Latest 30 Comments
News - The Native Linux app for NVIDIA GeForce NOW is now in Beta
By Leprotto, 31 Jan 2026 at 9:18 pm UTC
By Leprotto, 31 Jan 2026 at 9:18 pm UTC
Just an expansion and upgrade? LOL
Higher resolutions (up to 4k)
Higher frame rates (up to 240fps)
And AI filters that were previously blocked on the electron app.
Higher resolutions (up to 4k)
Higher frame rates (up to 240fps)
And AI filters that were previously blocked on the electron app.
News - Stop Destroying Videogames initiative to get a public hearing organised by the European Parliament
By spacemonkey, 31 Jan 2026 at 9:14 pm UTC
By spacemonkey, 31 Jan 2026 at 9:14 pm UTC
Quoting: KimyrielleBut hey, that's just what should be done. I have ZERO faith in any lawmakers on the planet to introduce "business unfriendly" legislation, unless people start dying left and left. And that won't be the case here, so...Maybe your are this synical because you don't live in the EU, but in the recent years multiple laws have passed to improve the environment, consumer health and animal welbeing, to name a few. And these laws were definitely not friendly for (local) businesess. You should really look into it, I hope it makes you a more positive person :)
News - GDC 2026 report: 36% of devs use GenAI; 28% target Steam Deck and 8% target Linux
By Caldathras, 31 Jan 2026 at 8:46 pm UTC
I was going to say the same thing. I ignore social media and advertising.
By Caldathras, 31 Jan 2026 at 8:46 pm UTC
Quoting: wytrabbitAt least 90% of the games on my Steam wishlist and in my library are recommendations from GOL 😀
My backlog is rather daunting though.. 😅
I was going to say the same thing. I ignore social media and advertising.
News - UK lawsuit against Valve given the go-ahead, Steam owner facing up to £656 million in damages
By Caldathras, 31 Jan 2026 at 8:37 pm UTC
Taxation: I suppose, when you think of it informally, like the "Microsoft tax" euphemism, I can see where you're coming from. Of course, that was a contractually enforced fee on sales of hardware, regardless of whether it actually shipped with M$ software (if I recall the controversy correctly). As opposed to a commission fee on every legitimate sale of the game on Valve's platform. A bit more honest if you ask me and less "tax-like".
Monopoly: Thank you. Now that you mention it, I can't recall the last time a business faced an antitrust investigation in the US. Has Canada ever pursued it up here? The last I remember was IBM wiggling it's way out of being broken up by restructuring. I think I recall some talk about going after Google at one point.
Profit Levels: Well, you're thinking of corporations (which probably shouldn't be allowed to exist) while I'm thinking of single proprietorships or partnerships. Very different business structure. Really, though, the government has little incentive to limit the profit level of a business. They tax the net profit of a business. The more net profit a business has, the more taxes the government collects.
This "growth at all costs" business mentality that kicked in in the eighties has always troubled me. I think a business can and should be content with breaking even, or maybe just a little extra profit above that to reward the owner for their efforts (and, believe me, we sacrifice a lot of ourselves for our businesses). I'm a big fan of the idea of employee-owned businesses. I am a firm believer that there is such a thing as "big enough", after that a small business should encourage sharing the market with other small businesses in the same field. Cooperation rather than competition.
"Finding out the truth," eh? Sounds noble. Of course, the truth is always relative. 😉 I have a great deal of respect for our local librarians. The fact that the library administration is getting rid of all the self-help / how-to books troubles me, however.
By Caldathras, 31 Jan 2026 at 8:37 pm UTC
Quoting: Purple Library GuyWell, can't resist getting my final points in, sorry.No problem. I just didn't want to get into a lecture about business bookkeeping details and the math involved.
Sure, taxation is distinct from profit . . . taxation is much more legit, because it gets used for the public good. But you and I both know the sense in which people describe the such-and-such-company "tax", e.g. the "Microsoft tax" on (nearly) every PC, so there's no point in a semantic argument that ignores what's being said.
I said Valve wasn't a natural monopoly, like a power utility. You're a good guy so I don't think you were intending to twist words there. Valve certainly has sufficient market dominance to be able to have a significant ability to set prices and create barriers to entry. Antitrust law, when it was a real thing, never required 100% of the market to deem something a monopoly. There was certainly a time in the US when Valve would have been long since broken up . . . also Microsoft, Oracle, Alphabet, Meta and plenty of others. I happen to like a lot of things about Valve, certainly compared to many other dominant companies, they have quite strongly resisted the process of "enshittification" that most dominant platforms embrace, but that doesn't make them not a dominant firm with a huge percentage of their market.
As to the right to decide profit levels . . . yeah, governments get elected, businesspeople don't. I might be willing to say Mohamed bin Salman shouldn't have that right . . .
