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How Will Steam on GNU/Linux Affect Software Freedom?
rms has published his thoughts on Steam coming to GNU/Linux. He notes that the availability of proprietary games may very well help spread GNU/Linux (but the FSF prioritizes spreading software freedom). And, you're better off at least having a Free operating system instead of Windows: "My guess is that the direct good effect will be bigger than the direct harm. But there is also an indirect effect: what does the use of these games teach people in our community? Any GNU/Linux distro that comes with software to offer these games will teach users that the point is not freedom. Nonfree software in GNU/Linux distros already works against the goal of freedom. Adding these games to a distro would augment that effect."
Or: How will the FOSS community affect Valve? Already they've contributed a bit to the graphics stack, hired a few folks from inside the community, etc. But Steam also makes use of DRM and distributes software in ways that are opposed to the ideals of many in the FOSS community (and even the wider Free Culture community). Given Gabe Newell's professed love for openness, might we see their company culture infiltrated?
Linux has failed on the desktop for the past decades and will continue to fail on the desktop in the future decades.
Face it the ONLY thing bringing Linux to the desktop currently is GAMING.
Would you prefer Origins on Linux or Steam? Frankly I would prefer neither as both are VERY ANTI COMPETITIVE but Linux needs something and this could be it.
Did Google Earth for linux affect software freedom?
How about VMWare Workstation?
Do these products take away our choices?
Do they take away choices from people who don't even use them?
I consider games not to be "software" for some time, it became part of entertainment industry, like films or music. It is created by large studios where programmers are only one ever smaller part of team. For this reason, I consider Steam equivalent of YouTube: channel that enables me to consume commercial entertainment, on my free OS, that remains fully GPL (minus GPU driver).
839*929
Think of it as a microcosm of government/citizens. If the government is not restricted in its activities, the citizens have no freedom. Same with developers and users. Giving "freedom" to the proprietary developer almost always means taking it from the user.
Great Intellect...
RMS probably somewhat inadvertently made a very interesting remark.
He separates the Game Art from the Game Software...
And admits that Game Art could be "non free"...
One of my current activities is designing Gaming Maths, the way the maths are made has a strong impact on the enjoyment (or lack of) any game.
I would argue that the "artistic" as opposed to "software" component is just as great as the artistic component of the graphics.
I also think that there is a fundamental difference in Gaming apps versus Infrastructure or Activity Apps.
If I provide a text processing system or an OS or an Identity management app, all user data trapped into these applications are naturally "content" owned by the user, and it should be normal for the user to be able to share it just as s/he wants.
And it is immoral to force them to be promoter of their software if they want others to be able to read their presentation, or share files, etc...
But Gaming datas are for the most part relevant only in the game, and although some elements like "avatar design" might be usefully standardized, most parts should not been seen or manipulated outside of the game, because it would destroy the interest and artistic integrity of the game.
Having the "freedom" of adding 10000000 flogotz to my flogotz count is meaning less, and if I really want I could just lie about having found the amulet of yendor...
Reading the source code of a game is interesting, but I do believe that the social contract between a game designer and a tool designer is very different, and not just for the game graphics.
Therefore I think RMS can be assurer that at the end Valve opening to Gnu/Linux is not just neutral but a real gain.
And I think that instead avoiding to speak about it, it would be better to explain that:
There are interesting free games that you can use to play and to learn "how it is done"
There are interesting tools like Ogre3D to help you write games.
And there are non free games, it is somewhat frustrating because it might need something you do not have (if you processor is a MIPS it will probably not run), but it is very different from a non free Tool, and you are welcome to it.
And hopefully game designer will work with the various communities to make sure that the coverage is as global as possible, and not just as "economically optimal"....
This comes up every time some proprietary software company comes to Linux. Every time, someone who doesn't get it wrings their hands about "ideologues" being "divisive" without realizing that the ideals these people are supposedly ideologues for are exactly the ones that caused Linux to become a viable OS, in the face of multi-billion dollar corporations constantly trying to eliminate it. The fact that people actually believe in something does not make them ideologues, especially not when they are repeated proven right.
No one can, will, or should stop Steam from coming to Linux. It will never be put in the repos of mainstream distros, and should not be, but that has little relevance to anything. But even if they can't do much about it, that doesn't mean the people who say there might be downsides are insane zealots. It means they might very well understand why Linux has stuck around for as long as it has better than you do.
Great Intellect...
And I have given Gates a bunch of money in the past, and don't have a problem with that. With Windows 8, next time I do buy a new system, I hate to admit it but I'll be forced to buy Apple. After Jobs, Bill Gates looks like a sweetheart to me... but Ballmer has fucked MS right up and W8 is a monkey's abortion. It looks like a stable Unity. But stable shit or unstable shit, they're still shit.
I program on Linux, specifically on a Linux VM guest on a Windows 7 host. Everything else I use Windows. I have had Windows 7 since it came out. Yes I've had to re-install it twice. But I've had to nuke half a dozen or more instances of Linux in the same time. Sure I could have kept them if I wanted to spend hours fucking around when things stopped working, but even with the amount of time it takes, it is easier and faster to blow it away and rebuild.
After the past week rebuilding my dev environment (this time moving it from a physical box where the video kept locking up the interface) I have vowed never use anything but a VM for Linux ever again as it is easier to clone that once it is installed to save the headache of rebuilding.
As much as Linux fanboys like to claim Linux is more stable, well it might just be as a server, but no way for a desktop. This is coming as a former ardent Linux fanboy who got his first Slackware distro in the 90s. Right around now in my life, I just want the fucking thing to work and not have to fuck around with it all the fucking time to keep it that way.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
The BSD license only protects software authors from lawyers, while the GPL also protects the software itself from the lawyers as well.