Valve Blog Announces Dates For Steam Linux External Beta 183
An anonymous reader writes "In the third post to the new Valve Linux Blog, the Linux team has announced that starting next week they will begin their internal beta, with an external beta of 1000 users to begin mid 'some time in October.' There will be an external beta sign up page made available 'soon' according to the blog."
if this is viable maybe no more windows for me (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I've got a vague idea of what Steam is - (Score:5, Interesting)
Slashdot is miraculously blessed by IT departments. In one of the offices I work at, their connection is so limited it's untrue - even stuff like the Community Recycling Network (crn.org.uk) is blocked, and the block page says "Category: None" so it may even be a whitelist.
Yet all the slashdot subdomains and the main one are completely unfiltered - along with, suspiciously enough, things like The Register and xkcd. So it's geeks policing geeks I guess. I get a free pass!
Re:if this is viable maybe no more windows for me (Score:4, Interesting)
> Of course, porting the engines is no mean feat...
There are plenty of cross platform engines out there. All it really requires is a commitment to testing on more than one platform by the platform licensee. Hopefully with Valve and Apple pushing the envelope of what is possible (on all sorts of platforms, eg. gaming on your iPad/Android tablet etc) then developers will see that is more profitable to write a cross-platform (including Windows) game than a Windows-only game as they've been suckered in to in the past.
The other big factor is OpenGL support and usage. OpenGL was ahead of DirectX for a long time, then slipped behind in features, and is now pretty much ahead (more platforms, almost all features work on all platforms provided the graphics hardware supports it, unlike DirectX's strategy of requiring OS upgrades to get new features [probably designed that way as a revenue spinner]). Now it is DirectX platforms that are the minority and OpenGL is *everywhere*: its on Windows, Apple, Linux, iOS, Android, commercial embedded devices [eg. avionics], the PS/3. There is only one place that OpenGL isn't, and that is the XBox 360 [this is my design from Microsoft]. Kinda makes you think, why bother with DirectX when the only exclusive platform for that is the XBox 360 when by choosing OpenGL I can run my shaders everywhere else [which is exactly the conclusion I came to when designing my game - which is cross-platform and OpenGL shader based].
Re:Anyone else first read "External" as "Eternal"? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm a real tech.
They schedule company parties during my work shift and I don't get to go.
Of course the apartment party I was sort of the hero, they didn't expect a fat guy to beat that many skinny people in limbo.
Re:You won't have to use Steam to benefit from thi (Score:4, Interesting)
Another way you won't have to use Steam to benefit from this: The Steam development effort has already brought a lot of driver patches along, improving mostly 3D performance.
Re:I've got a vague idea of what Steam is - (Score:5, Interesting)
The simplest way to explain Steam is that it is DRM done right.
Speaking as somebody who recently lived in a hotel with shitty wifi for 6 months, I have to chuckle at that statement. It stopped being "DRM done right" when it decided it wouldn't let me play my single-player game while the wifi was down.
Don't get me wrong, I do agree with most of your post, especially the point about it being a deterrent to piracy, but really it's not 'right' it's just courteously applied lube.
Re:I've got a vague idea of what Steam is - (Score:5, Interesting)
Every game purchased through Steam requires online activation, every single one
You mean the online store, that you're using, while online, to purchase games, online, requires you to be online to install your game, that you download while online? Say it ain't so.
The Steam DRM is optional, btw, entirely up to the publisher, which is why a lot of older games don't have it and can be run without Steam once they're installed.
Re:I've got a vague idea of what Steam is - (Score:4, Interesting)
I hate having to store the media, and especially to go through a set of discs when setting up a new machine. On Steam you just click the games you want to install and away it goes. It's far superior to the crap we had to go through in the "olden days" IMO. If you have a slow net connection you can also backup and import from your old computer. That's still a little annoying, but it does mean only one transfer rather than again going through all your disks.
When the developers add extra layers of DRM on top of Steam it pisses me off too. I don't see the point in it..
Re:I've got a vague idea of what Steam is - (Score:4, Interesting)
Bullcrap.
Just now I wanted to play some Darksiders II, so I launch Steam.
After sitting at 'Connecting to Steam account' for a while, I get another window that says 'Could not connect to Steam network. This could be due to a problem with your internet connection, or with the Steam network.'
It does not go into offline mode.
It won't let me play my game.
THANKS, STEAM.