Please never die so you can continue running this company as you always have. You make my life as a Linux user much better, and I’ll keep paying you as long as that remains the case.
There may only be dozens of us, but we love your product. Never change.
My hope is that community-developed Proton forks reach a point where they can stand on their own without Steam and Valve, perhaps as a component of or a sibling to Lutris, to conveniently run games from other platforms too.
I’ll admit that I don’t have a clear idea of how that would look or come about. It’s hard to beat the convenience of having the compatibility tool built directly into the launcher like in Steam, with individual prefixes and settings for different games if they have different requirements.
Well, that exists and works well. Proton GE exists and works outside of Steam, and it’s quite easy to manage. A lot of these improvements make their way back to WINE as well, so that’s a thing.
But what really sets Steam apart, at least for me, is:
selecting the right Proton version for a game
Steam infrastructure like Steam Input, so games “Just Work” with controllers
Those are a bit harder to separate. That said, running EGS or GOG games through Heroic directly works fine most of the time, so we’re already there for desktop, kb+mouse use. So if Valve goes evil, we have options.
They’re the perfect example of why profitable companies should stay private. They make bonkers money, and if next quarter they make the same amount it’s fine, as opposed to a public company where they only have value if they increase.
Dear valve. Please never ever go public. We will happily keep giving you money while you keep yourself a private company
Better yet:
My hope is that community-developed Proton forks reach a point where they can stand on their own without Steam and Valve, perhaps as a component of or a sibling to Lutris, to conveniently run games from other platforms too.
I’ll admit that I don’t have a clear idea of how that would look or come about. It’s hard to beat the convenience of having the compatibility tool built directly into the launcher like in Steam, with individual prefixes and settings for different games if they have different requirements.
Well, that exists and works well. Proton GE exists and works outside of Steam, and it’s quite easy to manage. A lot of these improvements make their way back to WINE as well, so that’s a thing.
But what really sets Steam apart, at least for me, is:
Those are a bit harder to separate. That said, running EGS or GOG games through Heroic directly works fine most of the time, so we’re already there for desktop, kb+mouse use. So if Valve goes evil, we have options.
They’re the perfect example of why profitable companies should stay private. They make bonkers money, and if next quarter they make the same amount it’s fine, as opposed to a public company where they only have value if they increase.