Steam IS coming to OS X

And @ Feek, i'd like to know this too, I want to move it to my boot disk, not my documents disk, I don't quite see why I'd want an app in my documents folder. :/

I've not done it yet but something has occurred to me - On the Mac Mini that the family use they all have Dropbox configured to backup their documents folder and this will add the Steam games to the backup and as it's the free version, it will overfill it. Bad.

At the moment on my Mac I have two folders within Documents, one called "Documents for Dropbox" which I backup and one called "Documents not for Dropbox" which I don't backup and as Steam dumps its files off the root of Documents I won't have a problem.

This is bad programming on Valves side, the Documents folder is considered sacred and third party applications shouldn't touch it.

Steam game files should be stored in /Library/Steam/*somewhere* and saved games/user details should be in ~/Library/*somewhere*, that would keep them clean and within the recommended OS X file formats.
 
I hate applications that put stuff in the Documents folder.

*Looks at Adobe Master Collection CS5 :mad:*
 
The same goes for Music, Pictures, ... folders.

I just abandon the pre-created folders and create a directory structure for my stuff that I fully control, e.g. ~/my/*
 
I've not done it yet but something has occurred to me - On the Mac Mini that the family use they all have Dropbox configured to backup their documents folder and this will add the Steam games to the backup and as it's the free version, it will overfill it. Bad.

At the moment on my Mac I have two folders within Documents, one called "Documents for Dropbox" which I backup and one called "Documents not for Dropbox" which I don't backup and as Steam dumps its files off the root of Documents I won't have a problem.

This is bad programming on Valves side, the Documents folder is considered sacred and third party applications shouldn't touch it.

Steam game files should be stored in /Library/Steam/*somewhere* and saved games/user details should be in ~/Library/*somewhere*, that would keep them clean and within the recommended OS X file formats.

I caught it *just* as TimeMachine had started backing it up, I saw it mount the disk and thought "uh oh"
 
I've not done it yet but something has occurred to me - On the Mac Mini that the family use they all have Dropbox configured to backup their documents folder and this will add the Steam games to the backup and as it's the free version, it will overfill it. Bad.

At the moment on my Mac I have two folders within Documents, one called "Documents for Dropbox" which I backup and one called "Documents not for Dropbox" which I don't backup and as Steam dumps its files off the root of Documents I won't have a problem.

This is bad programming on Valves side, the Documents folder is considered sacred and third party applications shouldn't touch it.

Steam game files should be stored in /Library/Steam/*somewhere* and saved games/user details should be in ~/Library/*somewhere*, that would keep them clean and within the recommended OS X file formats.

Why would they be so stupid to do that? If you have multiple user accounts on your Mac (with each user having their own Steam account) then you would end up with the same game files stored so many multiple times. Crazy!
 
just logged into my steam account and downloading the free copy of portal, have to say i like the idea they've had with steamplay. if i buy it on pc i get it for mac aswell, which is a great way to expand the service on mac i think.
 
just logged into my steam account and downloading the free copy of portal, have to say i like the idea they've had with steamplay. if i buy it on pc i get it for mac aswell, which is a great way to expand the service on mac i think.

If they didn't have that I would simply have told them to "do one".
 
true i suppose but how many companies do you would have tried to pull that one off (EA maybe), and since thye wanna gain a huge market share of the mac games market they'd of been stupid not to offer steamplay.
 
Well it is fairly standard practice anyway, quite a few games on discs ship with both versions. The Sims 3 for example, comes with both the PC and Mac versions on the one disc.
 
I've only got Portal on my Games list.

Annoying that there are no proxy settings for the Store browser, it connects and downloads but I can't see anything. :(
 
Regarding the issue of Steam putting stuff in the Documents folder, I spotted this tweet from Dan Frakes but dont quite understand what he saying at the end. Any of you more savvy mac people shed some light on it?

20100513-gfenhyn46utkhfdasqynds1y7t.jpg


Cheers m'dears
 
i've had a few random quits when stacking downloads.....

it appears to manage 3 but add the 4th and it quits then does it happily on restart

Done this twice when downloading the 4 lucas arts games then later on the 4 civilization games
 
Regarding the issue of Steam putting stuff in the Documents folder, I spotted this tweet from Dan Frakes but dont quite understand what he saying at the end. Any of you more savvy mac people shed some light on it?

20100513-gfenhyn46utkhfdasqynds1y7t.jpg


Cheers m'dears

In very simple terms... a symlink makes the OS (and so all programs) think everything stored in one folder is actually in another folder. It's similar but ultimately better than an Alias.
 
In very simple terms... a symlink makes the OS (and so all programs) think everything stored in one folder is actually in another folder. It's similar but ultimately better than an Alias.

Ok cheers, thats sounds logical, is that something you'd recommend steam mac users to do? Or is it not that much of a big deal?
 
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