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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!
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.
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.
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
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);
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
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!
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.
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
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"