Businesses operate in and depend on the legal and physical infrastructure created and defined by the countries they exist in, most need the educated workforce governments educate, and so on and so forth. This goes right down to the level of defining what businesses are--limited liability corporations in specific were created and defined by the state and cannot exist without state charter, but the same thing is largely true, if less dramatically, for other forms of business. Business as we know it cannot exist without government. Where government disappears, businesses don't make profit, paramilitaries just take their stuff. And abusive levels of profit are bad for countries and the people in them. It is totally a good idea to regulate them and it has been quite normal in many countries a good deal of the time. The current political climate in which business can do no wrong is a historical anomaly . . and one that we can see in real time generating more and more instability.
Taxation: I suppose, when you think of it informally, like the "Microsoft tax" euphemism, I can see where you're coming from. Of course, that was a contractually enforced fee on sales of hardware, regardless of whether it actually shipped with M$ software (if I recall the controversy correctly). As opposed to a commission fee on every legitimate sale of the game on Valve's platform. A bit more honest if you ask me and less "tax-like".
Monopoly: Thank you. Now that you mention it, I can't recall the last time a business faced an antitrust investigation in the US. Has Canada ever pursued it up here? The last I remember was IBM wiggling it's way out of being broken up by restructuring. I think I recall some talk about going after Google at one point.
Profit Levels: Well, you're thinking of corporations (which probably shouldn't be allowed to exist) while I'm thinking of single proprietorships or partnerships. Very different business structure. Really, though, the government has little incentive to limit the profit level of a business. They tax the net profit of a business. The more net profit a business has, the more taxes the government collects.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI do care that you're in business; it puts a certain perspective on what you say. It means you have a certain point of view, one belonging to a particular self-interested community, and after 35 years, one that it will inevitably be hard for you to see. I've worked in a library for 35 years; at libraries, our bias is towards public service and finding out the truth.Ooh, that could be taken as somewhat harsh, but I don't think you meant it that way. It might surprise you to know that I am actually quite jaded about the business conduct we see these days, particularly with corporations. My entire working life, I have made a point of working for small, locally-owned businesses when I wasn't a business owner myself. The three times I have tried working for a large corporation, the experiences were absolute disasters.
This "growth at all costs" business mentality that kicked in in the eighties has always troubled me. I think a business can and should be content with breaking even, or maybe just a little extra profit above that to reward the owner for their efforts (and, believe me, we sacrifice a lot of ourselves for our businesses). I'm a big fan of the idea of employee-owned businesses. I am a firm believer that there is such a thing as "big enough", after that a small business should encourage sharing the market with other small businesses in the same field. Cooperation rather than competition.
"Finding out the truth," eh? Sounds noble. Of course, the truth is always relative. 😉 I have a great deal of respect for our local librarians. The fact that the library administration is getting rid of all the self-help / how-to books troubles me, however.
News - CachyOS founder explains why they didn't join the new Open Gaming Collective (OGC)
By d3Xt3r, 31 Jan 2026 at 7:59 pm UTC
But for a more serious (production) or install-it-and-forget-it type scenarios though, I'd recommend a lightweight immutable and atomic distro, such as uCore OS - because Arch/Cachy ocassionally breaks or needs manual intervention, and that might not be acceptable for some server scenarios.
By d3Xt3r, 31 Jan 2026 at 7:59 pm UTC
Quoting: fenglengshunI've been running a Cachyfied-Arch on a homelab mini PC for over two years and it's been amazing. The performance is incomparable to any other traditional server distro that most people normally recommend, plus the added benefit and flexibility of being able to easily install the latest version of pretty much any Linux package, makes me happy to recommend Arch/Cachy for any experienced Linux folks looking to use it as a sever OS.Quoting: DirgeI know a lot of people use the distro as a NAS OS due to their ZFS implementation. I'm interested in seeing what they implement in order to break out and into more broad environments.Same. I prefer having the same distro on my machines, and so far I'm liking CachyOS. I'd want to see what the server edition offers and see it tested before using it on my repurposed old laptop.
But for a more serious (production) or install-it-and-forget-it type scenarios though, I'd recommend a lightweight immutable and atomic distro, such as uCore OS - because Arch/Cachy ocassionally breaks or needs manual intervention, and that might not be acceptable for some server scenarios.
News - Four FINAL FANTASY games have arrived on GOG in the Preservation Program
By Caldathras, 31 Jan 2026 at 7:28 pm UTC
I have to admit that afterwards I started to look more closely at the games and was somewhat confused because there didn't seem to be a counterpart in the games themselves. It had nothing in common with Advent Children, which I bought on DVD and only watched once.
I am surprised to learn that Advent Children was considered the highly successful movie while The Spirits Within was deemed a failure. I guess because I am not invested in the Final Fantasy franchise, I've always felt it was the other way around.
Looking back at it now, they should have just titled it The Spirits Within and left Final Fantasy out of the title. I see your point there.
By Caldathras, 31 Jan 2026 at 7:28 pm UTC
Quoting: tmtvlYou loved The Spirits Within? I was baffled at why it was called Final Fantasy aside from 'we have the trademark, might as well slap it on this completely unrelated project and try to get more eyeballs' (the Baldur's Gate 3 strategy).Having no experience with the games themselves, I enjoyed the quality of the animation and the story really resonated with both my wife and I.
