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Steam set to become app store
iphigenie:
So Impulse/Gamestop is trying to become Steam while Steam is adding things that the original Stardock Impulse had...
wraith808:
^ And GameFly is also trying to become Steam...
Renegade:
I'm liking that there are more "app stores" opening. I like the idea of having more competition out there. It reinforces a degree of openness, and erodes the "walled garden".
I still think that the word App is being overused - what I usually think of when I think of Apps is a The Single Responsibility Principlew, i.e. something that does one thing well. Those are the types of Apps I look for also.
-wraith808 (August 08, 2012, 05:02 PM)
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I wrote a treatise on this issue a few years ago for Samsung Multimedia Solutions Center arguing against the incessant use of "app" and instead using "software" or "program" (etc.) as appropriate. (This was all for developer materials, and not end user stuff.) Alas, lost that one.
OT"App" was/is just short for "application software", which is a very specific kind of software. It has since been applied as you describe - tiny, single feature software. But it's still a muddled word with no clear meaning at the moment. Apache is not an app. MySQL is not an app. SMF is not an app. Wordpress is not an app. etc. etc. The point is lost when marketers get involved and start pretending that they actually understand what they're talking about. "App" is a simple word for people though, and for end users, in that space, makes sense to use. For other areas? Cripes... Developers that have to use the word "app" for everything because they don't know the difference between client, server, and SaaS web applications, well... they represent one of the things that's wrong with the world - fundamental native language illiteracy.
Games are not application software. Pfft... Why can't people simply speak English properly? (I don't mean non-native English speakers who have an excuse.)
I came across a new term, "fusking". It's just URL hacking through brute force. We don't really need to invent new terms for everything, and we don't need to muddy existing terminology.
Carol Haynes:
IMHO a slightly worrying development - the Steam servers barely cope with what they are doing now without adding loads of cloud-based app type stuff.
I have no problems with the internet at all but I frequently get 'Cannot connect to steam' on first attempt to open Steam when it is trying to login - and when opening pages in the Steam browser windows I could sometimes go and make a cup of coffee in the time I wait for the page to actually appear. (They never open immediately and the Steam browser make IE look positively whizzo - which is strange because as far as I can tell it is an IE shell ???)
The other issue is that when Steam feels the need to update stuff they never ask your permission and unless you have a very fast broadband (and Steam in a good mood) you could easily find yourself waiting for a couple of hours (or even days) bfor you can open an app depending on the size of download. (I have a customer whose son plays Steam games and on average it takes him between 7 to 10 days to get new games installed - even when he buys it it on DVD). Of course you can't amuse yourself in the meantime by playing another game because that suspends the download!
40hz:
I'm liking that there are more "app stores" opening. I like the idea of having more competition out there. It reinforces a degree of openness, and erodes the "walled garden".
I still think that the word App is being overused - what I usually think of when I think of Apps is a The Single Responsibility Principlew, i.e. something that does one thing well. Those are the types of Apps I look for also.
-wraith808 (August 08, 2012, 05:02 PM)
--- End quote ---
I wrote a treatise on this issue a few years ago for Samsung Multimedia Solutions Center arguing against the incessant use of "app" and instead using "software" or "program" (etc.) as appropriate. (This was all for developer materials, and not end user stuff.) Alas, lost that one.
-Renegade (August 12, 2012, 11:11 AM)
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Don't feel too bad. IBM spent millions trying to get everybody to adopt the term "solution" (e.g. Accounting Solution or Payroll Solution) - which is actually rather evocative since it puts emphasis on the result rather than the mechanisms and/or methods employed. Made sense to IBM since they were offering a nice medley of hardware, software, services, and support for most of their stuff. Almost like saying IBM sells "results" rather than products and services. Very clever. And not at all inaccurate at that time.
The public was having none of it. :-\
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