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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?
Problem is, GPL is "free" software, for the end user, and the source code sure, but its model is anything but "freedom" for the people using it. To get that you need to look at the BSD and other similar licenses.
Windows has failed on the desktop, and Linux is a complete success on the desktop.
It lets me do what I want to do with the minimum of fiddling around trying to get the computer working. This is (at least by my standards) a complete success. Windows, on the other hand, always seems to want me to reboot a driver or update a virus or something. Look at the difference between installing stuff - on Linux you type "sudo apt-get install ", enter your password, and wait a minute or two. In Windows you have to find and download an "exe" file, wait ten minutes or so while it gets scanned for "viruses", double-click it, wait while it shows you an animation and makes some silly noises, then click "next" on a dozen or so identical grey screens. Be careful not to click anything else, otherwise it'll ask you things like "Install to 'C:\Program Files\BozoSoft\SomeThing\Wtf\d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf\'?" and you're supposed to guess if that's the right answer or not. If you guess wrong, you need to reinstall everything from scratch.
Windows has failed on the desktop, and Linux won a long time ago.