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Steam For Linux Is Now an Open Beta
New submitter jotaass writes "In news that is guaranteed to make the Linux gaming community (in particular, but not exclusively) excited, Valve has just announced that the Steam for Linux client Beta is now open to the public. A .deb package is available here. Interesting as well, they are using an empty GitHub repository solely as an issue tracker, open for anyone to submit, edit and track bugs, with no actual code in the repo."
Let the games begin!
Not taking their time with this one.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I got in the November wave of beta invites and so far I l like what I've seen. The only reason I've stuck with Windows at home is for gaming and if Valve can get enough traction behind Linux gaming I can finally cut out Microsoft. It will take years for that to potentially happen but Steam on Linux it can only serve to help Linux in general. Valve has already worked directly with AMD, Intel, Nvidia and Canonical to name a few companies and if consumers and game companies see some success more will (hopefully) follow.
So does this put pressure on game companies to refine and maintain their Linux ports or how exactly does this unfold?
Our OS?
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
It is still beta. This is one of the reasons its still beta.
I've been in the beta for about a month now, and it works great for me.
Pretty sure "our" in the Linux sense means "everyone's" so what exactly is your point?
Yup, it fails due to factors entirely outside its control...?
It's an open beta, file a bug report and post the core. Or avoid it until it exits beta.
I'm pretty sure that in an open beta a core dump is useful info. After all, that's the purpose of a beta, no?
Steam on linux blah blah - who cares - can it play dota 2?
This is why linux fails on the desktop, sigh...
Because all Windows software runs perfectly bug- and hassle-free?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Yeah, that's why it's a beta. Did you submit the segfault information to steam? That's exactly the information they want to collect.
So tired of this crap. Valve wants to have things go well. Why? Because they want you to buy more. The terms of service have updated once in 7 years. They let me install and play on any machine I want with little hassle. And if they suddenly pulled the plug don't you think a "patch" from the gaming community wouldn't just fix that anyways? They aren't perfect, but I haven't seen valve push any draconian crap down my throat?
To be fair I will probably still dual boot, but Linux and Linux games partitions and bye bye windows.
As somenoe who has been a gamer since childhood, who sometimes plays multiplayer games, who has seen a video or two on youtube, I have to say this made me laugh and nod. Fuck em if they can't take the truth ^^
WorksForMe(TM)
I think they suggest the 12.04 LTS. Probably for this reason.
No one is shoving it down your throat. You know what Steam is. Don't buy games from it if you don't like risks involved and it leads you to fits of cussing and rage.
I don't like some aspects of the system, but I take the good with the bad. I think they'd be just as successful without the DRM. I buy games through steam just because it's alot simpler than going to the store+having to swap discs everytime I want to play a game. I love being able to sit down and very quickly get into a game without hassle.
Don't you mean, as a Linux user you now have access to digital game distributions that were previously only available for the two bigger OSes?
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
For the most part, it's rare for a Windows program to actually take the whole system down unless there is actually an issue with the computer at the hardware level (bad ram, etc). Closest thing I've seen to a serious crash was a program crashing the video card drivers, but Vista and higher automatically restarts the graphics drivers when this happens without the need for rebooting.
What a wonderful advancement for the Linux platform!
It is. You would be an absolute fool to think it isn't, regardless of your views of Valve or their business practices.
Watch all the Linux Fanboys jump on this post
Should probably of added about the atmosphere these kind of people create that makes Linux intimidating and makes you feel as if everything that breaks is your fault.
I don't see anyone jumping on the post, just saying "Hey it's still beta and be sure you file a bug report!" The same thing that would be said about any BETA. NOBODY is implying it's their fault and if you can't comprehend that Slashdot is not the place for you. Even in the state /. is today.
12.04 LTS is the supported version.
Nope, there's no evidence of that yet. This just gets us the DRM on linux, none of the games have followed yet.
AMD is tanking. Valve should buy them up and really get into the hardware business...
\subject
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
The terms of service have updated once in 7 years
And it was a doozy. And an irony, since it was just a few days before that that I finally said "I've been holding out for years, and they haven't done anything like it yet. Maybe I'm being paranoid" and bought my first few Steam games.
Two days later, I don't own the games anymore. Just like when Facebook/Instagram says "We don't intend to sell your photos, even if the TOS says we can," Valve (and its knights) says "We won't fuck you over with more unacceptable terms, even though we know the contract says we can, and we know you'll bend over for it so you can keep your library."
Rule #0 applies to Valve just as much as to Facebook.
Nice! I'll gladly be a testing ground for their soon to be released linux console. if that means more games eventually come to linux it is a win / win. However, i really hope when the console is released that they still support both platforms and don't make titles linux console only. If you use the community to build a product, at least let us buy guys for that platform outside of your walled garden. Thanks!
No one is shoving it down your throat. You know what Steam is. Don't buy games from it if you don't like risks involved and it leads you to fits of cussing and rage.
And two years ago, this would have been good advice. Now, it's pretty much "Don't buy games," full stop, since even boxed games off retail shelves require this malware to be installed these days[0]. They've managed to get themselves injected as a third-party into transactions that used to be a way to avoid them.
