With SteamOS coming, Microsoft needs to up its game in the handheld gaming market : technology

[-] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 190 points 3 months ago

How about they don't? Open-source Linux, with contributions from gaming companies like valve, will always better for the consumer than a proprietary OS like Windows, that is designed by committee to show the most ads.

Linux is the new gaming os, Microsoft had too many Windows 8 moments.

[-] Fishytricks@lemmy.world 43 points 3 months ago

You remember it as Windows 8. But Windows ME haunt me.

[-] fernandofig@reddthat.com 15 points 3 months ago

Thing is, ME as an idea made sense. Win2K wasn't targeted to consumers, XP was in the pipeline for that, but they needed an interim version until it was ready. It looked like Win2K, but ostensibly compatible with the Win9x line. They just fucked up the execution on the internals, so it was terribly unstable.

Windows 8 had the opposite problem: it improved on Win7 internals, so it was solid, but had a terrible UI that no one asked for.

One could argue that the reason ME failed was very possibly because it was rushed. Win8, on the other hand, looks very much like designed by comitee with either very misguided designers or marketing people at the helm. Because of that, Win8 feels like a much worse failure to me.

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago

It is my understanding that ME was the last DOS-based Windows. My understanding is you can find "MS-DOS 7.0" ISOs floating around out there which IIRC is the DOS version ME is based on that was never released separately but for some reason it happened in China? Like it was used in Chinese computer factories or something? Half remembering an LGR video or something?

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

And ended up tarnishing win2k's good name. Many people think it was the same as ME.

Win2k is the only Windows which didn't irritate me.

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[-] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 14 points 3 months ago

Tell us younglings why

[-] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 22 points 3 months ago

There used to be two types of "Windows" in existence. The one based on NT which we use today, and the Win9x line that was basically just an advanced GUI on top of aging MS-DOS. Windows ME was the last of that line, where they tried to pack it full of modern features we've come to expect, but still on top of the unstable DOS core. It was an abomination.

I remember just skipping it and going from Win98SE straight to XP. That was the day 80s-style computing died for me, in 2002.

[-] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yup. We had a 98 "home" PC that my mom, brother, and I used, then my dad had his PC for his graphics/web design work. He went to "upgrade" to ME, swore a bunch, then reverted to 98 until XP came out. I don't think I ever fiddled with ME, but I'm glad I didn't have to from all the horror stories. Granted I was maybe 12ish when all that happened, and I really only played games then (and finding certain images on certain websites once I discovered that was a thing), but I didn't get into computers, tinkering, and Linux until high school when I got my own computer.

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[-] seaQueue@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

It was notoriously buggy and didn't offer any reason to upgrade. Everyone stayed on 95, 98, 98se or migrated to Windows 2000. XP offered a compelling reason to upgrade with improved directx support and the rebase onto 2000 tech.

I beta tested 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP and a few other things.

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[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 months ago

My usage lead to 3-4 blue-screen crashes every single day. Keep in mind a system reboot took up to 10 minutes, and there was no such thing as autosave. Back then Microsoft’s victims were conditioned to think this was quirky and unavoidable. This was on a vertically integrated, pre-built product from Gateway (covered in cow-print but that’s a cultural peculiarity from a different time) so there was no unsupported hardware to blame.

[-] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 months ago

I remember the cowprint logos on computers :) was just a bit too young to use ME but I remember seeing it around. Wild how they charged money for that. I feel like people are still traumatized by this at my work. They’re afraid that if they touch something it will break and crash.

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[-] dezmd@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

I like how we've completely erased Vista from our collective memories at this point.

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[-] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 65 points 3 months ago

No they really dont. Let windows die thw death its always deserved.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.world 36 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

They don’t “need” to. There are games that companies refuse to let people run on Linux, so there will be a market for Windows, no matter how shit the experience is.

[-] orclev@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago

For now. If enough of the market shifts to Linux those companies will support Linux. Particularly since the CrowdStrike fiasco has spurred Microsoft to crack down on kernel level access which means the days of anti-cheat rootkits are numbered. It's not going to be long before there's no functional difference between gaming on Windows and gaming on Linux.

[-] Drusas@fedia.io 34 points 3 months ago

TIL Microsoft has a handheld gaming platform.

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 29 points 3 months ago

They effectively don't. Several of the hardware OEMs saw the Steam Deck and rushed copies to market that run desktop Windows with some launcher they slapped together, and they don't hold a candle to something someone thought about for a few minutes.

[-] yesman@lemmy.world 33 points 3 months ago

Microsoft flamed out of the mobile OS space precisely because they insisted that Windows not fork, but be identical software running on all devices.

So now, there is no such thing as a windows phone, but every time I wake up my computer I see a vestigial lock screen that I have to dismiss before I log in.

They designed their phones like a company entitled to 85% of the market share. Something tells me they're not going to reform just to capture that mobile game space.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 months ago

That Lock Screen is not vestigial, it still loads and displays bing ads. You are the product, not the customer.

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

I have never seen an ad on my lock screen. Possibly because of all the stuff I have disabled and the fact that I use windows 10. I have some questions.

[-] kamenoko@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

To answer your question this is a Windows 11 thing. Windows 10 will be my Windows 7 which was my Windows XP, which was my Windows 98.

Tldr skip every other one.

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[-] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 29 points 3 months ago

Let's not bring this to their attention so we have more freedom from Microsoft.

[-] whizzlezoop@feddit.org 27 points 3 months ago

I don't think they care. With this console generation they have shifted away from treating gaming like a product with certain hardware and software. It's more of a service thing to them with game pass and cloud gaming

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 22 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I'm surprised Microsoft didn't make an Xbox-like version of Windows to flash on for these handhelds yet.

[-] w2tpmf@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago

The Xbox literally runs a custom build of Windows, that runs in a Virtual Machine, on top of another custom Windows based hypervisor. Then games are run in a separate VM.

All they'd have to do is port the hypervisor to different hardware, then the rest would run on top just fine.

[-] nehal3m@sh.itjust.works 30 points 3 months ago

Really, games run that far away from metal? Amazing, I didn’t have a clue.

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago

Welcome to modern DRM.

[-] pycorax@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Iirc it's fairly lightweight without much overhead. It's not as heavy as running VM your PC.

[-] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 11 points 3 months ago

That sounds like driving a car by attaching the steering system and wheels to the steering wheel and pedals of another car.

[-] swab148@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago

Sounds like an episode of Top Gear

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

Do you have a source for this? Every time I've gone looking for details about the Xbox I've not found anything comprehensive.

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[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 months ago

Oh, I hope they don’t though

[-] Grass@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago

nope

[+] helenslunch@feddit.nl 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

[deleted]

[-] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Isn't that because Microsoft either pays system integrators to only install Windows or threatens that they will stop providing relatively cheap Windows keys if they provide the option to start with Linux? I could have sworn I'd heard that somewhere.

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[-] Peffse@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Why do I get the weird feeling that they wouldn't use Xbox, but rather Zune, if they did.

[-] Ste41th@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Ok forgive me for sounding stupid but imagine a tv with steam os built in.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 27 points 3 months ago

I'd rather my TV be a TV, so that I can use it to display whatever I want, instead of being locked to a certain system and hardware configuration.

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 months ago

Same, all I want is a big display with good CEC support for volume, power on/off and input control.

[-] ghurab@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

In way it's already a thing. You can install Steam Link on TVs running Android TV

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