this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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I don't hate Valve, but let's be real, they're not adding to Linux out of the goodness of their hearts: They're doing it to protect their profits because they see that Windows is quickly becoming more closed and has its own Xbox gaming storefront. It isn't about belief in Linux as a product, it isn't about improving it for everyone, it's about improving it enough for gamers so that Steam won't be eventually locked out of the digital games sales market by Microsoft. They're basically just buying their way out of the vendor-lock-in of putting their store on someone else's proprietary operating system.
I don't think Linux desktop usage jumping from 1% to nearly 3% equals "everybody wins." Sounds like to me a lot of fuckin people are still losing. Like 97% of them at least.
I don't see the problem there. If someone is doing a good thing because it is profitable for them to do that good thing that's fine.
You're right, but the thing is most of the time companies do horrible things to boost their profits. Like Unity in the last few days. Valve doing seemingly pro-consumer things to protect their profits is a rarity, and it's really only a side-effect that there's consumer benefit. They aren't doing it to benefit consumers, they're doing it to preserve their marketplace. It's a side effect that it gives consumers more options. Valve is an unusually forward-thinking company when it comes to its long-term viability.
Maybe I want to root for the unprecedentedly forward thinking companies, because it's like a glimpse of what a lot of companies probably look like in other countries, especially the Nordic countries, that haven't had a history that led to their governments being able to be used as a tool to stifle competition, unlike the US