Steam Coming to Linux

Shelnutt2 · May 9, 2010

So the guys over at Phoronix are really having a field day with this. At first I brushed it off, but it looks like valve is continuing to update the binary on their servers and even there was an update today.

It's far from complete, but now even the main window appears. No text or content is shown, but if I had to guess I'd say thats probably a font issue (ever load up steam in wine without the proper fonts? Looks like a blank screen), and the no images are probably an incomplete webkit backend on linux for steam.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODIzMA

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23328

SeanBest · May 9, 2010

Been seeing more and more screens over the last two weeks. Really excited. Hopefully this will get more developers working with Steam and we'll start to see a solid Linux game library via Steam. This might finally put the squeeze on ATI and Nvidia to really pay attention to Linux video drivers as well.

tinymouse2 · May 9, 2010

YES! YES! YES! YES!

Oh man this makes me happy

Uber efficient gaming here we come!

petteyg359 · May 9, 2010

Nice. This is the first "game" I've been truly excited about in years...

Trombe · May 9, 2010

I still don't understand why this is so great. It's not like there's suddenly going to be a bunch of real games available for linux, and the steam client is nothing more than a repository for games. A closed source one, at that. Why do linux distributions need yet another package manager just to distribute games?

petteyg359 · May 9, 2010

Trombe said:
I still don't understand why this is so great. It's not like there's suddenly going to be a bunch of real games available for linux,

Everything (or at least most things) Source engine don't classify as "real games"?

Trombe said:
and the steam client is nothing more than a repository for games. A closed source one, at that. Why do linux distributions need yet another package manager just to distribute games?

RPM, APT, DPKG, Portage, Yum, Aptitude, are package mangers. They are not marketing and distribution platforms. Valve is a BIG distributor. Steam is a BIG marketing platform. When that big distribution and marketing platform sits its *** on top of Linux, developers will follow the scent of the money.

Shelnutt2 · May 9, 2010

+1

With Steam comes a reliable way (aka drm [steams the best of the evils]) to get games on linux. If they are distributed through steam then the developer doesn't have to worry about installers, securom or any other of the extra stuff. All they have to do is use opengl and openal (or an equivalent) and the rest comes easy.

Steam being on linux puts one of the top publishers on linux too. Valve's games, while they aren't EA (in terms of numbers) you can't say no one plays CS:S or TF2, or the HL series (don't forget Portal!)

Bluefalcon13 · May 9, 2010

Trombe said:
I still don't understand why this is so great. It's not like there's suddenly going to be a bunch of real games available for linux, and the steam client is nothing more than a repository for games. A closed source one, at that. Why do linux distributions need yet another package manager just to distribute games?

This is a big deal much in the same way that it is a big deal for OS-X to get steam. A top tier publisher (who also happens to own the no. 1 distribution network for DL'ed games) is signing up for OSes other than Windows. Tell me how this isn't a big deal? To me, this feels like a Linux/OSX punch to M$. It wont win the war, but it does even the playing ground more. Even if ONLY Valve's games come to OSX/Linux, we are looking at some very nice games that weren't natively available for those OSes before. BTW.... read up on the OSX thread in the steam forums general discussion. Game developers ARE signing on for OSX, and if they are signing on for OSX, then surely some will sign on for linux. Lets face it, its mostly just pointing to different locations for libraries, and not nearly as much of a jump from OSX to linux, as it is from windows to linux...

Great news indeed... I might have to reinstall linux on my third drive just to take it for a test run

Trombe · May 9, 2010

Steam being on linux puts one of the top publishers on linux too. Valve's games, while they aren't EA (in terms of numbers) you can't say no one plays CS:S or TF2, or the HL series (don't forget Portal!)

Everything (or at least most things) Source engine don't classify as "real games"?

You guys realize that Steam != the Source engine, right? Just because the steam distribution software runs on linux does NOT imply that any of the games are going to be ported as well?

petteyg359 · May 9, 2010

Trombe said:
You guys realize that Steam != the Source engine, right? Just because the steam distribution software runs on linux does NOT imply that any of the games are going to be ported as well?

They're already converting them to OS X. They're releasing a Linux client in addition to the OS X client. OS X (Darwin) is quite similar to Linux. Do you really think they'd bother releasing the Steam client for Linux (which we already know they're doing) if there are no games for it?

Shelnutt2 · May 12, 2010

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!!

tinymouse2 · May 12, 2010

Shelnutt2 said:
IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!!

Seems like phoronix is down

Overly network usage maybe?

Scrap that, seems to be working now!

Trombe · May 13, 2010

Shelnutt2 said:
IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!!

It was "confirmed" in 2008 as well.. by the same source!

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=steam_confirmation&num=1

I'll believe it when Valve announces it.

David · May 14, 2010

Trombe said:
You guys realize that Steam != the Source engine, right? Just because the steam distribution software runs on linux does NOT imply that any of the games are going to be ported as well?

There would be no point porting Steam without porting games ... unless of course they plan to just use it to distribute the handful of commerical linux games. That would be a lot of effort for little return.

Trombe said:
It was "confirmed" in 2008 as well.. by the same source!

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=steam_confirmation&num=1

I'll believe it when Valve announces it.

It's looking more likely now - the OSX port is official, and it's probably not much more work to move it to Linux while they are at it. I'm not 100% sure on exactly which libraries are shared, but OSX and Linux are far closer than Linux and Windows.

Stratus_ss · May 14, 2010

I tend to agree with Trombe.

While the news is encouraging, until we actually get an announcement from Steam/Valve I wont be raising my glass to this any time soon

SeanBest · May 14, 2010

From what I read, Valve never confirmed OSX port until it was released so honestly, doesn't look like we'll know until we're already downloading it.

Would be awesome though. A HUGE step in the right direction for Linux.

Trombe · May 14, 2010

SeanBest said:
From what I read, Valve never confirmed OSX port until it was released so honestly, doesn't look like we'll know until we're already downloading it.

Would be awesome though. A HUGE step in the right direction for Linux.

It would be pretty awesome. And I don't want to be so ignorant as to claim it will never happen, but to assume that something is "official" just because some unfinished dialog box which kind of resembles the Windows Steam client is absurd. It could be nothing more than an intern ripping off the OSX port to make it run on Linux as something to do between delivering coffee. Or it could be a real internal project. We just have no way of knowing. It's not official.

Bluefalcon13 · May 14, 2010

SeanBest said:
From what I read, Valve never confirmed OSX port until it was released so honestly, doesn't look like we'll know until we're already downloading it.

Would be awesome though. A HUGE step in the right direction for Linux.

They confirmed the OSX version in Late Feb., with a public release "sometime in March"... then in the month of March 'Valve Time' took effect and at the end of the month, they said "April 12th"

SeanBest · May 14, 2010

Bluefalcon13 said:
They confirmed the OSX version in Late Feb., with a public release "sometime in March"... then in the month of March 'Valve Time' took effect and at the end of the month, they said "April 12th"

Rumors for over two years and confirmation a mere 3 - 4 months before release. Might as well have not confirmed it lol.

Bluefalcon13 · May 14, 2010

SeanBest said:
Rumors for over two years and confirmation a mere 3 - 4 months before release. Might as well have not confirmed it lol.

True, but, the same evidence leading up to the release (the files found in the beta UI client) are there for Linux. Also, these files were found early/mid February, and given Steam/Valves push for multi-platform gaming, I honestly expect to hear something a month or less after the full Valve library becomes available for OSX. Maybe thats hope speaking, but I've already ordered the second HDD caddy for my G73, to slap in an alt-OS drive

Steam Coming to Linux

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