I have to admit that afterwards I started to look more closely at the games and was somewhat confused because there didn't seem to be a counterpart in the games themselves. It had nothing in common with Advent Children, which I bought on DVD and only watched once.
I am surprised to learn that Advent Children was considered the highly successful movie while The Spirits Within was deemed a failure. I guess because I am not invested in the Final Fantasy franchise, I've always felt it was the other way around.
Looking back at it now, they should have just titled it The Spirits Within and left Final Fantasy out of the title. I see your point there.
News - GPD release their own statement on the confusion with Bazzite Linux support
By CyborgZeta, 31 Jan 2026 at 4:56 pm UTC
By CyborgZeta, 31 Jan 2026 at 4:56 pm UTC
Look, I don't know the stuff that goes on in the background of all the various distros. All I can say is that I hope Bazzite keeps on trucking. I very much like using Bazzite, it is very convenient for my desktop, and I do not want to have change distros.
News - Stop Destroying Videogames initiative to get a public hearing organised by the European Parliament
By Mohandevir, 31 Jan 2026 at 4:44 pm UTC
By Mohandevir, 31 Jan 2026 at 4:44 pm UTC
Something similar should be done to force streaming sites like Netflix into offering an option to "buy and download to keep" digital copies of their contents. Keep like in download on my personnal server legally and use on a Plex server (example). I'm tired of seing content that I like just disapear from these services.
News - UK lawsuit against Valve given the go-ahead, Steam owner facing up to £656 million in damages
By poiuz, 31 Jan 2026 at 3:34 pm UTC
To the rest of your claims:
There's even a message (e-mail? I'm pretty sure it was covered here, too) from Sweeney directed at Newell which explicitly states it's about the 30% of the App Store.
The same with the DSA: One part is explicitly about the 30% because it forces Apple to allow payment processing outside the App Store.
By poiuz, 31 Jan 2026 at 3:34 pm UTC
Quoting: F.UltraAgain none of this, including the DSA, have anything to do with the 30% that is under discussion. Also the Fortnite vs Apple have no releveance for Steam since Steam does not have the same "you must use our payment platform for in-app purchases" as Apple have. I still fail to understand what point you are trying to make here?Then that's on you if you can't make the connection. That's all I can do to show that Valve is - in fact - not singled out - i.e. LupertEverett's statement is false.
To the rest of your claims:
There's even a message (e-mail? I'm pretty sure it was covered here, too) from Sweeney directed at Newell which explicitly states it's about the 30% of the App Store.
The same with the DSA: One part is explicitly about the 30% because it forces Apple to allow payment processing outside the App Store.
News - GOG now using AI generated images on their store
By Penguin, 31 Jan 2026 at 2:41 pm UTC
By Penguin, 31 Jan 2026 at 2:41 pm UTC
Quoting: gradyvuckovicI just want to point out that there are A LOT of talented artists out there who would love to get some exposure, artists who would love a chance to get their work shown off in such a highly visible place such as the front page banner of a major online game store. Look at the exposure that the artist Nemu got with her 'Steam Delivery Girl' on Steam. There's many out there who would be very happy for a very reasonable fee to do this kind of work, and it's not a huge cost for a company like GOG to pay that. This comes off as lazy, cheap and disrespectful to me. Just a giant FU to artists.Great point. By investing on a real artist, GOG could have a "Steam Delivery Girl" moment of their own, but they decided to take the easy way out and look how badly that ended for them.
News - UK lawsuit against Valve given the go-ahead, Steam owner facing up to £656 million in damages
By F.Ultra, 31 Jan 2026 at 2:10 pm UTC
By F.Ultra, 31 Jan 2026 at 2:10 pm UTC
Quoting: poiuzyes? Again none of this, including the DSA, have anything to do with the 30% that is under discussion. Also the Fortnite vs Apple have no releveance for Steam since Steam does not have the same "you must use our payment platform for in-app purchases" as Apple have. I still fail to understand what point you are trying to make here?Quoting: F.UltraGood luck ty a Fortnite vs Apple suit was because Apple forced Fortnite to use their payment system for in app purchases. So far I have no idea how this somehow makes LupertEverett:s comment that both Sony and Apple take 30% incorrect.Here I empahsised the relevant parts of the quotes.
Quoting: LupertEverettThe fee, that is... 30%...It's all about the 30%. But since you're conveniently omitting the EU DSA from your argumwnt shows me that you obviously already got it.
You know... the same amount Sony and Apple also gets, yet somehow it is only Steam who is constantly put on target for it.
Quoting: pbYou absolutely can. There are lots of DRM-free games on steam and downloading the files is the only thing you need to do in order to run them. Obviously you can't do that with games relying on Steam DRM (at least not without using workarounds), but that's something the developer put in there, and not valve. Valve does not require any kind of DRM for games sold on Steam.Games in Steam are always DRMed (you cannot start the game twice via Steam). Even if the publisher provides it DRM free.
