14 ms·

Valve starts promoting Steam for Linux to Windows users

226 points by bconway 14y ago

lambada 14y ago
I'd understand the headline if it was a pop-up for those using the Steam Client on Windows. As it is, it looks like they're just using their website to advertise. Not really targeting Windows users specifically.
stinos 14y ago
"start urging Windows users to make the switch" "Proof of that comes from the screenshot you see above." Really? This is at least slightly exaggerated. First thing I see is a big green button with a download link to the Windows installer. Then a invite to join a Beta program. That's not exactly urging anything. More like letting people now it's available.
- mauriciob 14y ago
  In addition, it's on the "About" page. I can't remember the last time I opened it.
  - sspiff 14y ago
    I reinstalled Steam yesterday, and the about page is what you get when you click the "Install Steam" button on the homepage. So everybody visits it at least once.
- fnordfnordfnord 14y ago
  Linux gamers are extremely sensitive to any news that isn't negative.
  - ori_b 14y ago
    There's a reason. There's very little news about Linux gaming, and even less that's positive. Let's just say that my standard response to "Hey, there's this awesome game out, have you tried it" is "I use Linux".
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- laumars 14y ago
  While you are right, I do think it's fair to say that this is still a pretty prominent advert. Usually Linux gets so sidelined that you have to hunt about for any details regarding compatibility/support, where as here Tux takes more screen real estate than the Windows download link. This is very unusual, so I can't blame a few Linux enthusiasts getting excited. Also, the article does also raise a valid point about Valve's long term interest in Linux; their Steam Box is powered by it. So it's not a huge leap of faith to see this as the first of many gentle nudges away from Windows. Though obviously there's also the chance that this might just end up as flat as the "year of the Linux desktop" predictions that happens every year.
- aleprok 14y ago
  For me that green button gives steam.deb and not the windows version. Also did you notice -> "Not running on Linux yet? Grab Ubuntu 12.04 LTS"
sspiff 14y ago
I don't think this is urging users to switch to Linux, but at least the huge penguin is the most obvious thing on the page: it's the biggest, it's visually distinctive, and it's smack in the middle of the page. So they are definitely trying to raise awareness of Steam for Linux to the larger audience. I just rebuilt my desktop yesterday, and downloaded Steam for it. The above is what you get when you click the "Install Steam" button on their homepage, and it definitely caught my eye.
metastew 14y ago
How many Linux games they have so far: ~62 How many games I have in my steam library: 100+ How many games in my steam library that has already been ported to Linux (as of yesterday): 6 I will make the switch when they have at least 1/3 of my steam library ported over to Linux.
- robotmay 14y ago
  Porting TF2 was a nice touch (and I have it installed on my Linux partition for a quick lunchtime game whilst working) but I need quite a few other games to be ported before I could consider using it more often. Give it a few years though; I think there'll be a slow trickle of games for a while, but it'll start to ramp up as some of the bigger studios realise there's a market there.
  - FredFredrickson 14y ago
    Have you spent much time with Linux TF2? Any idea if it's more or less stable than the Windows / OS X builds?
    - robotmay 14y ago
      It's not quite as stable yet. First time I played it ran flawlessly (and at the same speed as it does under Windows). Since then I've had a few issues like excessive screen tearing and missing audio, but they're not too bad for what is still considered a beta. Just for rough specs; both my Windows 7 64-bit & Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit installs have their own SSD (Samsung 830), on an i5 2500k/8GB RAM/nVidia 560TI machine. TF2 is installed on both the SSDs.
      - FredFredrickson 14y ago
        Interesting, thanks! I use Windows mostly, but I dabble in Ubuntu every now and then as well, and I might have a spare computer soon, so I though I'd give it a try. Didn't want to bother with it if it wasn't ready for prime time though.
- 14y ago
ck2 14y ago
I found the crucial ssd video on that site far more fascinating: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/how-its-made-crucial-ssds-come-from-very-clean-rooms-20130121/ http://www.geek.com/articles/games/how-its-made-crucial-ssds...
venomsnake 14y ago
Мake all of my steam backlog work on linux and I switch. And not a moment before that.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  If you're already using Linux as your day-to-day OS, there's no reason for you not to install Steam already, as there's no "switch" for you to make. If you are using Windows and aren't looking to switch otherwise, there's no reason to do it, since all games work fine there. This is for people who've wanted to switch (or have already switched) to Linux and miss Steam, or dual-boot (like me). So, basically, you're not the target market, and nobody cares what you do!
