On 12.08.07, In Article on Microsoft new release!
I recently posted on-line about the fact that Valve are developing Steam for Linux. I speculated that the arrival of major games on this family of operating systems may – just possibly – lead to a surge in popularity for Linux. And this is now looking more likely, but not entirely for the reasons I first predicted.
Yes, Valve have now revealed an extra reason for developing Steam for Linux. Windows 8 is a disaster. That’s their opinion at least. Gabe Newell, Valve’s managing director, described Windows 8 as “a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space.” And especially for Game developers, it seems. So that’s part of the reason they’re developing for Linux now – with Windows 8 being bad news, they thought they’d better start supporting an alternative. It’s a kind of back-up plan, to compensate for the damage done by Microsoft, or even serve as a replacement if Windows 8 goes completely out of the window.
And they’re not alone in this view either. Once Newell brought the topic into the public eye, other prominent figures in the industry started coming out with similar views. Not only is Windows 8 a complete, and many would say unnecessary, redesign of the interface and many basic concepts of how to use a computer. It also may be closed off to outside developers a lot more than is traditional, making their lives harder.
So while I stand by my previous comments about finding it exciting that the PC market may soon see big changes, I’m a little deflated by 
this news. It may make that same thing look even more likely, but I never like to see these things happen at the expense of a major company, and I never like to see a respected name mess things up. So I do hope it doesn’t turn out as bad as it looks. I’m hoping to get hands-on with the Windows 8 preview in the near future, so I will withhold personal judgement until I do. But that will only tell me what it’s like to the user, so for the more technical aspects I must sadly bow to the opinions of those more knowledgeable than I.
See www.tha-one.com for more.