[0]Skyrim, Deus Ex, Darksiders 2, Borderlands 2 to name the ones I've, personally, passed on despite wanting to buy, because of this.
Use dpkg --force-architecture
You'll need ia32 libs
Maybe you should realize that you're barking at the middle-man? It's the publishers who insist on using DRM and therefore buying a modern game entails the very thing you said: you lose access to it sooner or later anyways, whether or not you use Steam or something else. All Ubisoft-games, for example, insist on using UPlay these days and when UPlay goes down... well, a quick google tells you everything you need: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=uplay+down
With the above in mind I actively choose to support Steam. Atleast Valve tries to do well by its community, their DRM-measures are very benign and they offer features in Steam that are actually useful to me. If I avoided any game whatsoever with no DRM I'd be left with out-of-date games or Indie crap, neither of which I want to touch.
I used to think that adding DRM to games was utterly without benefit, but if it keeps people like you out of the gaming community it has at least one advantage.
Works great on my 12.10 for team fortress. What game were you playing, and can you report the bug?
For the most part, it's rare for a Windows program to actually take the whole system down unless there is actually an issue with the computer at the hardware level (bad ram, etc). Closest thing I've seen to a serious crash was a program crashing the video card drivers, but Vista and higher automatically restarts the graphics drivers when this happens without the need for rebooting.
For the most part, it's worth reading posts that you reply to; nobody said anything about bringing the whole system down.
BTW, that handy feature where the video card drivers restart after they crash? The drivers do that, not Windows Vista and higher. It worked on XP too.
Just got my HTPC built and running STEAM on WINE but its a bit slow to start up. Now the kids can fuck right off when I hear "Can you load up windows on our computers so we can play games" With my Winows 8 experience http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3321547&cid=42315901 this is just another nail in the coffin.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Right. You're using the bleeding edge Ubuntu, which is Debian with a lot of "secret sauce" thrown in, and will only be stable for a few years. If you want a vaguely stable Ubuntu or Debian, use the "LTS" release, which would be "12.04 LTS".
It's not stable to always have the most recent version of everything, you *WILL* trip over bugs that couldn't be tested before the other components were published.
Oh, it has nothing to do with the DRM. The "gaming community" itself is more than sufficient incentive to stay away from it.
Ummmm. It's written for 12.04. They don't recommend 12.10 yet.
Seriously, I get sick of people who don't quite seem to understand what a "beta" is.
There seems to be this expectation developing, that a "beta" is actually the same thing as production-ready but just hasn't been released, or something like that.
Just had to do this:
$ sudo dpkg --force-architecture -i steam_latest.deb
$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
$ steam
System I tried it on:
$ uname -a
Linux XXX 2.6.35-32-generic #67-Ubuntu SMP Mon Mar 5 19:39:49 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:____LinuxMint
Description: _____Linux Mint 10 Julia
Release:________10
Codename:______julia
The G
Most of what you download as a binary package runs problem free. The whole concept of binaries just bombing out hasn't been an issue in Windows for a decade.
And the linux beta of Steam is FINALLY open!!!
Arrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhh!
This laptop runs linux, but an older distro and nowhere close to ubuntu 12 as far as code, so it isn't going to work.
Home tomorrow, so I'll be running then.
(Not Ubuntu at home either, but a spinoff that is 99.9% compatible and I KNOW the beta client runs on it.)
Or install and enable multiarch. After a bit of futzing with the package, it works on 64bit debian sid, though you'll probably want to run xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr after running steam (already a bug reported for that one:#2).
Bill - aka taniwha
--
Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak
1) The client is currently shipped in .deb format. .rpm based distribution, the Alien script will do the conversion so you can install it (hint: alien.pl -r steam_latest.deb --scripts ). :( ).
If you use an
2) The client requires GlibC 2.12 or later. So if by any chance your distribution was released prior to may 2010, you're out of luck (example: my OpenSuse 11.4, released on march 2010
Mastering the English language is fucking easy: all you have to do is to put an f* word in every fucking sentence.
You either have absolutely no concept of what a rootkit is, or absolutely no concept of how to accurately present information. Pick one.
I'd be willing to respect your opinion if you said that using Steam to access software you purchased is an unacceptably large amount of DRM, or somesuch argument. I'd be willing to respect your opinion if you said that it was too much power to put in any company's hands, or even Valve's in particular. But when you start calling Steam a rootkit, you veer off into pure bullshit land. It's just ridiculous.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
malware
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Seriously, stop that bullshit. There are legitimate arguments to be made against the use or acceptance of Steam. I personally feel it is worth the drawbacks and/or risks, but I have no problem with those who feel otherwise. But slinging about terms like "malware" is complete bullshit, and does the community a great disservice.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
I'm running Steam on a 64-bit Debian system. I had to enable multi-architecture for i386, and manually install the 32 bit version of the glx libraries for the driver I'm using. Other 32 bit drivers needed were automatically installed with a simple "dpkg -i steam.deb" / "apt-get -f install" combo. Also, specifically for debian, I had to modify the steam package and rename a few dependencies by hand.
