Productivity and Creativity Software Coming To Steam 194
lga writes "Valve announced today in a press release that they are expanding Steam beyond games and will start to deliver other software. This means that Steam will compete directly with Microsoft's Windows Store and perhaps explains some of Gabe Newell's disdain for Windows 8. The ability to save documents to Steam Cloud space also brings Valve into competition with the likes of Dropbox and Skydrive. According to the press release, 'The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.'"
Interesting ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Their focus on Linux suddenly starts looking differently ...
Install locations (Score:5, Interesting)
I am not sure steam is ready for non-games... (Score:4, Interesting)
... software just based on how long it takes to launch things. If I want to play something it's not a big deal to wait the 10-20 seconds it takes to launch steam and waiting for it to connect to my account to allow the game to launch, but if I have some software I need to use for work and/or open/close several times that would get pretty annoying.
This said the steam advantages (and the inevitable steam sales) might make it more likely that people would overlook the speed issues, I am not sure.