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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."
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.
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.
For both linux gamers!
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?
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.
I think the goal here is to fix that, but credit where credit's due, I laughed.
Even some games that use un-managed code (such as games that use the Source, Unreal Engine, or id Tech engines) don't need much work to get Linux support. The current Humble Bundle contains the first Unreal Engine 3 game (Dungeon Defenders) ported to Linux, and apparently it was done by one person! It all depends on the engine's portability. If, as you say, they use a custom engine in C# with DirectX 12, it's going to take a bit of effort to get ported. Fortunately, Steam on OS X has increased the number of games on OS X quite a bit, and because both OS X and Linux are Unix-ish (hell, OS X is UNIX on x86) and only support OpenGL, it's not super hard to port from OS X to Linux. Granted, there still is work to be done, but not as much as is needed to port from Windows to OS X or Linux without proper engine support.
12.04 LTS is the supported version.
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.
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
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.
What gets me is that this story has been tagged "donotwant". Who is so cynical that they believe that games via Steam on Linux is a bad thing? I can understand an individual choosing not to use the service, but branding it as "donotwant" for all Linux users?
It's called trolling. Ask for it by name.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Since AMD is worth about twice what Valve is and has 60x the employees, I think it'd be the other way around.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
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?
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
Hey, there's a nice multiplayer setup there already.
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
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Many mouse cursor themes (eg. the Oxygen ones) are missing the "arrow" pointer.
When Steam starts up, for some retarded reason it sets the session pointer to that, which, if missing in the current theme will be substituted to that ugly cursor in GTK+ applications.
Until the cursor packages are fixed, you can run /usr/share/icons/*/cursors; do arrow="$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).
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.
Well judging by the Humble Bundle sales data, linux gamers are roughly as many as mac gamers, so yes, they're a significant market.
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.
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.'"
It's called trolling. Ask for it by name.
Or it someone philosophically opposed to the idea of closed source software running on an open source OS?
People with that view do exist, and dismissing their point of view as a troll is a nice easy way of ignoring it without taking the time to think about it.
There is also the fact that the console they produce is going to be a legal mind field as it will invariably involve lots of closed source software running on top of an open source OS. Surely this is going to have the same issues around it that Tivo had as the people who produce the games are going to demand that the steam layer remains closed source, including its limited DRM that prevents people selling games second hand after the bought them?
Personally I have no trouble with closed source software be it running on linux or not. I also think Steam is great and would never sell games on to someone else after I finished with it even if I could so I think it is great that Steam is coming to linux.
I bet if you went and asked RMS he would strongly disagree though and would have very valid and heartfelt reasons why he though this was a step in the wrong direction.
Some people object to the mere idea of intellectual property existing at all so they would only be happy with Steam coming to linux if it was entirely open source and the only games available were also open source only. These people often frequent slashdot in case you hadn't noticed :)
I dont read
I think the goal here is to fix that, but credit where credit's due, I laughed.
I think the goal is for Linux users to act as guinea pigs for Valve's console / cloud gaming service in whatever form it takes. I doubt the number of Linux users / games would justify the existence of the service for any other reason.
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
That he can't do anything about it, and the NVIDIA drivers, and the many other things he objects to in linux distributions truly demonstrates that it is not and never was gnu/linux.
"Debian gnu/linux" is of course a different story because Debian can call their distro whatever they like because unlike RMS they've actually put one together, and they can also keep out things they don't want in there.
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.
Personally I have no trouble with closed source software be it running on linux or not. I also think Steam is great and would never sell games on to someone else after I finished with it even if I could so I think it is great that Steam is coming to linux.
You wrote a well thought-out post that urges people not to dismiss different points of view as the writing of a troll, so I'm not going to harp too much on that one sentence, other than to say that, in my point of view, your logic is misguided. What you're saying is that since you wouldn't be one of the people who exercise the right to resell the games, it's alright if that right is taken from those who would.
It's perfectly fine for you to choose not to resell games, and I understand how you don't feel like you're losing anything by being a Steam customer, but I still believe that Steam should be opposed on philosophical grounds. I will grant that it provides better DRM than most, but it's still DRM, and it's still infringing on my rights. As such, I am not a customer, and I am not glad to see it show up in Linux.
Or it someone philosophically opposed to the idea of closed source software running on an open source OS?
People with that view do exist, and dismissing their point of view as a troll is a nice easy way of ignoring it without taking the time to think about it.
But can't I do both? I've thought about the whole closed source binaries running on top of the open platform quite a bit since I've been using Linux on the desktop for a number of years now. My conclusion? Better an open OS with a few proprietary applications to fill the cracks than a closed OS and everything being the other way around. That's a personal choice though and I don't try to force it on anybody else. I may politely recite the as seen by me virtues if it comes up but that's about it. Besides, Linux had proprietary shops writing applications for it a looooong time ago so that ship has pretty much done sailed for anybody keeping score. Not only that but Valve produces a tiny fraction of the games on Steam so, whoever's offended, be sure to spread some of that ire around while you're huffing and puffing. And don't look now but the Android Market is full of closed source apps and sure as shit, Android is a Linux to the core. If you think Dalvik is reason enough to beg to differ then I'll direct your attention to the vast quantity of well known apps that are compiled from native code with the NDK making them Linux binaries.
To conclude my repost, some of the previous paragraph is predicated on a presumption made by you that isn't even true. Whether I agree with them or not, people that are sincere in their preference to resist the encroachment of proprietary software on the Linux landscape don't even remotely qualify as trolls. I used the "t word" for the simple fact that I believe the "donotwant" tag on this submission was put there by an actual troll, that is, someone with an axe to grind and not as a representation of a sincere belief. It's an opinion. Deal with it.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
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
I'm not sure why we Linux users need Steam. There's only two games: TuxRacer and "Find the Dependencies."
But seriously, I'm really looking forward to what Steam can do for Linux.
It's a perfect time for being wasted.
A perfect time to watch the stars.
- Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"