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Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

356 points by pook1e 14y ago

m_st 14y ago
I'm sure one of the reasons for a Linux client (and even a Steam console) is Windows 8 with its App Store. Soon potential customers are going to buy their software through these integrated stores rather than using dedicated clients. And since Microsoft is giving the Desktop a legacy feeling Valve has no choice but expand the reach of Steam. Which is of course good for us customers.
- ericd 14y ago
  As a longtime PC gamer, any Microsoft store is roughly 0 threat to Steam from my perspective unless publishers stop publishing on Steam, which would seems very unlikely unless Microsoft took much less of a cut and Valve refused to follow suit, or Microsoft decided to pay publishers off for exclusives. Microsoft's past attempts to make Steam-like services have been completely laughable/extremely frustrating (see Games for Windows Live, their attempt at an online community/DRM solution). I think they're expanding to Linux entirely because they want to expand to and support Linux, not because of any competitive pressure forcing them to retreat to Linux. A couple years ago they expanded to Mac, and this is just a natural extension.
  - idleloops 14y ago
    It opens up the doors to the possibility of adding functionality to linux based set top boxes.
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    IIRC , Windows 8 will only allow "Metro Style" apps to be installed via Microsoft's own store. I'm not sure whether a game would classify as "Metro Style" or not and since ARM based Windows tablets will be Metro only that kills the possibility of Steam to expand in that direction. So there is the possibility that MS could turn around and say "No, Steam is banned from Windows" in the same way that apple would with the iPad. This at least gives Valve the power to threaten MS with "FU, we're going to Linux and taking HL3 , Portal 3 and CS:GA with us"
- danssig 14y ago
  >Valve has no choice but expand the reach of Steam This seems pretty unlikely. I doubt there are enough linux gamers in existance to justify what this investment will cost.
  - abrahamsen 14y ago
    Maybe not, but I could see a lot of PC Gamers be willing to boot into SteamOS, if the right games were available.
- idleloops 14y ago
  Will MS take a slice of the pie, through their distribution channel? I can see that as being an instant turn off. It's an opportunity to produce a Gamers Distro based on a solid Distro. They could piggy back a Ubuntu LTS, and focus on a subset of well supported hardware.
  - tomflack 14y ago
    > Will MS take a slice of the pie, through their distribution channel? I can see that as being an instant turn off. Valve already do, but it's not disclosed to the public how much. So I can't see how MS doing so would make any difference.
    - idleloops 14y ago
      Well it does for Valve.
      - tomflack 14y ago
        What are you talking about? Edit: I thought you were talking about MS taking a cut of game publisher's money, not Valve's. It's such a far-fetched scenario given everything we know about Windows 8 it didn't register in my mind.
- cube13 14y ago
  Keep in mind: MS is publishing games on Steam and the other DD services right now. Unlike OSX, where Valve probably didn't get as much traction with Steam before the mac app store was released, Steam IS the primary gaming service for Windows PCs.
Andaith 14y ago
After reading their handbook, I'm not that surprised. I do wonder how long it's been a one-man project though... Also, I wonder if the Humble Bundles have had anything to do with convincing Valve that Steam for Linux is worth the effort?
- loganfsmyth 14y ago
  The handbook was the first thing I thought of after seeing the headline too. It definitely seems like a project someone would want to put there time into, though maybe more as a side project.
IsTom 14y ago
Steam for Linux is one thing, but how many games will you be able to run?
- Lockyy 14y ago
  The same as when it released for mac? Pretty much only source games if I recall, but it rapidly expanded to more games because they are really helpful with porting games to the new platform. This is the last thing holding me back from dropping windows completely.
  - LukaD 14y ago
    There are already a lot of linux compatible games on steam. Let's hope they will be availabe on Steam for linux. http://steamlinux.flibitijibibo.com/index.php?title=Main_Page#Game_Lists http://steamlinux.flibitijibibo.com/index.php?title=Main_Pag...
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  It's not Steam we should care about, what we really want is Source for Linux. And GoldSrc for that matter, I'm sure some people would like to play Counter-Strike.
  - heretohelp 14y ago
    CS 1.6, CS:S, and CS:GO for Linux would keep me happy for awhile :) Add Quake Live, and I'm good for a long time. Make it a lot easier to switch between gaming and coding.
    - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
      In my case, TF2 and Half-Life are the only things stopping me switching to Linux as my main OS. I can agree with you there, I want to be able to code and game on the same OS.
      - 14y ago
gipsyking 14y ago
Could this have anything to do with the rumor about the Valve console?
qxcv 14y ago
Looks like this is going to be reality, Phoronix just published the promised article[0] which basically claims that Valve have ported L4D/Source over to Linux already! Exciting news indeed, AAA-titles for Linux could turn the desktop OS market upside down. [0]: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_linux_dampfnudeln&num=1 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve...
- rms 14y ago
  I'm definitely looking forward to Linux on the desktop this decade.
- danssig 14y ago
  That is interesting news, but turn the OS market upside down? You can't be serious.
  - onli 14y ago
    Why not? Missing games are the last and only "serious" issue of Linux. Well, maybe apart from Adobes product. But that's quite seriuos: Not being able to play normal and modern games is why I have Windows installed, and it's why i couldn't convince my nonexisting kids to use linux solely. More Games means more user means more games (means better gpu-driver). It's a really old theory, and i think it's one that is sound, that linux somehow has to start the spirale and end the issue of having not enough user for games and therefor not enough games for users. Steam with some Valve-games could change that indeed.
    - codesuela 14y ago
      Games are the only thing you can't run with good performance inside a VM. That's why you can always spin up a Windows VM if you need Photoshop but you HAVE to reboot if you want to enjoy a game. So yes, this would be definitely a game changer
      - freehunter 14y ago
gouranga 14y ago
That's a great idea. If you consider the potential for a "gaming appliance" (Valve console without all the commercial OS licensing costs then it really makes sense.
seclorum 14y ago
I really wish Valve would get behind the Open Pandora gaming console: http://openpandora.org/ http://openpandora.org/ Its a fantastic machine, with a great community, and an awesome technology for single-file game distribution, or PND-files (Pandora .pnd files are self-contained applications), along with a fantastic repository already in place: http://repo.openpandora.org/ http://repo.openpandora.org/ With Valve behind them, the OpenPandora guys could really do something neat in terms of creating a Linux-based gaming hardware series. Imagine the Valve "Pandora" console, either in handheld or desktop/TV-side form .. this could really happen, and Valve would gain a lot from getting involved in this.
- aw3c2 14y ago
  the pandora does not have the polish nor is it too well designed. it is a handheld for a tiny niche of people. (i had an early one, sold it as it just was not what I expected nor good enough to justify the price with all the drawbacks)
