Thank you, Valve! But...

Posted Jan 24, 2014 21:04 UTC (Fri) by directhex (guest, #58519)
In reply to: Thank you, Valve! But... by debacle
Parent article: McGovern: Valve games for Debian Developers

> This offer, however, is not appealing to me. I like to use, promote, and develop free software, whenever possible. As far as I know, Valve games are not free software.

You are correct. None of Valve's games are FOSS. I don't know whether it's even an option - some of their engine technology is licensed from third parties.

> Maybe it would be more helpful, if Valve shows their gratitude to Debian and other free software projects by other means. E.g. they might sponsor meetings of free games or multimedia developers or support the development of free video card drivers.

Discussions are ongoing about how Valve can best use their resources. As a random example, SDL2 largely happened thanks to Valve.

> Anyway, this is not meant as neither a critique of Valve nor the fellow developers enjoying Valve games. Have fun!

Thank you for your post. I absolutely understand the position some people take regarding software Freedom - it's nice when it doesn't turn into a hellish arguing match as might happen in other communities.