The funny thing is. The terms of the windows store are not written in a way that you do not have ownership of software. There are no subscription terms. Unlike Steam, which you effectively trade a license for a subscription, the windows store says you own your license.

It will be interesting to test the allowed transfer of my Rise of the Tomb Raider license.

Valve haven't locked anything down. all of the work Valve has done on Linux is open for everyone to benefit from. The Steam client is borderline SAAS and ahs the option for DRM, yes, and that sucks and can be problematic. But of all the guys up to no good that way, Valve does it with the most grace and success. Saying Steam has locked up Linux gaming is like saying Windows has locked up PC gaming.

edit: and when I say put the games on Debian, I don't mean necessarily put the games on actual Debian. I just mean support Linux. obviously Ubuntu or SUSE or something may make a nicer target platform than Debian. Support SteamOS is what I mean. I'm gonna stick with Debian and bang my head against the games til they work.

So... become MSs bitch instead of Valves bitch?

At least you now have a choice.

Before its be VALVe's bitch or don't play.

Sorry, Gears of War probably won't happen as it is not up to Epic. The series was outright purchased by Microsoft a few years ago.

edit:

http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-buys-gears-of-war-franchise/

The main difference is that Valve does not set itself up to be a monopoly, in fact they advice publishers get out on as many retailers as possible. There is no exclusivity deals with Valve, it is up to each individual developer what to do.

And in the end, Steam is just a store front, what would you like them to do? Refuse to sell games unless the publishers put the game in other stores also? Is that really Valves problem?

Steam OS says hello.

Hmmm does it sound a bit like perhaps Microsoft was pushing a free (although it could still be subscription later) OS in order to permanently lock down the computer market? It certainly feels like it to me.

I recall reading the user agreement for using Xbox Live for windows, and... i didn't like it at all. The windows store included as part of the OS seems like a very dangerous thing to do. Actually everything is suspicious.

Steam was the only company that has made as serious Linux gaming push. So they made a dedicated Linux variant that is meant to provide a stable target and user experience, and even try to give some sort of console feel to those looking for it. So what? You're not locked into that. You can still have access to the games and your Linux Steam gaming library with a number of distributions. There are no significant barriers forcing you to use SteamOS for Linux gaming or even Steam Linux gaming. There are no barriers forcing out Linux gaming competitors. There is about as much choice and opportunity there that one company can provide.

Getting somewhere first can lead to a monopoly, but it doesn't it is one automatically. Other people can and do challenge Steam. SteamOS isn't what is being feared here. The fear here is that MS is slowly frog boiling the Windows population into an environment where Steam, Origin, Uplay and whatever else, can't coexist or compete fairly with the OS itself. By giving away Windows 10 for free, MS has ensured every Win10 user has to accept every change they want because they accepted one user agreement back in 2015. Updates are mandatory, change is not optional. What MS is trying to change into is something people should be taking seriously regardless if it is good or bad.

SteamOS has nothing to do with monopoly and everything to do with reducing the amount of configuration the user must put in to get games to work as well as insulating themselves from the very transient and volatile nature of most open source platforms out there including the major ones (which has implications for reason 1).

I have Steam on Debian. it didn't work. had to run my mannly hands over it to get it cooperating.

I have some games installed on my Debian Steam. they did not work. had to do some more things, but at least I was able to do them to get games running. Linux, after all, is all about being a freeman.

Point is, I have games installed on Debian and it did not go smoothly. SteamOS is all about dealing with that, but it's not the same thing as monopoly and trying to be what Windows is trying to do.

also, Valve needed to improve the backend of Linux for the purpose of running games, something Linux doesn't really put a ton of focus on or at least historically didn't, and SteamOS was there way of ensuring that stuff got used.

and also, the UI guys would be like "it has to look and feel the same!" and the marketers are like "it has to all be branded!". fuck those guys. well not the UI guys.

in fact, just in case anyone from Valve is reading this. holy jeez Steam looks great lately. especially the website. just looks great. this transparent gradient stuff. when I went to mint's website when that happened, I noticed they were doing it too. I dunno if they were doing it first or you were but it just looks great. Patrick Klepek once said UI design is not Valve's strongsuit and at the time I didn't know what the fuck he was talking about. it was a rare moment where he was off point. cause Steam looks great.

Yes you're right, I'm sorry. :^P

Hell bloody yeah!
I'm playing HL2 on debian right now, works like a charm.
I believe, thanks to ms we may expect more games on linux. So, I'm completely fine with whatever they do ; )

edit:
Just tried Dead Island, works great on Jessie 8.3, nvidia 352.79

Without knowing a whole lot about UWP and Windows 10, is that actually true? I had the impression it was like Gatekeeper in OS X, where you can just change "Allow apps downloaded from:" to "Anywhere".

He does say "by default".