  - seclorum 14y ago
    I have two, and I fail to see any of your points. Its awesome!
    - aw3c2 14y ago
      The screen is resistive touchscreen, cannot hold a 135° angle open, the keyboard is weird, the analog sticks too, the buttons are tiny, the pandora is super heavy and bulky.
      - seclorum 14y ago
        Resistive touchscreen? Big deal, it works great for most games. Nintendo have a patent on anything that holds open at a 135° angle, blame them. The keyboard is great for what its supposed to do - give you keys that you can use with all the 8-bit emulated machines. Analog sticks = Among the best joysticks I've ever used, bar none. Buttons, tiny? Not for these fat fingers. Heavy and bulky? Hmm .. you got me there, but then again: 12 hours battery life.
mattbee 14y ago
Brilliant news. Of course Valve wouldn't want their own console to be tied to Windows, and there are definitely enough Mac-ported games (e.g. including Assassins Creed, not just their own stuff) that Linux ports must be do-able in short order. I'd hope there's some "trickle-down" effect of Steam ports- an push to sort out the knotty ball of Linux sound configuration, 3D drivers and other grimness. Alternatively it could be that you need to enable pulseaudio for title A, ALSA for title B, OSS for title C - ARRRGGHHH. Fingers crossed.
- chao- 14y ago
  With regards to that last bit, my first thought is that Valve could set up some guidelines, such that they will only distribute Linux versions of games that require a non-frustrating set of technologies for the sake of user experience. I will admit that it's wild speculation on my part to suggest that, though. I'm not familiar with the particulars of the Linux Sound Zoo to say whether such a decision would impart any real benefits. On the flip side though, how painful (or not?) of a restriction on the developers would it be to make such a choice?
- guard-of-terra 14y ago
  OSS is dead for five years or more. These days you either have a direct ALSA, or Pulse, which ALSA can stream to transparently. If you have a SDL+ALSA game you will see exactly zero problems and that's what everybody does. OpenGL support is pretty solid too.
  - exDM69 14y ago
    > OSS is dead for five years or more. OSS on Linux may be dead but OSS is still the API on other free unixes like *BSD's and the API has been developed forwards. > If you have a SDL+ALSA game you will see exactly zero problems and that's what everybody does. With SDL, you're stuck with the lowest common denominator of all audio API's. I've had more than my share of problems when doing audio with SDL. If you want 3d audio (doppler effects, etc), SDL audio is out of the question. OpenAL has been pretty popular with games too, but the implementations available are not rock solid. > OpenGL support is pretty solid too. OpenGL support is pretty solid given you have a GPU that has sane drivers, which is not always the case. In particular with consumer laptops and integrated graphics on desktops. But still, OpenGL is in pretty much every way inferior to D3D if portability doesn't count. It's an awful API for the programmer and the implementer and there are plenty of pitfalls that may cause bad performance or corruptions on crappy drivers. I regret to say this, but Linux is not a very ideal platform to run games. The biggest problem, by far, is the quality of OpenGL API and implementations. Audio is not at all that bad but it's still kinda hairy.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
frunc 14y ago
See also: It's Official: Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux! - Published on May 12, 2010 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_steam_announcement&num=1 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve...
- jasonlotito 14y ago
  FTA: "The released Linux client should be available by the end of summer." Keep in mind, we are talking about Valve Time[1] here, so Phoronix wasn't wrong. =) 1. https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time
guard-of-terra 14y ago
Desura is already out for linux and it works for some time. I play Dungeons of Dredmor and Braid via it. It's slightly buggy but delivers.
tdr 14y ago
Lack of gaming support was (and still is) in my opinion the main reason Linux didn't get properly accepted into the consumer sector. (every gamer had to keep Windows dual-boot ) Because of that there were problems with the drivers and snowballed to other areas.
- idleloops 14y ago
  As well as: * Poor web browser (not an issue now) * Poor flash support (better than it has been) * No Microsoft Office (partially surmountable) * Video and sound configuration issues (sound is still hit and miss for me) * Inconsistent desktop UIs and administration tools * Lack of simple point and click system control panel And that you couldn't easily find consumer hardware pre-installed with a Linux desktop (which could have got around some of the driver issues.)
  - soc88 14y ago
    About which year are you speaking exactly? 2005?
    - nnnnni 14y ago
      More like 2000.
      - idleloops 14y ago
        I'm partially referring to 2012.
    - idleloops 14y ago
      * Inconsistent desktop UIs and administration tools This one is just the nature of the beast of having disparate distributions. But the others hold true. There is progress don't get me wrong, but these are issues none the less.
  - FreeFull 14y ago
    I thought SuSE had a simple control panel thing for many years now (unless they changed that)
readme 14y ago
Developers - Management = Linux Support http://boingboing.net/2012/04/22/valve-employee-manual-describe.html http://boingboing.net/2012/04/22/valve-employee-manual-descr...
stefanve 14y ago
I can imagine that the steam box is going to run on Linux. Would be the only valid reason to port Steam to Linux. And it would make sens why develop your own OS... It did work out quite well for Apple (BSD -> OSX)
- abrahamsen 14y ago
  Not the only reason: http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Linux-users-contribute-twice-as-much-as-Windows-users http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Linux-users-contribute-twice... Linux users seem (or seemed in 2010) to have money to burn on games (and charity).
  - kmm 14y ago
    I notice this too every time with the Humble Bundle. I mean, go to humblebundle.com right now and Linux wins again. Can anyone explain this?
    - icebraining 14y ago
      Unsupported guesses: Fewer games means they're willing to spend more per game; They want to create an incentive for game devs to port their games; Linux users are older on average, therefore have more disposable income.
    - freehunter 14y ago
      Along with icebraining's post, I can confirm the reason I give more in the bundle is to show there is a market for Linux gaming to make money.
    - stephen_g 14y ago
      I think it's likely that Linux users are more likely to respect product licensing. There is this general stigma that Linux users are cheap, but in reality I think cheapskates would just download a cracked version Windows.
meisterbrendan 14y ago
When I switched from using mostly windows to a lot of Linux, I celebrated the lack of distractions on Linux. Goodbye, productivity.
cabirum 14y ago
Like Adobe Flash with Linux, Valve's effort will suffocate on the need to support hundreds different linux distributions and configurations complete with crappy drivers and audio/video subsystems. Three years is my estimate.
- kmm 14y ago
  That's more the distributors' problem. An Ubuntu package (well, .deb) and an RPM for Fedora are the only necessities and the other distributions will do the hard work themselves.
- octotoad 14y ago