  - vitalique 14y ago
    >If you are using Windows and aren't looking to switch otherwise, there's no reason to do it. Depends on what you mean by 'not looking to switch'. Permanent, set in stone decision? Then sure, no point in proving that 1 == 1. But decisions drift and change (which is nice), and so does software (which in some cases is excellent). So I wouldn't be that categorical. I'd agree that for some folks Steam not running on Linux may be the only reason to stay with Windows (though I don't think they miss Steam, as you put that; I think what they miss are their games - owned ones and not yet released - and venomsnake says just that, actually), but I'm pretty sure there's quite a large number of people who consider many different general-purpose sides of switching platforms (gaming, music, video, paper/docs work, some development), and for them Linux version of Steam as a provider of games may be an important signal.
    - StavrosK 14y ago
      Of course it is an important signal, but they don't say "I'll switch when all my games work, to the very last (even the ones I have no intention of ever playing again), and not a moment earlier". That's just an unreasonable position, which I'm sure not even venomsnake really believes. Now that I typed that, it's obvious that we're feeding the troll.
ericcholis 14y ago
I would love to switch to Ubuntu at home, games is one of the reasons I don't; Unity being the other. This may be isolated to my experience, but the PCs that I've installed Ubuntu on suffer huge performance drops when using Unity. Most of these PCs were running XP, one them is running Win 7. I even had one machine running like a dream on Ubuntu 11.04 then upgraded to 11.10, now it's nearly unusable. I've drank the Ubuntu kool-aid in the past, but now it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. *edit for clarification, I'm referring to Ubuntu's new default UI: Unity.
- pwelch 14y ago
  Have you tried other Ubuntu variants or even another distro? I prefer Xubuntu.
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    I also tried Lubuntu for a few minutes and it was really, really responsive.
    - ericcholis 14y ago
      Being a bit of a desktop Linux noob, how the experience of the other Ubuntu distros compare?
      - StavrosK 14y ago
        I only used it for a few minutes, but I installed it on my sister's netbook and she uses it exclusively. From what I saw, all applications looked exactly the same, save for the window manager chrome. Lubuntu is closer to Windows with a Start-like menu and the applications there, so if you're more familiar with Windows, you will probably find it easier. I haven't delved deep into it, so I couldn't tell you how easily you can find the settings or whatnot, or if there are issues that aren't in another window manager. Given that you can install it with just an "apt-get install lubuntu", though, it'll probably be faster if you tried it yourself!
- 14y ago
swalsh 14y ago
I have a strong desire to leave windows. Windows 8 seems to enrage me more every day. Unfortunately, the majority of my experience is with C# :(
- kaeawc 14y ago
  You can transition that experience to other languages. Try out Java or Scala.
- beefsack 14y ago
  Leaving your comfort zone can make you accomplish amazing things.
- coldpie 14y ago
  Check out Mono, it's a cross-platform .NET runtime. You'll have to give up your Windows-specific knowledge, but C# the language works fine.
  - marcosdumay 14y ago
    Check out Python. You'll regret spending time with C#.
    - monstrado 14y ago
      I wouldn't say Python would make you regret spending time with C#, in fact, his experience with a language like C# will be beneficial to his coding patterns. Python is an awesome language, but don't mistake the fact that C# is also a very good language and often times a perfectly valid language to use.
      - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
        Python's dynamicness is something you love and hate. Same goes for JavaScript (at least strict mode JS) in my experience. It's much nicer having the compiler tell you there's an undefined variable instead of the runtime.
ameen 14y ago
For some reason I don't want to install Steam on my Ubuntu partition. I use it to get work done. If I feel like playing a game I just boot into my Windows 7 partition. Having a "work boot" has done wonders for my productivity.
daGrevis 14y ago
Port Dota 2 and I'm deleting Windows from my dual-boot system.
- NuZZ 14y ago
  There are reports from WINE users that Dota 2 actually runs better than on windows, under WINE. Cool.
Millennium 14y ago
The games I'm interested in will probably never be ported. Valve needs to get in on the Wine project, specifically with an eye toward improving the gaming experience, and then integrate that into Steam/Linux.
kelvin0 14y ago
Does this mean that Ubuntu supports GPU Hardware acceleration drivers? I am not an expert on the matter, but it seems that most Linux distributions used to lack this, unless you had a specific Card that had drivers for it under yer distro .. Please feel free to correct me. This is one of the issues which prevents me from 'jumping' completely onto Ubuntu. Thanks
- lucian1900 14y ago
