Phoronix Confirms GNU/Linux Steam and Source Engine Clients 324
nukem996 writes "After initially reporting in 2010 that Valve was working on a native GNU/Linux client, one has finally been confirmed. Michael Larabel recently visited Valve's Bellvue, WA based office and has been able to see it himself. Included in the article are screenshots of the client running and speculation of a release."
Valve has yet to officially comment, but you'd hope they wouldn't invite someone up to their offices and send them home to spew lies.
Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
I know this isn't going to be a popular sentiment on /., but a Steam Linux client is going to please the Linux community for all of about 5 minutes. The applause won't even have died down before they're bitching that there aren't enough games, it's not open source, it doesn't look right in their obscure distro of choice, etc.
The Linux community *should* embrace and celebrate this, but my experience has been that a large (or at least largely vocal) part of that community is made up of idealists and professional bitchers who think everything should be open source and free. Introducing a closed source client that charges for games into that group isn't going to please them. Nothing is going to please them.
Okay, now everyone mod me troll for pointing out something you know is true.
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
That hasn't been my impression, at least. Maybe I'm too much of an idealist.
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not that most are like that, it's that most of the really vocal people are.
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Good luck (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think so.
With Steam on the platform (closed or not), it provides an easy and viable source of customers for companies that produce games. Now there's no excuse not to make Windows, Mac & Linux versions when you already push out Windows & Mac versions.
Sure there'll be a lot of die-hards but they can waddle off into their gameless PC's if they want. But the gamers who currently have Windows and Linux PC's - this gives them incentive to game on Linux, which gives others incentive to make games for Linux.
A lot of the big indie titles already work on Linux, it's just a matter of there not being enough and Steam revolutionised Windows gaming when it arrived, why not Linux gaming now? There are any number of app-stores out there for Linux but a gaming-centric, game-developer-supported one is a big plus.
Linux-native versions of quite a lot of games, and support for cross-platform programming being rife even if under-used, this could really boost the casual/indie game market and also mean that maybe some of the big developers that we've been telling people for YEARS should just be pushing out a Linux binary too might actually follow suit. There's no reason that gaming on Linux can't be as popular and successful as gaming on Windows.
And having a few hundred indie games shoved onto the platform with a "one-click download" install that users are familiar with and might even get "free" games for (if they own the Mac/Windows version, for example) can't be a bad thing, even if it never really takes off.
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Agreed. I was considering switching my netbook back to Windows so I could play some monkey-island style games on there, but now it looks like I might not have to. Right now I have steam running under Wine, which is a bit of a crutch, but it at least gives me chat functionality.
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For what it is worth, ScummVM works just fine on Linux. And many classic DOS point-and-click games also work great in DOSBox on Linux.
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Cutting edge stuff. Look out, XBox, GNULIX has your number.
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I've seen kids go gaga over old MAME games while showing a total lack of interest in the xbox or PS3.
Sometimes even youngsters can recognize a classic.
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This right here.
This is how Valve will play this out.
1) Release Linux version of STEAM + Source games working from day 1 ...
2) Release new Console version based on Linux (no MS licensing overlord). Console comes with all source games
3) Release STEAM client for mobile
Profit?
If they now have a linux client, doesn't that mean that if I make a game using their source engine, it will work on Windows, Mac & Linux right off the bat? If so they would basically be able to say "Use STEAM & Source engine to
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Perhaps I'm being naive, but Steam only solves one part of the "problem" of games on Linux. Many other difficult technical problems remain, such as the fragmentation of distros, poor 3D video drivers/performance, fragmented APIs such as audio.
And then there all the "marketing" problems, such as that many Linux users are not interested in paying for games, or want open source, or also run Windows for games.
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Interesting)
In any other arena I would agree with you, but in the arena of games I think they have a shot. In my experience, gamers (even Linux gamers) tend to be forgiving of closed-source software. To some extent, they're even forgiving of light-handed DRM (and as DRM goes, Valve's is about as light-handed as it gets). If even half a dozen A+ titles make it to Linux, I suspect a lot of people will purchase them just so that they can dump their dual-boot. I would.
Yes, there will still be the cries of the "DRM is evil, keep it out of our holy land" zealots, but I think those voices will pale compared to the game nerds (like me) who want to play nice looking video games without compatibility libs or dual-booting. For my own selfish reasons, I hope I'm right.
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, totally. I'm probably the target market for this kind of thing. Incidently, I do exist.