  It's not like every distribution out there uses a different audio framework, graphics API etc. The fundamental components are all the same. Efforts to standardize a lot of things in the free-Unix/Linux world have come a long way in the last 5-7 years. Also, realistically, the number of supported distros would likely amount to a small handful. Bigger distributions like SuSE, Fedora and Ubuntu.
Tomis02 14y ago
It was about time. And if there's going to be a Linux Steam Box I can see indie PC gamedev shifting towards Linux - the entry costs would be practically non-existent.
vibrunazo 14y ago
I would be really excited by this news 3 our so years ago. But it's to late now. Valve missed their chance. Gaming is moving away from desktop. In fact, while gaming is increasing extremely fast overall, desktop is actually setting decrease on revenue. It's the worst time to invest in it. It won't help valve, and it won't help us Linux gamers. Game studios won't suddenly go back to support dying desktop only because steam now has a Linux client. So the store will be empty. This is also a move aiming towards the new steam box. But that's also a bad move. Console is the second worse gaming platform now, after desktop. It's days are also numbered. While I love Valve, gaming and Linux. These won't work well together anytime soon. The good news for us Linux gamers is that browser and mobile are on an absurd.fast rise. While we still don't see many AAA titles on the browser, that's much closer to reality than AAA titles on steam for Linux. At the end of the day, w don't need steam for Linux. Gaming in general is moving in our direction. The quality of games in our browser and our phones (the future consoles) are close to make desktop irrelevant. edit: here's some stats that both console and PC game markets are decreasing. From EA's sec filing: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/712515/000119312511186744/dex992.htm http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/712515/00011931251118... I didn't really thought of putting it because I thought this was ubiquitous knowledge everyone would agree with. But maybe that's just because I'm in the industry and always looking for market numbers every month. The industry is moving away from these formats and moving towards mobile. The remaining anecdotes are just a consequence of old incumbents having a hard time adapting. The next dominant gaming consoles will be running Android and iOS. Simply because of the huge size of the app stores and user base.
- levesque 14y ago
  To me, this is probably the first step to support Linux and Android, not at all a bad move.
- tdr 14y ago
  I would argue that the trend is that gaming is moving away from complex gameplay rather than away from desktop. What we see is less complex titles released every year both on PC and console. The reason is probably because development cost is increasing super-linearly (exponentially) both as money and time. See Battlefield, CoD, Assassin's Creed, NFS... I can't imagine how much they spend on all those details (gameplay & visual) It's easier, faster and cheaper to move towards we/mobile where the market is hot (many new people, not only fans) and the gameplay involves simple actions.
hedgehog 14y ago
It will be interesting to see what this does to the state of GL support, Wayland, scheduler, etc. Steam telemetry will give Valve a lot of data about how different hardware/software/driver configurations are working but on Linux they'll be able to actually push patches to distros if need be. I would love to see Valve profile Source on Linux and start shaving sources of latency and jitter, it could eventually be better than Windows for competitive gaming.
- philo23 14y ago
  Incase anyone's curious about the stats Valve currently has from the Steam Hardware survey on Windows and Mac OS X here's a link to their pretty cool stats page which looks like its recently had a bit of a facelift: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
- firemanx 14y ago
  Hopefully this pushes them to support more variety in the underlying operating system as well. I still can't get Steam to run on my Mac because I made the apparently rare decision to format my machine as case sensitive filesystem.
  - chrismsnz 14y ago
    It's not just Steam, I had a CS filesystem and could not install Starcraft 2 either.
seanp2k2 14y ago
Two things: First thing, HELL YES Second thing, it's about damn time. Long time Quake 3 player here. Always loved playing it on Linux :)
patricklynch 14y ago
That would be cool. Video games are the only reason I even have a Windows partition.
- Splines 14y ago
  Makes me wonder if this is too little, too late. Anyone who is an avid steam user already has a Windows partition for their games, and probably has a large library of games that will not work in Linux. It's great that Valve games will work on Linux, and it'll likely unify the Linux gaming experience, but Windows is the #1 OS for PC gaming and that isn't going to change anytime soon. Heck, look at OS X. They've been a gaming-capable platform for far longer than Linux and they're still in single-digit Steam adoption rates. It's a positive feedback loop - gamers choose Windows because developers support it the most, and developers support Windows the most because there are more gamers on it.
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    Nope, I think Steam will be the best thing to happen to gaming on Linux. Ostensibly, people will get Linux versions of their games (even their old games) for free (didn't they do that with the Mac version?), and developers can get up-to-date statistics of how many Linux users they have exactly. I know I sure would like Steam on Linux so I can stop having to reboot to play a short game. I'd play quite a bit more if Steam were available.
  - mdonahoe 14y ago
    I can spend the $200 I would have spend on a Windows license to buy more steam games instead. A decent gaming desktop that runs OSX is too expensive.
hkarthik 14y ago
Part of the problem is that the dev tools most game developers use are still centered around Windows. Visual Studio is still the hallmark IDE for Game developers everywhere. In addition, the tools developers in gaming studios still build mostly Windows tools that augment the IDEs the engine programmers are already using. That ecosystem has to be disrupted substantially with viable dev tools for game developers on Linux before gaming on Linux can really become a first class citizen.
mladenkovacevic 14y ago
I don't know if Valve is capable of getting into hardware at all, but from a market-clout point of view at least, they might also have success in selling a Linux-based Steam console. If anyone can disrupt the Xbox dynasty, it's them. Making the dedicated console interact with the Steam clients on desktop and mobile would be a win.
sho_hn 14y ago
Even though Steam invites its own problems (it's ultimately a form of DRM, a closed platform, and a closed-source application), as a FOSS developer I can't help but feel excited about this prospect. I know many, many people in the 15-35 age bracket who are open to and curious about Linux, even tried it, but ultimately didn't stick with it because of the lack of high-end native games and because rebooting or setting up Wine is too much of a hassle. Valve has tremendous power to change this and legitimize Linux as a platform in their eyes. Plus, there's already a lot of games in the Steam catalogue that have native Linux versions available: - Dozens of independent titles, e.g. everything that was in those Humble Bundles. - Everything using the DOSBox emulator to run even on Windows, e.g. id's Commander Keen, some Lucasarts Star Wars games, etc. - Even a bunch of AAA titles: id Software's games (Doom, Quake) and games that have licensed their engine (e.g. Human Head's Prey), games that were ported by Linux Game Publishing (e.g. Egosoft's X series of spaceflight simulators), several games by Epic (e.g. Unreal Tournament) or using an Epic engine (e.g. Rune and Deus Ex, ported by Loki), Neverwinter Nights, Civilization: Call to Power, ... Add Valve's own games and possibly some of the other games using their Source engine, and you could easily make 100-150 games available on Linux within a year of launch just from what's already there. But even more exciting is the notion of Steam's availability making more game makers consider adding Linux to their list of supported platforms going forward because the distribution problem is solved for them.
