Petition for an ultra-lightweight alternate Steam client

[Beat Darwin]

I would like a version of Steam that I could load, when I wanted to, as an alternate to the main Steam client (on PC/Mac/Linux). This version would support game launching and possibly game maintenance, only.

Since the only thing we "own" via Steam are licenses to execute the games we have purchased, it would be nice to be able to get to that functionality without a lot of other encumbrance, when we so desire.

For times one wants the full Steam experience, just load that client, instead.

Would anyone else be interested in something like this?

 

[Vegeta897]

I wouldn't use it, but I like the idea, and don't see why it shouldn't exist, other than taking Valve's resources/workforce away from other Steam related development.

 

[trunk_slamchest]

yes please.

im so sick and tired of daily client updates + dota2 updates that randomly slow down my pc for no reason.

i had to uninstall 1/2 my games library because of how many times a random game update would slow down steam, and my computer, and **** up whatever i was doing at the time. dota2 especially became a problem because theres a ~100mb update almost EVERY GOD DAMN DAY. its ridiculous.

the download speed cap has become rather useless because it just causes games to update slower. selecting "do not automatically update this game" likes to reset with client updates for me...so thats useless as well.

its to the point where i cannot be on steam if im doing any important anymore. its that bad.

steam is like the shake weight from south park where it just bugs me and bugs me to update even when im busy doing something else. mostly when i do not have time to spend waiting for steam to update before continuing the task at hand.

and vegeta, if valve cannot put a 5 man team to a "Steam Lite" project because they are so tied up with other developments and projects....id say its time for valve to reassess their development pipeline...again; for the results we as customers are seeing do not equate to whatever amount of resources they are using.

and vegeta, we both know valve is flat. meaning the only reason a "Steam Lite" client hasnt been developed is because no one at valve wants to create one.

 

[Beat Darwin]

its to the point where i cannot be on steam if im doing any important anymore. its that bad.

Thanks for the support, Trunk. And ditto to your point above. That is the primary motivation behind my suggestion.

I started out by thinking "why shouldn't my digital licenses to games be transferable betwixt and between arbitrary client launchers?" (i.e., game licenses not locked to the online venue where you purchased them, provided there was a consistent set of DRM terms for each launcher, when required.) But HL3 will come out long before Valve goes along with *that* idea, methinks.

 

[Vegeta897]

and vegeta, we both know valve is flat. meaning the only reason a "Steam Lite" client hasnt been developed is because no one at valve wants to create one.

Not sure how this is relevant to what I said.

 

[AzureNinja99]

I would like that. My computer is an old, cheap laptop. It's gotten to the point that I don't even play games on it much anymore. I just frustrate myself to no end. And even when not playing games, it's slow just browsing the internet. Heck, there's half second delay when I'm typing. A lightweight program wouldn't make my games run any better, but it would at least help.

 

[trunk_slamchest]

Not sure how this is relevant to what I said.

if valve cannot put a 5 man team to a "Steam Lite" project because they are so tied up with other developments and projects....id say its time for valve to reassess their development pipeline...again; for the results we as customers are seeing do not equate to whatever amount of resources they are using.

 

[Krynn72]

if valve cannot put a 5 man team to a "Steam Lite" project because they are so tied up with other developments and projects....id say its time for valve to reassess their development pipeline...again; for the results we as customers are seeing do not equate to whatever amount of resources they are using.

Again, you overestimate the number of people who are like yourself and thus feel like you're entitled to something. You have a knack for doing that. How do you know that taking five people off their current project is going to be worth it to them? How do you know it will be worth it to the Steam userbase? You can't just say "surely they can spare five people to do this..." and have it be true. You don't know what their workload is, or what will benefit the community more. You don't know shit because you don't work for them and you don't know what they're doing.

Your BS presumptions of the community and of Valve are getting really ****ing irritating.

Anyways, I wouldn't use this because I've never had any problem. I don't keep most games installed for long periods of time so I don't usually have to deal with constant updates to games I'm not playing. I also never had issues with it when I was getting constant updates for things, but I suspect I'm in a position where I have such resources to spare. I'd be interested in seeing how many people really do have such issues.

 

[trunk_slamchest]

the word "if" is very important here because im speaking hypothetically.

oh wow you are trying too hard haha

 

[kineaesth]

I'd be interested in seeing how many people really do have such issues.

