sure, the service is good. The utility is awful, and the utility is part of the overall service. And currently, the steam client is basically fucking bloatware.
Opinions are always subjective… not sure what you’re getting at.
Here’s my perspective. I’ve been a Linux user longer than I’ve been a Steam user, in fact I only made a Steam account when they came to Linux. In the 12-ish years since they launched on Linux, they have only made my experience playing games on Linux better.
What other company is comparable here? The closest is maybe GOG, but they don’t even support Linux with their client, much less actually invest in the platform. They do make a few older games work on Linux, but that’s about it. Their first party titles don’t even support Linux.
So yeah, I’m willing to overlook a few things. That doesn’t make me a Steam fanboy, and I’d happily move my spending elsewhere if another company stepped up and provided decent Linux support. But the closest we have is GOG basically treating Heroic purchases like affiliate links (not sure what the share is), and that doesn’t instill a ton of confidence, though it does encourage me to occasionally buy from them.
I’m getting at this. All your comments in this thread are invalidating other’s personal experiences. Idk if you are rage baiting or not.
I would overlook too but a window popping at the last second while the game launches, that’s not something my nvidia gpu likes. It’s already irritating that we have to run steam web helper to play games we own, but the breaking point is bugs and crashes because of the background window.
It may not be the same experience for you or the others that down voted me but saying I’m pretending and invalidating my experience is definitely something. This isn’t a niche bug to begin with lol.
All your comments in this thread are invalidating other’s personal experiences.
Well yeah, if I agreed, why post? You provide one perspective, I provide another, and we discuss it. Isn’t that why services like Reddit and Lemmy exist?
down voted me
I didn’t downvote anyone in this thread, I only downvote poor or irrelevant content, not content I disagree with. In fact I agreed with your criticism of Steam here (said it could be slimmer), I just disagreed w/ the claim that it’s “bloatware,” especially given that you provided absolutely zero evidence for that claim, until now. I guess you kind of did at the top of this thread, but I rarely track usernames, especially this deep into a comment chain, so I didn’t associate the above w/ the top comment.
I have a different experience, so I provided that as a counter-example to your claim of it being “bloatware.” Steam provides a ton of value, especially to me who otherwise wouldn’t likely have access to major gaming platforms w/o their investment in Linux. Heroic is a thing largely because of Valve’s investment into Proton/WINE, and game devs considering Linux at all is absolutely a result of Valve’s investment in the platform w/ Steam Machines and then Steam Deck. Valve has a ton of features other launchers don’t, such as: Steam Input, Remote Play, and Steam Family. I use those all the time and they’re absolutely wonderful.
Yes, Steam has bugs, and they’re annoying. But that doesn’t make it “bloatware.”
You are confusing me with someone else. Also you are not discussing. I said it clearly, you state personal experiences and opinions as if facts. There’s nothing for others to discuss there.
How cruel of me to ask a question about an experience breaking buy instead of shushing myself and kneeling in front of Steam for giving me this opportunity to play on proton.
There certainly is. You can disagree with my points the same as I disagreed with yours. And you have, just a bit later on in the discussion.
How cruel of me to ask a question
There’s no problem with asking questions. i didn’t have an answer, so I didn’t respond to that point. I launch things through Steam’s UI, so I don’t trigger the issue you seem to have w/ it.
The reasons you’re getting downvotes and negative interaction is largely your justification for piracy. I don’t think anyone would have an issue if you said “I pirate because games are too expensive” or “I pirate because I fundamentally disagree w/ DRM” or something of that nature. But no, you said, “A main reason I pirate is because Steam opens a window when I launch a game with it minimized.”
That’s ridiculous, but I didn’t down vote. Why? Because you had an on topic, relevant comment asking if a specific bug was fixed. But I also didn’t upvote. Why? Because you also had a completely irrelevant, IMO silly comment about you pirating because of a super minor thing. If you had left it at just the question, I probably would’ve upvoted and maybe tried out that bug you mentioned. As it turns out, someone did just that and confirmed that it’s still a bug.
Also, if you’ll notice, I didn’t respond to your top-level post, I responded to other people making what I feel are inaccurate statements. In this particular chain, we were discussing Steam being “bloatware,” and I was pointing out that, while it could be slimmer (i.e. less bloat), it does a lot of things very well, especially from the perspective of a Linux gamer where the other options are way worse on a number of fronts.
Steam as a platform provides a ton of value, for example:
Steam input
Remote Play
Proton
And all of those things work w/ games not purchased from Steam, which is awesome! I use each of those all the time on my Steam Deck, many times for games not purchased through Steam (e.g. I have Heroic load GOG and Epic games to the Steam UI so I can use those features). Steam is a great platform with a client that does a lot of things well.
Yes it has bugs, but having bugs doesn’t make something “bloatware.” The bugs absolutely suck, and they should be called out so they hopefully get Valve’s attention and get fixed, but that doesn’t make the whole package “terrible,” and IMO they certainly don’t justify piracy. There are a lot of valid reasons to justify piracy though, so don’t go putting words in my mouth claiming they don’t exist.
I agree. I was just defending that other person. Still think it’s ass the the steam client is a second class citizen on Linux. It’s still filled with so many bugs you don’t see on windows
There’s still no light theme, you can’t upload videos, screenshots on your feed take like 20% of the screen with no proper full-screen view (it opens another window after two clicks that you have to close later), likes and comments don’t sync well between the friends feed and the game feed, and this list goes on and on. Steam client is far from fantastic. It’s a half-baked product with inconsistent user experience.
But it’s really not. It has bugs, but the overall service is fantastic.
sure, the service is good. The utility is awful, and the utility is part of the overall service. And currently, the steam client is basically fucking bloatware.