- bonch 14y ago
  "Even though Steam invites its own problems (it's ultimately a form of DRM, a closed platform, and a closed-source application)" It's the least restrictive DRM I've ever encountered--in fact, I've never encountered it and actually forgot it was even there. And I don't care if it's closed source. So to me, those two things aren't even problems at all.
- windsurfer 14y ago
  bonch, your account has been hellbanned. All your comments are dead. I'm replying here hoping you see it.
  - burgerbrain 14y ago
octotoad 14y ago
I can understand the argument regarding the slow uptake of OS X Steam games, but I can't help thinking hardware plays a small role mainly in relation to more 'hardcore' gamers. One big advantage a Linux Steam box would have over a Mac is the ability to swap out critical components such as video cards and CPUs. Even if Valve or others go to the effort of supporting OS X with their latest, whiz-bang AAA title, what's the point if you're on Apple hardware that's limited to a particular GPU that can't be replaced? (with the exception of a super-duper Mac Pro, and even then I can't see it being very easy to just go out and buy a new GTX 650-OMGTHEPIXELS-Edition card and expect it to work the way you would with a 'PC').
jiggy2011 14y ago
I see a few things to think about here: Will "Steam for Linux" be something that you can just apt-get into your free as in freedom Distro and start running AAA games, or will it in fact be something highly proprietary which is designed for a specific subset of devices which happen to run Linux kernels? I see a lot of people here discussing "market share" but as has been proved by Apple market share is certainly not everything. In reality the computer market is broken into a number of distinct markets that have overlap and some of these are more lucrative than others. Pricing structure will make a difference here, I wonder if the Linux games will be the same price as their Windows counterparts? I remember a few years ago there were a number of companies that tried to break into Linux gaming but the prices for the games were astronomical. Many 5 year old games that could have had for Windows for about $10 were selling for $40+ on Linux. Linux Steam could also focus on other styles of games too, perhaps there is more demand amongst Linux users for highly cerebral RTS & RPG games rather than the latest COD that could be sold at a higher price? All you would really need is one or two "killer" titles that were Linux exclusive (think XBoX and Halo) to make whole categories of gamers take it seriously. Of course it is both a blessing and a curse in the sense that stuff developed for Linux is often easier to port to other platforms than the other way around. As a Desktop Linux user myself I am not too concerned with "market share" , to an extent I couldn't care less if I am the only the person that uses it. What I really care about is being able to use Linux for all of my day to day tasks (I have a Windows dual boot but I would rather skip the step of having to power cycle my computer at least once a day).
- apl 14y ago
  > As a Desktop Linux user myself I am not too concerned > with "market share" , to an extent I couldn't care less > if I am the only the person that uses it. That's rather shortsighted. After all, you being able to "just apt-get" depends on a large number of people sacrificing a lot of time. > Will "Steam for Linux" be something that you can just > apt-get into your free as in freedom Distro and start > running AAA games Obviously not going to happen.
  - antihero 14y ago
    I don't see why Steam couldn't be distributed as a .deb package (and put in the repos), much as is existing proprietary software. I mean it probably isn't going to happen for the games, but Steam is pretty decent at managing them anyway.
baq 14y ago
what valve's doing: - hiring linux devs - hiring hardware devs this points to a linux/x86 gaming console - but x86 is only relevant if they want to sell existing games for it.
binarycrusader 14y ago
Maybe this will finally motivate one of the distributions to start providing things like stable ABIs like Windows developers have had for years.
- dfox 14y ago
  Actually, most of this "Linux does not have stable ABI" was maybe true 10 years ago. In general you are going to have mostly same compatibility problems as on Windows with mostly same solution for proprietary software: package known versions of your dependencies together with your application. When done in this way, distributing of binary-only software for Linux is often even easier than on windows, because you don't have to deal with windows-specific ABI compatibility issues (like multiple instances of C runtime in same address space or interactions between SEH and C++ exceptions)
  - binarycrusader 14y ago
    Sorry, but that's simply not true. I used to maintain the Linux port of adventure game studio (among other projects). Even when I statically linked all dependencies it often wouldn't run on one of the Linux distributions because of changes in glibc or how x libraries had been compiled on that platform. Ask Ryan C. Gordon (icculus) what he thinks of those supposedly stable ABIs. Ask nVidia and AMD users about how thrilled they are to have to get new drivers every time the Xorg ABI changes. I've been developing on Unix and Linux platforms for almost fifteen years now. Linux distributions (and the kernel) still don't have stable interfaces. The kind that lets users run games and applications made 10 years ago on other platforms while Linux distros some times can't use binaries from just a few years ago.
jebblue 14y ago
We've heard this before...if it happens, Linux wins and Valve wins, I still have an account and would love to buy games once again from Steam only on my platform, Linux.
rmATinnovafy 14y ago
This seems like the kind of thing the Ubuntu software center was made for. I'm glad gamers will have the option to play their games. Now, about those GPU drivers...
avstraliitski 14y ago
Steam is notable to me as a rare DRM environment that gives something back. After witnessing numerous failed single-platform DRM schemes, and even working in the area for video on mobile, I bought a Mac last year, installed Steam, and was really amazed to have instant access to the portion of my existing games catalog that runs on OSX. Win. You can even back up save games to the cloud, which is useful when you are an occasional gamer like I suspect many of us are or are becoming. What Steam doesn't do right: gifting (lots of people just never get them, in my experience), support for people in non-western places (I am in China and bought a game for which single player does not exist and ZERO playable servers exist (ping 250, anyone?); I asked to change it for another and received no response, not even an acknowledgement). Despite the above issues they do remove barriers to product discovery, payment, update, and mobility (including across platforms). Adding Linux to their portfolio is a great way to leverage this strength to the benefit of both Steam and Linux. It's about time. Go Valve!
martindale 14y ago
If I could get a dependable distro-managed version of Steam on Ubuntu, I would _certainly_ buy and play more games. I've stopped playing games (mostly) because I've switched to Linux as my primary desktop, and what I play is limited to my time (in general, and to fiddle with things to get them _working_ on Linux, e.g., EVE Online in Wine).

