this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2024
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Steam no longer supports Windows 7, 8, and 8.1::Customers sticking to the good-old (and dead) Windows 7 now have one more reason to ditch the operating system: as of January 1, 2024, Steam no longer supports Windows 7, 8, and 8.1.

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[–] spudwart@spudwart.com 19 points 2 years ago (6 children)
[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

It uses Chromium on Linux too. It uses DRM on Linux too.

The real answer is GoG.

[–] LainOfTheWired@lemy.lol 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Honesty for a lot of older games gog is the answer. A lot of older games just don't run well or at all on proton.

Though you could also just get an old console to play them on and never worry about updates breaking things again.

[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 years ago

It's good for new games too! With Lutris I can even install Windows games with Proton on Linux, or choose my own Wine setup. I think Heroic Game Launcher does the same.

Best of all, no internet connection is required once a game is downloaded, unless the game specifically demands it. You can save your installers locally and keep them forever, never needing to phone home. If push comes to shove, install a VM of an old OS, and it'll run just the same. Connecting old OSes to the internet is potentially a security risk. And, as we see here, Steam ain't gonna work on old OSes anyway. You're going to need to pirate the games you already bought if you want to play them again in 20 years.

[–] Virulent@reddthat.com 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nah, gog doesn't do anything to suppory Linux. Valve is the reason Linux gaming is as good as it is. Pretty much all the games that are on gog are also drm free on steam.

[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Okay, you just blew my mind. How does one download installers for DRM-free games on Steam? How do you even tell which games are DRM-free? I was not able to find answers with some quick searching, just community-maintained lists of games that are ostensibly DRM-free in one way or another. But how do I verify that? How do I archive installers?

[–] Virulent@reddthat.com 2 points 2 years ago

You can usually just copy the game files

[–] soulfirethewolf@lemdro.id 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Why does it matter if Steam uses Chromium on Linux. It's not like Gecko dropped embed support or anything

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[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 years ago (4 children)

We're a GoG-first house, here.

I get that steam dropping win7 was unavoidable based on their shitty choice of browser base, but the alternative was only Firefox and we know how Mozilla-the-app went.

Anyway, GoG gives us control over our purchased copies, and I like that.

[–] thehatfox@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

There was a time when software didn’t need an entire browser engine to run. We used to call them native applications.

Although looking at how small the pre-Windows 10 customer base is I imagine Valve would have considered it not commercially viable to continue supporting however easy maintaining the codebase was.

[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 years ago

Why pay for DRM when there's a legal, user-friendly alternative? GoG is the best. Proof that we can still have nice things.

I don't go as far as to boycott Steam, but GoG is my first choice.

[–] Disposable_User@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

But, how about my funny and stupid reviews on the store page, and my useless badges and cards? /s

[–] virtueisdead@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago

GoG or itch only, launch with lutris. I just don't want to risk putting up with this.

[–] n3cr0@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I bet, we don't find a single Windows 8 user who uses Steam on that system. Similar applies to Win7.

[–] toddestan@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Not anymore since it no longer works.

I was still using Steam on Windows 7 as late as last month. Losing access to Steam was one motivation to finally upgrade my computer.

[–] topinambour_rex@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Why not switch to Linux? There is several ones which works well with steam

[–] toddestan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

That's actually just what I did. New PC runs Manjaro Linux. So far all the games I've thrown at it work just fine.

Maybe I should have done that with the old PC, but I'm lazy and Windows 7 was working well enough.

[–] Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Because maybe they want to play games without having to check if it runs on linux?

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Thanks to the Steam Deck and proton development, these days that's pretty much limited to a few incompatible multiplayer anticheat systems. Gone are the days where a developer actually had to make a Linux build.

[–] CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

That's becoming way less of an issue nowadays

[–] wolfshadowheart@leminal.space 2 points 2 years ago

Win 8 was listed just under 1%

[–] Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 years ago

Wrong, I used Steam under Win 7 from time to time until December. For some games it doesn't really matter and I use old machines for fun.

[–] AzureRT@reddthat.com 1 points 2 years ago

I used to be a Win8 user who had Steam

[–] EddyBot@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

I'm not sure why people blame mostly Google for this
Microsoft stopped supporting them long time ago first, in case of Windows 7 it's almost 4 years now

[–] Kevin11@lemdro.id 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

My setup (it has been destroyed by Gabe)

[–] wax@lemmy.wtf 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 years ago

Direct purchace (if dev is trusted) > GOG > Steam > anything else

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