Valve Steam on Linux (no wine)

inSilica · 25 Apr 2012 at 14:18

Native steam client on linux.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_linux_dampfnudeln&num=1

RageQuit© · 25 Apr 2012 at 14:40

That link wouldn't load but I checked it out on some other sites, like this one, wow pretty big news!

SMN · 25 Apr 2012 at 14:42

About time, I asked this question in January as Apple have a Steam client so it cant be any reason such as it being tied into DirectX etc. About time Valve, but well played.

KIA · 25 Apr 2012 at 16:43

Really awesome.

mortals · 25 Apr 2012 at 17:44

Should be brilliant

* imagines running DOTA2+CSGO on linux native *

cb_linus · 25 Apr 2012 at 17:53

Wow!!! There was an interview not so long ago in which Valve admitted having people working on Linux, but didn't specify what they were doing exactly

hopefully we'll be able to play any humble bundle games on there too

aln · 25 Apr 2012 at 18:00

Not sure phoronix provides any info beyond "it's going to happen, really, I promise" which has been going on for the past 2 years, but valve are at least talking about linux in public so it looks very plausible. I for one would be happy to drop my windows partition.

inSilica · 25 Apr 2012 at 19:09

aln said:
Not sure phoronix provides any info beyond "it's going to happen, really, I promise" which has been going on for the past 2 years, but valve are at least talking about linux in public so it looks very plausible. I for one would be happy to drop my windows partition.

Dito! The pictures look promising, someone is obviously doing some debugging

Not surprised about Windows 8 either, brace yourselves,here comes another Vista...

Essexraptor · 25 Apr 2012 at 23:43

wish they would push this one out quicker

Windows 8? phiffff

pthug · 27 Apr 2012 at 17:50

That is awsome news

cb_linus · 27 Apr 2012 at 18:08

must admit, I thought this would be more all over the interent than it is, can't wait though

iNPUt · 29 Apr 2012 at 01:45

Phoronix is not a reliable source, they said the same thing 2 years ago.

The thing with Valve is that their employees work on what ever they want, I hope and pray that we will get a linux steam client and source engine, but be in for a wait.

Dunks · 29 Apr 2012 at 12:10

I'm assuming games will still need to be compatible with Wine though?

Still a nice step forward though!

inSilica · 29 Apr 2012 at 12:39

Dunks said:
I'm assuming games will still need to be compatible with Wine though?

Still a nice step forward though!

Nope, Wine free! Not a single shred of wine is incorporated in the native client. The game manufacturers have to play ball though otherwise some games will never work out of the box.

iNPUt said:
Phoronix is not a reliable source, they said the same thing 2 years ago.

The thing with Valve is that their employees work on what ever they want, I hope and pray that we will get a linux steam client and source engine, but be in for a wait.

These things don't happen overnight! For such a small userbase (Linux Gamers) Valve is being very nice! IMO + maximizing monies. Clearly, from the images Valve is still testing the client.

There is no better source then Phoronix when it comes to breaking news, please do point out a more reliable source if you have one. Clearly valve recruited linux developer through phoronix for a reason, and clearly they choose valve for the interview

|Thomas| · 29 Apr 2012 at 13:04

inSilica said:
Nope, Wine free! Not a single shred of wine is incorporated in the native client. The game manufacturers have to play ball though otherwise some games will never work out of the box.

Well they don't really have to play ball. A lot of big titles on steam didn't make it to the mac client, and sadly I think the same will happen with the linux one.

It's a step in the right direction though

inSilica · 29 Apr 2012 at 13:14

|Thomas| said:
Well they don't really have to play ball. A lot of big titles on steam didn't make it to the mac client, and sadly I think the same will happen with the linux one.

It's a step in the right direction though

Yea I know exactly what you mean

, sux though.

Still think Ubuntu (possibly mint) still have a massive role to play in pulling in more users. Well two things I'm excited about:

Windows XP coming to end of life, no support
Windows 8 disgruntled users

And Ubuntu 12 looking so polished, it's come a long way since 10

Windows 7 users appear happy though ... (overall that is)

|Thomas| · 29 Apr 2012 at 13:28

inSilica said:
Yea I know exactly what you mean , sux though.

Still think Ubuntu (possibly mint) still have a massive role to play in pulling in more users. Well two things I'm excited about:

Windows XP coming to end of life, no support
Windows 8 disgruntled users

And Ubuntu 12 looking so polished, it's come a long way since 10

Windows 7 users appear happy though ... (overall that is)

The problem revolves around directx. Directx still dominates the high end gaming market, and whilst that is true OSX and linux won't get a look in.

This is changing though, especially as the world seems to have adopted indie gaming with open arms

. We shall have to see how it goes.

SMN · 29 Apr 2012 at 14:25

|Thomas| said:
The problem revolves around directx. Directx still dominates the high end gaming market, and whilst that is true OSX and linux won't get a look in.

This is changing though, especially as the world seems to have adopted indie gaming with open arms . We shall have to see how it goes.

Well what confuses me is, unless DX has been ported, how can someone run CS: Source and many other (from what i assumed were) DX-based games, on the Mac platform?

kristmace · 29 Apr 2012 at 14:42

SMN said:
Well what confuses me is, unless DX has been ported, how can someone run CS: Source and many other (from what i assumed were) DX-based games, on the Mac platform?

AFAIK they've made the games on the Mac client openGL compatible, which is why theres so few of them. I imagine it'll be the same games that end up on Linux.

cb_linus · 29 Apr 2012 at 14:46

|Thomas| said:
Well they don't really have to play ball. A lot of big titles on steam didn't make it to the mac client, and sadly I think the same will happen with the linux one.

It's a step in the right direction though

Definately a step forward - there's a load of indie games on Steam that have native Linux versions available elsewhere (e.g. through Indie Bundles & Desura), mostly indie games as previously mentioned, some of which are currently available on Desura (you can filter to view the Linux games), such as:

-World of Goo
-Darwinia
-Trine 1 & 2
-Really Big Sky
-Revenge of the Titans
-Atom Zombie Smasher

... and a load of others

No idea about DX but I hope it encourages developers to plan for multi-platform games from early on - I assume PS3 doesn't use DX but it does have games that are also available on Steam such as:

-Half Life 2
-Team Fortress 2
-Portal 1 & 2

Hopefully UT2003 & Quake 4 will also be made available with the Linux binaries from early on too* as well as some more recent games (*Valve time adjustable

). I would like to see Civilisation V actually as this is available on OSX so why not Linux ... (yes, size of userbase, but I am a fan

).