Valve's Gabe Newell Talks Linux Steam Client, Source Engine

[Anarchy]

I liked the news so much that I clicked couple of times on the commercials.

[fuzz]

I hope Valve doesn't try to bend over backwards to please every weird fringe Linux distro, instead focus only on the few main and modern ones.

If you can make a .deb, you can package it pretty much anyway you want.

There is this thing called Linux, and in this Linux they have these communities, and in these communities they have helpful people who know what to do....

What's the point if there is no choice?

[devius]

Damn it's hard to do a simple post today. Probably has something to do with the thousands of sites talking about steam on linux. Note to Michael: next time get a spare server or two to handle the extra load before dropping these kind of news :P

[sirdilznik]

Well, let's just say I remain skeptical. With that said, if Valve are indeed going to make a SteamBox as rumored, then it would make sense for them to base their custom operating system for said console on Linux, since it costs them nothing (in terms of licensing fees) and they can alter it to suit their needs. Basing their custom operating system on anything from Microsoft or Apple would undoubtedly cost an arm and a leg, and making a whole new operating system is impractical when you have an existing, mature, open source operating system you can work off of.

[RussianNeuroMancer]

Nobody should get their hopes up about this until there is official word from Valve.

Isn't this official enough? http://www.sevendaycooldown.com/site/episode001/ (10:55). What you need?

[Hamish Wilson]

If this is true, I am actually a little worried that it will hurt Desura and everyone else who is supporting us already. I could see Valve muscling in and grabbing all the spotlight away from the Indies, who have been doing some fantastic work and who started keeping the faith a lot earlier than Valve would have.

Do not get me wrong, I welcome Valve's overtures if they are genuine. But I do not want to lose what we already have in the face of something new. Hopefully I am just worrying unduly.

[Larian]

Isn't this official enough? http://www.sevendaycooldown.com/site/episode001/ (10:55). What you need?

No amount of evidence will ever be enough. Even if Gabe Newell himself posted their intent to develop a Steam/Source client for Linux on the company website, you would still have idiots prattling about "It's only vaporware until they ship it, so it's not 'official' yet."

Too many naysayers have invested too much time and face into insisting Steam for Linux was a lie. Like religious zealots, they can't get over themselves and admit they were on the wrong side of the truth.

Personally I've always taken the "Steam for Linux? Cool. I wish they'd hurry" approach.

[RussianNeuroMancer]

If this is true, I am actually a little worried that it will hurt Desura and everyone else who is supporting us already.

I too, but look at what we have:
Desura - open source client, DRM free (Steam sometimes used as DRM). We can launch games directly, without running Desura client.
Gameolith - deb and rpm packages, some services for developers. They maybe launch repository for customers.
Ubuntu Store - already have millions of users, and available in Ubuntu out-of-the box. Game updates as system updates - Desura and Steam doesn't have that.

So I think everything will be fine, don't worry.

[Imouto]

If you can make a .deb, you can package it pretty much anyway you want.

There is this thing called Linux, and in this Linux they have these communities, and in these communities they have helpful people who know what to do....

What's the point if there is no choice?

Second this. Unlike Windows upgrade, Linux have a very decent compatibility across versions.

Most likely, Valve may not choose .deb. Like desura, their client and games may use custom installers. They can have their own installer (a .sh will do), which basically put their binary files in specified folder (can be home folder).

This has advantages. We don't have to worry about loss of games when re-install systems and we don't have to worry about different distros.

[Sofox]

I'll still stand by that the original phoronix posts were inaccurate and misleading, and at the very least deserving of apology. Nothing was confirmed back then, none of the so-called release timeframes were proper, and the dead horse was beaten for about 2 years. Even now, all that's shown are some desktops - something I rather suspected Valve to do internally, but still nothing indicative of official support. No actual quotes from Newell himself. Nothing official. UT3 was more official than all this at one point, and look how that turned out.

Phoronix made the "It's official" announcement based on an article from a UK Newspaper, specifically The Telegraph. The article in The Telegraph stated: "Valve has also confirmed that it will make Steam available to Linux users in the coming months." (you can see it here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...goes-live.html ).