angular graphics
Banned
This all sounds.. familiar.
1) He was frustrated it was "common knowledge" you can't make a good game on Windows because of various technical reasons which made no sense to him. Nowadays he wants to kill the same misconception that exists for Linux.
2) He pleaded to work for free to change that misconception. SteamOS is a free, open platform.
3) He used an existing game as an example of what Windows should be able to run and how that is much better than what the consoles of the time were achieving. Now the plan is for AAA developers to announce Linux versions of their games that will demonstrate what a modern Linux PC can do.
4) He was surprised to see that a game was the #1 software people were using and then it was Windows. Now he believes if games will make it to Linux, the OS' usage will significantly increase.
Sources:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/172835/interviews/creative-minds-gabe-newell/
http://kotaku.com/5906588/seems-like-doom-might-have-inspired-valve-to-build-steam
http://web.archive.org/web/20040329213856/http://www.maxitmag.co.uk/articles/valve.htm
http://allthingsd.com/20120725/valv...-games-wearable-computers-windows-8-and-more/
http://gmod.de/threads/24266-Gabe-Newell-Interview
Gabe Newell said:I got involved in the gaming industry when I was working on Windows back in the old days of DOS extenders and config.sys hacked boot disks. I was the producer on the first three releases of Windows. It was common wisdom that it wasn't possible to write a good game in Windows because of, well, unnamed technical reasons. This was annoying, so I decided that we would find the most technically advanced PC game and port it to Windows to show that there wasn't any reason for games not to be Windows apps.
So around the time that Doom shareware came out, I installed it on a laptop and dragged it around everybody's office and said, 'Look, look what PC games can do! This is a lot better that your NES system or your Sega system', and decided to have some engineers work on porting Doom to Windows.
I called John Carmack and said, "Hey, we'll do this for free". And eventually it became the Doom port to Windows.
Gabe Newell said:But what was so shocking to me was that Windows was the second highest usage application in the U.S. The number one application was Doom, a shareware program that hadn't been created by any of the powerhouse software companies. It was a 12-person company in the suburbs of Texas that didn't even distribute through retail, it distributed through bulletin boards and other pre-Internet mechanisms. To me, that was a lightning bolt. Microsoft was hiring 500-people sales teams and this entire company was 12 people, yet it had created the most widely distributed software in the world. There was a sea change coming.
Gabe Newell said:The big problem that is holding back Linux is games. People don’t realize how critical games are in driving consumer purchasing behavior.
1) He was frustrated it was "common knowledge" you can't make a good game on Windows because of various technical reasons which made no sense to him. Nowadays he wants to kill the same misconception that exists for Linux.
2) He pleaded to work for free to change that misconception. SteamOS is a free, open platform.
3) He used an existing game as an example of what Windows should be able to run and how that is much better than what the consoles of the time were achieving. Now the plan is for AAA developers to announce Linux versions of their games that will demonstrate what a modern Linux PC can do.
4) He was surprised to see that a game was the #1 software people were using and then it was Windows. Now he believes if games will make it to Linux, the OS' usage will significantly increase.
Sources:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/172835/interviews/creative-minds-gabe-newell/
http://kotaku.com/5906588/seems-like-doom-might-have-inspired-valve-to-build-steam
http://web.archive.org/web/20040329213856/http://www.maxitmag.co.uk/articles/valve.htm
http://allthingsd.com/20120725/valv...-games-wearable-computers-windows-8-and-more/
http://gmod.de/threads/24266-Gabe-Newell-Interview