The place of the Ubuntu Software Center regarding Steam, Desura and others

[Dylan McCall]

On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 11:00 PM, David Klasinc <bigwhale at lubica.net> wrote:
> Implementation wise, I think the best way would be if PPA system can be
> extended to offer necessary support for selling software. This way Steam,
> Desura and alike could offer a simple PPA. PlayOnLinux could probably do
> this already.
>
> Regards,
> David

I'm happy to be proven wrong, but I think there is about a 0.1% chance
of Steam using a Debian package repository to install Linux software.
Their system is known for quickly and immediately updating games, as
soon as updates appear. This is very important to keep them in sync
with other players. Apt and dpkg don't offer that for free, and I
can't think of a practical reason beyond that for Valve to bother with
packaging everything when it can just be shipped in a standard format:
'here are the game files: put them $somewhere'.

The best we can do is anticipate that and think about software
installation in a world where some common applications manage the job
outside of Debian's tutelage. People use and like Desura (and likely
will Steam) and SC won't be replacing them, but maybe, with some very
simple common interfaces, it can augment them in a way that makes
sense.

Dylan