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Evolution of Windows (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/funny@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 4 points 1 year ago (9 children)

If they ever stop making updates, then Wine will catch up and you won't actually need Windows anymore.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (7 children)

    Yeah. But the barrier of installing linux makes that a kind of non-concern now, they can only change so much without breaking Win32.

    It'd be hilarious if Windows shrinks and Wine/Proton become the de facto dev target on linux (which is honestly where things are headed now).

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (6 children)

    Valve even has a docker container target that includes Wine for future proofed porting

    https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-runtime

    A newer approach to cross-distribution compatibility is to use Linux namespace (container) technology, to run games in a more predictable environment, even when running on an arbitrary Linux distribution which might be old, new or unusually set up.

    The Steam Runtime is also used by the Proton Steam Play compatibility tools, which run Windows games on Linux systems. Current versions of Proton (8.0 or newer) use the Steam Runtime 3 'sniper' container runtime.

    You target a version of the runtime when porting, and then ALL software ported to a given runtime will work on any host environment where you can support that runtime version

    In fact, you can even run this on Windows if you want to avoid potentially messing up dependencies on the host OS, or avoid compatibility problems

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    It's hilarious. It's like they're eagerly waiting for Windows to self immolate, all prepped to stroll into the vacuum it leaves.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    They've been preparing since 2012:

    .. upon the release of Windows 8 in 2012, Valve's CEO Gabe Newell called it "a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space", and discussed the possibility of promoting the open-source operating system Linux that would maintain "the openness of the platform".

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Gabe was worried about UWP (and Microsoft's obvious plan for an App Store) back then. Remember, Windows Phone was a thing, and UWP/Windows 8 was shiny and new.

    Microsoft failed spectacularly. Hilariously spectacularly.

    But you aren't wrong; Valve don't want to hitch their business to the solvency of Windows.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Remember, Windows Phone was a thing

    Oh yeah, my poor mother was scammed into buying one of those, just about the most worthless piece of technology I've ever seen.

    But yeah, it's quite an amazing journey Gabe has been on. He led the Microsoft team that ported Doom to Windows 95 using DirectX, so he kind of put the first nails in the coffin that was OpenGL back in the day. By 2005 it was all DirectX, and then he clawed that Microsoft victory out of their hands starting in 2012 and 12 years later in 2024 I switched to Linux full time playing Cyberpunk 2077 on a Debian based system of all things. Kinda wild.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago*

    Gaming is the only thing I still find Windows useful for. I can neuter it to oblivion and just do literally everything else on linux better/easier, but (unfortunately) Cyberpunk 2077 and some other games still run much faster on neutered Windows, even compared to tricked out linux systems... At least on Nvidia cards.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Well that would explain why Steam works so awesomely in recent years. Even before I moved from my uber weird Gentoo setup to TumbleWeed, it got pretty stable at some point. Things just... worked. I mean the client itself largely, which some time ago was ultra buggy for me, whereas running games with Proton worked fine even then.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    They could keep on developing updates to DirectX and whatever frameworks/libraries CAD software and the like might need. Keep the UI as is, but as 3rd party developers use the new APIs, Wine needs to adapt continuously.

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