All good and running TF2 beta beautifully. Also, Cogs was another game that worked. Many other games on the "Linux" list aren't installable just yet. I believe that Valve have to properly link them in their system first.
Precisely, which is good for GNU/Linux. More users means more hardware support, and they will be using more free software. The only losers with this move are Microsoft and, maybe, console makers with Valve's console (which I don't know if will run GNU/Linux or Windows).
Why do you think it is Linux's fault that the program had a segmentation fault?
Let's get the perspective right. The programmers at game companies are simply not experienced enough at writing good code to make sure it is reliable on a "new to them" platform. If it bugs out on Windows, they are used to that. But they are NOT writing proper portable code. So they have to write a bunch of NEW code just to go on Linux, given the bad way they have everything structured. Then they don't know what to do to debug it.
It's not Linux's fault these guys are not experienced with Linux.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
How are they handling Direct X? I assume it's not simply a WINE port.
Linux is GPL encumbered. If you develop closed source applications for Linux have to be extra careful. Developing a client for a commercial friendly OS such as FreeBSD is always safe and can fully concentrate on development rather fear of GPL violations.
That would have been a good troll, 15 years ago.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
From here, it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.
Ubuntu 12.10 system
Ah! Ubuntu! There's your problem. Sounds like you could use a fresh new MINTy flavor of Linux.
Blame Google and blame all the buggy software that gets released. Lots of games I'm played and other software I've used should have still been in beta. From my experience there is little difference between beta and released software in the consumer market, mostly just the version label. How is the general consumer supposed to know the difference when they can't see one?
/lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15' not found
The social retards (often nerds) are already using 'our' OS. Perhaps you meant the whinny, immature kids? They won't be able to get past the x86 or x64 download option.
From the support I've given, I'm sure some will end up installing Ubuntu inside their Windows OS in order to run the linux games (would there be any good linux only games?) in that (Game running in Ubuntu running in Windows). They'll complain about linux being really slow and that everything runs better on Windows.
Sigh. Better than getting no support at all.
Not at all. I'm barking at the company who told me that, because I didn't agree with a change to their TOS that I considered abusive, I had no choice but to forfeit access to the games I'd purchased from them.
Yes, other companies added similar clauses to their TOS, but Amazon does not come to my house and repossess everything I've bought from them when I decide not to do business with them anymore (I don't buy digital goods from them).
Valve did. Their TOS maintained that providing a stand-alone copy of my games was *their option* (a clause since removed), and the elected NOT to exercise it. This particular case is entirely on Valve, not on the publishers. Valve were the ones who screwed me here.
Don't take my writing too serious but what hardware is Steam4Linux supposed to run on?
My P3-Dualcore@1,33Ghz doesn't offer PAE so Ubuntu doesn't run.
My P4@3,2Ghz offers PAE but its Geforce 6800 - although technically within specs - fails starting TF2 because of some GL-extension missing. As the 6800 is the best native AGP solution available this is a dead end. At least it runs Penumbra although every level change will reduce FPS by 90%.
My Core-Q9550@3,4Ghz with its Geforce 260 is technically speaking just fine but officially I may only use Ubuntu 32bit and waste half of my memory (yeah, easy to work around) but still I need the uttmost updated bleeding edge drivers just to move the steam window around. Ayeah, 3D-unity and Steam hate each other. And every 3D game hates 3D-unity and Steam at once. So better disable 3D unity and close steam before launching the game or you will have 5fps.
My i7-3770K and also its Geforce 670 are too new for Unity. Couldn't get both running useful.
The only system running out of the box (mostly - WLAN runs better with hand compiled driver) is my netbook EEE 901 from 2008. Oh but I might mention that Steam needs between 10 and 25% of CPU even with all windows closed and doing nothing at all. So better learn to use cpulimit or your battery will be empty in no time.
Still its an interesting experience.
"Life is short and in most cases it ends with death." Sir Sinclair
How does the Linux game library available on steam compare to even the OS X library (which is rather pitiful compared to the Windows library - and I say that as Windows/OS X steam user)?
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Linux is GPL encumbered. If you develop closed source applications for Linux have to be extra careful. Developing a client for a commercial friendly OS such as FreeBSD is always safe and can fully concentrate on development rather fear of GPL violations.
That would have been a good troll, 15 years ago.
Ten years ago even.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Try it and see if this works for you; if not, run your segfault message through Google or seek help on the forums.
Install windows on my workstation? You crazy? Got any idea how much I paid for the damn thing?
Saying that "this is why Linux fails on the desktop" and pointing at a problem on Valve's end... is blaming Linux for factors outside the distro's control until proven otherwise.
Fuck you morons are insufferable. And illiterate.
Valve is openly discussing their forthcoming console. That sucker isn't going to include a Microsoft OS tax, so you better expect that Valve is going to set up strong incentives for developers to release on Linux. That's what their console is going to be built on top of.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
This is a byproduct of them working on a console they intend to ship. It'll run linux, so this beta is a nice way for them to test a bunch of their architectural design without actually putting the hardware in thousands of people's living rooms.
