the current steam eco system can no longer support older clients, and they can not support the older ones due to security issues. Upgrade to a supported OS. simple as that.

Originally posted by pckirk:

the current steam eco system can no longer support older clients, and they can not support the older ones due to security issues. Upgrade to a supported OS. simple as that.

that's why I said in my suggestion that in order to support steam via legacy client would be heavily stripped down in comparison to the main steam client offering only libary and some limited store funcionalities while everything else like social features such as community, profile etc., would be unavaible.

Also as steam runs on chromium and this special modified chromium fork "supermium" runs well, on chromium which is open source as well, I think this may work by making this "legacy steam" client run on heavily modified supermium browser.

Windows 7 64 bit is 0.08% of the hardware survey and dropping.

32 bit is severely outdated even by early 2000s standards. Would it be nice? Sure, for a lite client nothing else, but I doubt that'll be considered as there's basically no 32 bit market.

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

Windows 7 64 bit is 0.08% of the hardware survey and dropping.

32 bit is severely outdated even by early 2000s standards. Would it be nice? Sure, for a lite client nothing else, but I doubt that'll be considered as there's basically no 32 bit market.

While I agree based on market share that this "legacy client" most likely would not make much sense but it would be still beneficial for more of these weaker lower end systems in general that would be able to run thanks to this steam very smoothly and play some of the very light weight games and overall this would be way more secure when using older OS as well if some people want to build retro pc and using it with retro os and being more plug and play experience.

Also I think, thanks to this "legacy steam" making everything plug and play experience when using older os for retro gaming potentially might make some retro games more popular as well.

Originally posted by JacoB:

Originally posted by pckirk:

the current steam eco system can no longer support older clients, and they can not support the older ones due to security issues. Upgrade to a supported OS. simple as that.

that's why I said in my suggestion that in order to support steam via legacy client would be heavily stripped down in comparison to the main steam client offering only libary and some limited store funcionalities while everything else like social features such as community, profile etc., would be unavaible.

It sounds simple. But... will users understand and accept why features are missing? or will they decide it's arbitrary and Valve is stupid? Will they constantly be asking and demanding for every other modern feature that the legacy client can't support?

And then on top of that, just saying "legacy client" is easy. So... what OS or OSes are we targeting? Does the legacy client support Win95/98? Or do we just pretend time starts at Windows 7? If some OS'es are too old to count, then at some point that will be Windows 7, when should the legacy client drop Win7 support?

And why does Valve want to support OS'es so obsolete the OS maker ended support, and the hardware makers ended support. But Valve should support them indefinitely?

Finally, what you're asking for is a lot of work and arguably people running obsolete systems ain't spending big bucks on Steam. So an expensive, time consuming, labor intensive solution to a problem affecting a tiny minority of low value users... I mean I see the appeal to users. What's the benefit for Valve?

Originally posted by JacoB:

Also as steam runs on chromium and this special modified chromium fork "supermium" runs well, on chromium which is open source as well, I think this may work by making this "legacy steam" client run on heavily modified supermium browser.

Well just saying it sounds easy. But heavily modifying something takes a lot of work. Steam runs on Chromium Embedded Framework, CEF which is Chromium based, but that embedded framework bit is significant. I doubt there's a SEF or superium equivalent, so more work to accomplish that.

Superium is a fun project, but it's not a golden hammer to offer perpetual legacy support for Steam and no matter how you trivialize it, managing two clients is twice as much work. What odds are you giving that Valve really wants to do that work for a fraction of a percent of users who aren't really spending money?

Originally posted by nullable:

Originally posted by JacoB:

that's why I said in my suggestion that in order to support steam via legacy client would be heavily stripped down in comparison to the main steam client offering only libary and some limited store funcionalities while everything else like social features such as community, profile etc., would be unavaible.

It sounds simple. But... will users understand and accept why features are missing? or will they decide it's arbitrary and Valve is stupid? Will they constantly be asking and demanding for every other modern feature that the legacy client can't support?

