Valve Continues Recruiting Top Linux Talent 167
An anonymous reader writes "Valve Software, in their Linux Steam / Source Engine effort, plus the rumored Steam Box, is continuing to hire top Linux developers. So far they have poached the lead developers of the DarkPlaces open-source engine used by Nexuiz/Xonotic, the founder of Battle for Wesnoth, and just yesterday they hired Sam latinga, creator of Simple DirectMedia Layer. According to Michael Larabel, they are still trying to hire more Linux kernel developers, driver experts, and other 'extremely talented Linux developers.'"
Vale Linux (Score:4)
Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
First party (Valve) games are a given since they all support OpenGL to work on the Mac.
It's up to the game developer to support Linux however.
Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
I repeat what I said before in another post:
Not only that but if you think on it, Valve can actually create a dedicated gaming platform using Linux (with dedicated hardware or not). Steam on Linux might just be the entry point for it.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2896153&cid=40218485 [slashdot.org]
This increasing interest of Valve on hiring Linux based platform developers seems to be going in that way.. : )
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The only motive where this makes sense to me is because of a dedicated platform using linux. Valve's a great company, but I don't think they'd port to linux just cause 'it's a good thing' to quote John Carmack on his motives for having linux versions of past games. Sadly, even id doesn't do that anymore. What other motive could there be? it's not like the linux market share is growing.
What might make more sense is port steam and these games to android and sell them on the market, but that goes against
Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think they'd port to linux just cause 'it's a good thing' to quote John Carmack on his motives for having linux versions of past games. Sadly, even id doesn't do that anymore.
John played his part admirably, both in providing the open community with several lovely, pragmatic examples of high performance 3D engine design and in preventing Microsoft from killing off OpenGL as a gaming platform. I think that's enough. We ought to be able to take it from here.
Platform? More like MS's core business (Score:5, Interesting)
With every new OS release, Microsoft themselves screw the people who fear change. Office is still the cash cow, but between LibreOffice and the Googlighting Stranger, their desktop suite is only a few years ahead. I can't comment on Sharepoint and Exchange, so I'll concede they probably play a major role in many businesses, and that many of those same businesses have no interest in Windows 8 Metro. Finally, there's games. Games, and DirectX games, was the reason to buy Windows. Hell, it's the reason I run it. But, in the heavily politicized corporate environment of Microsoft, games have a problem, and that problem is spelled XBOX. So we get abominations like MS GameZone, Games For Windows Live and Games for Windows Marketplace, or whatever they're calling it now. The Xbox people can't have windows cannibalize their games. This is how Microsoft lost to Linux in the HTPC battle: an Xbox belongs in the living room, not a Windows Box. Things have gotten so bad, the other players in the industry have their own Microsoft-Free [pcgamingalliance.org] group to promote gaming.
So Valve brings on board a developer with demonstrated skills in making cross-platform gaming tools. If they were able to produce a set of tools that allowed games to be developed and easily ported between the various full flavors of Linux, Mac, PC and Android, worked on Chrome OS, and connected to the largest online game delivery platform in business, well, wouldn't that be cool?
Don't worry, they'll probably do something less ambitious and more profitable.
Re:Platform? More like MS's core business (Score:4, Interesting)
Let's face it, there are three things keeping Microsoft's OS in business: the Office ecosystem, games and 'IT' qualifications that teach people how to use Office and nothing else.
FTFY
Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, the linux market share isn't yet growing
Actually, it is. Slowly but surely. Unsurprisingly, one of the biggest obstacle to Linux adoption for younger people is exactly gaming. I know quite a few peopl whose systems are dual-boot between linux and windows specifically for this: they use Linux most of the time, and then switch to Windows to play.
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It's what originally held ME back until about 12 years ago (that, and Debian Potato's failure to autoconfigure X).
It's only now, in particular with the many extremely good Indie games coming on Linux, that things are changing. I've bought a recent Humble Indie Bundle, Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress and Osmos, and supported the Double Fine Kickstarter. All with excellent Linux clients.
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Yeah gaming is pretty much the only thing keeping me tied to Windows in any serious way. I already use Cygwin in Windows a hell of alot just so I can have convenient access to Unix-like scripting for dealing with a lot of normal repetitive tasks.
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If you're using windows and need scripting, learn powershell.