As far as bug reporting goes, I doubt they'll prioritize stuff that's not relevant to their expected console architecture. Issues like, "Hey, I have dual monitors and steam blacks one out and it never comes back" are going to be pretty well ignored because the console is unlikely to support dual monitors. This is more about testing out scaling issues for the servers and verifying that updates are working as expected. A more exciting bug report for them would be along the lines of, "XYZ game released an update, but it requires my Steam client to by version 123, and I upgraded Steam to 123, but the game refuses to update."
Oh, and the other thing that's important about this Linux release is that it be valid for the developers to test their ports on prior to the console being finalized. Those limited-run developer hardware kits are way more expensive to issue than just giving studios a Linux install CD and some basic hardware requirements. This beta is probably about making sure the Steam client on Linux isn't too buggy for the devs to work with. This way, when the console is released there will be a healthy selection of titles available right away.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Is Slashdot the official Valve PR outlet or what is going on here? Get a new topic already...
Many mouse cursor themes (eg. the Oxygen ones) are missing the "arrow" pointer.
When Steam starts up, for some retarded reason it sets the session pointer to that, which, if missing in the current theme will be substituted to that ugly cursor in GTK+ applications.
Until the cursor packages are fixed, you can run /usr/share/icons/*/cursors; do arrow="$i/arrow"; test -e "$arrow" || ln -sv left_ptr "$arrow"; done
for i in
as root once as a workaround. (You may need to rerun it after upgrading/installing a new mouse cursor theme).
Forgot to mention, if you've installed cursor themes in your home directory, you'll want to run
for i in ~/.local/share/icons/*/cursors; do arrow="$i/arrow"; test -e "$arrow" || ln -sv left_ptr "$arrow"; done
as well.
There's few issues in this package. First, it seems to be i386 only. Then, it's setting-up a repository in /etc/apt/source.list.d without warning the users... Then, it's full of lintian warnings:
# lintian -Ii -E --pedantic steam.deb
W: steam: debian-changelog-line-too-long line 3
N:
N: The given line of the latest changelog entry is over 80 columns. Such changelog entries may look poor in terminal windows and mail messages and be annoying to read. Please wrap changelog entries at 80 columns or less where possible.
N:
N: Severity: normal, Certainty: certain
N:
N: Check: changelog-file, Type: binary
N:
W: steam: debian-changelog-line-too-long line 4
W: steam: copyright-without-copyright-notice
N:
N: The copyright file for this package does not appear to contain a copyright notice. You should copy the copyright notice from the upstream
N: source (or add one of your own for a native package). A copyright notice must consist of Copyright, Copr., or the Unicode symbol of C in a circle followed by the years and the copyright holder. A copyright notice is not required for a work to be copyrighted, but Debian requires the copyright file include the authors and years of copyright, and including a valid copyright notice is the best way to do that. Examples:
N:
N: Copyright YYYY Firstname Lastname
N: Copr. YYYY-YYYY Firstname Lastname
N: © YYYY,YYYY Firstname Lastname
N:
N: If the package is in the public domain rather than copyrighted, be sure to mention "public domain" in the copyright file. Please be aware that this is very rare and not the same as a DFSG-free license. True public domain software is generally limited to such special cases as a work product of a United States government agency.
N:
N: Refer to http://ftp-master.debian.org/REJECT-FAQ.html for details.
N:
N: Severity: normal, Certainty: certain
N:
N: Check: copyright-file, Type: binary
N:
E: steam: malformed-deb-archive found 4 members instead of 3
N:
N: The binary package is not a correctly constructed archive. A binary Debian package must be an ar archive with exactly three members: debian-binary, control.tar.gz, and one of data.tar.gz, data.tar.bz2 or data.tar.xz in exactly that order. The debian-binary member must start with a single line containing the version number, with a major revision of 2.
N:
N: Refer to the deb(5) manual page for details.
N:
N: Severity: serious, Certainty: certain
N:
N: Check: deb-format, Type: binary, udeb
N:
W: steam: extended-description-line-too-long
N:
N: One or more lines in the extended part of the "Description:" field have been found to contain more than 80 characters. For the benefit of users of 80x25 terminals, it is recommended that the lines do not exceed 80 characters.
N:
N: Refer to Debian Policy Manual section 3.4.1 (The single line synopsis)
N: for details.
N:
N: Severity: normal, Certainty: certain
N:
N: Check: description, Type: binary, udeb
N:
W: steam: extended-description-line-too-long
E: steam: description-contains-tabs
N:
N: The package "Description:" must not contain tab characters.
N:
N: Refer to Debian Policy Manual section 5.6.13 (Description) for details.
N:
N: Severity: important, Certainty: certain
N:
N: Check: description, Type: binary, udeb
N:
W: steam: extended-description-line-too-long
W: steam: extended-description-line-too-long
W: steam: extended-description-line-too-long
W: steam: extended-description-line-too-long
W: steam: extended-description-line-too-long
W: steam: extended-description-line-too-long
W: steam: extended-description-line-too-long
W: steam: extended-description-line-to
Does it run on Debian testing?
you were the sucker who agreed to the terms that said that they could change the terms unilaterally
I've tried it on OSX a few times but I'm always put off that it's so totally Windows centric. Search for something and most of the results will be Windows-only. It's full of "OMG try this new cool game!!" recommendations and when you click them you find out that it's only available for Windows. I'M RUNNING THE OSX CLIENT SO FUCKING STOP SHOWING ME WINDOWS-ONLY GAMES ALL THE TIME! FUCKING TEASERS! Until the implement a "only show me stuff I can actually use" configuration option I'm not going to bother more with it.
