Valve Steam on Linux (no wine)

More info (which I originally found in a Neogaf thread, so no credit to me boo ;p)

ubuntuvibes.com said:
In a presentation at Ubuntu Developer Summit currently going on in Denmark, Drew Bliss from Valve said that Linux is more viable than Windows 8 for gaming. Windows 8 ships with its own app store and it is moving away from an open platform model.

Some other points from the talk:
  • Steam client is running nicely on Ubuntu and many developers have approached them with good game products.
  • Cooperation with Canonical has been good.
  • Ubuntu is preferred platform as it has a large user base and good community support with a strong company like Canonical behind it.
  • Linux has everything they need: good OpenGL, pulseaudio, OpenAL and input support.
  • New Source engine games will be available for Linux.
  • No firm time frame for Steam Linux release, but soon.
  • Copy protection is up to the game publishers.

Drew announced that anyone with a Launchpad account attending UDS will be given Steam access through a beta key.
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Source for the above. Additionally, looks like supported Beta games might be Portal, Team Fortress 2 & Serious Sam 3: BFE (Valve's blog mentions support for 1 game though),

ubuntuvibes.com said:
CroTeam has posted a status on Facebook confirming that Linux version of Serious Sam 3: BFE will be included with Portal and Team Fortress 2 in upcoming beta launch of Steam for Linux.

Its not clear if they meant public beta launch or the closed beta testing which will start soon for 1,000 lucky users. Few days back Valve said that Linux beta testers will get only one game to test, though Steam CDR does report these 3 games now for the Linux beta.

Guess we will have to wait and watch, as nothing was said about the possible games at Valve's presentation in Ubuntu Developer Summit.
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Source

Looking forward to playing some TF2 in Linux, fingers crossed about getting into the beta (like many people I guess) but if I don't it'll be really great to see feedback from anyone here who does get into the beta :)
 
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The beta is out!!

The Valve Linux team is proud to announce the launch of a limited access beta for its new Steam for Linux client.

The Steam for Linux Beta client supports the free-to-play game Team Fortress 2. Approximately two dozen additional Steam titles are now also available for play on Ubuntu. Additionally, the Steam for Linux Beta client includes Big Picture, the mode of Steam designed for use with a TV and controller, also currently in beta.

For the latest news and discussion, come on over to the Steam for Linux group discussion.
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Also ...

The first wave of welcome emails has been sent out!

If you've filled out the survey but haven't received an email don't despair. We will be expanding the beta in the future with more participants from the survey.

Thanks for all your support in getting this out the door,
the Valve Linux team
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Pleased to see Big Picture Mode in from the start, and of course Team Fortress 2 :) Didn 't get an invite so far (wasn't really expecting one, but *sniff*) - anyone on here get in? :)
 
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cb_linus said:
^I'll be more interested in joining in when it's more freely available on other distributions as I'll be using Gentoo most likely :)
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Exactly the reason I didn't.

All good things come to those who wait :D.

Very excited about this, finally openGL goodness.
 
SteamScreen.png


yay ! I'm not in the beta though so i can't actually get to a game.
 
Logsi said:
What makes OpenGL inferior to DX out of interest? Forgive my ignorance, i always though OpenGL 4.2 could do every DX could do!?
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I didn't think it was inferior (although times might have changed), back in the day a lot of OGL games used to run better than their DirectX counterparts... it's just Microsoft used Windows to elbow it out of the way like they tried to do with other internet browsers.
 
mmj_uk said:
I didn't think it was inferior (although times might have changed), back in the day a lot of OGL games used to run better than their DirectX counterparts... it's just Microsoft used Windows to elbow it out of the way like they tried to do with other internet browsers.
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This is 100% correct - I am that old that I can remember that DirectX was utter crap when first released. OpenGL was great - I used to play the original Quake in OpenGL on my Power VR card - LOL :)
 
ive just got in the beta yesterday, woohoo :) only tried TF2 and Trine2 so far, but worked fine :)
 
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melvis said:
ive just got in the beta yesterday, woohoo :) only tried TF2 and Trine2 so far, but worked fine :)
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Awesome :) Hopefully there will be some more invites before Christmas, I put 'other' as my o/s to use Steam on so I guess it will be a while before I get to use it on Linux, mildy tempted to buy Serious Sam 3 while it's on sale though ...
 
Got an invite yesterday, I have a few games which will work on Linux. Will be good to see the performance difference compared to Windows.
 
Also got an invite yesterday - got the beta working in Gentoo (I selected 'other' as the o/s that I would be using), the client throws up a couple of errors while loading but then seems to run no problems, not tried any games yet :)
 
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