And then on top of that, just saying "legacy client" is easy. So... what OS or OSes are we targeting? Does the legacy client support Win95/98? Or do we just pretend time starts at Windows 7? If some OS'es are too old to count, then at some point that will be Windows 7, when should the legacy client drop Win7 support?

And why does Valve want to support OS'es so obsolete the MS maker ended support, and the hardware makers ended support. But Valve should support them indefinitely?

Finally, what you're asking for is a lot of work and arguably people running obsolete systems ain't spending big bucks on Steam. So an expensive, time consume, labor intensive solution to a problem affecting a tiny minority of low value users... I mean I see the appeal to users. What's the benefit for Valve?

Originally posted by JacoB:

Also as steam runs on chromium and this special modified chromium fork "supermium" runs well, on chromium which is open source as well, I think this may work by making this "legacy steam" client run on heavily modified supermium browser.

Well just saying it sounds easy. But heavily modifying something takes a lot of work. Steam runs on Chromium Embedded Framework, CEF which is Chromium based, but that embedded framework bit is significant. I doubt there's a SEF or superium equivalent, so more work to accomplish that.

Superium is a fun project, but it's not a golden hammer to offer perpetual legacy support for Steam and no matter how you trivialize it, managing two clients is twice as much work. What odds are you giving Valve really wants to do that work for a fraction of a percent of users who aren't really spending money?

Sure, it can be hard to focus on these two seperate clients and explain it to people why some features would be unavaible in this legacy client but I think in order to work easier on these two clients, the main client would be getting latest updates the fastest like usual while the legacy client would be getting the most necessary updates being essentially as low priority.

Also I think if users will notice what the legacy client is for being as more seperate optional to use for certain use cases then I don't think so they will have problems with some features missing within this steam legacy client.

You're right that it may be hard to built this seperate client using supermium but I think this will be beneficial in the long run.

Edit: I forgot to mention that legacy steam client would support these OS in which supermium supports like main branch of chromium does.

Edit2: So in supermium case would be anything prior windows 10 up to very first version of windows xp.

Originally posted by JacoB:

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

Windows 7 64 bit is 0.08% of the hardware survey and dropping.

32 bit is severely outdated even by early 2000s standards. Would it be nice? Sure, for a lite client nothing else, but I doubt that'll be considered as there's basically no 32 bit market.

While I agree based on market share that this "legacy client" most likely would not make much sense but it would be still beneficial for more of these weaker lower end systems in general that would be able to run thanks to this steam very smoothly and play some of the very light weight games and overall this would be way more secure when using older OS as well if some people want to build retro pc and using it with retro os and being more plug and play experience.

Also I think, thanks to this "legacy steam" making everything plug and play experience when using older os for retro gaming potentially might make some retro games more popular as well.

If the client is that much of a strain on a system that points to a much larger issue for overall performance limitations for most tasks.

A good number of games can be launched without needing steam as well. A lite client would also lack most functionality for weaker systems.

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

Originally posted by JacoB:

While I agree based on market share that this "legacy client" most likely would not make much sense but it would be still beneficial for more of these weaker lower end systems in general that would be able to run thanks to this steam very smoothly and play some of the very light weight games and overall this would be way more secure when using older OS as well if some people want to build retro pc and using it with retro os and being more plug and play experience.

Also I think, thanks to this "legacy steam" making everything plug and play experience when using older os for retro gaming potentially might make some retro games more popular as well.

If the client is that much of a strain on a system that points to a much larger issue for overall performance limitations for most tasks.

A good number of games can be launched without needing steam as well. A lite client would also lack most functionality for weaker systems.

I agree that as 99% of the games are drm free and depending on how well steamworks API was integrated to the game if it was well implemented able to run it without steam running in the background, but some games sadly poorly implements the API which makes steam runs in the background even when drm free in which it won't be possible to manually compress game files in to a zipped one, so won't be able to run it on these older era os/PCs etc., while yes lite client for faster performance in weaker systems would loose a lot of the feature in exchange but I think legacy client would once again be great for these two things I have mentioned like for some of the games which poorly implemented it's store API and for weaker systems.