My other account has a 3-digit UID.
From here, it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.
Citation please for points 1-3.
I call bullshit on your fourth point, Steam doesn't consume any meaningful amount of system resources. Since my last reboot steam has consumed 0.03% of available cpu resources and presently consumes 0.37% of available RAM.
Your fifth point ... lol
---- Sig. gone.
I count 36 games.
While not a lot, it's not none.
---- Sig. gone.
Then I'll go with option c, "slow learner." "Rootkit" has a specific meaning, and it's not "thing I don't like."
I hate grammar Nazi's.
Hrmm. First definition google offers:
"A rootkit is software that enables continued privileged access to a computer, while actively hiding its presence"
So your comments appear more apt as self-commentary. Yes, it has a specific meaning, and yes, it fits, and no, there isnt an exception for things YOU like.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
First impression: so far they seem to have feature-parity with Windows; You run Steam and it launches into a download-without-resume upgrade immediately, from a window that you cannot select from the task selector (you have to uncover it by minimizing other apps) and which has no icon.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Seriously, you stop the bullshit. It is what it is. If you so desperately crave the privilege of paying them good money to take over your computer and maybe let you play some games, if you pay for them and for as long as they feel like it (or until the next time they change the deal) that you dont mind to install this crap on your computer that's fine, your computer, install away. But quit trying to shout down the voices of those with better sense, thank you.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
I cannot understand how you cannot understand. Would you celebrate if someone ported Reveton as well? How could anyone that has gone to the considerable effort to get and learn to use a free operating system then turn around and install this on it? Why bother? If you want someone else to control your computer you can get that result much more quickly and easily with Windows.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
Now I can get a big heaping helping of DRM on my Linux box too! Woohoo, just what I always wanted!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Yep, because so many people don't know they have Steam!
And two years ago, this would have been good advice. Now, it's pretty much "Don't buy games," full stop, since even boxed games off retail shelves require this malware to be installed these days[0]. They've managed to get themselves injected as a third-party into transactions that used to be a way to avoid them.
[0]Skyrim, Deus Ex, Darksiders 2, Borderlands 2 to name the ones I've, personally, passed on despite wanting to buy, because of this.
The problem here is not Steam. The problem is that the companies that produce those games refuse to make them available without some form of DRM as they do not trust people not to pirate them. If Steam did not exist then chances are the games on that list would be console only or would simply have some form of custom DRM included to limit the number of installs you could do or prevent you playing without being online or something instead.
Like it or not the people who produce most games were all set abandon the PC in favour of consoles a few years ago because they hate the idea of losing a single sale to piracy. They think we would go out and buy a console just to play their game on the platform they chose to develop it for, and it the case of the vast majority of their customers they are right.
People who care about open source or PCs or DRM are a minority as many games with shit DRM still sell by the bucketload. GTA4 used Games for windows for christ sake and people still bought it by the millions. Most people simply don't take the principle stance that you do so the companies just accept losing your business as a cost of making it harder for kids to pirate so making them pester their parents more for a legitimate copy.
God knows it this works or not, but I get the impression that the companies publishing games are wedded to DRM even if it nevers prevents a single piece of piracy or gains them a single sale. I also think that most people will never adopt the principled approach you take so you are fighting a losing battle.
I dont read
Since running the game is a right DRM manages and Steam will assess whether you are allowed to run the game, it is DRM.
You steamers.
Lol.
Evil stuff such as "flexlm" was ported to linux long ago.
as far as i can tell, Wine can run quite a few windows games just fine, including when run under Steam (which greatly simplifies some of the installing/patching routines one typically has to do in Windows games)
How many of those were already ported to linux without this? All 36 you say? That's what I thought.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
Um, Steam doesn't hide its presence. So by your own definition, you're an idiot.
SDL does not do the same job as DirectX. In fact SDL is built on top of DirectX on it's Windows port. Cross platform 3d graphics is not a "minor task". Ask the Vendetta people, ask Sam Lantinga, ask anyone who has ever actually written 3d cross platform code.
It's very funny to see "removing malware from PCs since you were a baby" as a proud statement instead of an admission of lazyness and not having good enough backups. Once somebody has "0wned" the machine it's naive to think that they were well behaved and only did what the removal tools can detect and not something else. I know it's now a very common view deep in the MS malware swamp that you just wave the magic malware cleaner at the compromised machine and you can trust it forever more, but it's still a bit grating to see someone that appears to be proud of such an attitude.
posting things that are basically 100% false is sort of a hobby of mine.
other fun facts:
The linux kernel uses Windows DLLs
FreeBSD is based off of Mac OSX
Steve Jobs wrote the Mach Microkernel in his garage with Steve Wozniak
Oh, I forgot to mention, another annoyance with installing Steam under Debian, is that it requires libc6 >= 2.15 . Debian testing and unstable only have 2.13. Experimental has libc6 2.16 though, so you can either install that, or download the ubuntu libc6 and copy the lib files to where steam keeps its library binaries. I ended up doing the latter.