  The official proprietary drivers for nvidia and amd gpus tend to work pretty well, and Ubuntu will prompt you to install them. The open source ones are generally not suitable for games yet. Most Intel gpus just have open source drivers.
  - kelvin0 14y ago
    Thank you for that clarification!
  - csense 14y ago
    Mobile nvidia cards with nvidia's Optimus technology require two steps to work: 1. Install Bumblebee (requires a PPA) and possibly x-swat PPA as well. [1] 2. Launch video programs through optirun. For example: java -Xmx1024m -jar minecraft.jar # non-Bumblebee users optirun java -Xmx1024m -jar minecraft.jar # Bumblebee users If you run the first command but have an Optimus card, the program will still run, but it will use the weak Intel GPU instead of the powerful nvidia GPU -- which is plenty powerful enough for "normal" desktop usage like web browsing, email, word processing, or video players, but a recent 3D game will likely turn into a slideshow. Hopefully the Steam client will make it easy for people to use Bumblebee by giving a GUI to install the PPA and automatically invoking 3D games with optirun. [1] http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html#Ubuntu http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html#Ubuntu
- shock 14y ago
  Accelerated GPU drivers have existed for linux for ages. I was playing Counter Strike and Quake on linux in 2000 or so. I speak mostly about nvidia cards as I've only owned those. Maybe others can chime in about ATI/AMD but even those have had accelerated support for a good long while. The nvidia driver quality is on par or better with the windows one: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE1MjI http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE1M... & http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_r310_linux&num=1 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidi...
bio4m 14y ago
Blatant sensationalism; its on their About page and appears to users of all OS's, not just Windows. Just had a look on a Mac and Linux and the page is static.
immigrantsheep 14y ago
Steam ported on linux is one thing. Games, specially AAA titles ported on linux is a completely different argument.
AshleysBrain 14y ago
I find it more significant that the Steam homepage now has a fairly prominent Linux tab: http://store.steampowered.com/ http://store.steampowered.com/
charonn0 14y ago
Would the (many, many) games I've already purchased on Steam work on Linux? Will Steam for Linux ship with WINE or something similar? If not, I don't see the real value for someone like me.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  The games will work if there is a Linux port on Steam and you've already bought for Windows/Mac. You don't have to buy twice. However there seems to be a few games with working Linux ports that aren't available in Steam under Linux yet, bastion being one example. I believe most of the Steam Linux games available are native ports and don't use Wine. Maybe there are some that do use Wine, but I don't imagine that they will make them available through Steam unless they are confident that they will actually work. So the real question here is, "what is the real value of this assuming you already have a dedicated Windows PC or a dual boot for gaming?" For myself it is nice to have a few good quality indie games available to play if I fancy a short break from coding on my Linux box without having to power cycle my PC. For serious gaming sessions Windows is still king for now. The real question is about future games. There seems to be increasing interest in cross platform toolkits for game development, this is probably most because people want to target iOS and Android rather than Linux however. However if it gets to the point where Linux just becomes another output format for a cross platform game engine (like unity3d) then perhaps you can expect future game titles to become available on Linux simply because the friction to launch on the platform is so low.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - devcpp 14y ago
    >You don't have to buy twice. How do you know ports will be free? It removes most of the incentive that developers would have to make a good port: money (unless Valve pays for the ports, which would be very expensive).
    - katbyte 14y ago
justin66 14y ago
What's the story with Steam for Linux system requirements? It seems unlikely that they'll end up supporting Ubuntu alone.
armored_mammal 14y ago
My biggest issue with Steam on Linux is the load times. They seem ridiculous for no discernible reason. Based on my watch opening simply loading a game must read through 20 Gigabytes of files. Oh, wait. The game is only 14 G on disk. Maybe it's 14 gigs of ridiculously compressed data? Connecting to servers in TF2 takes an eternity, too.
drivebyacct2 14y ago
Why has not a single person pointed out that the number of Linux games is very obviously artificially low? All of the Source engine based games are effectively ported via the TF2 port. And no mention of the momentum that will be caused by the Steam box?
davidlumley 14y ago
While I'd love to get rid of Windows as my gaming OS, I can't see this happening while game developers still use (and enjoy) Direct X and D3D over Open GL.

