I am not clear, why would someone who owns a working windows running steam, install a linux distro from scratch to play exactly the same stuff he already does?
Most gamers couldn't care less, as long as it runs with the minimum of hassle. And I believe that graph is well outdated - the optimizations can be applied to the Windows version and reap similar benefits. And, realistically, 16% improvements are not going to cause a mass exodus from Windows. Additionally, FPS is a terrible performance measure once the counts are above 60 FPS or so, frame delay is more important, and in this case we're talking about 3.17ms vs 3.7ms per frame.
The smart thing for Valve to do, in the course of releasing their own platform, would be to artificially handicap Steam games on Windows. Regardless of the relative merits of Windows versus the Linux distro on the Steambox, Valve could make sure that their first-party titles never break 59.2 FPS on Windows.
It's no secret that Valve is worried about Microsoft's strategy with Windows 8, but Microsoft should be batshit terrified of Valve's strategy. They could lose ground in both the console gaming and consumer OS spaces if they aren't careful.
Whatever happens, in any contest between Steve Ballmer and Gabe Newell, I know who my money's on. If Ballmer were smart he would look to what made Microsoft successful in the first place, and choose incompetent enemies.
Personally I can't imagine this kind of strategy being used, it doesn't seem like Valve's style. Not to mention that their history favours give-aways and promotions over playing 'dirty' (there would no doubt also be a TF2 hat). You also have to remember they probably only control the games they've actually produced in-house.
I agree; I'm being mostly facetious when I say that it would be "smart" of them to do that. They wouldn't.
But it's the sort of thing that Microsoft would do well to think about as they move to lock down the Windows platform in the face of increased competition.
As a company, Microsoft has always been possessed of the peculiar conceit that their users run Windows for its own sake. (Hence their insistence on branding their cell phones 'Windows Phone X'.) They don't seem to understand that Windows hasn't been a consumer brand since the Windows 95 release, and is unlikely to become one again in the future.
Sure, but "most" of them are fellow HNers (or programmers, in general). And although they're a vocal minority, they're minority nevertheless. Not a huge market.
They won't. People have been saying it's the "year of the linux on the desktop" for everything big that comes along. All this will do is give more of those so-called and self proclaimed hardcore gamers incentive to switch, especially if nothing else is holding them back.
