Tell me if you've heard this one before: "Linux and open source are the future of gaming."
For longtime PC lovers, it's a familiar refrain, and one full of sadly misplaced hope and broken promises. But when those words are uttered by Gabe Newell—the co-founder of Valve, which owns and operates the insanely popular Steam PC gaming service—it's a tale worth rehashing.
Newell has been a fervent hater of Windows 8, once calling the operating system "a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space" thanks to the platform's shift towards a less open, more iOS-esque software model. Speaking at LinuxCon yesterday, he reiterated the claim.
"I think we'll see either significant restructuring or market exits by top five PC players. It's looking pretty grim," he said. "Systems which are innovation-friendly and embrace openness are going to have a greater competitive advantage to closed or tightly regulated systems."
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon