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Steam to Chrome OS

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Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#41

Post by qudat »

JamesMcMinn wrote: post #7
shmerl wrote: post #5

I'd just stick to gaming on regular Linux. But I suppose it can be useful for arguing that Linux gaming market is expanding, so developers who like to excuse lack of Linux releases with market size will have less excuses now.

At this stage, native Linux releases are becoming less and less likely because of Value's efforts to improve gaming on Linux, as paradoxical as that seems. Proton is getting better and better with each release, and in many cases, is providing better performance than running native code on Windows. Why bother with official Linux support when you can just check that your game runs via Proton and push the burden of supp…

I’ve seen game devs advertise that their game works natively on Linux and is seen as a positive. My guess is if steam deck takes off there will be more games trying to build natively on Linux.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#42

Post by shmerl »

qudat wrote: post #41
JamesMcMinn wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this stage, native Linux releases are becoming less and less likely because of Value's efforts to improve gaming on Linux, as paradoxical as that seems. Proton is getting better and better with each release, and in many cases, is providing better performance than running native code on Windows. Why bother with official Linux support when you can just check that your game runs via Proton and push the burden of supp…

I’ve seen game devs advertise that their game works natively on Linux and is seen as a positive. My guess is if steam deck takes off there will be more games trying to build natively on Linux.

Besides, supporting a game means more than making a Windows build and expecting it to "just work" through Wine / Proton. Proper support requires some effort, even if it's translated. So they can as well support a native release if they even care about support.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#45

Post by mistrial9 »

cl3misch wrote: post #32
torginus wrote: post #29

Wait - does this mean that if Steam ships on Chromebook, and Steam can be made to run arbitrary software via proton, that Chromebooks have become regular laptops?

Not sure if this is a joke, but you can already "officially" install a Debian environment from within ChromeOS. https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en

hey interesting - new to me.. (checks models) yep, the Chromebook on the desk is one of "the ones that have Linux" ..

"Camera not supported yet" .. feature!

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#46

Post by snvzz »

sph wrote: post #26
modeless wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Proton just becomes the "game runtime" for Linux, that's OK! It's still open source. There may come a time when Proton compatibility becomes as important or even more important than Windows compatibility for game developers. Not only might game developers start explicitly supporting Proton, they could even contribute fixes upstream, unlike with Windows. Ultimately if it becomes popular enough, Proton could execute…

I'd argue that Proton is better than native Linux support in the long term, hear me out. Linux userspace API has no promise of long term compatibility, and in fact there's a lot of churn, especially nowadays as we approach the Year of the Linux Desktop and technologies come and go as they're improved. The Windows API instead is known for its long term compatibility. Microsoft goes out of their way to ensure applicati…

>The last few times I played native Linux games I had to fish for old and unsupported libssl and libjpeg libraries that my distribution doesn't ship anymore.

The so-called steam runtime can be targeted by devs to prevent this.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#47

Post by shadowgovt »

mistrial9 wrote: post #45
cl3misch wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if this is a joke, but you can already "officially" install a Debian environment from within ChromeOS. https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en

hey interesting - new to me.. (checks models) yep, the Chromebook on the desk is one of "the ones that have Linux" .. "Camera not supported yet" .. feature!

That's just par for the course for Linux.

Write the support yourself! Publish it under the GPL! Share and enjoy! ;)

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#48

Post by robbie-c »

GeckoEidechse wrote: post #17
zucker42 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the millions of people who own/have access to one and don't have the ability to buy another computer.

While this was not stated in the linked post, other sources said it will be limited to x86 chromebooks that run 11th+ gen Intel CPUs or equivalent. That basically limits it to models that cost >800$ making it a very niche product.

Here's to hoping this is just a starting point, might be that it's a lot easier to support these models.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#49

Post by shadowgovt »

m0ngr31 wrote: post #40
pipeline_peak wrote: post #38

How many Steam games actually run on Chromebooks? Let alone on Linux in general.

https://www.protondb.com Quite a lot actually. Obviously you won't be playing AAA games on a Chromebook, but I think most would run lots of older games well enough

For AAA games on chromebook, I believe Stadia was supposed to be the solution.

Emphasis on was. Ask me again in 6 months.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#50

Post by musicale »

shmerl wrote: post #37
sph wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that Proton is better than native Linux support in the long term, hear me out. Linux userspace API has no promise of long term compatibility, and in fact there's a lot of churn, especially nowadays as we approach the Year of the Linux Desktop and technologies come and go as they're improved. The Windows API instead is known for its long term compatibility. Microsoft goes out of their way to ensure applicati…

It's not about Windows long term support, it's about Wine long term support (which is much better than Windows own). So I agree with your point that long term Wine offers better support than Linux native ABIs. I doubt Windows ABIs are better than Linux native ones on their own long term wise (i.e. without Wine). That said, it would be cool for someone to develop Wine-like wrapping of historic Linux ABIs into modern o…

> I doubt Windows ABIs are better than Linux native ones on their own long term wise

Lots of games from the early 2000s still run as-is on Windows 10/11, and many games have updated versions on Steam or gog.com as well.

However, the real question for Linux is: is there any comparable long-term stable distribution format for Linux games other than Windows binaries?

If so, how popular is it?

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