Valve Starts Promoting Steam For Linux To Windows Users 474
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samzenpus
from the you-might-also-like dept.
from the you-might-also-like dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Steam is now being used by thousands of gamers running a Linux OS, and Valve has got to the point where they are happy to start urging Windows users to make the switch. Proof of that comes from a 'Join the Beta' promotion on the homepage of Steam suggesting you try Steam for Linux. There's even a download link to get Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, which removes yet another barrier to entry. With Gabe Newell's clear hatred of Windows 8, this shouldn't be a surprising move. We aren't going to see another version of Windows appear for a few years, so in Valve's eyes pushing Linux to gamers makes a lot of sense."
annual windows (Score:4, Interesting)
Compatibility (Score:4, Interesting)
Why? (Score:1, Interesting)
Apart from support open source software why should I switch from Windows 7 to Linux? Are there any benefits in terms of speed or reliability?
Re:Windows 9 or 8.1 / 8SE may hear sooner then (Score:3, Interesting)
Run Metro in a Window! Best Windows 8 improvement I've heard of, so far.
Now if only I could make those awful mandatory Windows Updates run in a window, too!
Re:Compatibility (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny how crazy marketing / another crappy OS can remove the chains off the competition. Reminds me of what happened to Apple... oh wait what's going* to happen to apple.
Re:Lunux desktop (Score:3, Interesting)
Hopefully a new era of game dev is upon us
As a developer of an unusual forthcoming FPS (i.e. FPS gameplay very far from CoDfield 6 & co.), I will be doing my bit. Linux and the BSDs are first-class citizens here.
Hopefully the proportion of game developers giving Linux that treatment will keep growing at an accelerating rate.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Lunux desktop (Score:5, Interesting)
The resurgence of PC gaming started a couple of years ago and has only been picking up steam (see what I did there?). 2012 brought us some PC-centric games that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, when we believed PC gaming was dying.
The moves Valve is making will only be wind at the back of PC gaming, and by the time the ultra-expensive next gen consoles come out, the landscape is going to look plenty different.
The future of gaming is not handheld. It's not console and it's not behind a walled garden. From AAA to the rawest indie title, PC gaming's future has not looked this bright in a long time.
Re:My experience on ubuntu 12.04 (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah I would say that's a bit easier and faster to fix that problem on Linux than on Windows. At least you can copy paste.
On Windows fixing a similar Steam install problem
Windows Vista/7: Click Start, then type "regedit" in the Start Search Bar and press enter.
Windows XP: Click Start > Run, then type "regedit" in the Run dialog and press Enter.
Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\.
Right-click on 9C8928403D4AB094F99FBA20A329833F and select "Delete." Click Yes.
64-bit Windows: Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
32-bit Windows: Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
Right-click on {048298C9-A4D3-490B-9FF9-AB023A9238F3} and select "Delete." Click Yes.
Re:3D in VM (Score:4, Interesting)
In the last year or so support for 3d acceleration inside a vm has been possible.
Virtual box states that it has opengl and dirext3d 8/9 support in it's release notes.
http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#guestadd-video [virtualbox.org]
I have not needed to use it so I am not sure how it performs.
Re:annual windows (Score:5, Interesting)
Not to mention until they find a way to fix the BIG PROBLEM which is a good 90%+ of the games are built around DirectX and therefor won't run on Linux? You can give it up. I mean who wants Steam on Linux when it has less selection than the already piss poor Steam for Mac?
Sure they could try to incorporate Wine into Steam but I wouldn't be surprised if Valve ends up with a couple of years worth of lawsuits from MSFT which rightly or wrongly most likely MSFT WILL WIN since most of the Wine development is done in Europe where the laws on reverse engineering are VERY lax compared to ours. In the USA you had better use clean room procedures with strict separation between the one looking at the code to be reverse engineered and the guy writing the replacement.
So I'm sorry but I just don't see how this is gonna get any traction. Not only will you not find Linux being sold on any machines in any B&M stores but when all the hottest games use a framework that you don't have and won't run without serious hoop jumping? Hell the whole point of Steam is its a "push button and get game" service and if the only way you can run the majority of games is to deal with a couple of pages of CLI crap and a LOT of finger crossing because most of the games run DirectX I don't see many people putting up with it.
I still think this is all smoke and mirrors though, the REAL reason for Steam on Linux is Valve's Steambox which will run a GPL V2 only Linux (so they can use the hardware DRM that consoles require) and they are just letting the community beta test the software before it goes into production. Makes sense, if the console is a hit they can talk more devs into porting to OpenGL on Steambox and if they put out a console it needs to be solid on the software front, hence the beta testing. I just don't see how Steam on Linux could be the end goal, not with so many show stopping problems.