226 points by bconway 14y ago

I'd understand the headline if it was a pop-up for those using the Steam Client on Windows. As it is, it looks like they're just using their website to advertise. Not really targeting Windows users specifically.

stinos 14y ago

"start urging Windows users to make the switch" "Proof of that comes from the screenshot you see above." Really? This is at least slightly exaggerated. First thing I see is a big green button with a download link to the Windows installer. Then a invite to join a Beta program. That's not exactly urging anything. More like letting people now it's available.

mauriciob 14y ago
In addition, it's on the "About" page. I can't remember the last time I opened it.
- sspiff 14y ago
  I reinstalled Steam yesterday, and the about page is what you get when you click the "Install Steam" button on the homepage. So everybody visits it at least once.
fnordfnordfnord 14y ago
Linux gamers are extremely sensitive to any news that isn't negative.
- ori_b 14y ago
  There's a reason. There's very little news about Linux gaming, and even less that's positive. Let's just say that my standard response to "Hey, there's this awesome game out, have you tried it" is "I use Linux".
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
laumars 14y ago
While you are right, I do think it's fair to say that this is still a pretty prominent advert. Usually Linux gets so sidelined that you have to hunt about for any details regarding compatibility/support, where as here Tux takes more screen real estate than the Windows download link. This is very unusual, so I can't blame a few Linux enthusiasts getting excited. Also, the article does also raise a valid point about Valve's long term interest in Linux; their Steam Box is powered by it. So it's not a huge leap of faith to see this as the first of many gentle nudges away from Windows. Though obviously there's also the chance that this might just end up as flat as the "year of the Linux desktop" predictions that happens every year.
aleprok 14y ago
For me that green button gives steam.deb and not the windows version. Also did you notice -> "Not running on Linux yet? Grab Ubuntu 12.04 LTS"

sspiff 14y ago

I don't think this is urging users to switch to Linux, but at least the huge penguin is the most obvious thing on the page: it's the biggest, it's visually distinctive, and it's smack in the middle of the page. So they are definitely trying to raise awareness of Steam for Linux to the larger audience. I just rebuilt my desktop yesterday, and downloaded Steam for it. The above is what you get when you click the "Install Steam" button on their homepage, and it definitely caught my eye.

metastew 14y ago

How many Linux games they have so far: ~62 How many games I have in my steam library: 100+ How many games in my steam library that has already been ported to Linux (as of yesterday): 6 I will make the switch when they have at least 1/3 of my steam library ported over to Linux.

robotmay 14y ago
Porting TF2 was a nice touch (and I have it installed on my Linux partition for a quick lunchtime game whilst working) but I need quite a few other games to be ported before I could consider using it more often. Give it a few years though; I think there'll be a slow trickle of games for a while, but it'll start to ramp up as some of the bigger studios realise there's a market there.
- FredFredrickson 14y ago
  Have you spent much time with Linux TF2? Any idea if it's more or less stable than the Windows / OS X builds?
  - robotmay 14y ago
    It's not quite as stable yet. First time I played it ran flawlessly (and at the same speed as it does under Windows). Since then I've had a few issues like excessive screen tearing and missing audio, but they're not too bad for what is still considered a beta. Just for rough specs; both my Windows 7 64-bit & Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit installs have their own SSD (Samsung 830), on an i5 2500k/8GB RAM/nVidia 560TI machine. TF2 is installed on both the SSDs.
    - FredFredrickson 14y ago
      Interesting, thanks! I use Windows mostly, but I dabble in Ubuntu every now and then as well, and I might have a spare computer soon, so I though I'd give it a try. Didn't want to bother with it if it wasn't ready for prime time though.
14y ago

ck2 14y ago

I found the crucial ssd video on that site far more fascinating: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/how-its-made-crucial-ssds-come-from-very-clean-rooms-20130121/ http://www.geek.com/articles/games/how-its-made-crucial-ssds...

venomsnake 14y ago

Мake all of my steam backlog work on linux and I switch. And not a moment before that.