356 points by pook1e 14y ago

m_st 14y ago

I'm sure one of the reasons for a Linux client (and even a Steam console) is Windows 8 with its App Store. Soon potential customers are going to buy their software through these integrated stores rather than using dedicated clients. And since Microsoft is giving the Desktop a legacy feeling Valve has no choice but expand the reach of Steam. Which is of course good for us customers.

ericd 14y ago
As a longtime PC gamer, any Microsoft store is roughly 0 threat to Steam from my perspective unless publishers stop publishing on Steam, which would seems very unlikely unless Microsoft took much less of a cut and Valve refused to follow suit, or Microsoft decided to pay publishers off for exclusives. Microsoft's past attempts to make Steam-like services have been completely laughable/extremely frustrating (see Games for Windows Live, their attempt at an online community/DRM solution). I think they're expanding to Linux entirely because they want to expand to and support Linux, not because of any competitive pressure forcing them to retreat to Linux. A couple years ago they expanded to Mac, and this is just a natural extension.
- idleloops 14y ago
  It opens up the doors to the possibility of adding functionality to linux based set top boxes.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  IIRC , Windows 8 will only allow "Metro Style" apps to be installed via Microsoft's own store. I'm not sure whether a game would classify as "Metro Style" or not and since ARM based Windows tablets will be Metro only that kills the possibility of Steam to expand in that direction. So there is the possibility that MS could turn around and say "No, Steam is banned from Windows" in the same way that apple would with the iPad. This at least gives Valve the power to threaten MS with "FU, we're going to Linux and taking HL3 , Portal 3 and CS:GA with us"
danssig 14y ago
>Valve has no choice but expand the reach of Steam This seems pretty unlikely. I doubt there are enough linux gamers in existance to justify what this investment will cost.
- abrahamsen 14y ago
  Maybe not, but I could see a lot of PC Gamers be willing to boot into SteamOS, if the right games were available.
idleloops 14y ago
Will MS take a slice of the pie, through their distribution channel? I can see that as being an instant turn off. It's an opportunity to produce a Gamers Distro based on a solid Distro. They could piggy back a Ubuntu LTS, and focus on a subset of well supported hardware.
- tomflack 14y ago
  > Will MS take a slice of the pie, through their distribution channel? I can see that as being an instant turn off. Valve already do, but it's not disclosed to the public how much. So I can't see how MS doing so would make any difference.
  - idleloops 14y ago
    Well it does for Valve.
    - tomflack 14y ago
      What are you talking about? Edit: I thought you were talking about MS taking a cut of game publisher's money, not Valve's. It's such a far-fetched scenario given everything we know about Windows 8 it didn't register in my mind.
cube13 14y ago
Keep in mind: MS is publishing games on Steam and the other DD services right now. Unlike OSX, where Valve probably didn't get as much traction with Steam before the mac app store was released, Steam IS the primary gaming service for Windows PCs.

Andaith 14y ago

After reading their handbook, I'm not that surprised. I do wonder how long it's been a one-man project though... Also, I wonder if the Humble Bundles have had anything to do with convincing Valve that Steam for Linux is worth the effort?

loganfsmyth 14y ago
The handbook was the first thing I thought of after seeing the headline too. It definitely seems like a project someone would want to put there time into, though maybe more as a side project.

IsTom 14y ago

Steam for Linux is one thing, but how many games will you be able to run?

Lockyy 14y ago
The same as when it released for mac? Pretty much only source games if I recall, but it rapidly expanded to more games because they are really helpful with porting games to the new platform. This is the last thing holding me back from dropping windows completely.
- LukaD 14y ago
  There are already a lot of linux compatible games on steam. Let's hope they will be availabe on Steam for linux. http://steamlinux.flibitijibibo.com/index.php?title=Main_Page#Game_Lists http://steamlinux.flibitijibibo.com/index.php?title=Main_Pag...
TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
It's not Steam we should care about, what we really want is Source for Linux. And GoldSrc for that matter, I'm sure some people would like to play Counter-Strike.
- heretohelp 14y ago
  CS 1.6, CS:S, and CS:GO for Linux would keep me happy for awhile :) Add Quake Live, and I'm good for a long time. Make it a lot easier to switch between gaming and coding.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
    In my case, TF2 and Half-Life are the only things stopping me switching to Linux as my main OS. I can agree with you there, I want to be able to code and game on the same OS.
    - 14y ago

gipsyking 14y ago

Could this have anything to do with the rumor about the Valve console?

qxcv 14y ago

Looks like this is going to be reality, Phoronix just published the promised article[0] which basically claims that Valve have ported L4D/Source over to Linux already! Exciting news indeed, AAA-titles for Linux could turn the desktop OS market upside down. [0]: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_linux_dampfnudeln&num=1 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve...

rms 14y ago
I'm definitely looking forward to Linux on the desktop this decade.
danssig 14y ago
That is interesting news, but turn the OS market upside down? You can't be serious.
- onli 14y ago
  Why not? Missing games are the last and only "serious" issue of Linux. Well, maybe apart from Adobes product. But that's quite seriuos: Not being able to play normal and modern games is why I have Windows installed, and it's why i couldn't convince my nonexisting kids to use linux solely. More Games means more user means more games (means better gpu-driver). It's a really old theory, and i think it's one that is sound, that linux somehow has to start the spirale and end the issue of having not enough user for games and therefor not enough games for users. Steam with some Valve-games could change that indeed.
  - codesuela 14y ago
    Games are the only thing you can't run with good performance inside a VM. That's why you can always spin up a Windows VM if you need Photoshop but you HAVE to reboot if you want to enjoy a game. So yes, this would be definitely a game changer
    - freehunter 14y ago

gouranga 14y ago

That's a great idea. If you consider the potential for a "gaming appliance" (Valve console without all the commercial OS licensing costs then it really makes sense.

seclorum 14y ago

I really wish Valve would get behind the Open Pandora gaming console: http://openpandora.org/ http://openpandora.org/ Its a fantastic machine, with a great community, and an awesome technology for single-file game distribution, or PND-files (Pandora .pnd files are self-contained applications), along with a fantastic repository already in place: http://repo.openpandora.org/ http://repo.openpandora.org/ With Valve behind them, the OpenPandora guys could really do something neat in terms of creating a Linux-based gaming hardware series. Imagine the Valve "Pandora" console, either in handheld or desktop/TV-side form .. this could really happen, and Valve would gain a lot from getting involved in this.