--- before you all chime in calling me a schill, I'm typing this on a linux machine which is my favourite tweaked goodness. I'm only reading up on this story because I want more games to play here. Win7 doesn't suck if you bother to learn it (although I still prefer bash+awk+sed+grep). I buy MS products for games because MS software is a toy.
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Powershell doesn't really gel for me.
Though a big part of it is, the rest of the world where I generally want to use scripting is some variant of Unix - whereas Powershell is Windows only. So for things like manipulating text/data files, I'd much rather use bash and the associated toolstack.
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Yes but if game developers start supporting Linux what reason will there be for Microsoft and Apple's software division?
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Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Informative)
I bet Valve will help with the 3rd party developer support, perhaps a cross-platform answer to DirectX.
Do you mean OpenGL? i think some one has already written it
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DirectX is more than just a graphics API.
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DirectX is more than just a graphics API.
You mean SDL then? They already got the guy.
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In linux they could always make a file that could fit the whole install plus some head room, make it into whatever native fs (fat32) the game was made for, mount it, and install away.
Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Funny)
See, I just enjoy Steam for the community. The games are really secondary to what is a top notch social network and built in chat program.
Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Funny)
See, I just enjoy Steam for the community. The games are really secondary to what is a top notch social network and built in chat program.
+1 Insane?
Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Funny)
Since GP has conveyed his enjoyment of the Steam community, I think the more apt way of wording the same message is "lol u mad?"
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That's more or less what Ouya is already trying to do, although scaled down a bit.
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Actually, the likelihood would be that Valve would do an x86 based solution with a higher end graphics solution. It will cost more, but it will accomodate the market segment of high end games from big name studios and such that Tegra won't compete with (due to power envelope).
Ouya would aim for cheap and high commonality with tablets and cell phones, which have much tighter power and cost constraints. You'll likely see more interesting independent works on Ouya.
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Ouya is definitely aiming for something smaller, sure. People underestimate what you can do with that sort of hardware when it's a fixed platform (the thing has almost as much power as a 360), but it's never going to be considered high-end hardware.
That's not to say that you can't do higher end similar hardware. You throw an eight-core Cortex A15 with an eight-core Mali-T658 at a problem, and you're going to have some decent performance. It'll use an unprecedented amount of power for an ARM SoC, but it's wi
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Also, if Valve wants to include an Android environment and make a Valve section of Android games, guess what, it's easier to run ARM transcoding on x86 by miles than it is to try AAA titles on ARM even with 16 Tegra grade GPUs.
Part of me really hopes Intel will see the light and open source libhoudini and related libraries for ARM transcoding on x86.
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If it's not tivoised and there's nothing stopping me from removing Steam from it, and it comes at a good price, and it does indeed run XBMC on Android or on Linux itself, then sure, I would buy that. It sounds like a very attractive package. Steam poops on First Sale, though, so poop on Steam.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Erm... why, exactly, is OpenGL not up to the task? TF2 in DX9 mode on Wine looked* the same as it did on in Windows with native DirectX, though slightly slower... which is understandable due to the realtime translation being done.
(*Until the Pyromania update broke that feature)
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Need it be pointed out that DX9 is getting rather long in the tooth and should thus not be considered as a basis for a future platform?
In order to work, it'd have to support DX11, otherwise it won't be future-proofed enough and would fall apart with the next console generation just around the corner.
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Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Lets face it folks DirectX won years ago because the kronos group cared more about CAD than they did 3D gaming
Let's face it, you're a trolling FUDster. In case you haven't noticed, OpenGL rules the world at the moment, except for exactly one segment that Microsoft runs as a walled garden (an $8 billion vanity project) and the PC gaming segment from which Microsoft failed to completely evict OpenGL, not for want of trying or lack of expenditure. Every other platform is OpenGL, and those platforms are growing far faster than Microsoft's DirectX segment.
On top of that, DirectX has gone back to being the crappy API. Sure, it was first to move on some necessary improvements to the 3D rendering pipeline and for a time it held a technical lead over OpenGL in some ways. But that is history. OpenGL 4+ is to DirectX as... an Arabian stallion is to a Camel? Sure, Microsoft's Camel can race, but it still smells like a camel.
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All smartphones support some form of hardware OpenGL ES acceleration by now and I am not seeing them changing to DirectX any time soon. Considering that there is a huge market in mobile gaming there is plenty of room there. Not to mention that there are more consoles around than the Xbox.
