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Games

Valve Starts Promoting Steam For Linux To Windows Users 474

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."
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Valve Starts Promoting Steam For Linux To Windows Users

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  • annual windows (Score:4, Interesting)

    by genericmk ( 2767843 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @04:48PM (#42651253)
    It is worth pointing out that Microsoft has promised a more regular windows release so the comment of a few years wait for next Windows isn't correct. (or maybe not, maybe Microsoft will not deliver on its "promise").
  • Compatibility (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Doodlesmcpooh ( 1981178 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @04:49PM (#42651263)
    As soon as the games I already own and play work on Linux I will switch in a heartbeat.
    • by spire3661 ( 1038968 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @05:12PM (#42651479) Journal
      As soon as all my old Xbox 1 titles work on Xbox360, ill upgrade.....
      • It's common to keep two generations of console connected to one TV. As I understand it, it's far less common to keep two different PCs connected to one monitor. I wonder how much of that is because a standard PC tower takes up far more physical space than even an XBOX HUEG console.

        The other solution is dual-booting. I don't know how easy that still is, whether Windows 8 gets in the way of shortening a partition. But rebooting into another operating system will interrupt your music, web browsing, and mess

        • One thing people are going to have to get over is that you shouldnt use your Steambox as a full workstation PC, thats a fools game if you want anything resembling a console experience. Hardware is cheap enough now to build dedicated Steamboxes if you want a 'console' like machine. Consoles are an exercise in compromise, keep that in mind when deploying a living room entertainment PC.
        • VM dude. That old Windows PC that runs windows95 games just runs in a little virtual sandbox with more RMA than you could ever imagine existing back in 95. Or those old DOS games (of which there are many with excellent gameplay) run happily in either a DOS VM, or in an emulator like Dosbox.

          This is why you don't see 2 PCs connected to the same monitor.

          • As soon as the games I already own and play work on Linux I will switch in a heartbeat.

            VM dude.

            Since when does 3D work well in a VM?

            That old Windows PC that runs windows95 games just runs in a little virtual sandbox with more RMA than you could ever imagine existing back in 95.

            Provided you can still find a working lawfully made copy of Windows 95 to install in the VM.

            • Since when does 3D work well in a VM?

              vmware player 4 or later, XP32 guest, Linux host 32 or 64 with virtualization hardware and nVidia graphics. Works pretty well, and if you were doing a little special-casing (and Microsoft is doing a lot now, or at least had to in order to get where they are now) it could work very well. Today I think it would be possible for vmware and Microsoft to collaborate on an emulator that would run 100% of Xbox titles, but there's no money in it and vmware is a Microsoft competitor in some ways so it's not happening

            • Re:3D in VM (Score:4, Interesting)

              by dns_server ( 696283 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @08:59PM (#42653091)

              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.

              • I have not needed to use it so I am not sure how it performs.

                I have tried about six different sub-versions of virtualbox on several versions of Ubuntu with a variety of nVidia drivers (usually the specified ones) and I have never had it work. I use XP as the guest. It just explodes every time I try, sometimes taking virtualbox with it. I've tried with new programs and old, with or without Unity, at low resolutions and high, near and far, to and fro, hither and tither, and it always explodes.

                This is purely anecdotal bullshit evidence, but for my part it doesn't work a

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Synerg1y ( 2169962 )
      already own (older games)... would be really stretching it. A Linux version of new big title games would be a gigantic improvement over the current state. Looks like Linux users at least have Steam games to look forward to including... SKYRIM!!! [playonlinux.com].

      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.
    • Have your Cake and Eat it too! Dual-boot Linux and Whatever your current flavor of Microsoft OS is! Then after you realize you haven't use that MS OS for 6 months or so except to do the monthly updates, You can go ahead and switch over altogether!
  • by future assassin ( 639396 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @04:49PM (#42651267)

    Where can I download it, I can only find Steam.

  • How about doing it with a Steam download that runs on _any_ modern Linux?

    • Because as you get away from Ubuntu and its derivatives the number of users drops off, with it falling even further as you get away from Fedora.

      That said, Steam has been packaged up since the closed beta for other Distros.

    • by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

      If you want to do that, you should be able to do it yourself. That is clearly not something they will support.

      It runs fine on 12.10 64bit by the way.

    • How about doing it with a Steam download that runs on _any_ modern Linux?

      Last I checked (Saturday), the current build is confirmed to be working on Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, Debian Squeeze, and the latest Arch distro.

      Some folks have had luck installing the .deb on Fedora, but this is unconfirmed by me.


      Side note - There are, of course, some driver issues, mostly in the graphics department; I can't run TF2 on my old Dell laptop, as there is apparently no current nor intended support for older Intel GM45 series video cards :(

      • by armanox ( 826486 )

        Fedora has a RPM for it now (from http://spot.fedorapeople.org/steam/ [fedorapeople.org]). There is also a package (built from this one) on OpenSUSE's build service. I can confirm the package works on Fedora 17 and 18 (with the nvidia blob from nvidia, tested TF2 on a Quadro 600 and GTX 460).