News - Four FINAL FANTASY games have arrived on GOG in the Preservation Program
By tmtvl, 31 Jan 2026 at 10:36 am UTC
Interesting that you thought of FF as being a console thing, which for the longest time it was, when my introduction to the series was FFVIII on PC (which was a benefit as Chocobo World was inaccessible for Western PlayStation players due to not having the PocketStation).
By tmtvl, 31 Jan 2026 at 10:36 am UTC
Quoting: CaldathrasI've never played any of the Final Fantasy games. I always thought of the franchise as mostly a console thing, and I've always played my games on PC. Never got around to it once there were PC releases.You loved The Spirits Within? I was baffled at why it was called Final Fantasy aside from 'we have the trademark, might as well slap it on this completely unrelated project and try to get more eyeballs' (the Baldur's Gate 3 strategy).
Loved the first animated movie, though!
Interesting that you thought of FF as being a console thing, which for the longest time it was, when my introduction to the series was FFVIII on PC (which was a benefit as Chocobo World was inaccessible for Western PlayStation players due to not having the PocketStation).
News - The Native Linux app for NVIDIA GeForce NOW is now in Beta
By jrt, 31 Jan 2026 at 10:32 am UTC
By jrt, 31 Jan 2026 at 10:32 am UTC
Quoting: jrtwtf it's not even a script. This is the most Nvidia-way to distribute a flatpak.For ease of use here is a flatpakref: https://gist.github.com/jrtberlin/9002737b9b74d2e3e59ca664de92a84d
For those who want to try it without running a random installer:
App-ID:com.nvidia.geforcenow
Flatpak Repo:https://international.download.nvidia.com/GFNLinux/flatpak/geforcenow_repo
News - UK lawsuit against Valve given the go-ahead, Steam owner facing up to £656 million in damages
By poiuz, 31 Jan 2026 at 10:21 am UTC
By poiuz, 31 Jan 2026 at 10:21 am UTC
Quoting: F.UltraGood luck ty a Fortnite vs Apple suit was because Apple forced Fortnite to use their payment system for in app purchases. So far I have no idea how this somehow makes LupertEverett:s comment that both Sony and Apple take 30% incorrect.Here I empahsised the relevant parts of the quotes.
Quoting: LupertEverettThe fee, that is... 30%...It's all about the 30%. But since you're conveniently omitting the EU DSA from your argumwnt shows me that you obviously already got it.
You know... the same amount Sony and Apple also gets, yet somehow it is only Steam who is constantly put on target for it.
Quoting: pbYou absolutely can. There are lots of DRM-free games on steam and downloading the files is the only thing you need to do in order to run them. Obviously you can't do that with games relying on Steam DRM (at least not without using workarounds), but that's something the developer put in there, and not valve. Valve does not require any kind of DRM for games sold on Steam.Games in Steam are always DRMed (you cannot start the game twice via Steam). Even if the publisher provides it DRM free.
News - The Native Linux app for NVIDIA GeForce NOW is now in Beta
By jrt, 31 Jan 2026 at 10:04 am UTC
By jrt, 31 Jan 2026 at 10:04 am UTC
wtf it's not even a script. This is the most Nvidia-way to distribute a flatpak.
For those who want to try it without running a random installer:
App-ID:
Flatpak Repo:
For those who want to try it without running a random installer:
App-ID:
flatpak install -y --user GeForceNOW com.nvidia.geforcenowFlatpak Repo:
flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists GeForceNOW https://international.download.nvidia.com/GFNLinux/flatpak/geforcenow.flatpakrepo
News - Deck-builder meets bullet heaven with Hordes of Fate : A Hand of Fate Adventure arriving in Q2 2026
By Pikolo, 31 Jan 2026 at 9:29 am UTC
By Pikolo, 31 Jan 2026 at 9:29 am UTC
I'm going to try the demo - could be fun!
News - GOG now using AI generated images on their store
By gradyvuckovic, 31 Jan 2026 at 9:16 am UTC
By gradyvuckovic, 31 Jan 2026 at 9:16 am UTC
I just want to point out that there are A LOT of talented artists out there who would love to get some exposure, artists who would love a chance to get their work shown off in such a highly visible place such as the front page banner of a major online game store. Look at the exposure that the artist Nemu got with her 'Steam Delivery Girl' on Steam. There's many out there who would be very happy for a very reasonable fee to do this kind of work, and it's not a huge cost for a company like GOG to pay that. This comes off as lazy, cheap and disrespectful to me. Just a giant FU to artists.
News - Check out the new suitably weird Mewgenics feature trailer
By ZedNet, 31 Jan 2026 at 8:49 am UTC
By ZedNet, 31 Jan 2026 at 8:49 am UTC
The fuck is that trailer...!?