It’s really not though. It could certainly be slimmer, but it does a lot of things way better than its competitors.
Steam fanboy first time hearing subjective opinions.
Opinions are always subjective… not sure what you’re getting at.
Here’s my perspective. I’ve been a Linux user longer than I’ve been a Steam user, in fact I only made a Steam account when they came to Linux. In the 12-ish years since they launched on Linux, they have only made my experience playing games on Linux better.
What other company is comparable here? The closest is maybe GOG, but they don’t even support Linux with their client, much less actually invest in the platform. They do make a few older games work on Linux, but that’s about it. Their first party titles don’t even support Linux.
So yeah, I’m willing to overlook a few things. That doesn’t make me a Steam fanboy, and I’d happily move my spending elsewhere if another company stepped up and provided decent Linux support. But the closest we have is GOG basically treating Heroic purchases like affiliate links (not sure what the share is), and that doesn’t instill a ton of confidence, though it does encourage me to occasionally buy from them.
I’m getting at this. All your comments in this thread are invalidating other’s personal experiences. Idk if you are rage baiting or not.
I would overlook too but a window popping at the last second while the game launches, that’s not something my nvidia gpu likes. It’s already irritating that we have to run steam web helper to play games we own, but the breaking point is bugs and crashes because of the background window.
It may not be the same experience for you or the others that down voted me but saying I’m pretending and invalidating my experience is definitely something. This isn’t a niche bug to begin with lol.
Well yeah, if I agreed, why post? You provide one perspective, I provide another, and we discuss it. Isn’t that why services like Reddit and Lemmy exist?
I didn’t downvote anyone in this thread, I only downvote poor or irrelevant content, not content I disagree with. In fact I agreed with your criticism of Steam here (said it could be slimmer), I just disagreed w/ the claim that it’s “bloatware,” especially given that you provided absolutely zero evidence for that claim, until now. I guess you kind of did at the top of this thread, but I rarely track usernames, especially this deep into a comment chain, so I didn’t associate the above w/ the top comment.
I have a different experience, so I provided that as a counter-example to your claim of it being “bloatware.” Steam provides a ton of value, especially to me who otherwise wouldn’t likely have access to major gaming platforms w/o their investment in Linux. Heroic is a thing largely because of Valve’s investment into Proton/WINE, and game devs considering Linux at all is absolutely a result of Valve’s investment in the platform w/ Steam Machines and then Steam Deck. Valve has a ton of features other launchers don’t, such as: Steam Input, Remote Play, and Steam Family. I use those all the time and they’re absolutely wonderful.
Yes, Steam has bugs, and they’re annoying. But that doesn’t make it “bloatware.”
You are confusing me with someone else. Also you are not discussing. I said it clearly, you state personal experiences and opinions as if facts. There’s nothing for others to discuss there.
How cruel of me to ask a question about an experience breaking buy instead of shushing myself and kneeling in front of Steam for giving me this opportunity to play on proton.
There certainly is. You can disagree with my points the same as I disagreed with yours. And you have, just a bit later on in the discussion.
There’s no problem with asking questions. i didn’t have an answer, so I didn’t respond to that point. I launch things through Steam’s UI, so I don’t trigger the issue you seem to have w/ it.
The reasons you’re getting downvotes and negative interaction is largely your justification for piracy. I don’t think anyone would have an issue if you said “I pirate because games are too expensive” or “I pirate because I fundamentally disagree w/ DRM” or something of that nature. But no, you said, “A main reason I pirate is because Steam opens a window when I launch a game with it minimized.”
That’s ridiculous, but I didn’t down vote. Why? Because you had an on topic, relevant comment asking if a specific bug was fixed. But I also didn’t upvote. Why? Because you also had a completely irrelevant, IMO silly comment about you pirating because of a super minor thing. If you had left it at just the question, I probably would’ve upvoted and maybe tried out that bug you mentioned. As it turns out, someone did just that and confirmed that it’s still a bug.
Also, if you’ll notice, I didn’t respond to your top-level post, I responded to other people making what I feel are inaccurate statements. In this particular chain, we were discussing Steam being “bloatware,” and I was pointing out that, while it could be slimmer (i.e. less bloat), it does a lot of things very well, especially from the perspective of a Linux gamer where the other options are way worse on a number of fronts.
Steam as a platform provides a ton of value, for example:
And all of those things work w/ games not purchased from Steam, which is awesome! I use each of those all the time on my Steam Deck, many times for games not purchased through Steam (e.g. I have Heroic load GOG and Epic games to the Steam UI so I can use those features). Steam is a great platform with a client that does a lot of things well.
Yes it has bugs, but having bugs doesn’t make something “bloatware.” The bugs absolutely suck, and they should be called out so they hopefully get Valve’s attention and get fixed, but that doesn’t make the whole package “terrible,” and IMO they certainly don’t justify piracy. There are a lot of valid reasons to justify piracy though, so don’t go putting words in my mouth claiming they don’t exist.
I agree. I was just defending that other person. Still think it’s ass the the steam client is a second class citizen on Linux. It’s still filled with so many bugs you don’t see on windows
I wouldn’t know since I’ve never used it on Windows, I created my Steam account when they started supporting Linux.
I guess I’m just grateful a major company is making desktop apps and compatibility layers for Linux, so I’m willing to look past a few issues.
There’s still no light theme, you can’t upload videos, screenshots on your feed take like 20% of the screen with no proper full-screen view (it opens another window after two clicks that you have to close later), likes and comments don’t sync well between the friends feed and the game feed, and this list goes on and on. Steam client is far from fantastic. It’s a half-baked product with inconsistent user experience.
Hmm, I guess none of that bothers me:
But I can see how it can be frustrating if you use those features.