out of 200: Not Amused by Repeated Threats (to "Shut Down" My "Existence" While Mentioning My Wife Too)
it's about censorship
The NHS is Under Attack by Anthropic and Microsoft (or Their Lemmings That Infect the NHS)
They are kidding themselves if they seriously believe Web-facing source code repositories are the real threat to patients
cPanel is Not Linux, cPanel is Proprietary Software
It's fair to say I've used cPanel for 23 years
Storage and Memory Prices Are Rising Not Because of High Demand (Production Can Match Demand), It's Partly Because of Price-Fixing (Same as Food Price Increases)
Sophisticated robberies are still robberies
Thousands of Layoffs at IBM, So IBM Pays Mainstream Media to Claim That IBM is Hiring (Paid Lies)
This is a story about the media failing us, not just IBM failing as a company
A Look at DataStax Bluewashing (IBM and Layoffs)
IBM is a place that many people leave or get pushed out of
 
IBM's CEO 10 Years Ago in IBM-Sponsored Forbes: "For those willing to embrace [blockchains], the future will indeed be bright."
How well did this prediction materialise?
RightsCon Cancellation as a Data Point in a World Gone Astray
RightsCon should not even be controversial
Links 02/05/2026: Gen Z is Turning Against Slop and OpenAI/Microsoft Rift Explained
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/05/2026: Leaving Session, Alhena 5.5.7, and Slop Failing Customers
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 01, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, May 01, 2026
Links 01/05/2026: Microsoft 'Headcount' Decreasing, Apple Quietly Killing Vision Pro
Links for the day
Oracle's Debt Grew by Over 50 Billion Dollars in 6 Months
Larry Ellison spent a lot of money buying a lot of the corporate media
In Praise of Debian
30 hours ago we began an upgrade
What Linus (Torvalds, the Linux Dude) Meant by "Show Me the Code"
"Show Me the Code" is a common cultural reference
Yes, GNU/Linux Can Run on Playstation 5, But Don't Buy It, Learn From Sony's Past of Rootkit and PS3 Betrayal
Millions of Playstation 3 owners will never forget what Sony did to them
XBox Will Not Last Much Longer, XBox Chief Admits Problems
Microsoft's latest "results"
Dealing With Demagogue in Free Software
Don't spread their ideology and never participate in any of their projects
What May 1 Means to Us (and to Many Others)
To me, May 1 means something
Microsoft Lunduke is 'Pulling a Garrett' by Turning Technical and Legal Debate Over Rust Into a 'Trans Debate'
Don't fall for the demagogue
Links 01/05/2026: Regulatory Trouble for Apple, Now Even Mozilla Pushes Back Against Google
Links for the day
Microsoft "Buyout" Offer is Less Than One Year's Salary
So our assumption about this was correct
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part X - European Patent Office Managers Have Crossed Red Lines, According to Themselves
The girlfriend of the President of the European Patent Office (EPO) is trying to muzzle EPO critics
Techrights is Still Growing, Attacking Techrights Does Not Weaken the Community
Bullying us for 2+ years does not result in fear, it results in us feeling more emboldened and motivated
SLAPP Censorship - Part 63 Out of 200: Graveley as a Stripped-Down Version of Garrett in the Particulars of Claim (5RB Barrister Could Do This in One Minute)
Lazily and sloppily, it looks like the barrister took Garrett's claims and tweaked them a little (shortened) for Graveley
Lots of People Leave IBM, Today IBM Has About 1,000 Workers Fewer Than Yesterday
Confluent "last day" for 800+ people
Been a Very Busy Week
Next week, as we have no upgrades to prepare for, we should be able to publish at the usual pace of 20+ pages per day
In New Letter Sent to Chair and Heads of Delegation of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation the Staff Union Explains How to End European Patent Office Strikes
If Campinos continues to behave as he does right now, the Council can show him the door
Links 01/05/2026: Poems and Continuous Privacy Policy
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 30, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, April 30, 2026
Microsoft Debt Rose Almost $50 Billion Since We Moved to Debian
GAFAM has a new name for debt
Google News Sloppy Again
Today was disappointing
European Patent Office Management Mocked for Trying to 'Bribe' Staff With a Little Food
The Office is having a crisis; a little breakfast treat won't solve it
SLAPP Censorship - Part 62 Out of 200: Garrett and Graveley Issue Astounding Copy-Paste Masterpiece Asserting Publicly-Accessible Embarrassing Facts Must Remain Hidden
Are Garrett and Graveley twins separated at birth but joined by GNOME and Microsoft?
Links 30/04/2026: Barrage of Lawsuits Against Slop, Microsoft's Stock Crashes
Links for the day
Microsoft Says Mass Layoffs Are Coming and Puts a Price on Them
Microsoft will shrink
The Corporate Media Intentionally Overlooks How Google's Debt Trebles in Just Over a Year
We'll soon see how much more money Microsoft has borrowed
(Trigger Warning) Jeremy Bicha & Debian-Edu, TecKids, Ubuntu incest scandal at DebConf25
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Upgrade Successful
we had a downtime of only 1-2 minutes overall (for two reboots)
Links 30/04/2026: Slop Industry Cannot Keep Up With Bills, "The World Is Getting Too Hot to Feed Itself"
Links for the day
Then Come the DDoS Attacks
Is someone trying to 'kill' Techrights?
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part X - Deliberately Violate European Patent Convention (EPC), Tolerate Cocaine Use in Management, Hide That From Staff and Stakeholders
The "Alicante Mafia" (as staff calls it) is a disgrace to Europe
The Register MS Running Spam Pieces for Huawei, a Banned Company
Money does not excuse bad behaviour
Apparently Last Day for Nearly 1,000 Confluent Workers IBM Laid Off Last Month
IBM is a dying company pretending to be strong because of its age
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 29, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Gemini Links 30/04/2026: Outdoor Time, Old Computers, and Joining Geminispace
Links for the day