StavrosK 14y ago
If you're already using Linux as your day-to-day OS, there's no reason for you not to install Steam already, as there's no "switch" for you to make. If you are using Windows and aren't looking to switch otherwise, there's no reason to do it, since all games work fine there. This is for people who've wanted to switch (or have already switched) to Linux and miss Steam, or dual-boot (like me). So, basically, you're not the target market, and nobody cares what you do!
- vitalique 14y ago
  >If you are using Windows and aren't looking to switch otherwise, there's no reason to do it. Depends on what you mean by 'not looking to switch'. Permanent, set in stone decision? Then sure, no point in proving that 1 == 1. But decisions drift and change (which is nice), and so does software (which in some cases is excellent). So I wouldn't be that categorical. I'd agree that for some folks Steam not running on Linux may be the only reason to stay with Windows (though I don't think they miss Steam, as you put that; I think what they miss are their games - owned ones and not yet released - and venomsnake says just that, actually), but I'm pretty sure there's quite a large number of people who consider many different general-purpose sides of switching platforms (gaming, music, video, paper/docs work, some development), and for them Linux version of Steam as a provider of games may be an important signal.
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    Of course it is an important signal, but they don't say "I'll switch when all my games work, to the very last (even the ones I have no intention of ever playing again), and not a moment earlier". That's just an unreasonable position, which I'm sure not even venomsnake really believes. Now that I typed that, it's obvious that we're feeding the troll.

ericcholis 14y ago

I would love to switch to Ubuntu at home, games is one of the reasons I don't; Unity being the other. This may be isolated to my experience, but the PCs that I've installed Ubuntu on suffer huge performance drops when using Unity. Most of these PCs were running XP, one them is running Win 7. I even had one machine running like a dream on Ubuntu 11.04 then upgraded to 11.10, now it's nearly unusable. I've drank the Ubuntu kool-aid in the past, but now it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. *edit for clarification, I'm referring to Ubuntu's new default UI: Unity.

pwelch 14y ago
Have you tried other Ubuntu variants or even another distro? I prefer Xubuntu.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  I also tried Lubuntu for a few minutes and it was really, really responsive.
  - ericcholis 14y ago
    Being a bit of a desktop Linux noob, how the experience of the other Ubuntu distros compare?
    - StavrosK 14y ago
      I only used it for a few minutes, but I installed it on my sister's netbook and she uses it exclusively. From what I saw, all applications looked exactly the same, save for the window manager chrome. Lubuntu is closer to Windows with a Start-like menu and the applications there, so if you're more familiar with Windows, you will probably find it easier. I haven't delved deep into it, so I couldn't tell you how easily you can find the settings or whatnot, or if there are issues that aren't in another window manager. Given that you can install it with just an "apt-get install lubuntu", though, it'll probably be faster if you tried it yourself!
14y ago

swalsh 14y ago

I have a strong desire to leave windows. Windows 8 seems to enrage me more every day. Unfortunately, the majority of my experience is with C# :(

kaeawc 14y ago
You can transition that experience to other languages. Try out Java or Scala.
beefsack 14y ago
Leaving your comfort zone can make you accomplish amazing things.
coldpie 14y ago
Check out Mono, it's a cross-platform .NET runtime. You'll have to give up your Windows-specific knowledge, but C# the language works fine.
- marcosdumay 14y ago
  Check out Python. You'll regret spending time with C#.
  - monstrado 14y ago
    I wouldn't say Python would make you regret spending time with C#, in fact, his experience with a language like C# will be beneficial to his coding patterns. Python is an awesome language, but don't mistake the fact that C# is also a very good language and often times a perfectly valid language to use.
    - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
      Python's dynamicness is something you love and hate. Same goes for JavaScript (at least strict mode JS) in my experience. It's much nicer having the compiler tell you there's an undefined variable instead of the runtime.

ameen 14y ago

For some reason I don't want to install Steam on my Ubuntu partition. I use it to get work done. If I feel like playing a game I just boot into my Windows 7 partition. Having a "work boot" has done wonders for my productivity.

daGrevis 14y ago

Port Dota 2 and I'm deleting Windows from my dual-boot system.

NuZZ 14y ago
There are reports from WINE users that Dota 2 actually runs better than on windows, under WINE. Cool.