aw3c2 14y ago
the pandora does not have the polish nor is it too well designed. it is a handheld for a tiny niche of people. (i had an early one, sold it as it just was not what I expected nor good enough to justify the price with all the drawbacks)
- seclorum 14y ago
  I have two, and I fail to see any of your points. Its awesome!
  - aw3c2 14y ago
    The screen is resistive touchscreen, cannot hold a 135° angle open, the keyboard is weird, the analog sticks too, the buttons are tiny, the pandora is super heavy and bulky.
    - seclorum 14y ago
      Resistive touchscreen? Big deal, it works great for most games. Nintendo have a patent on anything that holds open at a 135° angle, blame them. The keyboard is great for what its supposed to do - give you keys that you can use with all the 8-bit emulated machines. Analog sticks = Among the best joysticks I've ever used, bar none. Buttons, tiny? Not for these fat fingers. Heavy and bulky? Hmm .. you got me there, but then again: 12 hours battery life.

mattbee 14y ago

Brilliant news. Of course Valve wouldn't want their own console to be tied to Windows, and there are definitely enough Mac-ported games (e.g. including Assassins Creed, not just their own stuff) that Linux ports must be do-able in short order. I'd hope there's some "trickle-down" effect of Steam ports- an push to sort out the knotty ball of Linux sound configuration, 3D drivers and other grimness. Alternatively it could be that you need to enable pulseaudio for title A, ALSA for title B, OSS for title C - ARRRGGHHH. Fingers crossed.

chao- 14y ago
With regards to that last bit, my first thought is that Valve could set up some guidelines, such that they will only distribute Linux versions of games that require a non-frustrating set of technologies for the sake of user experience. I will admit that it's wild speculation on my part to suggest that, though. I'm not familiar with the particulars of the Linux Sound Zoo to say whether such a decision would impart any real benefits. On the flip side though, how painful (or not?) of a restriction on the developers would it be to make such a choice?
guard-of-terra 14y ago
OSS is dead for five years or more. These days you either have a direct ALSA, or Pulse, which ALSA can stream to transparently. If you have a SDL+ALSA game you will see exactly zero problems and that's what everybody does. OpenGL support is pretty solid too.
- exDM69 14y ago
  > OSS is dead for five years or more. OSS on Linux may be dead but OSS is still the API on other free unixes like *BSD's and the API has been developed forwards. > If you have a SDL+ALSA game you will see exactly zero problems and that's what everybody does. With SDL, you're stuck with the lowest common denominator of all audio API's. I've had more than my share of problems when doing audio with SDL. If you want 3d audio (doppler effects, etc), SDL audio is out of the question. OpenAL has been pretty popular with games too, but the implementations available are not rock solid. > OpenGL support is pretty solid too. OpenGL support is pretty solid given you have a GPU that has sane drivers, which is not always the case. In particular with consumer laptops and integrated graphics on desktops. But still, OpenGL is in pretty much every way inferior to D3D if portability doesn't count. It's an awful API for the programmer and the implementer and there are plenty of pitfalls that may cause bad performance or corruptions on crappy drivers. I regret to say this, but Linux is not a very ideal platform to run games. The biggest problem, by far, is the quality of OpenGL API and implementations. Audio is not at all that bad but it's still kinda hairy.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

frunc 14y ago

See also: It's Official: Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux! - Published on May 12, 2010 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_steam_announcement&num=1 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve...

jasonlotito 14y ago
FTA: "The released Linux client should be available by the end of summer." Keep in mind, we are talking about Valve Time[1] here, so Phoronix wasn't wrong. =) 1. https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time

guard-of-terra 14y ago

Desura is already out for linux and it works for some time. I play Dungeons of Dredmor and Braid via it. It's slightly buggy but delivers.

tdr 14y ago

Lack of gaming support was (and still is) in my opinion the main reason Linux didn't get properly accepted into the consumer sector. (every gamer had to keep Windows dual-boot ) Because of that there were problems with the drivers and snowballed to other areas.

idleloops 14y ago
As well as: * Poor web browser (not an issue now) * Poor flash support (better than it has been) * No Microsoft Office (partially surmountable) * Video and sound configuration issues (sound is still hit and miss for me) * Inconsistent desktop UIs and administration tools * Lack of simple point and click system control panel And that you couldn't easily find consumer hardware pre-installed with a Linux desktop (which could have got around some of the driver issues.)
- soc88 14y ago
  About which year are you speaking exactly? 2005?
  - nnnnni 14y ago
    More like 2000.
    - idleloops 14y ago
      I'm partially referring to 2012.
  - idleloops 14y ago
    * Inconsistent desktop UIs and administration tools This one is just the nature of the beast of having disparate distributions. But the others hold true. There is progress don't get me wrong, but these are issues none the less.
- FreeFull 14y ago
  I thought SuSE had a simple control panel thing for many years now (unless they changed that)

readme 14y ago

Developers - Management = Linux Support http://boingboing.net/2012/04/22/valve-employee-manual-describe.html http://boingboing.net/2012/04/22/valve-employee-manual-descr...

stefanve 14y ago

I can imagine that the steam box is going to run on Linux. Would be the only valid reason to port Steam to Linux. And it would make sens why develop your own OS... It did work out quite well for Apple (BSD -> OSX)

abrahamsen 14y ago
Not the only reason: http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Linux-users-contribute-twice-as-much-as-Windows-users http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Linux-users-contribute-twice... Linux users seem (or seemed in 2010) to have money to burn on games (and charity).
- kmm 14y ago
  I notice this too every time with the Humble Bundle. I mean, go to humblebundle.com right now and Linux wins again. Can anyone explain this?
  - icebraining 14y ago
    Unsupported guesses: Fewer games means they're willing to spend more per game; They want to create an incentive for game devs to port their games; Linux users are older on average, therefore have more disposable income.
  - freehunter 14y ago
    Along with icebraining's post, I can confirm the reason I give more in the bundle is to show there is a market for Linux gaming to make money.
  - stephen_g 14y ago
    I think it's likely that Linux users are more likely to respect product licensing. There is this general stigma that Linux users are cheap, but in reality I think cheapskates would just download a cracked version Windows.

meisterbrendan 14y ago

When I switched from using mostly windows to a lot of Linux, I celebrated the lack of distractions on Linux. Goodbye, productivity.

cabirum 14y ago

Like Adobe Flash with Linux, Valve's effort will suffocate on the need to support hundreds different linux distributions and configurations complete with crappy drivers and audio/video subsystems. Three years is my estimate.

kmm 14y ago
That's more the distributors' problem. An Ubuntu package (well, .deb) and an RPM for Fedora are the only necessities and the other distributions will do the hard work themselves.
octotoad 14y ago
It's not like every distribution out there uses a different audio framework, graphics API etc. The fundamental components are all the same. Efforts to standardize a lot of things in the free-Unix/Linux world have come a long way in the last 5-7 years. Also, realistically, the number of supported distros would likely amount to a small handful. Bigger distributions like SuSE, Fedora and Ubuntu.