News - CachyOS founder explains why they didn't join the new Open Gaming Collective (OGC)
By fenglengshun, 31 Jan 2026 at 8:31 am UTC
By fenglengshun, 31 Jan 2026 at 8:31 am UTC
Quoting: DirgeI know a lot of people use the distro as a NAS OS due to their ZFS implementation. I'm interested in seeing what they implement in order to break out and into more broad environments.Same. I prefer having the same distro on my machines, and so far I'm liking CachyOS. I'd want to see what the server edition offers and see it tested before using it on my repurposed old laptop.
News - CachyOS founder explains why they didn't join the new Open Gaming Collective (OGC)
By Dirge, 31 Jan 2026 at 7:54 am UTC
By Dirge, 31 Jan 2026 at 7:54 am UTC
One more question in the thread mentioned in the article was what I thought was another meaningful response:
Their current focus is probably on the server edition that was hinted in [their end of year blog post](https://cachyos.org/blog/2025-christmas-new-year/).
I know a lot of people use the distro as a NAS OS due to their ZFS implementation. I'm interested in seeing what they implement in order to break out and into more broad environments.
Quoting: RedditorHave you considered offering Antheas a job on CachyOS Handheld Edition? He was the one who made things work at Bazzite and would be a great addition.
Quoting: ptr1337Could be a great technical enhancement, but we keep us away jumping into drama 😬Further emphasizing a desire to avoid potentially troublesome entanglements, along with the Playtron comment.
Their current focus is probably on the server edition that was hinted in [their end of year blog post](https://cachyos.org/blog/2025-christmas-new-year/).
I know a lot of people use the distro as a NAS OS due to their ZFS implementation. I'm interested in seeing what they implement in order to break out and into more broad environments.
News - CachyOS founder explains why they didn't join the new Open Gaming Collective (OGC)
By fenglengshun, 31 Jan 2026 at 7:53 am UTC
By fenglengshun, 31 Jan 2026 at 7:53 am UTC
Well, the CachyOS was very good in responding to the various threads on Reddit and their forum when users (me included) has some issues with the updated ISO's installer.
At the very least, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and trust them as a team because they were on it when there were issues.
Hope CachyOS can work on my long term because I really enjoyed the distro so far.
At the very least, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and trust them as a team because they were on it when there were issues.
Hope CachyOS can work on my long term because I really enjoyed the distro so far.
News - GDC 2026 report: 36% of devs use GenAI; 28% target Steam Deck and 8% target Linux
By Xpander, 31 Jan 2026 at 6:40 am UTC
By Xpander, 31 Jan 2026 at 6:40 am UTC
Steam Deck higher than nintendo switch lol
yeah the AI tools usage is inevitable at this point i guess
research and brainstorming doesn't sound like a job for generative AI though.
I can understand using AI to do some tedious tasks that nobody likes to do but yeah, sad.
yeah the AI tools usage is inevitable at this point i guess
research and brainstorming doesn't sound like a job for generative AI though.
I can understand using AI to do some tedious tasks that nobody likes to do but yeah, sad.
News - GPD release their own statement on the confusion with Bazzite Linux support
By fenglengshun, 31 Jan 2026 at 6:33 am UTC
I'm willing to wait on more on this before passing any judgement, but I just feel a huge relief to realize that my concerns weren't totally insane and that at least one of the core devs privately has similar concerns.
By fenglengshun, 31 Jan 2026 at 6:33 am UTC
So, he tends to push changes before they are fully ready so he can play with them. Examples are day one Fedora releases regardless of whether it works properly (although we got good at that), yanking X11 in early 2024 as Chris Titus (first big youtuber) was reviewing Bazzite, breaking a lot of his software and causing him to ragequit the review, introducing Bazaar too early while it had memory issues and crashed on low end hardware, switching to iwd the day Phoronix announced there are rumors Intel stopped maintainance and breaking enterprise WiFi and WiFi on a lot of Intel devices, using Ptyxis as the default terminal (decent software, but Konsole is fine), bundling the Steam client plus problematic codecs so Bazzite cannot ship on hardware, and putting an assortment of unnecessary packages that we then have to maintain (8 Gnome extensions, etc). There are more, but you get the idea.Between this and seeing that [my thread](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/fast-moving-fresh-apps-and-deprecation-dilemma/9078) are among the [top read](https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/2025-the-year-in-review/11418/3), it feels... Relieving to realize I wasn't going insane with my concerns. Regardless of what actually happened, I'm glad to realize that my concerns, which I finally voiced when Bazaar was added before it was fully ready (in my opinion), is actually something that wasn't totally insane.
I'm willing to wait on more on this before passing any judgement, but I just feel a huge relief to realize that my concerns weren't totally insane and that at least one of the core devs privately has similar concerns.
News - GOG now using AI generated images on their store
By emphy, 31 Jan 2026 at 6:04 am UTC
By emphy, 31 Jan 2026 at 6:04 am UTC
"At this time, we won't be able to comment publicly on our internal processes or tools. However, we’re aware of the conversations happening around this topic and the assumptions that can go with it."Communications like that will work wonders on "assumptions", I am sure.