I don't run Windows at all, ever. My Linux box single boots to Linux.
Also, I love games, in several genres, and have disposable income.
Better Linux support makes me happy, and when I'm happy I spread my cash around more than when I'm unhappy. .NET 3.5+ games on Steam that I'd really like to try (WINE seems to have some serious heartburn with .NET 3.5+ that hasn't been going away.) Yes, I know in theory this should spur me to go out and help fix things, but it's some pretty specific code in an area I'm not familiar with, which makes the entry cost really damn high.
My current major source of unhappy is the growing number of
To be honest, while I don't think DRM helps the publisher as much as they think it does (ie: It's useless), I really don't care if it's there as long as the game **WORKS**. If the game works, I'm happy, and companies will profit just a little bit more. If the game doesn't work, or even worse, doesn't work just because of DRM, then they should DIEDIEDIE. Steam's move here is good for me. They are trying to make sure that THEY are not what prevents me from playing (and buying games). That's good, since there are a lot of good games coming through steam.
I am pleased.
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awesome. and you are so right the only reason i have my windows partition still is for games that need direct3D and hardware acceleration. if this turn out to be true, i will be able to whack the windows partition for good.
i also know why they are doing this windows 8 is becoming more locked down with their windows marketplace, and my in the future try to kill off steam because it competes with their own products. apple is headed to where everything is distributed through the mac apps store and will try to
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
light-handed DRM
You're joking, right? Steam is one of the most intrusive DRMs out there. You need to be online to install games.
which means you can install your game on ANY PC you are on and in case your PC should die, get shot, involved in a car wreck or what have you and all your originals are gone; you still have access to your game and do not need to buy another CD/DVD/BR because the Publisher doesn't want to give you a replacement.
You need to be online to play games. Allegedly there is an offline mode but that only works 50% of the time if you don't plan ahead and go offfline while you actually still have a working connection.
Offline mode works just fine. and some games you don't even have to activate it. Now, of course there are some games that don't work offline. But most of those are multiplayer games anyway and are useless without the connection.
Let's not forget the mandatory client that wastes resources, bombards you with ads and adds minutes to the start-up time of games unless you always keep it running; and who wouldn't want to have an app running that logs what software you have installed and what/when/how long you play.
Yeah. A whopping 13 MB of memory used. If you have memory crunch because of that then you have other issues to address and once you do you won't be missing those 13 MB. As far as the ads go. Well, I would personally like to not have them. But it helps support the platform because the games I buy I only pay for once. Running costs do need to be covered and this is about the least painful of the options available to them. The rest of the comment I won't even bother to address. Just not worth my time explaining debugging and such.
Aside from that there is no guarantuee that Steam will let or will be able to let you play your games in the future. If the publisher has a change of heart or Steam gets sold/goes tits-up, you'll potentially lose all games you have on that platform.
Other than the fact that Steam has one of the best business models in the industry and that they would be completly off thier collective rocker to cut and run. Nope, no guarantee. But then again all you get from the others is a CD. And I personally make backups of my CD/DVD and Steam games. So even if they do go to the be hunting ground in the sky I will still be able to play my games in offline mode and also have backups for the future.
Think I'll stick with Steam. Thanks a bunch.
Re:Good luck (Score:4, Insightful)
While I also use Steam and find it to be mostly ok, the GP does raise a valid point: offline mode doesn't always work. If your connection fails during an attempt to connect, for example, offline mode will be broken until you can connect again, which on my case can take a full weekend. Also, on my admittedly crappy connection (512kbps and very flaky at that), the client takes at least one minute (at peak hours about seven or eight) to start. And some games take two or three extra minutes to even start loading, which is kind of a drag. But those are mostly faults with my connection, and while I'd appreciate a little more consideration with us rural folks, I'm sure they are non-issues for anyone with a 1mbps+ stable connection.
Oh, and yes, I did download a bunch of 6 or so Gb games with my POS connection. It usually takes about a week of almost constant babysitting for each. Feel free to build a statue of me anywhere you like.
Spyware (Score:4, Interesting)
The rest of the comment was about one of the two major problems I have with Steam, and I happen to know more than a little about software development, so I'm going to speak up about that one point: The ability to collect runtime information is both very helpful for debugging and very invasive to the host system. Give the owner of the system the ability to enable it only if & when it is needed. Problem solved. Insisting on having it running at all times makes it spyware, which is rather telling about the publisher's intentions.
