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Valve Looking to Port Games to Linux?

Posted by Zonk on from the crazy-day-in-my-neighborhood dept.

Martin Bozic writes "Valve is apparently looking for senior engineers to port games to Linux. They have an ad up on the official site looking for a Senior Software Engineer with experience in 'systems engineering designing and developing communications software and hardware solutions including resolving problems surrounding real-time and non real time PC- based systems using C++ and network programming algorithms and their interaction with physical devices.' One of the lines under the job description is the simple statement: 'Port Windows-based games to the Linux platform.'" No reason to get excited about this before they make an official announcement; while this may eventually mean Half-Life 2 running under Linux, they may just want penguin-based folks to play Peggle.

5 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. IF, just, IF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    IF Valve wants to port its Windows games to Linux, and IF that involves porting Steam, does that mean they'd be required to disclose the source to Steam's authentication system?

    Otherwise they'd just release binaries that target distributions, right?

    1. Re:IF, just, IF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A few years ago, I spoke with someone from one company that makes astronomy-based software who said that they decided not to release their software in the early days of Linux because of the demand at the time from Linux extremists to release the source code.


      We ran into exactly this as well. We had binaries for both Windows and Linux and a significant portion (read: 75%+) of the queries about the Linux software included questions about getting the source code for it as well. More than a few indicated that our not willing to give them source code was why they didn't use/buy our product.
    2. Re:IF, just, IF by oliverthered · · Score: 2, Interesting

      More than a few indicated that our not willing to give them source code was why they didn't use/buy our product.

      That seem fair enough to me, you can even get the source code for Windows now adays.

      If they want the source, charge them for it and slap on a big NDA etc...

      --
      thank God the internet isn't a human right.
    3. Re:IF, just, IF by sumdumass · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The pragmatic, 'impure' Linux users don't seem to be as vocal. They don't seem to flood message boards with statements of "thats ok, I don't need the source, thanks for supporting my platform anyways.

      The very vocal purists seem to paint the picture of the entire community. You also have companies like MS ensuring them that it is worthless to bother with them. After walking into a site on several occasions to find an unpatched windows 2000 server that was also a file server and router that was owned by a lot of different people, I decided to recommend pulling it out, replacing it with a linux box as a firewall/router and then after rebuilding it once again, keep it behind the firewall.

      A notes on this, the owners had a rocket scientist for a son in his mid 20's who set this up and maintained the server, I was only called to get them up and going again on several occasions. I know that windows servers, can run on the Internet without getting infected with something or completely pawned. That isn't the point, the point is that no one qualified to make it happen was around the server until after the fact.

      Anyways, the normal admin/maintainer started calling me a linux zealot because I mentioned using the *nix boxen as a firewall to protect the windows devices. As if that was a bad thing?. They had an old computer that could have been easily used. He convinced the owners (mom and dad) to put a Dlink wrt54 in as a firewall instead and about cried when I told him it ran linux as the device's base OS. Now, he had to get the idea that linux was bad somehow. He was also studying for his MCSA at the time. He was dead set against linux for some reason and ended up pointing to some comments from the vocal purists to support his beliefs.

      I think the MCS* training warned him about linux and he became convinced enough to end up being an MS fanboy. But it wasn't hard for him to show outrageous comments on message boards that appeared with no context in a vein attempt to prove his point. I still laugh when I get a call asking if X behavior is normal. I guess some people take the term using the right tool for the job to a whole new meaning.

      I can only imagine that companies looking to support linux have came across the exact same stuff. They have MS on one hand saying this is bad, your computer will blow up and date your wife in front of you, and at the same time, purist will be letting them know that want everything or nothing at all. The pragmatic, 'impure' Linux users don't even get recognized.

  2. Maintain existing servers, create new ones by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Most official dedicated servers already have a linux port, and a way to interface them with the steam servers to update them.

    They are hiring someone to port new game code to create servers for future games and/or maintain the existing servers for old games. They are merely continuing what they have already been doing, they just need another person.