News - Luanti (formerly Minetest) v5.15 brings UI improvements, mod upgrades and a big performance boost
By Calinou, 30 Jan 2026 at 11:47 pm UTC
By Calinou, 30 Jan 2026 at 11:47 pm UTC
. . . There are things that still use OpenGL?Pretty much all established open source games still have an OpenGL option (and often, the only option is OpenGL).
News - UK lawsuit against Valve given the go-ahead, Steam owner facing up to £656 million in damages
By Purple Library Guy, 30 Jan 2026 at 11:47 pm UTC
Sure, taxation is distinct from profit . . . taxation is much more legit, because it gets used for the public good. But you and I both know the sense in which people describe the such-and-such-company "tax", e.g. the "Microsoft tax" on (nearly) every PC, so there's no point in a semantic argument that ignores what's being said.
I said Valve wasn't a natural monopoly, like a power utility. You're a good guy so I don't think you were intending to twist words there. Valve certainly has sufficient market dominance to be able to have a significant ability to set prices and create barriers to entry. Antitrust law, when it was a real thing, never required 100% of the market to deem something a monopoly. There was certainly a time in the US when Valve would have been long since broken up . . . also Microsoft, Oracle, Alphabet, Meta and plenty of others. I happen to like a lot of things about Valve, certainly compared to many other dominant companies, they have quite strongly resisted the process of "enshittification" that most dominant platforms embrace, but that doesn't make them not a dominant firm with a huge percentage of their market.
As to the right to decide profit levels . . . yeah, governments get elected, businesspeople don't. I might be willing to say Mohamed bin Salman shouldn't have that right . . .
Businesses operate in and depend on the legal and physical infrastructure created and defined by the countries they exist in, most need the educated workforce governments educate, and so on and so forth. This goes right down to the level of defining what businesses are--limited liability corporations in specific were created and defined by the state and cannot exist without state charter, but the same thing is largely true, if less dramatically, for other forms of business. Business as we know it cannot exist without government. Where government disappears, businesses don't make profit, paramilitaries just take their stuff. And abusive levels of profit are bad for countries and the people in them. It is totally a good idea to regulate them and it has been quite normal in many countries a good deal of the time. The current political climate in which business can do no wrong is a historical anomaly . . and one that we can see in real time generating more and more instability.
I do care that you're in business; it puts a certain perspective on what you say. It means you have a certain point of view, one belonging to a particular self-interested community, and after 35 years, one that it will inevitably be hard for you to see. I've worked in a library for 35 years; at libraries, our bias is towards public service and finding out the truth.
By Purple Library Guy, 30 Jan 2026 at 11:47 pm UTC
Quoting: CaldathrasWell, can't resist getting my final points in, sorry.Quoting: Purple Library GuyBy which you agree that yes, it is a tax.Not at all. Taxation is something done by government (usually on net earnings, property values and/or final purchase price). It is a gross misinterpretation of the meaning of "profit" to associate it with taxes.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyBut anyway. How much profit?What gives the public the right to tell any business how much profit they are allowed to make? As long as the business pays its taxes, it's none of the public's business. Yes, most countries have laws to deal with monopolies, but Valve is NOT a monopoly. You said so yourself.
How much experience do you have with business operations? Not that you likely care but I have nearly 35 years of practical business experience in all aspects of retail operations (not that corporate bureaucratic nonsense they teach at academic institutions). From your comments here, your knowledge of business practices and business math seems rather lacking. What you are talking about has nothing to do with the retail distribution channel, which is what governs Valve's business model (and any retailer, for that matter).
I don't want to go into a point by point analysis, so this is the last I'm going to say about this matter. You are, after all, entitled to your own opinion, whether or not I agree with it.
As always, it was good debating with you ...
Sure, taxation is distinct from profit . . . taxation is much more legit, because it gets used for the public good. But you and I both know the sense in which people describe the such-and-such-company "tax", e.g. the "Microsoft tax" on (nearly) every PC, so there's no point in a semantic argument that ignores what's being said.
I said Valve wasn't a natural monopoly, like a power utility. You're a good guy so I don't think you were intending to twist words there. Valve certainly has sufficient market dominance to be able to have a significant ability to set prices and create barriers to entry. Antitrust law, when it was a real thing, never required 100% of the market to deem something a monopoly. There was certainly a time in the US when Valve would have been long since broken up . . . also Microsoft, Oracle, Alphabet, Meta and plenty of others. I happen to like a lot of things about Valve, certainly compared to many other dominant companies, they have quite strongly resisted the process of "enshittification" that most dominant platforms embrace, but that doesn't make them not a dominant firm with a huge percentage of their market.
As to the right to decide profit levels . . . yeah, governments get elected, businesspeople don't. I might be willing to say Mohamed bin Salman shouldn't have that right . . .