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think that's really true. There are some people out there who think closed software is a crime against humanity, but to be frank, those people are generally not gamers. Gamers are used to a system where you are lucky not to be forced to play on closed hardware, let alone just on closed software on an open OS.
I think the reality is Steam is a good idea (if not implemented perfectly) and Valve are a company that are almost universally doing things right. They make some of the best games ever created, and do it pretty ethically. It's not really surprising they'd be the folks to look at Linux first.
Valve care about the consumer, and that is more important, I think, that whether or not it's open or closed. If a product is good, I'll use it. I mostly use open source software as, for what I need, I find it's generally best, but there are exceptions (I'm a big fan of PyCharm, the python IDE which is closed source).
Most people will love this, and for good reason. Good games on a good platform can only be a good thing, and it means we might start to see the barrier breaking down, and people producing for Linux because suddenly there is a way to do it more easily.
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In turn, sorry to break it to you, but all the Linux users I know are gamers, and would welcome a native Linux version of Steam. The more games we can play without having to reboot the better.
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Some agreement. I work with a fair number of Linux users who aren't gamers, but all the gamers I work with only use Windows because of games and would prefer if they could use Linux for everything.
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But there are a lot of people like me who waver between Windows and Linux simply because of games. I went Linux and PS3 only at home for a few years there, but gave in and got a Windows 7 gaming machine recently to play Skyrim in really high quality, and play a few PC-only games that I'd missed out on over the time.
If people could do everything on Linux that they can on Windows, but without any license cost, guess which they're going to choose? Windows 7 is okay, but the Linux desktop has been making leaps
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
I won't.
I'll be dancing in the goddamn street with a crowbar.
I've been watching with interest the burgeoning Linux games industry and it's about to go critical with this, that's for sure.
It's not just Steam, it's Source.
So that's the back library taken care of.
And now I can play keyboard/mouse games again for the first time since I abandoned the Windows world! YAY!
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Ok ok, lets lay off the "best games ever made" rhetoric. There are at least 2 posts on this thread where you are claiming this. I agree with what you are saying, but lets stay away from the absurdly subjective topic of "best game ever". It adds nothing but flame and controversy.
That being said, porting Source to Linux is almost a bigger deal than Steam. I think this will usher a new era of well produced indy games and cross-platform compatibility. (Presuming people can get their video drivers working.)
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Just a note on the final dig about drivers: when HL2 first came out, there were plenty of video driver issues on Windows. It's not a phenomenon isolated to Linux.
But yes, distros need to start turning on S3TC support for the Intel drivers. It can be done with PPAs or manually building the driver but it's such a pain in the bum for something that should "just work".
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Half Life
Half Life 2, etc.
Portal
Portal 2
I think you can cut GP some slack. He's not totally off his rocker.
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Next up, audio.
Please help me in getting both sound and in-game VoIP running in the Linux-native ETQW. I have spent hours and hours on this and had it working once, 3 years ago.
I've messed with Pulse Audio, ALSA, OSS-emulation, Arts, Esound and a couple of others all to no avail. I can get sound fine, but VoIP either doesn't work or causes a segfault.
The fact that all those different audio subsystems exist at all is the issue.
Re:Good luck (Score:4, Informative)
I won't. I'll be dancing in the goddamn street with a crowbar. I've been watching with interest the burgeoning Linux games industry and it's about to go critical with this, that's for sure. It's not just Steam, it's Source. So that's the back library taken care of. And now I can play keyboard/mouse games again for the first time since I abandoned the Windows world! YAY!
Don't know about you, but I have always had good luck playing Windows games via Wine. That includes Steam games. I'm currently playing Skyrim this way.
The number of games that don't work via Wine is an ever-shrinking list, though you may have to acquaint yourself with Winetricks and the AppDB. While a native Steam/Source client is only going to improve things for you, to speak as though there were no way at all to play keyboard/mouse games without Windows is simply not true. I've been doing it for years now.
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My experience is both, actually.
Every few months there are *more* awesomes games that just work (tm) under WINE.
Lately there are also more games *I want to play* that don't (.NET 3.5, I HATE YOU!).
Zeboyd, in particular, seems to find a way to make games I'd love to play that send WINE into an epileptic fixme fit.
The Humble Indie Bundles have been an absolute blessing in raising awareness that we exist and want to pay people for games.
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Maybe its not to please the die hard linux community, but its great for the average linux Joe.
I would love to play the steam games (LFD2 for example) I own under Linux.
Personally I think crossplatform game developement should be the norm and bringing steam to every platform might help.