Of course, there is always the chance that Nokia might rise from the dead and infect us all with DirectX Lumia phones. <shudder>
Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
Respectfully (or perhaps not) you lack the slightest clue about anything to do with 3D graphics and it shows. This $50 Radeon running OpenGL 4 under Catalyst says you are talking out of your butt. A quick trip to Google makes nonsense of your FUD. Facts are a bitch for a guy like you, aren't they?
OpenGL ES - do you even know what it is? OK, that was rhetorical, obviously again you don't have a clue. Allow me. OpenGL ES is OpenGL with the legacy fixed function pipeline stuff stripped away. Begin/End is gone (use drawarrays). Feedback is gone (do your own transforms). All kinds of crap is gone. But all the drawarrays, vertex buffer objects, frame buffer objects, shaders ... all that stuff that maps well to 3D hardware is still there. Plus some added functionality like fixed point numbers that was later added to OGL 4. In other words, OpenGL ES is no toy, sorry to rain on your one troll parade.
As for Kronos, the bitching from hotheads died down long ago when it was demonstrated how to advance the library specs properly without losing compatibility. Nobody except Microsoft retreads whines about that any more. Coming down the pipe pretty soon is the new stateless API. DirectX is already chasing OpenGL taillights, and with the stateless API in place DirectX will be completely lost in the dust. Meanwhile, OpenGL has already evolved into a great API for games and CAD at the same time, just as Microsoft hoped it never would be.
Time to pull your hairy foot out of your mouth, or maybe you love the taste of toe jam.
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> OpenGL ES is cell phone crap,
Then please explain why WebGL *is* OpenGL ES ... and why every browser EXCEPT for IE has implemented it ?
Methinks you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.
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Hell if MSFT would have given XP X64 the support they should have most folks would have probably been happy to stay on XP
IE6 would still be alive and massively deployed. Good riddance! Not to kick it while it's down, but see XP & the rise of botnets. I'm glad it wasn't adopted. Not to mention the improved display driver model [wikipedia.org] first in Vista and also in Windows 7.
and now that they are gonna try to ram a stupid appstore down everyone's throat having an OS that'll run DirectX that valve can control would be a smart move.
I'm glad you mentioned this. I'd like to counter this point by saying that this appears to be what the masses want judged by the success of the Android market place (now Google Play) and the App Store. Joe Sixpack accesses the store from his phone/device, selects
Re:Vale Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
For years you heard the "people wont like linux because they cant go down the store and buy software for it"... As the appstore proves, people actually do love the convenience of the repository model... Now if only all those linux based netbooks had come with a proper distro, a usable repository and a graphical interface to it, instead of the gimped distros they had.
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Are you sure about that?
Java games aren't ported to LInux. But, I play those Java games, all the same. Java applications aren't ported to Linux, but I can use any that I care to use. The wife makes extensive use of Java applications on Linux.
Interesting times ahead potentially.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo may be in for an interesting landscape in 2013.
It's reasonable to assume Valve isn't doing this for the Linux desktop (though they may be doing things in such a way that Linux desktop is covered 'for free'), but likely related to the other rumors of a Steam branded game console.
If Steam gives a console-equivalent experience in a manner similar to their PC platform, it's likely to be as capable as Sony and MS platforms but a lot more approachable. The 'big studios' are likely to be very enthusiastic about it. So the 'AAA' games will likely hit a Valve platform and probably with a bit more aggressive pricing (at first) compared to Sony and MS.
On the low end, Ouya may stir things up significantly.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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The big guys will come along eventually, but the existence of tons of Linux games these days on Android--and presumeably easily portable to the new platform--will gaurantee some level of success in the shorter term, too, I think.
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There are a metric ton of games that are not from EA/Activision that would still be available on such a Steam console. This would, of course, require a lot of devs to port their game to Linux, but Valve would probably offer some sort of motivation (likely a bigger chunk of sales for a certain period of time); I highly doubt EA and Activision care to port in any case, Steam console or not.
And even if they threatened to take all their stuff off Steam (EA has done so in part, anyway), Gabe would just laugh at
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There's varying degrees of "linux people" (here and elsewhere). I'm sure there will be sufficient numbers of people celebrating this progress.
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The people I run into saying "Android isn't real Linux" are anti Linux people trying to continue their claims that Linux is a total failure. We must not meet the same people as the pro Linux people I know acknowledge that Android is on a Linux core without rancor.
