Here's the thing: If I go to the trouble to write my own driver, there's no particular reason it *has* to emulate a regular gamepad; couldn't I just have it emulate whatever hardware I want (even something silly like a disk drive or a USB tablet)?

Also, one of the following pretty much has to be true (assuming SteamOS supports the Steam controller):
1. There exists a GPL2 kernel driver. I could base the driver off of it.
2. It is possible to write a driver in userspace.
3. Valve is violating the GPL2 (and hence SteamOS is illegal).

I highly doubt the situation is #3. For 1, I can have a userspace program translate the information to the desired configuration, and for 2 the userspace driver could be written to translate buttons as I wish.

More power to you man. Post the github link here when you get it rolling.

While every other controller in the market is playable on a variety of devices and Steam account-less and Steam-less! No thank you, I'm passing on the Valve hardware. Not to mention that Valve hardware being good is an oxymoron of itself.

Well you can be a naive git if you like. I personally haven't had any issues with their hardware. It works wonderfully. But considering the controller and drivers are technically still in a early stage, writing it off now is just fucking ridiculous.

FYI, most controllers run like shit with most games now a days. You need to tweak and mod them just to get them to work. So your comment is kind of a load of crap.

Like all of yours?

Yeah, writing it off is the best idea. There was nothing stopping them from not forcing it to use the Steam client, which I will not install. Simply, if I wanted a controller, it's always the Xbox controller, or a good one that uses DirectInput or whatever.

That stick up your ass must be unpleasant today. Shall I remove it for you?

Nah, not interested in anyone meddling with my personal affairs. Thanks for the offer though.

OldFatGuy: I didn't mean to upset you. You just said that you'd rather crawl through piss and shit, so I thought I'd make the offer. I didn't know if that was something you liked doing. I know a few farms where such things can be obtained in large quantities.

Luckily I don't have to create a separate online account and run a separate gaming client in order to configure (or use) my Logitech mouse, my NVidia graphics card, my USB headphones, my non-Steam gaming controllers...

That's what is wrong with having to create an online account for merely configuring a hardware device.

While I don't know what HeresMyAccount intended, I interpreted that as a joke.

*cough*Logitech Harmony remote*cough*. #herewegoagain

Heh, add to matters that none of these devices required access to the internet for whatever insane reason they have in mind, which means less money wasted. Who said you don't have to buy anything but the controller itself again?

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. I didn't have to pay a cent to create a Steam account and log in... so I'm really confused here.

However, the Steam Controller is all about configurability, so you kinda need a user-level client. And to save you rebuilding every configuration from scratch, you can, you know, download from an online database of configurations. And upload your own. So you need a login of some kind.

It's not because they're trying to track you, or measure your cholesterol level, or follow your financial transactions, or even force you to buy games from them. Even Xpadder requires a client app to, you know, configure the controller. Do you rage against them? I don't actually know much more about Xpadder... but do they have an online database that allows you to sync, download and upload configurations? Is that... bad?

If you don't want any of that, feel free go use an X360 controller (Use the driver on the CD so you don't have to go online), or build your own, for all I care. It might actually be good.

Every Steam Controller thread is poisoned with comments about "I hate Steam just because (whatever) so this controller is automatically going to eat my children and ruin freedom for everyone!11one! You must hate Steam thread too because (whatever) and also you're wrong because you also eat children, you lousy freedom-hating console user."

As a personal favour, please just ignore these threads. Unless it's a "Steam Controller haters thread" in which case I will return the favour and not visit or post in there. Thank you in advance.

That's because you missed the point. You don't have to pay a cent to create the Steam account and log in. But to do just that, you have to spend money firsthand on a proper internet connection. And then you can lump the controller along with all the not so DRM-free games over there. Wow. So much for a controller. It's bad when I'm literally forced to use not a mere offline client to manage the configuration of the controller, but forced to use an online client with no offline option, and forced to agree to an agreement that I'm uninterested in just for a controller, and make for it a whole account. Sorry, I want to bow out on all of this and use the controller as it is; and also on platforms such as Android, unrestricted.

If I wanted my Nvidia driver to adapt to any game automatically, GeForce Experience is optional. If I want to go in-depth with driver configurations, Nvidia Inspector is also optional. All I need is the GPU driver to get started, and that requires no connectivity to the internet.

It is because they want to promote Steam gaming and Steam games with it. Claiming otherwise is just naive.

What next, an EA graphics card you can configure only by using an EA Origin online account and with games you have attached to your Origin account? Does that make any sense? Is that where we should be heading, hardware devices pretty much requiring online store client accounts? That just fragments the PC hardware market and PC gaming overall. And so does the Steam controller.

Let's put it this way: would it be ok to you if you had to buy separate gamepads for your Steam, EA Origin, UPlay, Windows Store and GOG games? Five gamepads, just because each gamepad works less satisfactorily without the corresponding client?

(sigh) The client is not the issue here, Jeffrey. The online account is. Does XPadder require you to create yet another account online before you can configure the controller with it?

Having said that, a "client", or rather an utility, to configure your device may be needed, but should be minimalistic. I need a "client" (an offline tool actually) to configure my wireless Logitech keyboard, mouse and trackball so that the PC finds them the first time. After that I don't need to run the "client" anymore, nor do I ever have to create an online account to use that tool.

That's how it should be. If you want to add optional online features on top of it like ready-made configurations online for the device for different games, by all means do, as long as they are optional.

Also I don't quite get why you'd need to have an account to get such configurations. For what purpose? Couldn't you, like, download (or even upload) game controller configurations anonymously? How does it benefit you, the user, that it would require you to create an account first?