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
part of that community is made up of idealists and professional bitchers who think everything should be open source and free
This may come as a shock, but GNU is maintained by the Free Software Foundation, so in some sense the entire point of GNU/Linux is to be free/libre.
Really though, there are more than just philosophical reasons for proprietary software in GNU/Linux being a bad thing. If I compile my program in Ubuntu, will you be able to run it in Gentoo? There are an enormous number of incompatible distributions out there, and I doubt that Steam will be available on all of them. In practical terms, proprietary software for GNU/Linux is difficult to push for this very reason, so there are two outcomes:
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Your logic fails here. If you, as a libre proponent, don't want to use proprietary software then just don't use it. How could proprietary vendors exert any control over you if they aren't offering anything you care to use? If there are people in the Linux community
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This is ultimately about everyone's ability to make choices in the future without being beholden to what they may have bought in the past.
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> This may come as a shock, but GNU is maintained by the Free Software Foundation, so in some sense the entire point of GNU/Linux is to be free/libre.
It may come as a shock to you but the commercial games industry has been using libre tools to build their games since before Linux emerged as a potential alternate gaming platform.
Contrary to the statements of some fear mongers, the Free Software is not incompatible with proprietary commercial enterprises.
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Whatever distros popular proprietary software is available for become the distros that people use, thus allowing proprietary software vendors to exert control over the community.
They might influence things like whether a given file is in /opt instead of /usr/local but these are not major changes and could be remedied with a few symlinks. All free Linux distros use the same broad (upstream) codebase of Open Source software. The differences between them amount to little more than where certain things are located in the filesystem and what is installed by default. Any dependency this native client requires is either exotic (meaning Valve should provide it themselves) or something y
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I will take that one step further.
Gentoo has excellent community documentation. Because this whole "linux fragmentation" thing is mostly FUD and nonsense, I can use that Gentoo documentation to help sort out things on Ubuntu.
So if there is an Ubuntu-centric Steam client, chances are that I will be able to use the Gentoo community docs to troubleshoot it should that need ever arise.
Most stuff isn't distro specific. H*LL. A lot of stuff isn't even specific to Linux.
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Really though, there are more than just philosophical reasons for proprietary software in GNU/Linux being a bad thing. If I compile my program in Ubuntu, will you be able to run it in Gentoo? There are an enormous number of incompatible distributions out there, and I doubt that Steam will be available on all of them. In practical terms, proprietary software for GNU/Linux is difficult to push for this very reason, so there are two outcomes:
This is classic FUD. There is plenty of software that releases only a single binary for all Linux distros. Aside from Flash, there have been games such as Wolfenstein Enemy Territory that still works on my brand new 64 bit debian install with only a minor fix needed to work around a sound issue and that binary is 6 years old.
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This may come as a shock, but GNU is maintained by the Free Software Foundation, so in some sense the entire point of GNU/Linux is to be free/libre.
Yeah, but there's nothing in that statement which precludes running proprietary software. Your Linux *is* free. If you want that medical database application which runs on it, expect to pay. There may be a free alternative to it, which may do what you're looking for, but there is absolutely nothing in the GPL that says GPL-licensed code can't be used to provide a platform on which to run proprietary code.
Stallman's rants about freedom aside, this is good for Linux. It will open Linux up to another potential
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going to please the Linux community for all of about 5 minutes.
Your comment fit better 10 years ago. The Linux crowd has grown considerably away from the Stallman-esque era. There are regular people using it now who would never get the difference between free and "free". I think Steam has a good chance, but there had better be some good ports of popular titles or the whole thing is pointless.
There are a many,many Linux users who will gladly pay the $50.00 for the latest title on Linux before dealing with the Mac or Win empires.
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There are a many,many Linux users who will gladly pay the $50.00 for the latest title on Linux before dealing with the Mac or Win empires.
... until the very first instance that Steam DRM gets in the way of them playing games (unexpected outage, for instance). Then will be the nerdrage to end all nerdrages.
Bear in mind that many Linux users chose Linux for ideological reasons, including opposing vendor lock-in and DRM. Steam on Linux, for many, will be anathema.
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I think you highly overestimate our ideology.
The fact that Steam is at least giving us a chance of being treated like first-rate citizens gives them SIGNIFICANT slack for any glitches. I do think DRM is overrated (by publishers) and ultimately useless as a tech, but it makes them feel better, so whatever. The whole point of this announcement is that Valve wants to make sure their system (DRM included) works properly on Linux. That's a total win.