Just install windows dual boot or help them a console system. And stop yelling at your kids.
Many people refer to the 'clang compiler', but what they are really referring to is Richard Milhaus Stallman's Extended Lower Intestine, Which He Used To Invent C Programming.
i mean, he was fighting a brutal dictatorship that consistently beat, imprisoned, and tortured its political opponents, and you are fighting a brutal video game distribution system that consistently ... doesnt allow you to .. hm... ... well im not sure exactly what Valve did to you but im sure its just as bad. after all
you never would say something like "shove down our throats" unless it was very serious.
but hey, at least you are fighting the good fight here in America against true evil.
Linux is GPL encumbered. If you develop closed source applications for Linux have to be extra careful. Developing a client for a commercial friendly OS such as FreeBSD is always safe and can fully concentrate on development rather fear of GPL violations.
That would have been a good troll, 15 years ago.
Ten years ago even.
Well looky here, morally bankrupt Microsofties had mod points today.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
I have been running the Steam beta for a while now and it is terrible. It's slow, it locks up, there is only one demo/free game (TF2) and it doesn't run. Steam has a long way to go before it is ready to run on Linux platforms.
Really, what's lol worthy about it? Are you saying that the owner has no subjective view of what benefits them?
And what, really, does Steam give you that benefits you?
Online community? Pop along to Amazon. You'll find people there arranging steam meet-ups, talking about steam deals or steam problems. Obviously, steam is neither unique in giving that nor sufficient.
Downloads? Well, we have downloads from GoG or Humble. And TPB of course. But we still have these things calld "CDs" and "DVDs". They work really well and don't rely on an internet connection.
Alternative to DRM? No, Steam games come with Steam DRM AND whatever DRM the publisher demands.
Saved game backup? No, I've had backup for decades.
Multiplayer support? We had that before Steam. Steam now adds offline online support (single player games now require an internet connection to run if Steam wants to check you're still a purchaser of the game you purchased and proved last time)
Voice over Internet? Falcon4 had that. So did Falcon3 IIRC.
Online cheat protection? Well Gamespy.
So what benefit does Steam give to the user that makes up for a second load of DRM and system requirements (Half Live runs under Win95 but Steam won't run under Win95 and so therefore you can't play Half Life steam version any more under Win95/98)?
Nothing unique to Steam.
And not anything many people or games need.
So what is lolworthy of statement five? That YOU, *one single datapoint* do not agree therefore no people agree? What arrogance!
12.04 LTS is the supported version.
But 12.04 LTS is not "Linux", just one Linux distro of many. So why is the story promoting "Steam for Linux" when it is not accurate?
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
It's the year of the desktop linux!
It hides what it is doing. Why do you think it has to have constant super-user status? It abuses that status to mess with things that dont belong to it and to obfuscate and hide what it is doing from the system. Just like every other rootkit out there.
It... doesn't?
I'll admit, I haven't run it on Linux, but on Windows it certainly doesn't require superuser access to run it. Mainly because it's smart enough to change the directory permissions for its own directory structure when you install it. That and Windows locking down the Program Files directory is why installing it requires superuser privileges.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
You really are an idiot, and have no idea what the fuck a rootkit is (or perhaps no idea what the fuck Steam is, it's hard to say). Steam does not trick you into installing it. It does not hide the things it does. You may not agree with its activities (and as I have already said, one can reasonably do so), but it is quite up front about what it does and what its purposes are. That singlehandedly disqualifies it from being a rootkit.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
"Sense" has nothing to do with anything you or him are saying. You're using very specific terms with very specific meanings in wholly inappropriate ways. It's the equivalent of someone who uses "Nazi" or a similar negative label as a synonym for "someone I don't like". It's the most laughable thing I've ever heard. I would have had no problem if you both simply said that you didn't feel Steam was an acceptable thing to have on your PC, because as I said - one can make legitimate arguments to that effect. But no, you had to go off into fantasy land and start calling things "rootkits" and "malware" which are legitimate software, and then try to defend your "arguments" (such as they are) with factually incorrect statements. It's one hell of a joke, and I have never seen anybody quite so woefully ignorant before.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Now Linux users can experience the joys of Wine Wrapper and Cider gaming without having to borrow someone's Mac!
I suppose the Linux drivers for nVidia chips are probably in better shape than the ones for my MacBook Pro though, so maybe Wine'd games will be more stable there. I'll certainly be checking it out at some point.
- chrish
BTW, that handy feature where the video card drivers restart after they crash? The drivers do that, not Windows Vista and higher. It worked on XP too.
Under XP, the video driver had to be programmed specifically to do that if the graphics hardware stopped responding.
Under Vista and newer, the OS itself will do it if the graphics hardware or graphics driver stop responding. The reason for this?
According to the crash analysis data collected during the Windows XP timeframe, display drivers are responsible for up to 20 percent of all blue screens.
(WDDM Spec)
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
And this is why Steam is going to have a fuckton of issues on Linux. Users who decide to go do things themselves instead of using the built in features.