Businesses operate in and depend on the legal and physical infrastructure created and defined by the countries they exist in, most need the educated workforce governments educate, and so on and so forth. This goes right down to the level of defining what businesses are--limited liability corporations in specific were created and defined by the state and cannot exist without state charter, but the same thing is largely true, if less dramatically, for other forms of business. Business as we know it cannot exist without government. Where government disappears, businesses don't make profit, paramilitaries just take their stuff. And abusive levels of profit are bad for countries and the people in them. It is totally a good idea to regulate them and it has been quite normal in many countries a good deal of the time. The current political climate in which business can do no wrong is a historical anomaly . . and one that we can see in real time generating more and more instability.
I do care that you're in business; it puts a certain perspective on what you say. It means you have a certain point of view, one belonging to a particular self-interested community, and after 35 years, one that it will inevitably be hard for you to see. I've worked in a library for 35 years; at libraries, our bias is towards public service and finding out the truth.
News - UK lawsuit against Valve given the go-ahead, Steam owner facing up to £656 million in damages
By F.Ultra, 30 Jan 2026 at 11:21 pm UTC
I have at times installed a game in Steam only to then launch it via Lutris since I needed different versions of proton/dxvk/xx than what Steam provided, in the end it is all files.
This is not to say that GOG:s way isn't better here, atleast for the DRM part, the Steam way is ofc better for getting automatic updates and so on.
The main issue is instead (in my view) that no one so far have managed to prove that 30% is either unfair or predatory.
By F.Ultra, 30 Jan 2026 at 11:21 pm UTC
Quoting: CaldathrasI think it gets removed, but then I also think that this all is 100% up to the game dev on how to handle. E.g most games have decided to use the DRM of Steam so... Then also many seam to provide a snapshot of an installed game instead of the installer but for those I'm quite confident that you could just zip the entire folder and unzip to a different folder/machine, as long as the game hasn't opted in to the DRM ofc.Quoting: F.UltraWell, see, this is an important tidbit of information. I was not aware of that. Here's a question or two. Does the installer remain on your system after the game is installed? If not, with the installation being automated, how do you get to that installer and back it up before it is removed?Quoting: CaldathrasThis is not entirely true. Once a game have been downloaded but before it has been installed, there is a game installer.exe in the game path. If the game is released DRM free by the publisher you can copy this .exe to wherever you like and install it there instead.Quoting: pbQuoting: drenAgain this is misleading. Once you download your game from GOG, you can completely remove them from the scenario of installation at all. You have the files, you can install it on as many computers as you want and you don't have to login to play the game. You absolutely cannot do that with Steam.You absolutely can. There are lots of DRM-free games on steam and downloading the files is the only thing you need to do in order to run them. Obviously you can't do that with games relying on Steam DRM (at least not without using workarounds), but that's something the developer put in there, and not valve. Valve does not require any kind of DRM for games sold on Steam.
Have you read the link you provided? Steamcmd is nothing like a GOG offline installer. You are not downloading the game installer through Steamcmd, you are installing the game! It is just an incredibly convoluted command line version of the Steam client (for which, the client is likely the GUI). Yes, you can run some of the games without the client but that does NOT make it the equivalent of an offline installer. There is one fundamental difference: if you lose Internet access or Valve's servers go down, you cannot install the game!
Quoting: drenBut they do (if the game publisher have decided to release their game DRM free on Steam). In that case there is a perfectly fine old time .exe installer at the game location in Steam.Quoting: pb@Caldathras is absolutely correct. GOG provides standalone executable installers, steam has no such feature. Games being DRM-free on steam isn't normal. Devs can and sometimes do add Steamworks DRM after initial releases, etc. The permanence of the Steam install being DRM-free isn't there. Also the Steam installation doesn't include other necessary dependencies, such as DirectX or C++ redistributables, that are included as part of an actual installer. Steam also doesn't advertise or tell you which games are DRM-free. On GOG EVERY game is DRM-free with all dependencies included as part of the installer (both Windows and Linux). In a lot of cases, these DRM-free directories still need the Steam client to act as a wrapper or handle activation. With GOG, you don't even need to use Galaxy, you can just download the installer from the website and install it where you want. This is why Heroic is able to provide direct access to your GOG library and is able to install everything you need for a game. It just feels like you are trying to make an equivalency argument that isn't actually equivalent.Quoting: drenAgain this is misleading. Once you download your game from GOG, you can completely remove them from the scenario of installation at all. You have the files, you can install it on as many computers as you want and you don't have to login to play the game. You absolutely cannot do that with Steam.You absolutely can. There are lots of DRM-free games on steam and downloading the files is the only thing you need to do in order to run them. Obviously you can't do that with games relying on Steam DRM (at least not without using workarounds), but that's something the developer put in there, and not valve. Valve does not require any kind of DRM for games sold on Steam.
Finally, while this is closer to parity with GOG's offline installers, it is still not the same. It is more like obtaining the installer through the back door whereas GOG is giving it to you upfront. At best, it is a loophole in the process. Most people are not going to be aware of this factoid, so few would be able to take advantage of it.
Thank you for telling me about it, though.