Oh, and FYI the -usual- response of proper Linux geeks to somet
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Most Linux users choose it for practical reasons, a very small and vocal group choose it for ideological reasons. Those like any recent converts are the most zealous.
You know, I have never met a zealot I liked. I appreciate and adore the philosophical foundation of Open Source and the GPL, and if asked about it I can certainly articulate why. But I just don't believe in shoving anything down anyone's throat. Even if successful, it is not genuine. I don't care for people who will change their beliefs and their philosophy simply because some vocal, or charismatic, or strong personality told them it was a good idea. I don't think people like that really understand wha
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Why do you care about the feelings of the "community"?
A thing is good or bad in itself (make your own opinion), it doesn't matter what is the opinion of some vocal people, especially that they don't get to contribute code to the client, it would be more relevant if the client were open source but is not.
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
They should mod you down for being wrong. Those you speak of are the loudest voices only. In reality lots of linux users are already running these games in wine, and would welcome official support. I am one of those users.
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
I know this isn't going to be a popular sentiment on /., but a Steam Linux client is going to please the Linux community for all of about 5 minutes. The applause won't even have died down before they're bitching that there aren't enough games, it's not open source, it doesn't look right in their obscure distro of choice, etc.
The Linux community *should* embrace and celebrate this, but my experience has been that a large (or at least largely vocal) part of that community is made up of idealists and professional bitchers who think everything should be open source and free. Introducing a closed source client that charges for games into that group isn't going to please them. Nothing is going to please them.
Okay, now everyone mod me troll for pointing out something you know is true.
I suspect that it won't be a major issue: Obviously, Free Software Only people aren't going to bite; but that is to be expected. Non-gamers won't care, also expected, and pretty much anybody gaming on Linux is already probably resigned to closed source binaries: their graphics drivers if nothing else(and presumably most of the games that they've coaxed into working under WINE(maybe there are a few OSS games with such strong Windows ties that WINE is easier than a port; but I'm having a hard time thinking of any). Intel OSS drivers are OK; but intel GPUs are not really gaming material. AMD is on the right trajectory; but the latest more-or-less-fully-ironed-out FOSS 3D support is for R200 parts, which aren't exactly screamers, and Nvidia's position on OSS drivers is "Well, it needs to be good enough so that the customer can see what they are doing as they download and install our binary driver."
I don't know how the numbers break down between purist users and nonpurist users; but the ratio of 'do-unto-others' purists to everybody else is tiny. Even the big, bad, Godfather of GNU himself merely advises that using closed software is not a good idea, and requests that you comply with the license of GPL software you use. Not terribly scary.
On a somewhat different topic, this linux release of theirs might have some ties to the persistent rumors of some sort of Valve-blessed hardware configuration providing a console-like package. If they suspect that they can even break even on Steam/Source for Linux, that might improve their prospects of being able to release a valvebox spec that leaves buyers with the extra $100 to spend on games, rather than on Windows. Even people who don't care about freedom care about free, after all.
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Interesting)
As long as Steam for linux is what it should be... a portal to purchase games and nothing but that I am all over it packaged in an unannoying executable that I run when and only when ** I ** want it to run on my machine, then I am all over it. If it departs from that, sends any data back home without my approval, tries to add or remove software from my machine, etc. Then I'll burn it with fire. People have a right to protect their software.. but their agreement is with ME, not my hardware. If they use my hardware or software against me they are out. That is the whole reason I am on linux. I control my machine, not someone else.
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...but my experience has been that a large (or at least largely vocal) part of that community is made up of idealists and professional bitchers who think everything should be open source and free.
Well, yes. But as with every community, FLOSS also has trolls, suckers, whiners and bitches...but everyone else has them too. And those are the loudest of the community. While *some* people will whine all over the internet how bad this is, everyone else will be busy playing games on Steam.
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I suspect the primary target for such clients will not be for use on the desktop but for set-top-boxes. In those console environments, the configuration is a lot easier to maintain so issues of "not working on my distro" will not be the thing.
But it is an interesting trend to make things for Linux more and more. I don't think Linux on the desktop will ever be "mainstream" but it will always be there. More and more, people use their computers for the applications and functions they provide and the OS is i
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Dammit Valve! (Score:4, Funny)
The entire reason I *have* an Ubuntu partition is so that I *can't* play all the modern games I'm used to having. With this and how well WoW runs under Wine, I guess that programming Skynet will have to wait.