My previous computer was pretty average-to-poor, and I'd find that although it could run games at an acceptable level, with steam involved things definitely slowed down. I think it's less of a problem these days because computers have more ram in general, but a lightweight client would be neat for older computers and laptops/netbooks

 

[bobtheskull]

Must admit, a Lite would be usable for the old computer I have currently sleeping in the attic. I used to have problems with Steam slow down a while back, but nothing since I upgraded my CPU and RAM.
I used to have as many games installed as my HD could manage. Primarily because my net connection was pitifully slow and it could take upwards of a whole day to download some games. Now I have a fast connection, I don't really need to have that as it might only take an hour or so. But, yeah, when I had all those games installed updates were horrendous. Specially if I was offline for a week or something.
I think a Lite version would be cool. I might not use it but I'm pretty sure there would be plenty of folk that would.

 

[Omnomnick]

I actually think Valve should develop an international version of the recently released Chinese Steam build, which is used solely for launching Dota 2 and very little else. Having a lite version of that format would make Dota 2 easily accessible for people who don't want to download the full Steam client, or for those who don't quite know what it is. It would help to increase the game's player base substantially, and Valve could even place advertisements for the main client on the lite news page in order to highlight all the additional features available that the user is missing out on, thus promoting longer term users to get involved with the Steam community and store for a "better service".

 

[Beat Darwin]

I actually think Valve should develop an international version of the recently released Chinese Steam build, which is used solely for launching Dota 2 and very little else.

That's interesting, Omnomnick. I hadn't known about the Dota 2-only version of the Steam client for certain markets.

Initially I was thinking this represents a much different use case than what I am suggesting, but then I realized it's actually very similar. Sometimes I just want access to the games I paid for, without all the rest of the "wrapper" that Steam keeps building around them. If Valve is able to, with relatively little effort, adapt the client you mentioned so that it can see my entire game library and launch any game of my choosing with a single click, that would be outstanding. It doesn't need to do anything else. When I want any of the other features, including game updates, I'll be happy to start the full Steam client.

I run Steam on a variety of machines, and on the older ones, it is increasingly becoming a dog riding on the back of a turtle. On modern hardware it runs more acceptably, but it has a bloated feeling and lately seems more prone to crashing. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Vegeta897]

I actually think Valve should develop an international version of the recently released Chinese Steam build, which is used solely for launching Dota 2 and very little else. Having a lite version of that format would make Dota 2 easily accessible for people who don't want to download the full Steam client, or for those who don't quite know what it is. It would help to increase the game's player base substantially, and Valve could even place advertisements for the main client on the lite news page in order to highlight all the additional features available that the user is missing out on, thus promoting longer term users to get involved with the Steam community and store for a "better service".

The only problem with this is that free games like Dota 2 rely on people getting the full Steam experience to be profitable. Simply having ads for the full version of Steam is too much in the way of getting users to buy other games on Steam, which is the goal.

 

[Omnomnick]

The only problem with this is that free games like Dota 2 rely on people getting the full Steam experience to be profitable. Simply having ads for the full version of Steam is too much in the way of getting users to buy other games on Steam, which is the goal.

Yeah you're right, I was just saying which route I think would be the most viable right now. Realistically, the best route would be to optimize the main Steam client more and improve performance in general to remove the need for a 'lite' version.

 

[Rorschach120]

Has anyone tested a computer with these problems on linux? I would be interested to see the performance comparison on lower end machines.

 

[trunk_slamchest]

Has anyone tested a computer with these problems on linux? I would be interested to see the performance comparison on lower end machines.

within the month or so that i tried dual booting linux, steam was unusable while it downloaded/installed games.

from my experiance, it was worse on linux that it is on windows, but it might be case specific.

 

[Beat Darwin]

Realistically, the best route would be to optimize the main Steam client more and improve performance in general to remove the need for a 'lite' version.

I couldn't agree with you more on this point. But I wonder, from the evidence at hand, whether Valve has it in them to do it? Hardcore code optimization is pretty far down the list of "fun" things to work on. How many people wheel their desks over to that specific cabal, even if Steam is the license for Valve to print money?

This is just a hunch, but if true, it would account somewhat for the "bacon and donuts" diet that Steam seems to be on. It's always more fun to add features than it is to polish the living daylights out of the ones that are already there.