Arch Linux announces direct collaboration with Valve

Topher

Topher

Identifies as young


Bob Odenkirk GIF by The Office
 
I don't understand in todays environment why not just focus on native Linux game development libraries?

I
 
I assume "build service infrastructure" has to do with [building, and] distributing system updates/images.

There's speculation that "secure signing enclave" relates to an some anti-cheat solution. I could see it being related to copyright protection measures also.

I work with linux and these aren't phrases i've seen before. Googling them excluding today's valve news doesn't give a ton of results.
 
HogIsland said:
I assume "build service infrastructure" has to do with [building, and] distributing system updates/images.

There's speculation that "secure signing enclave" relates to an some anti-cheat solution. I could see it being related to copyright protection measures also.

I work with linux and these aren't phrases i've seen before. Googling them excluding today's valve news doesn't give a ton of results.
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I expect Valve asked where they could provide the most assistance and Arch pointed to their service infrastructure so that developers can focus on more direct OS enhancements. Fairly vague announcement for the most part, but Valve becoming more directly involved hopefully leads to expanded collaboration down the road.
 
HogIsland said:
I work with linux and these aren't phrases i've seen before.
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Which is why Valve is funding them. I don't mind that much (not a free software diehard) if they create modules that can be loaded by any kernel to be able to play games that otherwise wouldn't be able to run.
 
i liked arch, i tried a few linux distros a couple of months ago and most of the games i tried ran best on arch.
arch is not very noob friendly to install though.
 
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SyberWolf said:
i liked arch, i tried a few linux distros a couple of months ago and most of the games i tried ran best on arch.
arch is not very noob friendly to install though.
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True, but it will be once Valve releases their version for the public.
 
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very happy about that one, just started doing Mint on my laptops and getting used to it, would love a wider steam library than the current one.
 
rodrigolfp said:
Just use Manjaro or something like that.
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I found that Arch and Manjaro broke functionality of 3rd party stuff on updates since it's rolling update.

Mind you it's been like 2 years since I tried the distros and my memory in that is a bit hazy. But I do remember having some software issues due to updates.
 
StereoVsn said:
I found that Arch and Manjaro broke functionality of 3rd party stuff on updates since it's rolling update.

Mind you it's been like 2 years since I tried the distros and my memory in that is a bit hazy. But I do remember having some software issues due to updates.
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What broke?
 
simpatico said:
I'm not updating to Windows 11 for my gaming rig, so this is great news.
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i'm not one of those hurr durr linux avcados but Linux Mint I am using rn does a lot of good on my laptops and steam has a library for it
Most open games you can get by the 'store' it has, doesnt sell you stuff, just offers you your search query items... OpenArena is a thing.
 
StereoVsn said:
Don't remember, lol, it's been couple of years. I recall I had some issues with a few different packages. Might not be a problem if it's supported more now days.
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Arch is known or pushing out newer features and updates quicker than other distros that favor more stability.
 
Topher said:
Arch is known or pushing out newer features and updates quicker than other distros that favor more stability.
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I didnt read much stuff before this, but if they could do something similar stable there would be so much in it.
I am worn out on W10 shenangigans and firefox just resetting my privacy stuff with ever update.

I would like an OS that doesnt try to fuck me every step of the way. W10 nofuckeryscript was bad enough and these dog companies are going to take and take and take.
 
I hope Valve eventually give Steam Machines another go; thanks to Steam Deck they'd be more successful and could integrate that experience into a Steam Machine 2.0 initiative.

Only thing left would be to partner with a larger company for production at larger scale, like how Hudson did with NEC for PC-Engine. And unlike then, the one making hardware in this case would be profitable off the hardware in a way that makes sense (NEC's profits off PC-Engine were low but they got a lot from peripherals, however that whole platform was using a traditional console business model as per standard in the day). Maybe Samsung?

A Steam Machine 2.0 on Arch Linux with Steam OS BPM support natively built-in would be a fantastic alternative to a PlayStation 6 or the next gaming hardware Microsoft releases.
 
HogIsland said:
I assume "build service infrastructure" has to do with [building, and] distributing system updates/images.

There's speculation that "secure signing enclave" relates to an some anti-cheat solution. I could see it being related to copyright protection measures also.

I work with linux and these aren't phrases i've seen before. Googling them excluding today's valve news doesn't give a ton of results.
Click to expand...
"A build service architecture" sounds like perhaps they are hosting build pipelines or something for them to collaborate.

The secure signing enclave the surely has to do with being able to trust code is from a known publisher.

edit: anyways yeah basically what you said, the code signing thing could mean a lot of different things though. Could mean Xbox / Playsation OS level total protection from any unsigned code execution tied to a chip on the hardware or just TPM level "the BIOS / kernel are protected" stuff.

Both of those things can relate to general security, DRM and anti-cheat really. Could be something not tied to hardware too like how Windows has their secured installs where the files can't be messed with pre-TPM but then again there's a reason that wasn't enough.
 
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Eh. This is just Valve making the Steam Deck more sustainable, as now Arch is far less likely to just stop development (not that that was likely anyway, but from a business point of view it is good to cover such bases).

I don't think it will result in any real improvement to PC gaming. Arch are going to continue to be Arch; and Valve be Valve. Both without the ability to produce a nice clean UI to save their lives.
 
Tams said:
Eh. This is just Valve making the Steam Deck more sustainable, as now Arch is far less likely to just stop development (not that that was likely anyway, but from a business point of view it is good to cover such bases).

I don't think it will result in any real improvement to PC gaming. Arch are going to continue to be Arch; and Valve be Valve. Both without the ability to produce a nice clean UI to save their lives.
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What is wrong with big picture mode?
 