Millennium 14y ago

The games I'm interested in will probably never be ported. Valve needs to get in on the Wine project, specifically with an eye toward improving the gaming experience, and then integrate that into Steam/Linux.

kelvin0 14y ago

Does this mean that Ubuntu supports GPU Hardware acceleration drivers? I am not an expert on the matter, but it seems that most Linux distributions used to lack this, unless you had a specific Card that had drivers for it under yer distro .. Please feel free to correct me. This is one of the issues which prevents me from 'jumping' completely onto Ubuntu. Thanks

lucian1900 14y ago
The official proprietary drivers for nvidia and amd gpus tend to work pretty well, and Ubuntu will prompt you to install them. The open source ones are generally not suitable for games yet. Most Intel gpus just have open source drivers.
- kelvin0 14y ago
  Thank you for that clarification!
- csense 14y ago
  Mobile nvidia cards with nvidia's Optimus technology require two steps to work: 1. Install Bumblebee (requires a PPA) and possibly x-swat PPA as well. [1] 2. Launch video programs through optirun. For example: java -Xmx1024m -jar minecraft.jar # non-Bumblebee users optirun java -Xmx1024m -jar minecraft.jar # Bumblebee users If you run the first command but have an Optimus card, the program will still run, but it will use the weak Intel GPU instead of the powerful nvidia GPU -- which is plenty powerful enough for "normal" desktop usage like web browsing, email, word processing, or video players, but a recent 3D game will likely turn into a slideshow. Hopefully the Steam client will make it easy for people to use Bumblebee by giving a GUI to install the PPA and automatically invoking 3D games with optirun. [1] http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html#Ubuntu http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html#Ubuntu
shock 14y ago
Accelerated GPU drivers have existed for linux for ages. I was playing Counter Strike and Quake on linux in 2000 or so. I speak mostly about nvidia cards as I've only owned those. Maybe others can chime in about ATI/AMD but even those have had accelerated support for a good long while. The nvidia driver quality is on par or better with the windows one: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE1MjI http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE1M... & http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_r310_linux&num=1 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidi...

bio4m 14y ago

Blatant sensationalism; its on their About page and appears to users of all OS's, not just Windows. Just had a look on a Mac and Linux and the page is static.

immigrantsheep 14y ago

Steam ported on linux is one thing. Games, specially AAA titles ported on linux is a completely different argument.

AshleysBrain 14y ago

I find it more significant that the Steam homepage now has a fairly prominent Linux tab: http://store.steampowered.com/ http://store.steampowered.com/

charonn0 14y ago

Would the (many, many) games I've already purchased on Steam work on Linux? Will Steam for Linux ship with WINE or something similar? If not, I don't see the real value for someone like me.

jiggy2011 14y ago
The games will work if there is a Linux port on Steam and you've already bought for Windows/Mac. You don't have to buy twice. However there seems to be a few games with working Linux ports that aren't available in Steam under Linux yet, bastion being one example. I believe most of the Steam Linux games available are native ports and don't use Wine. Maybe there are some that do use Wine, but I don't imagine that they will make them available through Steam unless they are confident that they will actually work. So the real question here is, "what is the real value of this assuming you already have a dedicated Windows PC or a dual boot for gaming?" For myself it is nice to have a few good quality indie games available to play if I fancy a short break from coding on my Linux box without having to power cycle my PC. For serious gaming sessions Windows is still king for now. The real question is about future games. There seems to be increasing interest in cross platform toolkits for game development, this is probably most because people want to target iOS and Android rather than Linux however. However if it gets to the point where Linux just becomes another output format for a cross platform game engine (like unity3d) then perhaps you can expect future game titles to become available on Linux simply because the friction to launch on the platform is so low.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- devcpp 14y ago
  >You don't have to buy twice. How do you know ports will be free? It removes most of the incentive that developers would have to make a good port: money (unless Valve pays for the ports, which would be very expensive).
  - katbyte 14y ago

justin66 14y ago

What's the story with Steam for Linux system requirements? It seems unlikely that they'll end up supporting Ubuntu alone.

armored_mammal 14y ago

My biggest issue with Steam on Linux is the load times. They seem ridiculous for no discernible reason. Based on my watch opening simply loading a game must read through 20 Gigabytes of files. Oh, wait. The game is only 14 G on disk. Maybe it's 14 gigs of ridiculously compressed data? Connecting to servers in TF2 takes an eternity, too.

drivebyacct2 14y ago

Why has not a single person pointed out that the number of Linux games is very obviously artificially low? All of the Source engine based games are effectively ported via the TF2 port. And no mention of the momentum that will be caused by the Steam box?

davidlumley 14y ago

While I'd love to get rid of Windows as my gaming OS, I can't see this happening while game developers still use (and enjoy) Direct X and D3D over Open GL.