You really should tell Steam to clear its local files, not randomly decide which files to delete yourself.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
BTW, that handy feature where the video card drivers restart after they crash? The drivers do that, not Windows Vista and higher. It worked on XP too.
Incorrect.
Legit AV doesn't use rootkit techniques. You may have been doing it for years, but that doesn't mean you're good at it or know what you're talking about.
No legit AV software doesn't support uninstalling it. Again, you don't know what you're talking about.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Kind of hard to do when it crashes at startup. That's why it's a beta: to identify these issues and fix them before the less tech-savvy people get on it.
Install windows on my workstation? You crazy? Got any idea how much I paid for the damn thing?
Steam for Linux doesn't include any kernel modules nor does it alter the way the kernel works. It doesn't replace any existing system libraries.
So no, it's not a rootkit.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
I am not talking about the main executable. Look closer.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
To be fair, you knew that you were potentially gambling when you initially accepted the agreement. Their EULA has always contained the standard clause "we reserve the right to change this agreement at any time, and you get to deal with it." If you weren't willing to gamble with the idea that the terms of service may eventually not be to your liking, then you shouldn't have initially agreed and made those purchases.
I do understand that a change in terms of service can result in your opinion of a service changing, but any online-only service will always carry that inherent risk. The decisions users have to make is whether they can live with that compromise.
I'm not adversely affected by Steam's terms of service in any measurable way I can identify, and the benefits they provide (games at good prices, various matchmaking and friend features, etc.) far outweigh any potential negatives that as of my 7 years of using Steam have not manifested in any meaningful way.
The only thing you are even partially right on is that it doesnt trick you into installing it. However fanboys like you sure try to. What the company actually tried to do was *coerce* me into installing it by holding products I already purchased from them hostage (technically just degrading them to the point where they were worthless,) which is similar but different.
Just because people to some degree "know" they are installing it doesnt disqualify it from being effectively a rootkit. I can install a rootkit on my own computer for testing that doesnt make it any less a rootkit just because I know what I am doing. In this case there appears to be some trickery and social engineering going on here as well - in the form of a rabid pack of fanbois resorting to name-calling and mod-swarming to try and silence anyone that criticises your beloved steam.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
Debian/Ubuntu are not "Linux", they are several of many distributions of Linux.
Steam will not run on all current major distributions of Lunux, so how can they claim to be "Steam for Linux"?
Are the devs at Steam not skilled enough to develop a distro-agnostic version of their software?
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
I was about to whine about this release being "Steam for Ubuntu" and not "Steam for Linux", but Google told me about this helpful wiki :
http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Steam
The client I did install from the overlay works quite well, and Team Fortress too, despite very slow disk access (don't know if anybody experienced this on other distros...). Too bad I only can play one game from my 40+ library.
Jicehix
The problem here is not Steam. The problem is that the companies that produce those games refuse to make them available without some form of DRM as they do not trust people not to pirate them
FALSE! There are other forms of DRM less odious than Steam. They don't prevent unauthorized copying, but neither does Steam.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
To be fair, you knew that you were potentially gambling when you initially accepted the agreement
To be fair, you're too cowardly to log in and put your name to the bullshit you're spewing. How's that job at Valve? Or are you a third-party bullshitter?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
TF2? No
Spaz? No
Uplink? Yes
The rest? Dunno, but I'm guessing not all.
---- Sig. gone.
Good news and step in the right direction!
Lack of "easy to install" commercial game support on linux ..IMO is the biggest blocker for linux to be THE OS of choice for all people.
Now if I can get a native WOW and guild wars 2 client!
And you can tell me it isnt doing anything bad and should be trusted all you want, it's hot air. You cannot demonstrate that this thing is safe.
What's stopping you to make a special locked-down profile for it in selinux, apparmor or whatever favorite RBAC system you have and then check for access violations? THEN you'll know if it messes up with the system.[*] Or are you trying to argue that the client is bidding its time now, playing it safe and will do the nasty things only when Skynet becomes operational?
[*] Of course, 'demonstrate' is not what this would be doing. One can't demonstrate absolute safety on a system that can update itself any more than one can predict the future. However, one can obtain a reasonable system lockdown with judicious use of RBAC and if that is not enough for you then maybe you shouldn't be contemplating gaming on such a high-security-requirements machine in the first place.
Instead of a tip of the hat to Valve for making this effort most posts here are just sarcastic assholes trying to be ironic, but failing.
I have fairly large Steam library and all of the games I have purchased for Windows, that have Linux versions are available to install on my Ubuntu system.
FYI - I have a fantastic gaming rig that dual boots into Win7 and Ubuntu. I am installing some of the games now and looking forward to comparing the performance.
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
But not many games available yet. Most of my steam games are from humble indie bundles, hence have linux versions. Only a few of those games have made their linux versions available through steam. BTW-- steam runs well on my Kubuntu 12.10 x8-86_64. I have a GTX 650 TI
Telling people about Windows backwards incompatibility is flamebait now? I wish I could get paid to be a Linux mod troll :(
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You're wrong. WVDDM was a new feature introduced in Windows Vista.
