No one uses 32 bit Windows (especially for gaming), but at least we might at last get a 64 bit verison of the Steam client on Windows.
I’m wondering how this will affect Linux support. Steam client on Linux depends on very old 32-bit libs from Ubuntu 12.04 (!) and is a major reason for distros keeping their 32bit support
Future versions of Steam will run on 64-bit versions of Windows only.
Finally sounds like some plans to make the steam client 64bit
They’ll somehow make the client 32 bit but still need a 64 bit computer.
It’ll be two separate 32-bit clients that need to be ran together so it adds up to 64.
Never really considered that games don’t stop running on legacy hardware, but the Steam client does. GOG‘s way of downloadable installers is preferably.
When 7 and 8 support was fully dropped (where the newest Steam client requires 10 or above to run at all), Steam clients on older OSes were not updated automatically. It’s only if you manually try to update the launcher, it would “brick” your installations.
I agree that GOG’s method will stand the test of time better (as we wouldn’t have to archive specific versions of Steam), but for those with existing setups you aren’t SOL right away when support ends.
It’s still kinda shitty. There’s better way to archive the old version of steam but leave it readily available.
There is no way to have a legacy Steam client that’s not maintained but still must authenticate users, transactions, and downloads.
At least you can easily run 32 bit applications on 64 bit operating systems and hardware without performance penalty
