Steam on Linux

[Codicier]

A new blog post by Valve has unveiled the long rumoured Steam client for linux.

Currently, our focus is on the following projects:

• getting the Steam client onto Linux with full functionality
• optimizing a version of L4D2 running at a high frame rate with OpenGL
• porting additional Valve titles

As the blog post says, they've already made considerable progress on this and are soon going to be moving to an internal beta. They're currently using Ubuntu 12.04 as their test distribution but have said they will look into supporting other distributions as things progress.

[MagGnome]

Very cool, hopefully this is met with success. It would be nice to see more games on Linux, although I don't use the OS myself.

[MosBen]

How many people use Linux as their home operating system?

[Codicier]

Not a whole lot. I'd like to use it. If I could play all my games through Linux I'd make the switch.

[Shadowstorm]

I'd love to have a Linux-variant of Steam! Pretty excited about the news and I hope to see something soon.

[TrackZero]

Originally Posted by MosBen

How many people use Linux as their home operating system?

I have at various times in the past and use it at work. And strangely the idea of TF2 running in Linux at some point makes me happy.

[AntonThaGreat]

I made the switch a few months ago when I realized that Win8 is a steamin' pile of doodoo, so this news makes me moist.

I hope they port Dota 2 over and quickly, it doesn't run so well under Wine for me.

[MosBen]

I appreciate that there are SOME people that use it, but I'm more interested in whether there's some big community of people out there that this is going to benefit, rather than a relatively small group of iconoclasts. I just want to know how big of a deal this is. It doesn't seem like a very big one, at least right now.

[Codicier]

Originally Posted by MosBen

I appreciate that there are SOME people that use it, but I'm more interested in whether there's some big community of people out there that this is going to benefit, rather than a relatively small group of iconoclasts. I just want to know how big of a deal this is. It doesn't seem like a very big one, at least right now.

I'm sure there's a lot of people that run Wine with their Linux installs, or that dual boot. For those people it's a big enough deal since natively running stuff is always going to be smoother. OSX being supported was a big deal to people with Macs.

I assume by saying iconoclasts you're referring to people that use Linux and refuse to use Windows on principle. This benefits more than that extreme subset of Linux users.

[muddi900]

The only data is the Humble Bundles. Linux users make up the smallest group, but they have the largest per user average payment of the three for the past 2 bundles, at least, despite having some shoddy ports, like Super Meat Boy. There is definitely place for gaming among Linux users. Besides, Steam being on Ubuntu creates demand for games.

[Spectre-7]

I suspect it's less about current Linux users, and more about increasing the potential for future users. One of the big challenges for OS uptake is availability of software, and especially entertainment software for a certain segment of users.

Personally, I've used Slackware and Ubuntu for about a year each, and the only reasons my Windows installation remained were my game library and Adobe software. Needless to say, I've been rather giddy at watching this unfold.

[muddi900]

There was a point when Vista sucked and XP was showing it's age, when I switched completely to Ubuntu.

[MosBen]

I'm not saying this is necessarily bad, just that I'm trying to put it into context. Porting Steam to Mac was a big deal because there were millions of people out there on Macs that really didn't have any kind of gaming software beyond WoW and a few odd ports. It opened up a relatively big new market. Linux, on the other hand, seems like something that's going to be nice for a few people, but not really a big deal in the same way that the Mac port was.

[MosBen]

Or, you know, I would be wildly, stupidly wrong.

[Arphahat]

I've messed with Ubuntu on a laptop and the only thing keeping me on Windows is the availability of games. Having the option of gaming on an OS that is available for free is definitely something I am interested in.

[tacitus]

I suspect its probably a "step" toward the previously rumored steam box.

[Admiral Ackbar]

It's cool that Valve is doing it, but it probably won't help me out. I run Ubuntu on 3 older laptops that I would love to play some less graphically intensive games in my library. I assume that devs would have to do the porting to make their games work. At one point I had Plants vs. Zombies running in Wine, but it was kind of spotty.

[jeffbax]

Glad this finally made it out, but there's a lot of hurdles to getting third parties to port games to Linux. Mac is one thing, but Linux is a whole nother world of inconsistent APIs and testing combinations for a small user base. It'll be interesting to see the Linux sales numbers for Valve's own properties, which hopefully all get ported like they did for Mac.

[Widgetcraft]

Originally Posted by MosBen

I appreciate that there are SOME people that use it, but I'm more interested in whether there's some big community of people out there that this is going to benefit, rather than a relatively small group of iconoclasts. I just want to know how big of a deal this is. It doesn't seem like a very big one, at least right now.

If the majority of PC games could run on Linux, everyone would be using Linux if for no other reason than the fact that it is free.

[MagGnome]

Agreed. I'd ditch Windows in a heartbeat if most of my library (especially the games I play most, of course) ran on Linux.