Originally posted by JacoB:

It would be cool to have this to for example able to use steam on older era os and now recently dropped 32 bit systems again or for more weaker lower end modern systems, and this would be stripped down version of steam client only able to access the libary and some store functionalities while everything else like these social features such as community, profile, friends etc. would be unavaible so to be more lighter weight for these older systems while yes the reason why steam is unsupported on previous os is due to main chromium branch dropped the support for these os but there are for example chromium open source forks like "Supermium" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermium ) which enables not only support for these windows xp SP1 but later unsupported versions of these os as well plus supermium has support for both 32 bit and 64 bit systems as well.

I think in my opinion this would be really cool to see this.

Ironically the components you'd have them strip out aren't the ones that actually rely on the new client functions m8.

ANd How old is your system that you need a Lighter version. I have steam running on a system that's basically old enough to drink, drive and vote. If your system can run a supported windows version,. It can run Steam

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by JacoB:

It would be cool to have this to for example able to use steam on older era os and now recently dropped 32 bit systems again or for more weaker lower end modern systems, and this would be stripped down version of steam client only able to access the libary and some store functionalities while everything else like these social features such as community, profile, friends etc. would be unavaible so to be more lighter weight for these older systems while yes the reason why steam is unsupported on previous os is due to main chromium branch dropped the support for these os but there are for example chromium open source forks like "Supermium" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermium ) which enables not only support for these windows xp SP1 but later unsupported versions of these os as well plus supermium has support for both 32 bit and 64 bit systems as well.

I think in my opinion this would be really cool to see this.

Ironically the components you'd have them strip out aren't the ones that actually rely on the new client functions m8.

ANd How old is your system that you need a Lighter version. I have steam running on a system that's basically old enough to drink, drive and vote. If your system can run a supported windows version,. It can run Steam

I have 4070 ti and 13600k running windows 11, but it would be still cool to have this lite client on older era os as even when 99% of the games are drm free which large libary can be run without steam running in the background depending how well steamworks api was implemented, some games poorly implemented store api which makes store runs in the background thus cannot run the game on older era os as steam is unsupported.

Originally posted by JacoB:

Sure, it can be hard to focus on these two seperate clients and explain it to people why some features would be unavaible in this legacy client but I think in order to work easier on these two clients, the main client would be getting latest updates the fastest like usual while the legacy client would be getting the most necessary updates being essentially as low priority.

So do you think a legacy client treated as a second class citizen sells your idea, and whom do you think it convinces? Me? Valve? Users who think something is better than nothing, at least until they have something and feel like it's not good enough?

Originally posted by JacoB:

Also I think if users will notice what the legacy client is for being as more seperate optional to use for certain use cases then I don't think so they will have problems with some features missing within this steam legacy client.

Be careful about speaking for millions of users. That's a recipe doomed to failure. Some users will live with it. Some users are incapable of understanding. And some are just going to complain incessantly and argue the legacy client should replace the main client because why should they have to use chopped crap because they have old systems?

Don't kid yourself. Users will complain incessantly about anything and everything. I mean have you ever met users?

Originally posted by JacoB:

You're right that it may be hard to built this seperate client using supermium but I think this will be beneficial in the long run.

Based on what data and expertise do you believe that? Again, something easy to say, easy to imagine. After all you won't be doing the work, or responsible for any of the details. And in a fantasy world where you get to sit down with Valve decision makers and make your baseless claims how are you going to respond to hard questions? Or the actual expertise they have where they explain supporting two clients is twice as much work, and Valve doesn't want to create dramatically different user experiences or split the userbase, and "legacy" users are a minority and don't generate enough revenue to justify a second client?

Because those are all legitimate criticisms and reasons to not do it and waving your hand and saying you believe otherwise because you've imagined a happy path result probably ain't gonna cut it.

