Steam Not Coming To Linux

dkd903 writes "A rumor has been going around for about four months that Valve was working on a Linux version of Steam and this had a lot of people in the Linux community very excited. But, Valve has now officially killed the rumor. And it is not what people wants to hear – there is no Linux version of Steam in development. Doug Lombardi, the Marketing VP of Valve Corporation, in an interview, has put an end to all the rumors by saying that they are not working on Steam for Linux right now."

Re:Not ready as a gaming platform

[bysin]

There are several things wrong with what you just said.
I'll start by saying 'Wine Is Not an Emulator', it implements Windows calls in Linux.
Everything in Linux doesn't have to be free an open source, theres no requirement of it. It would be a welcoming site to see proprietary applications being ported to Linux, even if it wasn't open sourced.

Re:Valve != iD I suppose

[CFBMoo1]

I like iD, they've historically given back to the public domain after a limited period of time. As their new tech comes out they've released the older tech to the general public. My game purchases may be pittance but I like rewarding them as best I can for their actions even in this crappy economy. Still have the metal box Quake 3 Linux package and CD. >_>

Re:Not ready as a gaming platform

[Anonymous Coward]

>You can't really rely on emulation either, if you sell the game as a Linux version you really have to do a native build.
I have purchased countless PC games that were originally on Playstation 1/2, and all they were was the PS1/2 game running on an emulator. Same button assignment menus, and no real keyboard customization either. For example, Silent Hill.

fooled me

[ko10ha]

I actually bought a new computer, partly in anticipation of steam and half-life2 coming to Linux. Silly me. And in response to those that keep saying that there are too many distro's and that Linux for games for that reason is a lost cause - I don't buy that. I'm running Openbox on Slackware, there's no gnome on my machine and I never use kde. Yet, only rarely do I encounter a program that does not run (usually because of lots of silly gnome libs not being present). I mean, what does a game need from kde or gnome or what have you? Is Linux + X not sufficient? I don't get it.

Re:Valve != iD I suppose

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember load testing an old 386sx40 with 8MB RAM. I spawned 2 instances of Quake and it redefined the concept of lag, but it didn't crash. Linux is the most stable OS I've seen.

Dual boot

[Anonymous Coward]

I use Ubuntu exclusively for business and casual use. But for gaming I'll dual boot to Windows 7 (came with the laptop) and play without having to fiddle with anything.

The Windows 7 partition has only one application: Steam. And that's the way I like it.

Even if Steam got ported to Linux, I'm not sure I would switch. I can't imagine all the games being ported, so there is not much to be gained.

Re:Not ready as a gaming platform

[bsdaemonaut]

Tell that to all the developers releasing 'Mac' versions of their games when in reality it's simply the Windows version in a pretty Cider (Wine) package. I'm not disputing you by a long shot, I find the practice extremely obnoxious, but many developers aren't above doing it... EA is probably the most rampant that I've noticed.

Re:I'm glad

[rshxd]

Well I'm out of the closet. Want to go for a coffee one afternoon?

I think I was misunderstood

[dreamchaser]

Oh I'm not a fanboy; haven't even booted OS/2 in years, and yes the compatability was at first shaky (much like Wine) then got stronger. I was just seeing a similarity here. Why develop games for Linux when many 'run OK' on Wine?

I'd LOVE to see Steam on Linux, and more games ported to Linux. I'm not sure why I was modded as flamebait when I was making a valid point that is of course open to debate.

Re:Excuse me?

[ACS Solver]

Thank you! Same here. I identify myself as a "non-ideological Linux user". I do believe that free software is often better but for purely practical reasons. I use Linux because I find it a very solid OS, because I like the control that it gives me, I like how quickly certain command-line utilities get their respective tasks done, and because I really like KDE. That's it. I'm not using it because of some ideological or philosophical reasons, I have no problem with also using Windows 7, which I find to be a pretty good OS too. I certainly have no problem with using closed-source drivers on Linux or running the occasional proprietary application through Wine.

I used to like Stallman and the FSF when I thought they're basically Linux advocacy. I don't like them now because they're essentially about philosophy and politics, not about the practical side of software. And because of how their actions are indeed often similar to a hardliner religious group.

Wouldn't Valve rather you spend you money on games

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't Valve rather you spend you money on games instead of operating systems?