Steam coming to Linux, too?

superluser · May 03, 2010, 06:06:17 PM

(Note to admins, you may want to attach this to the previous thread on steam coming to OSX.)

Remember when I wondered what a PR campaign would look like for Steam coming to Linux? Apparently, it would look like this:

http://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=0x2010&image=screenshot_steam_first_lrg

(via) We should expect to see Source coming soon, unless Valve wants to officially support Wine or shoot themselves in the foot by opening Steam for competitors but not for themselves.

llearch n'n'daCorna · May 03, 2010, 07:07:07 PM

huh. I run steam in wine already on linux. Works fine for chatting or downloading games, doesn't work so well for playing them.

superluser · May 03, 2010, 07:55:44 PM

Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on May 03, 2010, 07:07:07 PMhuh. I run steam in wine already on linux. Works fine for chatting or downloading games, doesn't work so well for playing them.

Apart from some keyboard issues, it works well enough for me. Playback is choppy, but not so choppy that it's not enjoyable.

Still, running natively would make those high-intensity scenes from Ep2 a lot more fun.

Mao · May 03, 2010, 08:28:47 PM

For games like TF2 and L4D1/2, that choppiness is killer to online play.

llearch n'n'daCorna · May 04, 2010, 06:20:05 PM

Wot he said.

superluser · May 04, 2010, 07:13:51 PM

Quote from: Mao Laoren on May 03, 2010, 08:28:47 PMFor games like TF2 and L4D1/2, that choppiness is killer to online play.

Well, yeah. I don't really know what to say to that, except that you're exactly right. I don't use it for online games, but if I did, I wouldn't find it enjoyable at all.

RobbieThe1st · May 06, 2010, 05:20:25 AM

I'd be -very- happy to see TF2 on Linux natively.
As it is now, I'm running it via CXGames, and that works... but I don't get near the performance I should. However, the ability to use Compiz and switch between virtual desktops -while- playing is -extremely- handy; Its why I put up with far less performance instead of just booting into windows.

superluser · May 12, 2010, 01:03:06 PM

I bring news.

Valve has also confirmed that it will make Steam available to Linux users in the coming months. Not that I don't trust some blog called Pheoranimullixotron or something, but when the Telegraph reports it, it's at least got some credibility.

Now, if it were The Sun or the Daily Fail...

Drayco84 · May 17, 2010, 02:09:28 PM

While I am glad that Steam will be opening itself up to be run on Linux, it will also be up to the developers in each distro to adopt the program AND the plethora of games, plus make sure it works without destroying the distro. While I fully anticipate most Linux-users welcoming the system, I can imagine some resistance if Value doesn't open up Steam's workings for all to see by adopting the Open-Source license.

Unless I'm missing something terribly obvious here...

hapless · May 17, 2010, 02:54:24 PM

Check out how many other binary-only packages do it. VMWare comes to mind. Own tree in /opt/ or /usr/local/, with own copies of usually-system libraries and all other stuff. Only part of the main distro it'll be interactiong with are the standard and not-changing posix APIs, and standard X11 protocol (yeah, with XF86 and Xorg extensions, but these don't change from distribution to distribution

)

superluser · May 17, 2010, 04:38:17 PM

Quote from: Drayco84 on May 17, 2010, 02:09:28 PMWhile I am glad that Steam will be opening itself up to be run on Linux, it will also be up to the developers in each distro to adopt the program AND the plethora of games, plus make sure it works without destroying the distro. While I fully anticipate most Linux-users welcoming the system, I can imagine some resistance if Value doesn't open up Steam's workings for all to see by adopting the Open-Source license.

Unless it's Debian, I don't see any problem. Debian, of course, won't package anything useful unless it's got a super-duper GPLv3 license with extra RMS donations.

llearch n'n'daCorna · May 19, 2010, 04:39:19 AM

Quote from: superluser on May 17, 2010, 04:38:17 PM
Unless it's Debian, I don't see any problem. Debian, of course, won't package anything useful unless it's got a super-duper GPLv3 license with extra RMS donations.

They'll happily package it. They just can't provide it, legally, since they have certain restrictions on what packages they can put into the base distribution, based on where they have servers et al. And since they've decided "we're going to run with these limitations", then they're running with those limitations.

If it's such a problem, why not do what skype does and provide a repository? It's not _that_ hard, and would cover debian and ubuntu without too many problems, in one fell swoop.