Here (Score:4, Interesting)
Thought this might be handy for those who wonder what else they might be able to get on Linux Steam:
http://steamlinux.flibitijibibo.com/index.php?title=Native_Games [flibitijibibo.com]
I WANT TO BELIEVE (Score:2)
Oh Great Penguin In The Sky, I want to believe.
But this is Phoronix, so I won't actually believe until I'm playing Portal without Wine.
Steam console? (Score:5, Interesting)
What if their rumored steamBoxStation console is a "PC" running linux?
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...and they have a stronger position to negotiate for windows licences.
Yeah, I can see that talk already coming: "Hello, this is Valve, give us a discount or we'll develop even more stuff for Linux." - "Yeah...did you know that we own Linux because of out patents? How about you giving up that little Linux idea of yours before we sue you into oblivion?" - "You don't Linux in any way, proof it!" - "Yeah, let's sign this NDA first." - "Never, why should we?" - "See you in court."
You know what really good about this is? I can imagine Valve beating up Microsoft hard time.
I'll put my money where my mouth is (Score:5, Insightful)
There are a number of users that will be happy to buy from steam if it is available for Linux. I am one of them and here is the description
I have grown used to buying apps for my Androis phone. The reason are:
- It is convenient
- prices are not outrigeous, so I can do impusle buying
Now, I don't use Windows and I don't feel like rebooting into it just for playing. I don't feel like maintaining the Windows OS, so I don't play games except the few Free/free Linux games coming in my distro. But I will purchase and play some of the classic games if they are available in Steam for Linux.
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I wouldn't necessarily pay for a Linux-only title. I'm not sure it would get the use on its own.
But I would add, say, 10% to get a "TriplePlay" Windows/Linux/Mac entitlement on Steam to a game that I'm buying, so that I can play on any platform for just a little extra.
Hell, I'd happily pay to upgrade games I *already* have on my Steam account to triple-play like that, but only a reasonable price.
And if HL3/Ep3 comes out and it's available on both - hell, yes, I'd pay a bit extra to have it on Linux like a
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Just as a note, when Steam was released for OS X, existing accounts could play all the games they had already purchased on a Mac without re-buying them (aka: Steam sells you a licence to play the game on any platform it is availible for, not a particular one) - so there is no reason to presume they wouldn't do that with Linux to. Hence the price would be the same, and you could play it where you want.
This is true for some games, but not for all. I have Steam installed on my primary gaming machine running Win7 and my personal laptop, a Macbook Pro. While my Civ IV and V licenses work on both machines Bioshock and Bioshock 2 only work on Windows despite there being a Mac port of both. As far as I can tell in this case Steam thinks they are a different SKU and therefore separate products.
It would seem that it will only work on both if it is initially released to Steam as such.
Re:I'll put my money where my mouth is (Score:4, Informative)
Well, as a guy whose wallet is frequently raped by Steam Sales, and as one whose used the Mac version of Steam, I can say a few things:
1) Steam does make it convenient to buy games - arguably *too* easy. I can buy a game in about thirty seconds and have it downloaded within at worst two hours (for a 20GB epic), often as little as two minutes (for the 100MB indier-than-thou titles). Seriously, it's not uncommon to hear Steam fans complaining about how they get hooked into impulse-buying games on sale that they never play (I've actually played perhaps half the games I own on Steam, and that's considered "doing pretty well").
2) Prices for some games are definitely in the impulse-buy range. There's an entire section for "under $5", mainly containing extremely old titles (Doom, Half-Life) or low-budget indie games. And they literally *always* have some sale going on, and at least twice a year they have massive sales.
3) The initial lineup of Linux games will primarily be Valve's own recent titles, as well as whatever indie games already have Linux versions. Roughly one in four titles I own are Mac-compatible (fifty or so out of two hundred); I would anticipate seeing less than that for Linux, perhaps one in eight.
* For some reason, Valve's only ported Half-Life 2 and later to Mac, and I would expect the same on Linux. So no Half-Life 1 (there *is* Half-Life: Source, the port to the HL2 engine), no Opposing Force, no Counter-Strike 1.6, no Ricochet.
4) There *is* DRM. The DRM is normally pretty benign and limited - as long as Steam is running in online mode (on only one computer at a time - someone else signing in to the same account elsewhere will boot you out), you'll have zero problems. Offline mode exists, but it does have oddities (it's perfectly usable, but you'll actually have to think DRM, at least while setting everything up). Note also that some third-party games have their own layer of DRM, so if you're a militant anti-DRM fanatic, check the game details (it *does* say "this game uses additional DRM" or something to that effect).