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The people I run into saying "Android isn't real Linux" are anti Linux people trying to continue their claims that Linux is a total failure.
It really depends on what you mean by "Linux". The average Linux desktop user, for example, cares about all the "Linux" software that is available to them regardless of the distro. If that same software can't be run on an Android device, then the fact that there's Linux under the hood doesn't carry much merit.
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Well, I would say it's not real linux, and I'm no anti-Linux person. I just can't see Android as Linux without native X11(or Wayland), thus it doesn't run "Linux" applications without some sort of translation layer or port.
Now, Maemo... That's *real* linux. It runs X, Pulseaudio, Busybox, Bash(if you want), and a good number of OSS Linux apps will run natively with a recompile. It's only real lack is no HW-accellerated OpenGL(GLES isn't enough to play OpenGL desktop games etc.), but meh.
As far as I'm concer
Re:Interesting times ahead potentially.. (Score:5, Insightful)
>Oh lovely modded as flamebait
That's because you made a sweeping generalization about "linux people" that was meant to paint us all in a bad light.
It's flamebait. Deal with it.
--
BMO
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I believe you take things out of the context they are generally used and construct a straw man that will take paragraphs of effort to show you are wrong.
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I replied to your post. Also, slashdot has a system where the person with mod points can comment or moderate in one thread but not both.
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But the system can be cheated, like this AC just modded himself "insightful".
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Now I feel stupid.
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Have you never been involved a project that past the go/no go point they decided to bring on additional talent, either because a solid opportunity presents itself (e.g. learning a coveted developer is leaving a position or is otherwise more willing to work for your effort than you imagined) or because they realized resources on hand were insufficient in some way or another? Valve has already been reporting significant issues with the layers they are targeting in linux. It would not be surprising that they
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ah no that would be xbox and it don't have steam.
Could there be... (Score:1)
a Linux-powered Steam Box in the works? Probably not, given the technical challenges of getting Steam's huge library of DirectX-based games to run reliably on Linux, but it's an intriguing possibility.
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I think it's still the most likely suggestion that's been raised so far. Another possibility is arcade machines, I know that industry is kind of whimpering in the corner right now but it's still feasible. Or given the hardware work they've done maybe they're imagining Linux-powered AR gaming? Who knows.
Source engine games will be easy ports, at least.
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Because nobody ever ported a game between the XBox 360 (which uses a variant of DirectX) and the PS3 (whose PSGL graphics API is a variant of OpenGL ES) before, right? Many games these days are already running on multiplatform engines that get you the other platforms for free anyhow. Source has already been shown running on Linux, which means any Source game should be an easy port. Unreal runs on anything, and that seems to power most games. Any engine that runs on OS X can probably be adapted relatively ea
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also playstation runs a variation on bsd so any playstation games could in theory be ported to linux without much hassle
to lazy to look up the wikipedia article i read about it to site.
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Unfortunately, a lot of mac games published since apple went to x86 have just been the windows versions, wrapped in a custom version of wine... Very little in the way of actual porting.
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1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium3D [wikipedia.org] - Look near the end of the "Current Status" section.
2. Ever heard of Unreal Tournament 2004? How about a little company called Id Software? Perhaps you've heard of some games that are offered on both XBox and PS3?
I wish them best luck... (Score:2)
This might keep NVIDIA in the console business (Score:5, Interesting)
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Given that it seems all Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony will be going with AMD for their next-gen graphics hardware, nVidia will likely be the one to supply graphics hardware for the Steam box (as their Linux drivers are by far the most mature).
As long as you aren't using an Optimus card. Then nVidia's driver support can best be described as "#$%* you!"
better linux graphics drivers? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm interested to see if this means that these newly hired valve devs will be put to improving the now lackluster Linux graphics drivers. In addition, with pressure or cooperation from valve, nvidia or and may also be more likely to improve on their open source / Linux drivers as well. Either way, this is probably gonna be a win win for the Linux / Linux gaming community.
Poaching? (Score:5, Funny)
Poaching is the act of taking another persons livestock. The use of the word in this context means the author considers people the equivalent of livestock to the corporate ranchers.
Re:Poaching? (Score:5, Funny)
Poaching is also 'the process of gently simmering food in liquid, generally milk, stock or wine', clearly Gabe Newell's hunger for human flesh has must be satisfied... for now...
