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"Valve’s new Steam Controller has a major problem for PC games not on Steam"
(tech.sportskeeda.com)
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this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
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Steam Hardware
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Raise your hand if "your ecosystem" is built on free and open source software. Yeah. Literally no one else. STFU.
Steam isn't FOSS...
Linux, my guy...
The steam app is not foss.
Is there an echo in here?
I thought you had in mind SteamOS.
Me running Linux does not make me feel better when I have to run a pre-compiled binary from some (currently liked) company, valve could do better on this particular instance. How many people will actually run using the fully open source drivers? I'm guessing not most since it's not the one valve provides (unless I read that wrong).
The man point is that it's not a hardware lockout. The open-source userspace driver is a working proof of concept that the hardware will still work if you ditch steam.
Would I prefer it if they severed steam-input from the steam client and made it open source? Sure! But the community is not completely dependent on Valve.
What are you trying to say? Valve gets a free pass because SteamOS is based on Linux? How d'ya figure that one out?
Since the Linux drivers are open source wouldn't it be possible for anyone to write a driver for another OS based on those?
As far as I understand, the original Steam Controller presented as an un-useful pair of HID devices by default, and someone wrote a 3rd-party open source driver for it. So, a similar poorly-supported situation to other hardware that the F/OSS community consistently and rightfully criticises.
Yeah, that's true.
They got better with the Steam Deck. Without Steam running its controller acts like the desktop profile. By default you get keyboard and mouse controls and can switch to a generic gamepad mode by holding down the start button.
I expect/hope that it will be the same with the new controller. Maybe it'll just use the Steam Deck's driver. It has been upstreamed for quite a while now.
I'm saying there's no "free pass" required because they'll work on Linux.
Will they work properly on Linux? Will they work on a GOG game without installing Steam? Will they work on an alternative console or handheld?
If not then that sucks, and that is what they're being criticised for. Why should anyone STFU about that? It seems like a serious flaw.
Yes.
Funny how almost everyone else here didn't even care to read the article where it clearly states that the source of the complaint is "Game Pass games installed through the Xbox app are locked down on Windows 11." So typical Microsoft behaviour.
And yet, you're being the one voted down.