This doesn't seem particularly interesting. Spinning up environments via PRs is nothing new. This just has a fresh coat of paint. Is it neat to pack everything up into a single unit like this? I don't know, maybe.
The most concerning thing here is that you absolutely should not use GitHub fucking Actions as your control plane. Have you ever debugged actions? It's terrible. Old runs magically disappear. The queue sometimes decides to go for a lunch break. Not to mention GitHub's uptime is atrocious.
I'm sorry (not sorry) but I can't take this seriously at all.
It does matter, because the store page isn't just for buying - it's also for seeing system requirements, reading any applicable EULAs before purchase, and reading reviews. You can't do those from any other page on Steam.
Since the bundle is a separate purchase option and not replacing the option to buy TTD on its own, it also allows people to easily find out what they're in for by providing a description of what OpenTTD is, as opposed to just buying TTD on its own.
Who knows, though I always thought that it was rather odd that OpenTTD was on Steam. I'm not sure whether that's because it is an open source remake or because you had to own the original for the graphics/sound assets back in the day. (Apparently that changed over 15 years ago!)
Even if Atari's lawyers were involved, it may have been a friendly exchange. The post claims that OpenTTD was available on Steam for 5 years. That is more than enough time for them to apply legal pressure. It's also worth noting that the open source version is still available from the project website, as are the open assets.
As someone who has been involved in OpenRCT2, which is another Chris Sawyer/Atari game, from what I can tell, Atari has a very hands off approach to these things.
We know they know about us - We saw their Head of PR giving away keys for RCT2 on Twitch while playing OpenRCT2, prior to the release of RCT World (What a terrible game sadly).
As far as we can tell, it's basically a "don't cause us problems and we won't bother you" situation.
> As far as we can tell, it's basically a "don't cause us problems and we won't bother you" situation.
In this case, the "problem" seems to be "we want to lazily cash in on an existing IP and you providing a better product for free on the same shelves as ours makes that difficult", with the "solution" being to agree to have the better (free) version bundled with the lesser (paid) version.
I suppose it's better than banning distribution of prebuilt executables outside Steam or suing the devs into bankruptcy (a lawsuit Atari would likely win), but at that point we're just comparing starting with a shakedown to starting with breaking kneecaps.
> In this case, the "problem" seems to be "we want to lazily cash in on an existing IP and you providing a better product for free on the same shelves as ours makes that difficult", with the "solution" being to agree to have the better (free) version bundled with the lesser (paid) version.
At least they want to "lazily cash in". A lot of gamers like to talk about preserving history, yet are critical the moment businesses preserve that history doing it the way businesses naturally do things (i.e. by selling a product).
Besides, we do not know what went on behind the scenes here. It could be anything from the open source developers voluntarily pulling their game from the store, to the publisher requesting they pull their game from the store, to the publisher threatening legal action. Heck, the publisher may have even paid the developers of OpenTTD to bundle their engine with TTD. While some scenarios are more likely than others, we are too quick to attribute actions and motivations based upon non-existent information.
I don't think anybody is blaming Atari for putting TTD on sale for money. Heck, I was even planning to buy it until they pulled the obnoxious stunt of removing OpenTTD.
And even that could've been okay if they actually explained what was going on, but it's all very hush hush, which does not instill trust and understanding. If they were transparent about motivations and reasoning, they'd likely catch a lot less flak for what's going on right now.
The original one at home came with a PC gaming magazine, but sadly I lost that CD. Also if any I'd pay $5 for the OpenTTD authors and another $5 for the original creators.
I remember reading an interview some years ago where they basically said they wouldn't try to shut them down, but they also did not appreciate the projects existing.
If I recall that correctly, Atari didn't want to do anything about it because it drives sales for TTD and RCT (in the case of OpenRCT2, it drives sales for 2 games even, since you need the assets from 2, and can also import more assets from 1, and even further, you can also use Classic as your base, so like, many many options), while Chris Sawyer didn't particularly like their existence, but not enough to go and force Atari to do anything about it.
You are conflating many things here. A locked bootloader does not imply you cannot run unsigned software in user space. There are also many phones that do allow you to unlock the bootloader. I have a drawer full of them.
Finally, the ability to allow you to unlock your phone bootloader or to run custom firmware has nothing to do with the silicon. It's a software choice. The trusted software could most certainly decide to disable these safeguards.
>A locked bootloader does not imply you cannot run unsigned software in user space.
In the long term it does because the purpose is to provide the scaffolding for remote attestation. Once remote attestation becomes the norm, it transitions into becoming a de-facto requirement for doing pretty much anything in the real world. Today, banking apps. Tomorrow, getting past the cloudflare turnstyle. The next day, everything.
It most certainly could, but will it? I have that same drawer. There is absolutely custom silicon dedicated to putting up those safeguards. The problem is the trusted software decides wether or not to disable those safeguards is what makes it special.
Because the fundamental task many of these programs are doing is neither complicated nor resource intensive.
In the age of cheap custom software solutions everyone should at least try to make something themselves that's fit for purpose. It doesn't take much to be a dangerous professional these days, and certainly more than ever before can a dangerous professional be truly dangerous.
Thank you, I get so confused when people think a $5/vps shouldn't be able to do much. We're talking about 99% of small business that might have 5 concurrent users max.
2 gigs of ram should be considered overkill to cover every single business case for a variety of tools (analytics, mailer/newsletter, CRM, socials, e-commerce).
I heartily agree with you except for the ongoing childhood-screentime pandemic where kids aren't going outside to play, but instead are staying inside, alone, and maybe playing with others virtually, but with more exposure to harm (e.g. gambling). This is clearly going to cause some serious long term generational fallout.
I'm grateful that I got the best of both worlds. When I was young I could play outside with freedom and climb around on highly dangerous playground equipment and now that I'm older and more fragile I get to stay inside on the couch and play amazing video games all day.
It's a shame that kids today don't get the option to do crazy kid stuff while they're young and healthy enough to bounce back from injury. I can't blame the tech for that though. It's parents who don't restrict screentime and our society that thinks it's okay to call the police on parents who let their kids walk down the street unattended.
Agreed--we're already seeing some of that, and I fully support minimizing kids' exposure to that.
I probably should have been explicit that I don't think technology has no downsides--it most certainly does. It's just, IMHO, the benefits outweigh the risks. And, over time, we figure out how to ameliorate the downsides.
I think you're confused. Kindles need to be connected to the Internet so you can purchase and read books on them. The SIM card removed friction from the process e.g. buying books while on vacation or at the airport or whatever.
They didn't put SIM cards in there to spy on you. They were always an opt-in (at additional cost) option for a better user experience.
The most concerning thing here is that you absolutely should not use GitHub fucking Actions as your control plane. Have you ever debugged actions? It's terrible. Old runs magically disappear. The queue sometimes decides to go for a lunch break. Not to mention GitHub's uptime is atrocious.
I'm sorry (not sorry) but I can't take this seriously at all.
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