Oh well (Score:3)
It's times like this I'm sad when we've got a completely non-DRM store like GOG which is completely overshadowed by something like Steam, where the access to your games are entirely in the hands of Valve and if something fucks up, you can't play. We've now got a generation who believe this is OK, rather than someone older like me who's seen enough issues with such a system to be extremely weary of it.
I guess the only good part is that the number of people who've been fucked by Steam restrictions are probably far and few between, but given the little time most of us have to play games, I don't see why we can't just be fickle and go to non-DRM stores when purchasing games to feed what is ultimately a waste-of-time hobby.
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Fair enough. I shall admit that a good portion of not wanting to use Steam is also because I don't have the discipline to avoid those fucking AWESOME sales they keep having (such as now). I have in the past ended up with a significant backlog of games I simply don't have enough time to play, and often were purchased simply because of a good daily deal, even though they end up not being my type of game anyway.
In any case, I guess I feel concern for those gamers who are adamant of ONLY using Steam for all the
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Guess I think about the long-term and what-if's too much then. Oh well.
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Not for the client! (Score:2)
How ever getting Linux people does not imply any change to the game clients. For Valve to work, and it does, one has to assume it runs on Unix and and in this day Linux is the #1 Unix. So getting Linux developers to make the Valve servers better is a no brainier.
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How ever getting Linux people does not imply any change to the game clients.
For Valve to work, and it does, one has to assume it runs on Unix and and in this day Linux is the #1 Unix. So getting Linux developers to make the Valve servers better is a no brainier.
Yeah, but going by the summary, they've just hired game engine and graphics toolkit developers.
Mixed Feelings (Score:2)
YOu know what would be smart.. (Score:2)
They could then release versions for other systems and PC later. Wouldn't be a bad way to get a foothold in the market.
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Steam is a pile of !@#$% whether its on Linux or Windows. What Valve needs to do is get busy on L4D3.
Seriously, Linux as a high-end game platform is the worst idea I've ever heard. What are people going to dual boot their game boxes to support all of their games? Do you realize how hard it is keeping a game box stable as it is? Now we are having to screw around with keeping it stable on Linux too?
This is a huge waste of time, and suggests how no adults are running the show over at Valve.
Are you the guy I always see at the truck-stop diner double fisting coffee with a cigarette in his mouth?
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Keeping a windows install stable and performance is actually quite hard, if you use it on a regular basis it gradually deteriorates even today, as you install applications you end up with all manner of background "updaters" running, and when you uninstall something there is often some cruft left behind.
Keeping a windows box that is used solely for gaming actually gives you a much better chance, since there will be much less application churn and a lot less installed in general.
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LOL LOL LOL (Score:2)
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does Gabe count, or is he a suspected silent partner in phoronix by now?
Re:Weird requirement (Score:5, Informative)
They are buying knowledge specifically experience not just skills. They are employing people who know far more about linux development than their current staff do.
Employing windows or whatever devs will delay them from having productive staff and will increase the chance they take the wrong approach to the problem. Only the genius windows devs will avoid thinking the windows way is the standard or best way to do something in linux.
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The knowledge they are buying in this case seems to be the specific experience porting games to Linux. That makes sense. It's a particular task and type of programming. If they were just going after programmers who know how to write software for desktop Linux that would be silly. It's not sufficiently different from writing software for platform X to justify limiting your candidate pool. Employing "Windows or whatever devs" is fine as long as they are competent, and I wouldn't want an incompetent programmer
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Everyone wants to work for Valve, they have no problems with talent and are snapping up well known devs.
If they were just going after programmers who know how to write software for desktop Linux that would be silly.
You sound like you mean application development. These are lead devs who have proven they have skills to make things happen in linux, some of which are unique skills that are not needed for dev work in mature environment.
I think you will find you don't employ an experienced dev just for his coding skills that often.
You'd Be Surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
But... this landscape is actually a fractal. If you zoom in a bit you can see whole new landscapes open in front of you. Someone who mostly programs in C# on windows system may not be entirely comfortable with writing a socket server on a UNIX machine. The various UNIX graphics libraries might be confusing and annoying to that person as well. As you start to learn the differences for things like socket handling on BSD style systems (And HPUX ugh,) you start to realize that platform experience does matter. Maybe not so much for your average application development, but if you're trying to squeeze something out of the hardware, it kind of does. A while back I wanted to write a segv stack dumper for C on an AIX system. The interrupt handler installation was pretty standard, but the stack dump code was VERY AIX specific.