    • by jedidiah ( 1196 )

      > How about doing it with a Steam download that runs on _any_ modern Linux?

      Use alien to turn the deb package into a simple tarball.

      Then use ldd to see what libraries you are missing.

      There's no magic in this sort of thing: Lay down some files. Then lay down some more files to make sure the first set works. Perhaps throw up some advertising and a progress bar.

      Chances are that "modern" Linuxen are already going to have what Steam needs since Linuxen are all ultimately the same upstream projects repackaged.

      • by hduff ( 570443 )

        > How about doing it with a Steam download that runs on _any_ modern Linux?

        Use alien to turn the deb package into a simple tarball.

        Then use ldd to see what libraries you are missing.

        There's no magic in this sort of thing: Lay down some files. Then lay down some more files to make sure the first set works. Perhaps throw up some advertising and a progress bar.

        Chances are that "modern" Linuxen are already going to have what Steam needs since Linuxen are all ultimately the same upstream projects repackaged.

        I can't run in on Mageia2 because it insists on glibc_2.15 and all Mageia provides is libc_2.14. Mageia 3 will provide libc_2.17 at least, so that won't be an issue and I've run it in the Mageia beta, so that again is not an issue. I suppose I could compile glibc_2.15 for Mageia2, but what magic does 2.15 provide that 2.14 does not that is needed by Steam? And needing complicated, user-unfriendly methods of running Steam on any modern Linux is not the way to make it a breakthrough product. This is also not

    • >How about doing it with a Steam download that runs on _any_ modern Linux?

      I totally agree. At a minimum, a Fedora rpm should be added and that would likely be useful in Fedora, Mandriva, and Mageia.

      It is not just the packaging, it has to do with libraries included and which versions, but it really should not be difficult for them to use LSB for the major stuff and a slightly-older-than-bleeding-edge requirement for the necessary libraries and then offer a tar.gz. Anything really odd COULD just be inclu

  • "team is now being used by thousands of gamers running a Linux OS"

    Really? Slashdot has a history of doing a lackluster job of editing, but come on. "Team"?

    On topic: I'm looking forward to gaming on Linux. I don't care if it's a byproduct of Valve's development of their own console. In much the same way that I looked forward to having a motherboard with no IDE connectors, I can't wait to ditch Windows. The only reason that I keep it around is for gaming. No more wasted space having to format a large part
  • by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt AT nerdflat DOT com> on Monday January 21, 2013 @05:27PM (#42651607) Journal

    But I really can't see this being a successful venture.

    I'm not trying to troll, just calling it as I see it.

    Why would people bother with this when they can just play practically all of (if not actually all of) the same games on the windows PC that they already have?

    Their Linux console certainly isn't priced any more economically than a PC, so I'm not sure I see the advantgage as far as the end-user is concerned.

    • by Microlith ( 54737 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @05:36PM (#42651687)

      But I really can't see this being a successful venture.

      Why not? Game developers can't be hurt by being given a way to stay independent of any one company. Currently they can play the console vendors off each other, even if the platforms are vendor controlled. On the PC, they've never had anyone but Microsoft.

      Why would people bother with this when they can just play practically all of (if not actually all of) the same games on the windows PC that they already have?

      Because I want a choice other than "Microsoft or no games at all." I'm not alone, apparently.

    • They would bother because the only thing that's currently holding them back from using linux/Mac OS is having their games available.

      And since when have they announced their pricing for the steam box? They announced that their dev kit was roughly as fast as a $1000 PC (though the specs look more like $7-800 to me). Given that it'll only be launched in about a year, that'll mean that that speed will be achievable with $5-600 consumer parts. Add into that that valve will be getting OEM prices, and it'll lik

      • Oops, forgot to follow up.

        Valve will then of course do exactly what Nintendo/Sony/MS do to make sure games studios get working on games for their device. This in turn will have the side effect that every game released for steambox will also be available on Linux. Given that almost all of the APIs for linux (and I'd bet heavily 100% of the ones Valve say are guaranteed to be available) are also available on Mac OS, and I'd bet that you're looking at all those games also being available for Mac OS.

        That will

  • by period3 ( 94751 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @06:47PM (#42652271)

    go to www.steampowered.com in firefox.
    click 'install steam'.
    click 'install steam now'
    choose 'open with' from the firefox popup

    Error: Cannot install 'libcurl3-gnutls:i386'.

    Typical linux. Good luck to Valve - they'll need it.

  • by holiggan ( 522846 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2013 @06:06AM (#42655361)

    Any word on having the Half Life / Portal / Left 4 Dead games working on Linux? These are part of my "must have installed" games, that I go back to from time to time, so I'll need them working on Linux as well, thank you :)

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