I mean there’s Reddit ofc, as well as Twitter in its entirety, Discord is implementing some dumb updates, there are issues with Tumblr as well as everything to do with Meta, and I’m sure there are plenty more (and I haven’t even touched other digital media, for example the Sims). Why is it all happening in the span of about a couple months?
Capitalism. Companies go public (or already were public) and then they can no longer be happy with what they had and need to acheive infinite profit growth. That’s partially why companies like Valve, that are still luckily entirely private, can make seemingly consumer-focused decisions and not just chase infinite profits. That’s how they’ve been able to invest so heavily in Linux with such little short term gains. Valve still makes shitty decisions sometimes but it would be 10x worse if they decided to go public.
I hate to break it to you, bud, but Valve is not consumer focused and are definitely focused on maximising profits.
Sure Valve might be more interested on maintaining good relations with customers, but that is just because they want to keep you around so you can make them more money in the long term. Maybe this in itself is worth praising, but at the end of the dat Valve is just another corporation who want your money and I really wouldn’t go out of my way to defend or get emotionally attached to them.
And Valve want to invest in Linux because they are scared that Windows is going to do something to force them out of the PC space. Linux provides a fallback to this. Also, Linux allows them to undercut any potential Windows competition in the handheld gaming space as they can save on a Windows license. Eventually Valve hopes to corner the emerging market here by doing this. Linux support is very much a business and not altruistic move on Valve’s behalf.
My point isn’t that valve is our friend (they’re not), my point is that they’re more easily able to make decisions that aren’t purely driven by short term gains. Decisions like that are usually better for the consumer. They’re still a company and companies exist to make money, but they have a lot more freedom to choose the ways in which they go about that.
The Linux investment, yes was made out of a fear of windows, but is also not something most other companies would be able to do with how long term it is. It’s not out of altruism but it’s a lot more beneficial for consumers then the short term focused investors that drive most other companies.