tal

Well, whoever does that for closed-source software is going to basically have to do what they have done. Probably some kind of cross-distro fixed binary target, client software to do updates, probably some level of DRM functionality like steamlib integration.

If it's not Steam, it's gonna be something that has a lot of the same characteristics.

Personally, I kind of wish that there was better sandboxing for apps from Steam (think what the mobile crowd has) since I'd rather not trust each one with the ability to muck up my system, but given how many improvements Valve's driven so far, I don't feel like I can complain at them for that. A lot of the software they sell is actually designed for Windows, which isn't sandboxed, and given the fact that not all the infrastructure is in place (like, you'd need Wayland, I dunno how much I'd trust 3d drivers to be hardened, you maybe have to do firejail-style restrictions on filesystem and network access, and I have no idea how hardened WINE is), it'd still take real work.

Their use of per-app WINE prefixes helps keep apps that play nicely from messing each other up, but it isn't gonna keep a malicious mod on Steam Workshop or something from compromising your system.

The Steam store does have a section for non-game software. It's not very heavily-populated, but it's there.

https://store.steampowered.com/search/?category1=994&supportedlang=english&ndl=1

1,439 results match your search.

If I exclude non-Linux-native stuff (which will still generally run via Proton):

https://store.steampowered.com/search/?category1=994&os=linux&supportedlang=english&ndl=1

100 results match your search.

And because it has a standard set of libraries, it's probably the closest thing to a stable, cross-Linux-distro binary target out there, which I suspect most closed-source software would just as soon have.

You run your open-source stuff on the host distro, and run the Steam stuff targeting the Steam libraries.

I expect that the ice will still be melting wherever they put it. And according to the article, what they put in its place is snow on crushed rock, so that'll probably be melting too.

The women told investigators that the driver wasn’t involved, “saying that they climbed abord the truck thinking they were going to England because of the Irish registration plates,”

I don't think that would have worked, but they'd have maybe gotten to a country that doesn't have any border checks with the UK.

The six women were detained for being in France illegally before being released. Four were given 30 days to leave the country.

Via Calais, I expect.

I dunno, but I just Googled for both the National Police and the Paris police department to look for contact information. In both cases, Google sent me to the English language Wikipedia page (which linked to it), andt the websites themselves were only French.

considers

I guess maybe one could call the French embassy in Vietnam. They could presumably do Vietnamese or something.

EDIT: Ironically, I did almost the same thing the other day. I noticed, from an article, that a number of shops in Ukraine last winter that had lost power due to Russian missiles were running space heaters on diesel generators. That wastes a lot of diesel -- there are inexpensive Chinese diesel heaters that could be used instead. I went trying to find some sort of contact person in the Ukrainian government involved with energy who might be a reasonable person to drop a note to, but there's only so much in English. I eventually wound up trying to contact a charity in the UK that had been working to heat Ukrainian homes that had been impacted by explosions instead, hoping that they could direct me to a relevant party. And I wasn't in the position of having a frantic, suffocating family member calling me on the other end -- I was more willing to spend time searching.

As a percentage of GDP for a peacetime country, it is high, though Russia has generally run high.

As a percentage of GDP, it's higher than the US (IIRC currently about 3.5%) or Europe (with a few exceptions, below the 2% target of NATO).

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?most_recent_value_desc=true

The global average is a little over 2% of GDP.

https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2022/6/pdf/220627-def-exp-2022-en.pdf

Compared to WW2 spending, it's quite low.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_production_during_World_War_II

In 1939, Britain spent 9% of its GDP on defence; this rose drastically after the start of World War II to around 40%.

EDIT: I'd also add a couple of caveats:

• Given that this is in rubles, some is probably inflation, if the news source isn't adjusting for that, as the ruble has fallen in value relative to last year:

  https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RUBUSD=X?p=RUBUSD=X&.tsrc=fin-srch

  Relative to the dollar, it'd need to rise by 70% to hold constant since a year ago, so a 70% ruble increase may not be so exciting. I don't know what periods of time the numbers take effect at (like, in this situstion, where in the year the rubles are from may matter a lot).

• What we have for this is Russia's word; it could very well be spot-on, but we don't know yet.