Drivers could detect certain internal problems, and sometimes restart/recover in limited ways. Maybe, sometimes. Sort of.
Under Vista (and higher), this is handled in the graphics stack, by the OS. You can swap drivers completely without rebooting. You can uninstall your nVidia/ATI drivers, reinstall new ones, you can even have multiple versions of your drivers and switch between them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Display_Driver_Model#Enhanced_fault-tolerance
Don't worry though, you are hardly the only slashdot poster who knows jack shit about what he's talking about.
The problem here is not Steam. The problem is that the companies that produce those games refuse to make them available without some form of DRM as they do not trust people not to pirate them
FALSE! There are other forms of DRM less odious than Steam. They don't prevent unauthorized copying, but neither does Steam.
It's possible to get "less odious" than Choose game from my Library to install it (or go purchase it from the Steam store, which then asks if I want to install it) and then once it's done installing, choose its icon from my desktop environment or Steam Library to run it?
For that matter, most Steam games on Windows can be moved out of the Steam directory structure and *poof* the Steam dependency disappears... although that doesn't work with SteamWorks games like Half-Life 2, Civilization 5, or Skyrim. Turns out most games use the same executable for their non-Steam versions and just check if they're in the steamapps directory when running.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
I look forward to the outcome of your false advertising lawsuit.
The Beta doesn't work on Linux Mint 13, due to all sorts of issues with needing a specific version of Flash, or messages about vendor drivers.
And then there's the fubar that clicking the Steam launcher that was put on my desktop by the beta opens in Chrome, and Steam only seems to want to work properly with Firefox, which is installed on my system, but was not selected by the installer.
If you get past all of those hurdles, and get steam running under Firefox, you quickly discover that almost all "Free" games (for trying out Steam Beta on LInux) are "not available for your platform".
Did get one Free game to agree to install, but Steam indicated there would be a download time of over 3-1/2 hours for the installation (on cable internet mind you!)
Uhhhhh... No thanks....
Maybe a few more betas later this will be a workable platform.
First Impressions? Not ready for even sub-prime time...
Differences between how you act when some one is watching, and how you act when no one is watching, define who you are
I haven't chimed in yet but would ABSOLUTELY classify Adobe and Apple PCware as malware for the default-checked or other software that tags along (and, yes, I do "fix" PCs when users didn't uncheck that).
I can't speak to Steam, but my use of the term "malware" is expansive to include many items not necessarily classified as a virus or spyware or rootkit.
I'm quite a long time user of Steam on Windows. There are a few games I've had difficulty with (less than 2-3% I'd guess). Most of those, one of the troubleshooting tips was to delete ClientRegistry.blob manually (never fixed anything for me). This Steam support page tells you how to do it on Windows and Mac, saying that it may resolve certain Steam issues.
It's one of the things I quite like about steam - it doesn't worry too much about you fucking it up, because it just checks and reloads what it needs. Also, copying game directories from one computer to another works, different user or not; no need to download that 30gb game again.
It's possible to get "less odious" than Choose game from my Library to install it (or go purchase it from the Steam store, which then asks if I want to install it) and then once it's done installing, choose its icon from my desktop environment or Steam Library to run it?
You are being disingenuous, which is a fancy way of saying you're a liar. It's possible to get less odious than completely shitting on First Sale law.
For that matter, most Steam games on Windows can be moved out of the Steam directory structure and *poof* the Steam dependency disappears... although that doesn't work with SteamWorks games like Half-Life 2, Civilization 5, or Skyrim
IOW, it doesn't work with any game that actually requires steam, which means it does not address objections at all. You are a playboy for Valve. Step one, take dick out of mouth. Step two, post comment.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
And this is why linux desktop is going to have issues.
Manage your paranoia.
I hate grammar Nazi's.
Meh. It's not an issue. The package was designed for Ubuntu, not Debian.
When Valve release a Debian version of their client, installing it will be a matter of click on link and select the install option.
Ill never buy a spamming resource hog frontend game ever.
ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew
Why anyone on /. can seriously believe that Valve intends to maintain their Linux port one moment beyond the announcement of the "SteamBox" baffles me
Because (according to several sources of information, including Phoronix whose Micheal has interviewed Gabe at Valve) Valve is interested in keeping "Steam-on-*any*-Linux" in addition to "Steam-on-the-specific-Ubuntu-fork-running-on-Steambox", because that will be a nice dev platform for indie and other small studios. Currently alternatives from the other big players is still expensive for indie and amateurs.
Also, Valve has expressed interests in not locking down too much this future console, but keeping it hacker/mod friendly for those still interested.
And from a practical point of view, once you have a Steam running nicely on a linux-powered machine, having Steam run on any random linux distro (or even other unix-like OSes) doesn't require much more efforts, and the Linux community has already highly motivated people to put a huge part of the efforts (packaging, testing, patching bugs in system libraries, collaborating with valve to fix steam or source, etc - for example as soon as the Ubuntu DEBs were released in closed beta, several other distros got their own steam package with all the necessary libraries) so it's not like "maintaining their Linux port" is going to cost any more resources.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
is to survive Microsoft moving in on their territory. The Windows 8 App store is a scary thing...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/