Microsoft finally realizes the threat SteamOS poses — but its promises to fix Windows 11 for PC gaming are too little, too late

I’ve been a PC gamer for over 30 years, and during that time, Microsoft’s operating systems (first MS-DOS, then various shades of Windows) have essentially been the default choice when building or buying a PC for gaming. Because of Windows' 'popularity' on PC, compared to alternatives like Linux, any game developer that wanted to get as big an audience as possible would prioritize Windows as a platform. This had a snowball effect, which meant that if you wanted the largest library of games to play, you needed to have Windows installed.

This state of affairs continued for years, but a problem was brewing. The reason why I used quotation marks when talking about Window’s ‘popularity’ (see, I did it again), is because, despite it being the most widely-used operating system, no one really loves, or even likes, Windows. If someone claims ...