• We don't know what the breakdown in spending is. So, for example, I believe that there may be benefits that need to be paid family of solldiers who were killed or injured and suchlike. At least in the US, I'm pretty sure that that'd be counted as military budget.

  https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/03/3/7327915/

  "All members of the families of military personnel who died during the special military operation in Ukraine (Putin's term for the war in Ukraine – ed.) will be allocated insurance coverage and one-time assistance in the amount of 7,421,000 roubles. Monthly monetary compensations will also be paid to each family member of fallen [soldiers]".

  Details: Putin also stated that he considers it necessary to set up an additional payment of 5 million roubles for the families of dead soldiers.

  In addition, he promises that the wounded receive a one-time payment of approximately 3 million roubles. And if a soldier becomes disabled during the war with Ukraine, he will be provided with monthly payments.

So it probably doesn't translate to something like "Russia has 70% increased capacity relative to last year."

I expect that Perun will put something up about it if he hasn't already, as this is his field.

The EU is preventing price discrimination within the EU.

They do have that requirement as part of the Digital Markets Act, but I don't believe that that's what the case here is addressing. That is not what the article OP posted or the article I linked to is saying: they are specifically saying that what is at issue is sales outside Europe.

But retail law attaches to a location, not to citizenship. Why would the EU be mandating sale of things in other regions? I mean, it's not like the US says "if an American citizen is living in the EU, then vendors operating in the EU must follow American retail law when selling to him".

EDIT: Okay, I went looking for another article.

https://www.gearrice.com/update/steam-cannot-block-the-activation-of-a-game-depending-on-the-country-of-purchase-europe-confirms/

Steam specifies in its terms of use that it is prohibited to use a VPN or equivalent to change your location on the platform. Except that it takes the case of the activation of a game given to you by someone and sent to your account. Following Europe’s decision, this should technically change and it would be possible to change region in Steam directly to buy a game then activate it in France. Valve has not made a comment at this time.

Hmm. Okay, if that is an accurate summary -- and I am not sure that it is -- that seems like the EU is saying "you must be able to use a VPN to buy something anywhere in the world, then activate it in Europe". Yeah, I can definitely see Valve objecting to that, because that'd kill their ability to have one price in the (wealthy) EU and one in (poor) Eritrea, say. Someone in France would just VPN to Eritrea, buy at Eritrean prices, and then use it in France. The ability to have region-specific pricing is significant for digital goods, where almost all the costs are the fixed development costs.

thinks

If that is an accurate representation of the situation, that seems like it'd be pretty problematic for not just Valve, but also other digital vendors, since it'd basically force EU prices to be the same as the lowest prices that they could sell a digital product at in the world. I don't know how one would deal with that. I guess that they could make an EU-based company ("Valve Germany") or something that sells in the EU, and have a separate company that does international sales and does not sell in the EU.

I mean, otherwise a vendor is either going to not be able to offer something in Eritrea (using it as a stand-in for random poor countries), is going to have to sell it at a price that is going to be completely unaffordable to Eritreans, or is going to have to take a huge hit on pricing in the EU.

I'm a little suspicious that this isn't a complete summary of the situation, though; that seems like it'd create too many issues.

EDIT2: Though looking at my linked-to article, it seems to be that the author is saying that that's exactly what the situation is.

I was wondering why they would call the BBC, of all places, to help get out of a truck in France, but then I realized that they probably didn't speak French (they were, after all, being shipped to the UK). The BBC is probably the most-visible face of the UK to the rest of the world; if you wanted to call someone in Europe who speaks English, it's probably one of the most-obvious places.

Valve was fined €1.6 million ($1.7 million) for obstructing the sale of certain PC video games outside Europe. However, the company pleaded not guilty.

Wait, outside Europe?

Some countries make it illegal to buy certain video games. If Valve can't geoblock sale of them outside Europe, how are they supposed to conform with both sets of laws?

I remember that the EU didn't want country-specific pricing inside the EU, and had some case over that. That I get, because I can see the EU having an interest in not wanting it creating problems for mobility around the EU. But I hadn't heard about the EU going after vendors for not selling things outside Europe.

Why would you expect USB to constrain your audio quality?

You're not getting better 0s or 1s based on which bus they're sent over to the DAC.