Tomis02 14y ago

It was about time. And if there's going to be a Linux Steam Box I can see indie PC gamedev shifting towards Linux - the entry costs would be practically non-existent.

vibrunazo 14y ago

I would be really excited by this news 3 our so years ago. But it's to late now. Valve missed their chance. Gaming is moving away from desktop. In fact, while gaming is increasing extremely fast overall, desktop is actually setting decrease on revenue. It's the worst time to invest in it. It won't help valve, and it won't help us Linux gamers. Game studios won't suddenly go back to support dying desktop only because steam now has a Linux client. So the store will be empty. This is also a move aiming towards the new steam box. But that's also a bad move. Console is the second worse gaming platform now, after desktop. It's days are also numbered. While I love Valve, gaming and Linux. These won't work well together anytime soon. The good news for us Linux gamers is that browser and mobile are on an absurd.fast rise. While we still don't see many AAA titles on the browser, that's much closer to reality than AAA titles on steam for Linux. At the end of the day, w don't need steam for Linux. Gaming in general is moving in our direction. The quality of games in our browser and our phones (the future consoles) are close to make desktop irrelevant. edit: here's some stats that both console and PC game markets are decreasing. From EA's sec filing: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/712515/000119312511186744/dex992.htm http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/712515/00011931251118... I didn't really thought of putting it because I thought this was ubiquitous knowledge everyone would agree with. But maybe that's just because I'm in the industry and always looking for market numbers every month. The industry is moving away from these formats and moving towards mobile. The remaining anecdotes are just a consequence of old incumbents having a hard time adapting. The next dominant gaming consoles will be running Android and iOS. Simply because of the huge size of the app stores and user base.

levesque 14y ago
To me, this is probably the first step to support Linux and Android, not at all a bad move.
tdr 14y ago
I would argue that the trend is that gaming is moving away from complex gameplay rather than away from desktop. What we see is less complex titles released every year both on PC and console. The reason is probably because development cost is increasing super-linearly (exponentially) both as money and time. See Battlefield, CoD, Assassin's Creed, NFS... I can't imagine how much they spend on all those details (gameplay & visual) It's easier, faster and cheaper to move towards we/mobile where the market is hot (many new people, not only fans) and the gameplay involves simple actions.

hedgehog 14y ago

It will be interesting to see what this does to the state of GL support, Wayland, scheduler, etc. Steam telemetry will give Valve a lot of data about how different hardware/software/driver configurations are working but on Linux they'll be able to actually push patches to distros if need be. I would love to see Valve profile Source on Linux and start shaving sources of latency and jitter, it could eventually be better than Windows for competitive gaming.

philo23 14y ago
Incase anyone's curious about the stats Valve currently has from the Steam Hardware survey on Windows and Mac OS X here's a link to their pretty cool stats page which looks like its recently had a bit of a facelift: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
firemanx 14y ago
Hopefully this pushes them to support more variety in the underlying operating system as well. I still can't get Steam to run on my Mac because I made the apparently rare decision to format my machine as case sensitive filesystem.
- chrismsnz 14y ago
  It's not just Steam, I had a CS filesystem and could not install Starcraft 2 either.

seanp2k2 14y ago

Two things: First thing, HELL YES Second thing, it's about damn time. Long time Quake 3 player here. Always loved playing it on Linux :)

patricklynch 14y ago

That would be cool. Video games are the only reason I even have a Windows partition.

Splines 14y ago
Makes me wonder if this is too little, too late. Anyone who is an avid steam user already has a Windows partition for their games, and probably has a large library of games that will not work in Linux. It's great that Valve games will work on Linux, and it'll likely unify the Linux gaming experience, but Windows is the #1 OS for PC gaming and that isn't going to change anytime soon. Heck, look at OS X. They've been a gaming-capable platform for far longer than Linux and they're still in single-digit Steam adoption rates. It's a positive feedback loop - gamers choose Windows because developers support it the most, and developers support Windows the most because there are more gamers on it.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  Nope, I think Steam will be the best thing to happen to gaming on Linux. Ostensibly, people will get Linux versions of their games (even their old games) for free (didn't they do that with the Mac version?), and developers can get up-to-date statistics of how many Linux users they have exactly. I know I sure would like Steam on Linux so I can stop having to reboot to play a short game. I'd play quite a bit more if Steam were available.
- mdonahoe 14y ago
  I can spend the $200 I would have spend on a Windows license to buy more steam games instead. A decent gaming desktop that runs OSX is too expensive.

hkarthik 14y ago

Part of the problem is that the dev tools most game developers use are still centered around Windows. Visual Studio is still the hallmark IDE for Game developers everywhere. In addition, the tools developers in gaming studios still build mostly Windows tools that augment the IDEs the engine programmers are already using. That ecosystem has to be disrupted substantially with viable dev tools for game developers on Linux before gaming on Linux can really become a first class citizen.

mladenkovacevic 14y ago

I don't know if Valve is capable of getting into hardware at all, but from a market-clout point of view at least, they might also have success in selling a Linux-based Steam console. If anyone can disrupt the Xbox dynasty, it's them. Making the dedicated console interact with the Steam clients on desktop and mobile would be a win.

sho_hn 14y ago

Even though Steam invites its own problems (it's ultimately a form of DRM, a closed platform, and a closed-source application), as a FOSS developer I can't help but feel excited about this prospect. I know many, many people in the 15-35 age bracket who are open to and curious about Linux, even tried it, but ultimately didn't stick with it because of the lack of high-end native games and because rebooting or setting up Wine is too much of a hassle. Valve has tremendous power to change this and legitimize Linux as a platform in their eyes. Plus, there's already a lot of games in the Steam catalogue that have native Linux versions available: - Dozens of independent titles, e.g. everything that was in those Humble Bundles. - Everything using the DOSBox emulator to run even on Windows, e.g. id's Commander Keen, some Lucasarts Star Wars games, etc. - Even a bunch of AAA titles: id Software's games (Doom, Quake) and games that have licensed their engine (e.g. Human Head's Prey), games that were ported by Linux Game Publishing (e.g. Egosoft's X series of spaceflight simulators), several games by Epic (e.g. Unreal Tournament) or using an Epic engine (e.g. Rune and Deus Ex, ported by Loki), Neverwinter Nights, Civilization: Call to Power, ... Add Valve's own games and possibly some of the other games using their Source engine, and you could easily make 100-150 games available on Linux within a year of launch just from what's already there. But even more exciting is the notion of Steam's availability making more game makers consider adding Linux to their list of supported platforms going forward because the distribution problem is solved for them.

