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I see this as a very big "win" for Linux. I can't wait to game tonight, thanks Steam.
This is a big win for Ubuntu+Nvidia; the other distros received a well placed "go fuck yourselves". This is like gaming on Macos being a win for BSDs. :-)
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> More generally, i've always found NVIDIA driver support for Linux to be very solid. I guess you haven't had any laptop with the Optimus technology (NVIDIA dedicated card + Intel integrated GPU). There no official NVIDIA Optimus support for Linux whatsoever :(
There is unofficial support, though! Bumblebee was fairly easy for me to set up, and works quite well (again, for me): http://bumblebee-project.org
My main problem with the Optimus configuration on Linux was overheating: as the discrete card (nVidia) was always on, even if the system wasn't using it, the computer was hotter. Without workload, the normal temperature on Linux was around 53ºC, while on Windows was 42ºC. It felt warmer on the keyboard too.
I had some problems trying to get Bumblebee to work on Fedora (at least the bbswitch worked, so the discrete nVidia card could be turned off, and then the computer wouldn't overheat on Linux). On Ubuntu though, the setup was really smooth [1]: just adding a PPA and then installing a package and everything was working :D
However, while Bumblebee is really cool, it still can't do what the official nVidia and Intel drivers do on Windows. You can run programs in the discrete card with Bumblebee, but you have to use a special command for that (optirun), the cards won't be switched on-the-fly depending on how much processing power is needed, which is the case with the official drivers on Windows. There supposedly is some progress in that regard though [2], in a project called Prime (awesome pun indeed)
[1]: This answer helped a lot too: http://askubuntu.com/questions/36930/how-well-do-laptops-wit... [2]: Blueprints: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-r-hybr...
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> it will make life a lot better for CUDA programming too Well having done quite a bit of CUDA programming under Windows and Linux, i'm interested in knowing what you find lacking on Linux ? Performance wise i can report CUDA is just as fast on Linux as it is on windows. Regarding tool support, i actually prefer to work under Linux, not because tools are better per se, but because your usual Unix tool chain does wond…
> More generally, i've always found NVIDIA driver support for Linux to be very solid. I guess you haven't had any laptop with the Optimus technology (NVIDIA dedicated card + Intel integrated GPU). There no official NVIDIA Optimus support for Linux whatsoever :(
Steam is also throwing a sale for the release of Steam for Linux: http://store.steampowered.com/sale/linux_release/ ; ends February 21st, 18:00 GMT. Highly acclaimed "Team Fortress 2" is free to play: http://store.steampowered.com/app/440
While you are at it, go grab FTL (Faster Than Light)! Its reduced by 50% and quite frankly a fantastic space roguelike! And Trine 2 is good fun and absolutely beautiful! (Not associated with either, I just like them...)
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The debs work fine under debian/sid and most deb packages work fine between debian and ubuntu and the places where they don't are by some evil design. yeesh
Did you get the Steam ones to work? At least the betas were hopeless because they're linked to glibc 2.15 or something, whereas Debian uses the forked eglibc 2.13.