Valve is a wonderful contributor to Linux. Look what a beautiful wooden horse they have gifted to us!
I saw the news that Microsoft is eying to buy them. That’d be a tragedy and we’d say goodbye to such contributions.
I think Microsoft’s valuation is woefully underestimated
Also GabeN would have to agree to sell it, it’s not really up to anyone else (and I don’t think he’s really interested)
I’m worried that Gaben isn’t immortal and he’ll eventually die/retire/sell etc, and the people in his footsteps won’t share his vision. Throughout history this has been an often repeated story.
Is Gabe really that irreplaceable? The way he runs the company (flat-hierarchy), it’s mostly self-governing – the truly defining characteristic of his leadership is his willingness to be as hands-off as possible. A like-minded successor or even governing council could probably quite effectively handle things in Gabe’s absence.
Well… regardless of that: nothing lasts forever, but that’s no reason to assume that things will change for the worse. Gabe seems to put a lot of deliberate thought into his actions, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he has already taken care of preparing for a smooth and faithful transition away from his leadership when the time comes. Who knows, maybe they’ll even do a better job than Gabe could?