bonch 14y ago
"Even though Steam invites its own problems (it's ultimately a form of DRM, a closed platform, and a closed-source application)" It's the least restrictive DRM I've ever encountered--in fact, I've never encountered it and actually forgot it was even there. And I don't care if it's closed source. So to me, those two things aren't even problems at all.
windsurfer 14y ago
bonch, your account has been hellbanned. All your comments are dead. I'm replying here hoping you see it.
- burgerbrain 14y ago

octotoad 14y ago

I can understand the argument regarding the slow uptake of OS X Steam games, but I can't help thinking hardware plays a small role mainly in relation to more 'hardcore' gamers. One big advantage a Linux Steam box would have over a Mac is the ability to swap out critical components such as video cards and CPUs. Even if Valve or others go to the effort of supporting OS X with their latest, whiz-bang AAA title, what's the point if you're on Apple hardware that's limited to a particular GPU that can't be replaced? (with the exception of a super-duper Mac Pro, and even then I can't see it being very easy to just go out and buy a new GTX 650-OMGTHEPIXELS-Edition card and expect it to work the way you would with a 'PC').

jiggy2011 14y ago

I see a few things to think about here: Will "Steam for Linux" be something that you can just apt-get into your free as in freedom Distro and start running AAA games, or will it in fact be something highly proprietary which is designed for a specific subset of devices which happen to run Linux kernels? I see a lot of people here discussing "market share" but as has been proved by Apple market share is certainly not everything. In reality the computer market is broken into a number of distinct markets that have overlap and some of these are more lucrative than others. Pricing structure will make a difference here, I wonder if the Linux games will be the same price as their Windows counterparts? I remember a few years ago there were a number of companies that tried to break into Linux gaming but the prices for the games were astronomical. Many 5 year old games that could have had for Windows for about $10 were selling for $40+ on Linux. Linux Steam could also focus on other styles of games too, perhaps there is more demand amongst Linux users for highly cerebral RTS & RPG games rather than the latest COD that could be sold at a higher price? All you would really need is one or two "killer" titles that were Linux exclusive (think XBoX and Halo) to make whole categories of gamers take it seriously. Of course it is both a blessing and a curse in the sense that stuff developed for Linux is often easier to port to other platforms than the other way around. As a Desktop Linux user myself I am not too concerned with "market share" , to an extent I couldn't care less if I am the only the person that uses it. What I really care about is being able to use Linux for all of my day to day tasks (I have a Windows dual boot but I would rather skip the step of having to power cycle my computer at least once a day).

apl 14y ago
> As a Desktop Linux user myself I am not too concerned > with "market share" , to an extent I couldn't care less > if I am the only the person that uses it. That's rather shortsighted. After all, you being able to "just apt-get" depends on a large number of people sacrificing a lot of time. > Will "Steam for Linux" be something that you can just > apt-get into your free as in freedom Distro and start > running AAA games Obviously not going to happen.
- antihero 14y ago
  I don't see why Steam couldn't be distributed as a .deb package (and put in the repos), much as is existing proprietary software. I mean it probably isn't going to happen for the games, but Steam is pretty decent at managing them anyway.

baq 14y ago

what valve's doing: - hiring linux devs - hiring hardware devs this points to a linux/x86 gaming console - but x86 is only relevant if they want to sell existing games for it.

binarycrusader 14y ago

Maybe this will finally motivate one of the distributions to start providing things like stable ABIs like Windows developers have had for years.

dfox 14y ago
Actually, most of this "Linux does not have stable ABI" was maybe true 10 years ago. In general you are going to have mostly same compatibility problems as on Windows with mostly same solution for proprietary software: package known versions of your dependencies together with your application. When done in this way, distributing of binary-only software for Linux is often even easier than on windows, because you don't have to deal with windows-specific ABI compatibility issues (like multiple instances of C runtime in same address space or interactions between SEH and C++ exceptions)
- binarycrusader 14y ago
  Sorry, but that's simply not true. I used to maintain the Linux port of adventure game studio (among other projects). Even when I statically linked all dependencies it often wouldn't run on one of the Linux distributions because of changes in glibc or how x libraries had been compiled on that platform. Ask Ryan C. Gordon (icculus) what he thinks of those supposedly stable ABIs. Ask nVidia and AMD users about how thrilled they are to have to get new drivers every time the Xorg ABI changes. I've been developing on Unix and Linux platforms for almost fifteen years now. Linux distributions (and the kernel) still don't have stable interfaces. The kind that lets users run games and applications made 10 years ago on other platforms while Linux distros some times can't use binaries from just a few years ago.

jebblue 14y ago

We've heard this before...if it happens, Linux wins and Valve wins, I still have an account and would love to buy games once again from Steam only on my platform, Linux.

rmATinnovafy 14y ago

This seems like the kind of thing the Ubuntu software center was made for. I'm glad gamers will have the option to play their games. Now, about those GPU drivers...

avstraliitski 14y ago

Steam is notable to me as a rare DRM environment that gives something back. After witnessing numerous failed single-platform DRM schemes, and even working in the area for video on mobile, I bought a Mac last year, installed Steam, and was really amazed to have instant access to the portion of my existing games catalog that runs on OSX. Win. You can even back up save games to the cloud, which is useful when you are an occasional gamer like I suspect many of us are or are becoming. What Steam doesn't do right: gifting (lots of people just never get them, in my experience), support for people in non-western places (I am in China and bought a game for which single player does not exist and ZERO playable servers exist (ping 250, anyone?); I asked to change it for another and received no response, not even an acknowledgement). Despite the above issues they do remove barriers to product discovery, payment, update, and mobility (including across platforms). Adding Linux to their portfolio is a great way to leverage this strength to the benefit of both Steam and Linux. It's about time. Go Valve!

martindale 14y ago

If I could get a dependable distro-managed version of Steam on Ubuntu, I would _certainly_ buy and play more games. I've stopped playing games (mostly) because I've switched to Linux as my primary desktop, and what I play is limited to my time (in general, and to fiddle with things to get them _working_ on Linux, e.g., EVE Online in Wine).