The problem stay the same (Score:2)
Regardless of the open-sourceness of Steam, the problem is still the same as it as always been with Linux : the marketshare is way too small for major companies to do Linux port, and most people who use desktop linux have Windows somewhere too.
Apart from Valve and indie games, I highly doubt we will see AAA games for Linux in the next few years.
And then there is the issues of video drivers.
Even if there have been good progress done recently, compatibility and performance are still way below Windows drivers.
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And still it was worth them producing Mac versions, continuing to produce Mac versions, other people producing Mac versions and still selling and supporting Mac versions.
I think they're just thinking of Linux as the next logical step, given that. The more people on Steam, on whatever platform they choose, the more buying games.
And think "indie bundle". All of them have had cross-platform games in most of their offerings and all of them have been hugely profitable (Humble bundles typically make millions of
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The Mac version of Steam has been out since 2010, the PC version since 2003, so it's not exactly fair to compare them directly.
Besides, your numbers are *way* off, it's actually closer to 1579 vs 245 for PC and Mac respectively - I suspect you included all the demos, videos, mods and DLC in your totals.
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So what?
Even if they only ported Portal that would be a big first step.
I know you are an anti-linux troll, but try to at least construct a rational argument. Linux users would have every right to be excited about just one vavle game being ported, 331 would be considered a miracle.
Yay! Native DRM! Finally!! (Score:2)
Valve has been a good steward with Steam, not doing nefarious things like turning off old games to sell new ones, or banning Wine users, or any other evil things they could do, but it's still funny to me to see the /. community all excited about rumors that someone is going to port a DRM platform to Linux.
Valve has yet to officially comment, but you'd hope they wouldn't invite someone up to their offices and send them home to spew lies.
Yeah well. I still say I'll believe it when I have a download link.
On that subject, whatever happened to the super-duper-optimizing compiler that was going to revolutionize everything Linux that Phoro
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- Most games won't come across without DRM. Some will, most won't."
- Most games don't support Linux at the moment.
You use logic to see what the statement:
- Bringing across a viable, market-proven, popular DRM scheme to Linux, with the potential for some large, hugely-anticipated gaming titles too.
does in that case. And most gamers would agree that out of all the possible DRM's out there, the one you'd choose to come across if you had to would be the Steam DRM.
Compare and contrast with any other DRM scheme
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...but it's still funny to me to see the /. community all excited about rumors that someone is going to port a DRM platform to Linux.
Baby steps my friend, baby steps. It's the first step...though, not sure where this will take us, but can't be bad, ey?
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Valve is what I call "nice DRM". The things it stops you from doing are generally pretty mild - can't be online in more than one place at once, can't run games you haven't bought. As long as you're in online mode, you'll never even notice it. Offline mode is about as tricky as some DRM platforms' online modes - basically, as long as you've been permitted to play the game before, you'll be allowed to do so in offline mode (although patches have an unfortunate tendency to break that, making you go back online
Mirror (Score:2)
Looks like Phoronix has been /.ed
http://www.phoronix.com.nyud.net/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_linux_dampfnudeln&num=1 [nyud.net]
http://www.phoronix.com.nyud.net/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_linux_dampfnudeln&num=2 [nyud.net]
Perfect for me-- one fewer Windows license at home (Score:2)
I have a few computers at home running a variety of operating systems, but the two I use most frequently both run Windows 7. One is my work PC. I need to run Windows on that one because there are a few applications I need for work that are Windows only. The other is my gaming machine. I play a couple of Source mods on it,and I use Windows because it's much easier than trying to run the games on Linux.
If Valve would release Steam on Linux, and make it easy and straightforward to install Source mods on Linux
Do it well and I might finally move from Windows (Score:3)
However, if this goes over well, and developers/publishers start actually using it? I'll probably finally switch over to some form of Linux.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this plays out.
Re:What games? (Score:4, Insightful)
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The Source engine games make up a minscule fraction of the games on Steam. And just because a game uses Source doesn't mean it'll run on Linux OOB. Basically, a steam client will mean they'll get a hugely tiny fraction of the entire library since most of the games on Steam will never have Linux clients.
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It means you are cheering because you'll get a handful of games that have been on Windows for years. Woo....hoo?
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> It means you are cheering because you'll get a handful of games that have been on Windows for years. Woo....hoo?
