Steam Expanding Beyond Games, Will Start Selling Software

[rein]

Originally Posted by Widgetcraft

I'd assume that their work place would supply them with the software needed for their job. Usually they have commercial licenses with the software company. Steam is talking about selling YOU productivity software, not the company you work for.

I see your point but anyone with a job that uses a software suite at that job typically uses the same thing at home for compatibility reasons. Even for the shitty job I have right now I keep a copy of Office 2003 because some of the crappy equipment I deal with doesn't like files that have been saved as a 2003 file in newer version of Office. Not to mention people tend to be sheep. If the office is using it then it must be the best and what they should use...

[digitalErich]

I think if Steam puts some nice admin tools in there, they could make some headway in enterprise spaces. Just think how great it would be for admins to be able to manage a large portion of their licensing and provisioning from one app.

I agree though that their initial aim will likely be consumer, though.

[J Arcane]

God, Erich, I'm not even in IT, but even I can see how fantastic that would be.

[TKO]

@Savok: There's probably and internet provider or two that allows me to download from Steam unmetered, but my one gives me a totally unmetered window in the early morning for any download/sync/backup I want to do. Works well for me, but requires enough babying of Steam that I'd rather re-install from a local source when I can. ..Would be nice if Steam had a scheduler, the I'd use it to download more.

I'd jab back about the sheep-shagging bit, but we've been feeling sorry for you Aussies, being below us in the medal-table for most of the Olympics..

[Savok]

I celebrated that. We spend so much fucking money on "elite" sport in this country as everything crumbles around us. Was really hoping you'd stay ahead to be perfectly honest.

And Steam needs a lot of features added to how and when it downloads things. Sick of running filter programs or watching TCPView just to make sure it doesn't fuck me over for the month.

[TKO]

Damn, sporting reference fail. {Thinks hard for an appropriate kangaroo-buggering reference..}

You know, I'm starting to come around from my "Steam is pretty damn good" stance.. I still like Steam more than the old physical media (ownership issues included .. Silent Storm is my only game I haven't been able to Steam-ify), but Valve really hasn't done much at all about customising our options for when/if to download. (The robustness of the off-line mode especially deserves attention.)

I guess they're too busy working on our last instalment of Half Life 2. *cough*

[Savok]

Oh they have for where. You can select your "download region" down to ISP. It just doesn't work, along with most other features.

[MagGnome]

Steam is implement several big changes to the Community section of the service, so hopefully other changes and fixes will be coming down the pipe shortly. I'm sure they are well aware of the shortcomings.

[crazyD]

You guys on your backwards ass Continent should really learn to get along and work together to fix your shitty, shitty Internet. The problem isn't that Valve doesn't have methods to limit downloads, the problem is that you need to limit downloads. You should be rioting until your internet service is brought into the levels expected during the early 2000's.

[TKO]

Originally Posted by crazyD

You should be rioting until your internet service is brought into the levels expected during the early 2000's.

If steam wants to be one of the main global software distribution systems I would argue they *do* need to sort out scheduling and bandwidth-limits. Are we *ever* going to have it where everyone in the world is going to have reliable and fast internet? Maybe not. What about developing countries? Remote locations? What about war-zones? What about people travelling on a plane or ship?

Sure, Valve don't *have* to care about people with limited/slow data. But while the popular torrenting clients have good schedulers, I'd suggest they want to be the more appealing option.

Me, I can live with the limits put on me here. Those limits will go soon enough. But I'd be using Steam more right now if it would accommodate them.

[Savok]

Well that's why our government is rolling out the National Broadband Network. Using the cutting edge technology of laying fibre optic cables everywhere at vast expense and years behind schedule. You better like fibre optics too because we're ripping the old network up to make sure you use the new one!

This really is the worst government this country has ever had.

[Widgetcraft]

Originally Posted by crazyD

You guys on your backwards ass Continent should really learn to get along and work together to fix your shitty, shitty Internet. The problem isn't that Valve doesn't have methods to limit downloads, the problem is that you need to limit downloads. You should be rioting until your internet service is brought into the levels expected during the early 2000's.

I was going to say the same thing earlier, but said fuck it.

[muddi900]

Data caps will be the norm in most non-metropolitan areas.

[Widgetcraft]

Originally Posted by muddi900

Data caps will be the norm in most non-metropolitan areas.

If by non-metropolitan areas you actually mean third world shitholes, then maybe. I live in a tiny, horrible rural area in America, and I don't have a data cap. Australians should be absurdly pissed off that everyone else living in a similar country doesn't have to deal with data caps, at least not to the extent that they do. I don't think you're going to find many people in the United States who have to actively monitor their bandwidth usage with anything but a mobile connection.

[Savok]

Normally I do get angry at anything but you have to understand just how impossibly empty this country is. We have thousands of miles of pipes and cabling that services absolutely no one but are needed links between populations. As such the cost of maintaining it all is spread pretty thick. My 60Gb a month is something like $70, this is actually a pretty good deal here.

We are very angry however about the NBN because the government's solution to this is to spend billions making it worse.

[muddi900]

Originally Posted by Widgetcraft

If by non-metropolitan areas you actually mean third world shitholes, then maybe. I live in a tiny, horrible rural area in America, and I don't have a data cap. Australians should be absurdly pissed off that everyone else living in a similar country doesn't have to deal with data caps, at least not to the extent that they do. I don't think you're going to find many people in the United States who have to actively monitor their bandwidth usage with anything but a mobile connection.

I think you need to read up on the usage of will be.
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com...oing/menu.php/

As Savok pointed out, population density is more important than the actual economic condition of the country. India will always have cheaper internet than America because it has more people.

[Widgetcraft]

Originally Posted by muddi900

I think you need to read up on the usage of will be.
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com...oing/menu.php/

I'm not sure about what you're getting at here. I interpreted your statement in line with one of the uses supplied by your little link there:

We can use 'will be doing' to predict what is happening now.

Try phoning his hotel. He'll probably still be having breakfast.
They'll be deciding who gets the contract at this very moment. I'm very nervous.
She's not in her office. She'll be having lunch in the canteen.

Were you referring to a future where data caps are more common?

As Savok pointed out, population density is more important than the actual economic condition of the country. India will always have cheaper internet than America because it has more people.

It's not really a matter of money to begin with, it's a matter of policy. The data cap isn't really making the infrastructure cheaper, and I doubt that they see much extra profit from it.

[muddi900]

It is about infrastructure. Rural areas do not have enough demand to invest in improving infrastructure. So yeah, it is a policy thing, where the policy is not losing money.

[Widgetcraft]

Originally Posted by muddi900

It is about infrastructure. Rural areas do not have enough demand to invest in improving infrastructure. So yeah, it is a policy thing, where the policy is not losing money.

But the infrastructure is there already. It has to be there whether they download 5mb, or 10,000mb in a day. Data caps don't magically make the infrastructure cheaper.

[Savok]

They do mean you need less of it though.