Nintendo's Witch said:
The day I no longer have to deal with Windows, maybe, I'll contemplate the possibility of going back to Pc gaming.
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If you're willing to accept the games that just don't work (Destiny, Call of Duty...), you can legitimately game on linux right now. It's never been better. I run Fedora 40 on a laptop with Nvidia 3060 hybrid graphics (always been a sticking point on linux), and everything is good. Cutting edge games like Helldivers and Starfield perform just fine with Valve's Proton.
 
kevboard said:
will Linux finally be a viable OS?
That would be a huge deal.
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it's already a viable os, it's just not likely to outpace Windows simply because PCs don't ship with it. the portion of the population ready to install a new OS from a thumb drive (even just to reinstall windows) is pretty small.
 
HogIsland said:
it's already a viable os, it's just not likely to outpace Windows simply because PCs don't ship with it. the portion of the population ready to install a new OS from a thumb drive (even just to reinstall windows) is pretty small.
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I think they mean as in being "easy to set-up and use" as Windows. My impression is that you've always needed to know a tad bit more technical knowledge to get a Linux distro up and going compared to Windows, both in terms of a clean install or a reinstall.

It's gotten significantly easier over the years but is probably still not 1:1 with Windows in that regard, and that probably scales out with larger businesses too. Though in their case, it's more Microsoft outright making deals with those companies to use Windows over alternatives, something I'm surprised has never really gotten more pushback over the years by regulators.

Probably because even the US military is one of those massive Windows clients and, well, they don't want to rock the boat with their main supplier.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
I think they mean as in being "easy to set-up and use" as Windows. My impression is that you've always needed to know a tad bit more technical knowledge to get a Linux distro up and going compared to Windows, both in terms of a clean install or a reinstall.

It's gotten significantly easier over the years but is probably still not 1:1 with Windows in that regard, and that probably scales out with larger businesses too. Though in their case, it's more Microsoft outright making deals with those companies to use Windows over alternatives, something I'm surprised has never really gotten more pushback over the years by regulators.

Probably because even the US military is one of those massive Windows clients and, well, they don't want to rock the boat with their main supplier.
Click to expand...

I'm not one of these geeks who's like "linux is the best, everyone would use it if they weren't dumb-dumbs". But modern distros are pretty easy to use and intuitive. Somebody with no computer experience would find the Gnome 3 desktop environment easier to navigate than Windows. Installing linux is certainly easier than installing windows. For the most part mainstream linux distros like Ubuntu and Fedora have a more streamlined and simple design. Windows has a lot of distracting notifications and even ad content which ruin the user experience.
 
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thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
I think they mean as in being "easy to set-up and use" as Windows. My impression is that you've always needed to know a tad bit more technical knowledge to get a Linux distro up and going compared to Windows, both in terms of a clean install or a reinstall.

It's gotten significantly easier over the years but is probably still not 1:1 with Windows in that regard, and that probably scales out with larger businesses too. Though in their case, it's more Microsoft outright making deals with those companies to use Windows over alternatives, something I'm surprised has never really gotten more pushback over the years by regulators.

Probably because even the US military is one of those massive Windows clients and, well, they don't want to rock the boat with their main supplier.
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tbh its been piss. I cant really judge it since i installed xp over a million times, then did w8 and w10 a bunch, but jeez, Linux Mint was easy af.
 
I'm hoping they make a gaming only version that boots straight to big picture. Two versions - one locked down for competitive online MP and one that is open for mods and whatever else you want to do.
 
HogIsland said:
I'm not one of these geeks who's like "linux is the best, everyone would use it if they weren't dumb-dumbs". But modern distros are pretty easy to use and intuitive. Somebody with no computer experience would find the Gnome 3 desktop environment easier to navigate than Windows. Installing linux is certainly easier than installing windows. For the most part mainstream linux distros like Ubuntu and Fedora have a more streamlined and simple design. Windows has a lot of distracting notifications and even ad content which ruin the user experience.
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notseqi said:
tbh its been piss. I cant really judge it since i installed xp over a million times, then did w8 and w10 a bunch, but jeez, Linux Mint was easy af.
Click to expand...

These are good to hear. TBF I have not jumped to W11 yet and would prefer not to, even if MS have walked back on some of the other things like that program taking snapshots of all your activity and uploading it to the cloud.

Not because I'm doing anything illegal, but because I think a user is entitled to at least some type of privacy. And shouldn't have to disconnect from the internet in order to get it, specifically for products they've paid for and should be perfectly functional without a network connection.
 
A podcast mentioned the first thing they're working on is a server build system for package developers. The idea is they can push their release version and the system will sign, build, package, and integrate it for upcoming distribution. Should ease developer friction on getting their stuff out and shorten release cycles.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
These are good to hear. TBF I have not jumped to W11 yet and would prefer not to, even if MS have walked back on some of the other things like that program taking snapshots of all your activity and uploading it to the cloud.

Not because I'm doing anything illegal, but because I think a user is entitled to at least some type of privacy. And shouldn't have to disconnect from the internet in order to get it, specifically for products they've paid for and should be perfectly functional without a network connection.
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the biggest thing that sucks about modern windows is that it feels entitled to take ownership of your own hardware away from you. no mf, -I- own my pc. not you, microsoft+all the shitty 3rd parties youre selling my info to.
 
I have been using Linux as my main OS for over a decade now. Software development is a 100x better user experience in Linux. I only would boot into windows to play games. Now with Proton, I very rarely need to boot into windows at all. On my next PC build, I am not even going to bother setting up windows in dual boot. If I need windows for something, I will just create a windows VM, using my linux install as the host.
 
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