Originally posted by JacoB:

Edit: I forgot to mention that legacy steam client would support these OS in which supermium supports like main branch of chromium does.

Edit2: So in supermium case would be anything prior windows 10 up to very first version of windows xp.

Well you're very optimistic, you might want to ask yourself why Valve hasn't done the legacy client thing already. Because focusing on all the ways they could and all the benefits you imagine is all well and good, but Valve has a lot of experience and one would think they sometimes make informed decisions. And not just Valve, most other stores and launchers don't fuss with legacy clients either. The whole industry doesn't seem to be interested in your legacy client fantasy. Why do you think that might be?

Originally posted by nullable:

Originally posted by JacoB:

Sure, it can be hard to focus on these two seperate clients and explain it to people why some features would be unavaible in this legacy client but I think in order to work easier on these two clients, the main client would be getting latest updates the fastest like usual while the legacy client would be getting the most necessary updates being essentially as low priority.

So do you think a legacy client treated as a second class citizen sells your idea, and whom do you think it convinces? Me? Valve? Users who think something is better than nothing, at least until they have something and feel like it's not good enough?

Originally posted by JacoB:

Also I think if users will notice what the legacy client is for being as more seperate optional to use for certain use cases then I don't think so they will have problems with some features missing within this steam legacy client.

Be careful about speaking for millions of users. That's a recipe doomed to failure. Some users will live with it. Some users are incapable of understanding. And some are just going to complain incessantly and argue the legacy client should replace the main client because why should they have to use chopped crap because they have old systems?

Don't kid yourself. Users will complain incessantly about anything and everything. I mean have you ever met users?

Originally posted by JacoB:

You're right that it may be hard to built this seperate client using supermium but I think this will be beneficial in the long run.

Based on what data and expertise do you believe that? Again, something easy to say, easy to imagine. After all you won't be doing the work, or responsible for any of the details. And in a fantasy world where you get to sit down with Valve decision makers and make your baseless claims how are you going to respond to hard questions? Or the actual expertise they have where they explain supporting two clients is twice as much work, and Valve doesn't want to create dramatically different user experiences or split the userbase, and "legacy" users are a minority and don't generate enough revenue to justify a second client?

Because those are all legitimate criticisms and reasons to not do it and waving your hand and saying you believe otherwise because you've imagined a happy path result probably ain't gonna cut it.

Originally posted by JacoB:

Edit: I forgot to mention that legacy steam client would support these OS in which supermium supports like main branch of chromium does.

Edit2: So in supermium case would be anything prior windows 10 up to very first version of windows xp.

Well you're very optimistic, you might want to ask yourself why Valve hasn't done the legacy client thing already. Because focusing on all the ways they could and all the benefits you imagine is all well and good, but Valve has a lot of experience and one would think they sometimes make informed decisions. And not just Valve, most other stores and launchers don't fuss with legacy clients either. The whole industry doesn't seem to be interested in your legacy client fantasy. Why do you think that might be?

I did not meant to this client treated as second class citizen, it would be just optional for people to use for the things I have mentioned above and this client would simply recieve the most necesarily updates.


Well, there has been sometimes cases for example there are a lot of people bitter with windows 11 but there are other side of people whom likes win11 a lot so it will always be the case no matter the intentions that there will be two sides.

Well, valve created special translation layer based on WINE to enable games be compatible on desktop linux except those games using kernel level anti cheat which at the time of valve creating proton back in 2019 (?) the desktop linux user marketshare was very small and it worked proven to be very beneficial in the long run, not only allowed desktop linux to be popular but also is growing in popularity more and more.

I get why these publishers have not done it very most surely security issues and similar associated problems which may have come out with, but I think thanks to supermium which is based on chromium engine which provides latest security updates among other things, I think this might be possible, sure it is more of a niche thing this legacy steam client as most people runs modern os on their computers but it would be cool to see this type of client but I also understand why publishers does not want to do it.