Sounds a lot like the Mac version of Steam.
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You missed the point. This (a major online store and content distribution system adding linux support) has never happened before, and it will open doors. We're already getting more and more games from indies (witness the humble bundles, for example).
Take a look at Mac support on steam. Sure they don't have everything, but they certainly have a lot.
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Having a central starting point will be helpful. People have an obvious place to look for new stuff.
A lot of stuff gets neglected for lack of exposure. That's true now and it was true back in the days of Loki. The whole centralized app store approach takes a lot of burden off of the developers to make sure that people know about the product.
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Which is still a lot. 331 games another poster claimed. One valve Source game ported to linux would be big news, 30 would be huge, over 300 would be a miracle.
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Me?
I already own all the Valve games other than the L4D series. The minute they work on linux I will buy them. I would be glad to play the games I already own without wine.
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I meant I would buy the L4D games that I do not currently own.
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How is it legit? The article was nothing but regurgitation of his previous rumors, there wasn't a single quote from Gabe Newell and Valve has not officially confirmed anything. Oh right, he posted an internal screenshot of a game supposedly running on Ubuntu!! OMG CONFIRMED!!!!
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Hello troll.
Did you miss the bit about the source engine coming across too? That would mean *all* Valve games, basically.
And there's a suspiciously large couple of games waiting in the wings with people DYING to get their hands on them - Half Life 2 Ep3, DOTA 2, etc. - not to mention there's been major new releases in the last, what, April - Portal 2.
That's hardly a "decade old". Niche market or not, Source engine and Steam on Linux could CREATE its own new gaming market in a matter of days after release.
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The following are just the ones that cost money and are directly from Valve.
This is already 14 games. Adding in the free stuff like Lost Coast and modds will greatly increase this list, but even 7 Vavle games on linux would be big news.
Half Life
Counter Strike
Blue Shift
Opposing Force
Half Life 2
Half Life 2: Deathmatch
Half Life 2: Episode 1
Half Life 2: Episode 2
Left For Dead
Left For Dead 2
Portal
Portal 2
Team Fortress
Team Fortress 2
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Wow all valve games? So that's like 7? OMG!
I'll take 7 good-to-awesome games over 4000 shitty ones any day of the week.
Quality, comrade, not quantity (lol, tity...).
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Yeah, a "niche market". It isn't like Steam regularly has ~4 million users on it at any given time. By comparison. Xbox Live has peaked (peaked) at 3 million (Steam regularly breaks 4.5 and has peaked at over 5). Granted, that isn't a completely fair comparison, since a lot of steam users are likely to stay logged in 24 hours a day, but the fact that Skyrim had 350,000+ concurrent players near launch indicates that no, it isn't a "niche" market at all, by any means.
Oh and Valve currently has 2 games in pla
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Games like CoD, Mass Effect, the Blizzard games are more popular and will have no Linux versions. Even if all The people who play Valve games switched that wouldn't even be 1% of all PC users. It would at best be a tiny blip not the mass exodus the loony Linux people think it'll be.
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245 Mac titles at the moment http://store.steampowered.com/search#category1=998&os=mac&advanced=0&sort_order=ASC&page=1 [steampowered.com]
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When they added mac support they did not charge extra. Any games you already owned for Windows were just also available for Mac. I doubt they will do anything different.
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Transgaming's product is garbage. They fell so far behind Wine that they discontinued their Linux product (Cedega) 3 years ago. At the moment, they don't even have a Linux product anymore, it's gone into maintainance as "GameTree Linux". Since Wine switched to LGPL 10 years ago (in reaction to Transgaming and their refusal to send back patches), Cedega (then called WineX) their product has fallen further, and further behind, now to the point where it's less compatible than normal Wine.
If you want a comme
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FYI, I've heard that Steam's DRM layer is optional and is applied at the publisher's discretion (not Valve's). Games that don't have the DRM turned on can be launched by just running the executable; the Steam client doesn't need to be running. These games are quite rare but I believe some examples do exist. (Defcon, perhaps? Try Google for examples). Although you can still only download the the game using the client, insofar as Valve offers no direct download servers.
You might also try Desura or GOG. Neithe
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There's more and more games for Linux all the time and games which have Windows releases and are distributed via Steam often have a Linux release which could also be distributed via the same system. If Valve is bothering to do this they will likely produce Linux ports of future games produced within their engine. It paves the way for a future Steambox which is not running Windows.