https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/ULWGL
From the github:
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR OTHER LAUNCHERS (lutris/bottles/heroic/legendary,etc):
- everyone can use + contribute to the same protonfixes, no more managing individual install scripts per launcher
- everyone can run their games through proton just like a native steam game
- no steam or steam binaries required
- a unified online database of game fixes (protonfixes)
My worry is Valve will look at the project and shut it down. Remember, Valve doesn’t care about your Linux, it only cares about money. Not having users on their Client side platform means less revenue and less ads to show.
Do you know what open source means?
They’re not relying on Valve’s goodwill. The license explicitly permits this.
“Third party software included and respected byproducts of Valve’s proprietary”
Legit doesn’t mean you own all the code.
Afaik proton is BSD-3, and everything else important is part of wine which is LGPL. Sure, valve can be hostile if they choose, but they haven’t given themselves the legal tools to do much.
Edit: DXVK is apparently under the zlib license.
Valve also worries about relying on Microsoft. They want people to transition to Linux since it’s open and no corporation can go “all games have to go through my store for 30% commission!” The proton fixes that these clients make Valve can also probably utilize to also make and I’m sure the devs for these also contribute to proton so it’s a win for everyone.
This doesn’t affect valve at all though. It’s borrowing their tech that they’ve made open source, and figuring out how to use it elsewhere outside of steam.
Actually, it’ll benefit them. More eyes are on proton and any fix will benefit everyone, including games played via steam.
It’s really up to the corporation whether they think it will benefit them. I agree that Valve has so far not been hostile toward GE, and it looks like proton has a very permissive license, but if it were any other digital storefront, doing anything to allow users to consume your content without using your storefront would be seen as at attack on their bottom line.
I’m actually curious how this new standard would potentially benefit other storefronts who haven’t natively supported Linux yet. If it’s going to make things easier for existing open source launchers, then it would also make things easier for competing launchers. I know as a consumer, I want GOG, Epic, EA, etc. supporting Linux, but does valve? I don’t know, maybe, maybe not. On the one hand, maybe they don’t want competition in their niche space, on the other hand, maybe they’ll do anything to take marketshare from msft.
Valve’s Proton is open source but is it also free to use and distribute in commercial software? Cuz if so, there’d be nothing stopping GOG or Epic from implementing it already, they don’t need this project at all
