Steam Light (without Chromium)

[TEPA6ANT]

Since the problem that will cause Windows 7/8/8.1 to be discontinued in the future is Google Chrome built into the client. Then why don't you make a special version without it (light version)? That is, it turns out just a list of games, and the ability to run them. And access to the profile or to the chat, only through the browser, what does the user have.

Yes, it turns out, there will be a security problem, for example, we do not know what extensions the user has in the browser. But, I do not think that ordinary users will use this version.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

The entire application is chromium based.

No, they should not create a new client for people who dont take the hint when even the people who make the OS stop supporting it.

Get real.

[Crazy Tiger]

You're basically asking for a new client build from scratch and on top of that to keep supporting it. For a part of the userbase that is a minority that further keeps on declining.

Yeah, I can imagine that's not worth the effort and resources.

[😡 Duck 😡]

The old version from a few years ago was very good, it didn't use the webkit kernel, it was very light and you could even customize the software skin, now steam has become bloated and wastes a lot of memory and CPU and GPU.

If STEAM doesn't want to support win7, the best way to do it is to provide an older version of the client that is no longer upgraded to launch games for win7 users.

[Satoru]

Origineel geplaatst door 😡 Duck 😡:

The old version from a few years ago was very good, it didn't use the webkit kernel, it was very light and you could even customize the software skin, now steam has become bloated and wastes a lot of memory and CPU and GPU

Not sure what dimension you thougth this happened, but steam has always had a web back end. before it was using IE, before moving to CEF. In case you were wondering, IE is no longer supported either so you know

[TEPA6ANT]

Here I was misunderstood. There is such a program, SteamCMD (Steam Console Client). At least on its basis to make a simple GUI and simple launch of games.

I don’t think that in order to get a list of games on an account and authorize this account, some kind of super-technologies are needed, which is only available in Google Chrome.

[Satoru]

Origineel geplaatst door TEPA6ANT:

Here I was misunderstood. There is such a program, SteamCMD (Steam Console Client). At least on its basis to make a simple GUI and simple launch of games.

I don’t think that in order to get a list of games on an account and authorize this account, some kind of super-technologies are needed, which is only available in Google Chrome.

SteamCMD is a developer/scripting based tool and isn't meant as a client replacement

[Spawn of Totoro]

Unfortunately, if Valve was going to make a "Steam Light" then they would have done so long ago, when they dropped XP support. As they didn't I fell it is extremely unlikely they will do it when they drop Windows 7 support.

[TEPA6ANT]

Origineel geplaatst door Satoru:

Origineel geplaatst door TEPA6ANT:

Here I was misunderstood. There is such a program, SteamCMD (Steam Console Client). At least on its basis to make a simple GUI and simple launch of games.

I don’t think that in order to get a list of games on an account and authorize this account, some kind of super-technologies are needed, which is only available in Google Chrome.

SteamCMD is a developer/scripting based tool and isn't meant as a client replacement

why not for light version cut out of a developer features like anonymous login and other?
I don't think it will be difficult.

in general, if it were really created, it would be an interesting version with only the most necessary things. So to speak, for the most niche. Or for those who want to make like an arcade machine, or something like that.

But it is a pity that in this discussion, do not think so.

[Haruspex]

I wish Steam would switch to something like Quantum instead of Chromium, but alas.

[EmiePlays]

The bottom line is Steam would only take on the burden of maintaining two pieces of software if it would be more profitable than maintaining one. Since the second one you're asking them to create is one that has less ads, and undoubtedly a lot of people who have modern OS but don't like ads would use it for that reason, that means they'd not only be taking on the overhead of maintaining two pieces of software, they'd probably lose sales by doing it. Which sucks if you run an old OS or don't like ads, but businesses exist to make money, so that's what they're going to do.

If I were you I'd probably look into setting your computer up with a dual boot scheme for Windows with Ubuntu alongside. Ubuntu is always free to have the most recent version, it's much more lightweight than Windows, and Steam supports it. A long time ago I had a computer with both Windows and Ubuntu on it, and for the last 3 years of its life it stopped being able to boot into Windows because of all the Windows bloat it could no longer handle, but it continued being able to boot into Ubuntu.

[RasaNova]

I agree it would be great if they would release a barebones library/launcher, but I really doubt it will happen.

I'm sure they had a whole team of analysts and number crunchers to figure out the most cost effective solution and it didn't include developing or maintaining backwards compatibility.

[Kargor]

Origineel geplaatst door Crazy Tiger:

You're basically asking for a new client build from scratch and on top of that to keep supporting it. For a part of the userbase that is a minority that further keeps on declining.

They could just freeze the Chromium version for the "light" client. I doubt they are using any bleeding-edge features in the client, so for the foreseeable future they wouldn't even have to make any serverside distinctions and just tell their developers to stick to whatever Javascript that old Chromium can handle.

Over time, they might have to split up things -- but even then, they can strip down the light client to only do downloads and game-launches -- they don't necessarily need the shop or forums there. This should be fairly independent of any future client changes -- even if they change the download system to something the old Chromium can't handle, they can just run the old and new ones in parallel.

[mitropower]

Its not about cost effectiveness or profitability. They are not owners of the games they sell, they are a reseller and distributor. If a bought game supports Win7, they should not interfere.
If they are so far gone that they lack a skill set to make anything that is not HTML/js, they should outsource it.

This way, its just an Epic-Sweeney-like d**k move and toying with "acceptable attrition" to balance the books. For a corpo of the Valve size, its would just be a cheap ass tactic. But even economically, there is 33 million active users, 1.9%-ish would be 600.000 users. They do not bring enough cash to warrant a barebones DL/launch for them? Hmmm....

This has nothing to do with you loving your Win10. Live and let live.

No, I am not Win7 user. Nor a Win10 user. And honestly I would love it if those Win7 users would ditch MS altogether.

[Satoru]

Origineel geplaatst door TEPA6ANT:

why not for light version cut out of a developer features like anonymous login and other?
I don't think it will be difficult..

Again steamcmd is primarily a scripting tool for developers and server managers. Its was and is not meant for customer facing usage. Many if not most customer facing properies, options, etc are not visible in steamcmd because again, these options are not relevant for scripting purposes

[Satoru]

Origineel geplaatst door RasaNova:

I agree it would be great if they would release a barebones library/launcher, but I really doubt it will happen. .

Note that literally any UI based infrastructure you're going to try to use, has already dropped windows 7 support.

https://www.electronjs.org/blog/windows-7-to-8-1-deprecation-notice

https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2022/12/09/microsoft-edge-and-webview2-ending-support-for-windows-7-and-windows-8-8-1/

https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/supported-platforms.html