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Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

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Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#11
Looks like this is going to be reality, Phoronix just published the promised article[0] which basically claims that Valve have ported L4D/Source over to Linux already! Exciting news indeed, AAA-titles for Linux could turn the desktop OS market upside down.

[0]: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve...

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#13
post #3

Steam for Linux is one thing, but how many games will you be able to run?

It's not Steam we should care about, what we really want is Source for Linux. And GoldSrc for that matter, I'm sure some people would like to play Counter-Strike.

CS 1.6, CS:S, and CS:GO for Linux would keep me happy for awhile :)

Add Quake Live, and I'm good for a long time.

Make it a lot easier to switch between gaming and coding.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#14
post #3

Steam for Linux is one thing, but how many games will you be able to run?

It's not Steam we should care about, what we really want is Source for Linux. And GoldSrc for that matter, I'm sure some people would like to play Counter-Strike.

>what we really want is Source for Linux.

Hey, buddy, you already got it. Linux is open source.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#15
I'm sure one of the reasons for a Linux client (and even a Steam console) is Windows 8 with its App Store. Soon potential customers are going to buy their software through these integrated stores rather than using dedicated clients. And since Microsoft is giving the Desktop a legacy feeling Valve has no choice but expand the reach of Steam. Which is of course good for us customers.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#16
post #3

Steam for Linux is one thing, but how many games will you be able to run?

The same as when it released for mac? Pretty much only source games if I recall, but it rapidly expanded to more games because they are really helpful with porting games to the new platform.

This is the last thing holding me back from dropping windows completely.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#17
I really wish Valve would get behind the Open Pandora gaming console: http://openpandora.org/

Its a fantastic machine, with a great community, and an awesome technology for single-file game distribution, or PND-files (Pandora .pnd files are self-contained applications), along with a fantastic repository already in place: http://repo.openpandora.org/

With Valve behind them, the OpenPandora guys could really do something neat in terms of creating a Linux-based gaming hardware series. Imagine the Valve "Pandora" console, either in handheld or desktop/TV-side form .. this could really happen, and Valve would gain a lot from getting involved in this.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#18
post #15

I'm sure one of the reasons for a Linux client (and even a Steam console) is Windows 8 with its App Store. Soon potential customers are going to buy their software through these integrated stores rather than using dedicated clients. And since Microsoft is giving the Desktop a legacy feeling Valve has no choice but expand the reach of Steam. Which is of course good for us customers.

As a longtime PC gamer, any Microsoft store is roughly 0 threat to Steam from my perspective unless publishers stop publishing on Steam, which would seems very unlikely unless Microsoft took much less of a cut and Valve refused to follow suit, or Microsoft decided to pay publishers off for exclusives. Microsoft's past attempts to make Steam-like services have been completely laughable/extremely frustrating (see Games for Windows Live, their attempt at an online community/DRM solution).

I think they're expanding to Linux entirely because they want to expand to and support Linux, not because of any competitive pressure forcing them to retreat to Linux. A couple years ago they expanded to Mac, and this is just a natural extension.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#19
Brilliant news. Of course Valve wouldn't want their own console to be tied to Windows, and there are definitely enough Mac-ported games (e.g. including Assassins Creed, not just their own stuff) that Linux ports must be do-able in short order.

I'd hope there's some "trickle-down" effect of Steam ports- an push to sort out the knotty ball of Linux sound configuration, 3D drivers and other grimness. Alternatively it could be that you need to enable pulseaudio for title A, ALSA for title B, OSS for title C - ARRRGGHHH. Fingers crossed.

Re: Valve is developing Steam for Linux, says Michael Larabel of Phoronix

#20
post #11

Looks like this is going to be reality, Phoronix just published the promised article[0] which basically claims that Valve have ported L4D/Source over to Linux already! Exciting news indeed, AAA-titles for Linux could turn the desktop OS market upside down. [0]: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve...

I'm definitely looking forward to Linux on the desktop this decade.
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