Likewise on the language side of things, sure you can pick up the basics of Perl or C or any other (reasonable) language pretty quickly, but mastery of any specific language is something that could easily take an entire career. There's always something more to master. Maybe you want to force loop unwinding with funky switch tricks, maybe you want use C++ templates to set up matrix math at compile time. Maybe at some point you realize how unmaintainable doing that sort of thing actually is and decide not to do it anymore. The more you delve into any one area, the more you will find to learn. Things that looked good at one level might be completely different at the next.
The vast majority of programming projects out there really don't need this level of mastery, of course. Which brings you back to the top of the fractal. If you're the kind of person who can recognize the patterns, you can get by reasonably well on any platform in any language. But for any specific task, someone with more experience on that platform or with that language will almost always write more efficient code.
Re:Weird requirement (Score:5, Insightful)
I did my Google Summer of Code project under Sam. He's a great guy, and he basically wrote SDL from nothing. Hell, as far as I'm aware, he's possibly the only living person who understands its autotools-based build system ;-).
He won't just be able to port games. If the rumors are true and Valve is building their own full-scale gaming platform (a Valve console, say), then putting Sam Lantinga with the Source engine for starters will be a great start to their platform's API.
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While SDL overall is a great library, Sam is undoubtedly talented, and I thank him for releasing a great library, in many ways, I would not want him in charge of many things. I used to be a heavy SDL user so I am extremely grateful, but I have to say after moving on to SFML, Ogre, and other open source libs (as well as professionally working with everything from UDK to custom in-house engines and low-level libs), I want to stab SDL in the face. I can't really blame him too much since C is C, but sometimes t
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There are lots and lots of things wrong with SDL. I agree with the grandparent. IIRC, the last time i tried it I found these faults:
* Slow implementations leading to unneccessary latency in both input and audio/video desynchronization
* Thread unsafe
* Generally feels icky
It was years and years ago I tried SDL though, so I don't remember exactly what was wrong with it. But I do remember it did not meet my needs at the time, in fact falling far short of them. One problem, I think, was that it was too simple, a
Linux kernel developers wanted? (Score:2)
So what, you need changes to the Linux kernel in other to make the game platform work smoothly? That doesn't sound good. Either Steam sucks as a platform or Linux sucks for doing game-oriented graphics.
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> "Either Steam sucks as a platform or Linux sucks for doing game-oriented graphics."
That's a false dichotomy. You're missing the option that your understanding of Linux and what a kernel developer does "sucks". There are actually many good reasons they would want a kernel dev or two, and none of them require Steam or Linux to suck.
If the rumors are true and they really are releasing their own console, someone's got to write the device drivers for their unique hardware. The controllers will probably be o
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Top people will jump at a chance to work on something they really want to work on. They're generally already doing something they really like which is why they don't hop around, but that doesn't mean someone can't come up with something they like even better. These people basically have the opportunity to bring gaming to Linux. If they can pull it off they'll be in Linux history forever.
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Valve was valued at between 1.5 - 2 billion last Feburary by Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverchiang/2011/02/15/valve-and-steam-worth-billions/ [forbes.com]
They are also more profitable per employee than either Apple or Google. I think they'll be able to put up a fight. Sure their gaming market isn't as large, but they produce games that are played to have fun, versus casual games you can play for a minute or two while the barista is making your whatever crap your drinking.
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linux is a failer? thats news to a lot of fortune 500's I'll be sure to call them up and tell them that the wise one has spoken and shown us our folly.
yup. this sticks out like a sore thumb (Score:3)
Lantinga was at one of the first linux game companies, Loki Software, way way way back in the day, the company was trying to port windows games to linux and make a profit. Didn't work out so hot, but Lantinga made SDL out of it, and then he got the job at Blizzard .
Cmon folks lets get his name right.
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to beef up the video drivers which have quality issues. and the audio system which frightens me to the point i live with it problems rather than try tinkering so they can have a solid system.
that the difference between Linux and windows. linux is a stable core but crappy trim. and windows has nice trim but a riquitty core. steam is giving linux the trim it needs for games to play nicely.