I have at times installed a game in Steam only to then launch it via Lutris since I needed different versions of proton/dxvk/xx than what Steam provided, in the end it is all files.
This is not to say that GOG:s way isn't better here, atleast for the DRM part, the Steam way is ofc better for getting automatic updates and so on.
Quoting: CaldathrasWell in the sense that the public at large is the government, they are by definition the only thing that allows the business to exist in the first place and therefore also have a say in how they conduct their affairs. One such say is e.g outlawing predatory and unfair pricing.Quoting: Purple Library GuyBy which you agree that yes, it is a tax.Not at all. Taxation is something done by government (usually on net earnings, property values and/or final purchase price). It is a gross misinterpretation of the meaning of "profit" to associate it with taxes.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyBut anyway. How much profit?What gives the public the right to tell any business how much profit they are allowed to make? As long as the business pays its taxes, it's none of the public's business. Yes, most countries have laws to deal with monopolies, but Valve is NOT a monopoly. You said so yourself.
How much experience do you have with business operations? Not that you likely care but I have nearly 35 years of practical business experience in all aspects of retail operations (not that corporate bureaucratic nonsense they teach at academic institutions). From your comments here, your knowledge of business practices and business math seems rather lacking. What you are talking about has nothing to do with the retail distribution channel, which is what governs Valve's business model (and any retailer, for that matter).
I don't want to go into a point by point analysis, so this is the last I'm going to say about this matter. You are, after all, entitled to your own opinion, whether or not I agree with it.
As always, it was good debating with you ...
The main issue is instead (in my view) that no one so far have managed to prove that 30% is either unfair or predatory.
News - GOG now using AI generated images on their store
By Technopeasant, 30 Jan 2026 at 10:21 pm UTC
By Technopeasant, 30 Jan 2026 at 10:21 pm UTC
Quoting: apocalyptech. The suits tend to see modern generative systems as a shortcut to Increased Productivity™ and they might just be assuming that this is the magical tech that's gonna turn a struggling company into a thriving one.In this particular instance of a banner ad that goes up for only two weeks, spending ten seconds is objectively more productive than spending an hour, even if the results are worse and it is not great branding.
News - GPD release their own statement on the confusion with Bazzite Linux support
By Marlock, 30 Jan 2026 at 9:54 pm UTC
To that effect, the trademark may be held by a legal person (be it a private company, org, etc), but this is more work and small projects may not bother at first, registering it personally, then transfering it to the legal person later.
Trivia: "Linux" is still held exclusively by Linus Torvalds, and Linux Foundation is just a licensee that manages sublicensing to other users of that trademark
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/legal/the-linux-mark
By Marlock, 30 Jan 2026 at 9:54 pm UTC
Quoting: CaldathrasThe trademark is not held by the open source project but by the individuals contributing to it? How strange.AFAIK it's common practice to register a trademark in order to protect an opensource project from being misused and misrepresented... Anyone can copy the code, but you still get to decide if they can call it the same name as the original project or if they'll have to publish under a different name and logo to avoid unpleasant/undue associations (see Kodi vs piracy-automation plugins and forks... and consider this is also a legal line of defense against hackers trying to clone your project and publish it with backdoors under the same name).
To that effect, the trademark may be held by a legal person (be it a private company, org, etc), but this is more work and small projects may not bother at first, registering it personally, then transfering it to the legal person later.
Trivia: "Linux" is still held exclusively by Linus Torvalds, and Linux Foundation is just a licensee that manages sublicensing to other users of that trademark
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/legal/the-linux-mark
News - Stop Destroying Videogames initiative to get a public hearing organised by the European Parliament
By Kimyrielle, 30 Jan 2026 at 8:59 pm UTC
The mandate should be for them to release the tools and related documentation required for players to keep the game in a runnable state, without forcing the devs to provide any further updates after that. If the server uses middleware that cannot be released for legal reasons, and/or uses cloud servers, I'd let them pick if they want to patch the servers to make them runnable, or release source code, so the community can do it.
But hey, that's just what should be done. I have ZERO faith in any lawmakers on the planet to introduce "business unfriendly" legislation, unless people start dying left and left. And that won't be the case here, so...
By Kimyrielle, 30 Jan 2026 at 8:59 pm UTC
Quoting: eggroleThat's not nearly enough. Not even close. There are a lot more server-dependent games around than people having enough time at their hand to pick their server software apart.Quoting: LachuMaybe devs will release server software, when shutting down own?That would be great, but I think the ask can be even less. Literally all they need to do is not get in the way of people reverse engineering and building their own servers.
The mandate should be for them to release the tools and related documentation required for players to keep the game in a runnable state, without forcing the devs to provide any further updates after that. If the server uses middleware that cannot be released for legal reasons, and/or uses cloud servers, I'd let them pick if they want to patch the servers to make them runnable, or release source code, so the community can do it.
But hey, that's just what should be done. I have ZERO faith in any lawmakers on the planet to introduce "business unfriendly" legislation, unless people start dying left and left. And that won't be the case here, so...
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