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Steam On Linux Now Has Over a Thousand Games Available

Posted by Soulskill on from the year-of-linux-on-the-console dept.

An anonymous reader writes: This week the Steam Linux client has crossed the threshold of having more than 1,000 native Linux games available while Steam in total has just under 5,000 games. This news comes while the reported Steam Linux market-share is just about 1.0%, but Valve continues brewing big plans for Linux gaming. Is 2015 the year of the Linux gaming system?

127 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. If Xorg would fix... by Rei · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...the bug that prevents me from having accelerated graphics in Linux, I'd be among that 1%. Until then? Reboot... reboot.... reboot... reboot...

    --
    "Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon." -- Primer
    1. Re:If Xorg would fix... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, this is open source, so when bugs are found, they are fixed quickly.

    2. Re:If Xorg would fix... by ledow · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The problem is that the OP of the bug report has only tested on nVidia binary drivers, by the look of it, and has not managed to reproduce on nouveau. Only an nVidia engineer has said that it was an X bug, nobody else, and that's hardly gospel.

      Maybe it's just a cock-up in their binary driver? Who knows? And it doesn't look like an awful lot of people have the same problem.

    3. Re:If Xorg would fix... by kav2k · · Score: 1

      Not sure if trolling or being funny. You succeed at both.

    4. Re:If Xorg would fix... by freak0fnature · · Score: 1

      so fix it...

    5. Re:If Xorg would fix... by armanox · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hard to say. It could be broken like the nvidia engineer says, and everyone else just allowing something to work that the spec says shouldn't.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    6. Re:If Xorg would fix... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      In my experience Optimus doesn't even work for flash applications on Windows. I'm very doubtful that this is an X bug, it's more likely an nvidia or system firmware issue. Have you even checked with MSI?

    7. Re:If Xorg would fix... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You can't just download the X.org source code and fix the bug right away. For most people it is too hard and complicated. That's why we need the help of engineers who are familiar with the codebase.

    8. Re:If Xorg would fix... by Vintermann · · Score: 2

      That is the wrong question to ask. The right question is "why should we not blindly the believe the guy who says the bug isn't in his code?" and the answer ought to be obvious.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    9. Re:If Xorg would fix... by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      That is a lot of work just to play a game. For us people with lives outside computers, you are better off rebooting to windows and play the freaking game.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    10. Re:If Xorg would fix... by Bonzoli · · Score: 1

      I had to remove optimus on my laptop to make the graphics work. I hard set 2 monitors, the laptop and one external on the replicator. Optimus has never worked correctly in X with GL enabled. KDE did make the non xrandx version work for me, I can undock and use the gl parts with very little problem.
      Now if vmware player would quit going to 365% cpu load I'd be happy.

    11. Re:If Xorg would fix... by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      If it were me, I would have just bought a proper laptop for the purpose to begin with. I'm not sure I would go for this Optimus stuff even if I were running Windows. It all seems like a very bad hack.

      You can make things easier for yourself if you really want to.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    12. Re:If Xorg would fix... by Rei · · Score: 1

      Multiple people experiencing the problem, an offer to assist in debugging it in any way possible, and no responses in three months. Do you find this acceptable?

      --
      "Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon." -- Primer
    13. Re:If Xorg would fix... by Rei · · Score: 1

      1) A second user reported the exact same problem.

      2) There are many similar problems across the net

      3) The engineer's response is to ask if it can be reproduced with noveau and say that they can't understand how it could happen. I replied. And got no response. And no response. And no response. Three months later, no response.

      4) The NVIDIA people's response was much more convincing that it's an Xorg problem than Xorg's "I don't know how that could happen" response.

      5) I fully expected a lot of "pass the buck" between the two. But the buck right now is sitting with Xorg, who hasn't even bothered to respond to the information that they requested and an offer of help in any way that they can, nor a second user with the same problem, in the past three months.

      --
      "Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon." -- Primer
    14. Re:If Xorg would fix... by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Well, we can argue about it and not exploe his suggestion. I'm sure that will get it fixed quickly.

      Oh, and i'm pretty sure he explained the problem which has to do with drawing two frames at the same time or something like that unless there is a new problem.

    15. Re:If Xorg would fix... by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      They can't review the NVIDIA driver code so how can they can they know where the bug is just from a code review? From the analysis they did of the code they don't see a way in which it could happen. Other can compiling X.org yourself and adding debug printfs, logging or whatever to the called functions and their parameters I don't see how they can hash this out.

      You got a stack trace but that isn't enough to debug every problem.

    16. Re:If Xorg would fix... by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      If you want to move forward try getting nouveau to work. It might require code changes to nouveau for all I know. Mobile graphics (heck any mobile hardware) driver support is usually horribly broken in my experience.

      Other than that you need to insert probes in the Xorg code and check how the pixmap is created and accessed. Not exactly easy.

      If the NVIDIA guy "knows" where the bug is in Xorg why didn't he just post a bug report to Xorg with a small code sample reproducing the bug? Because he's a lazy bum? Because he's bullshitting you? Because he doesn't know how to communicate with open source developers?

    17. Re:If Xorg would fix... by hufter · · Score: 1
      I've been playing Steam games quite happily withith an nVidia card, using the proprietary driver. I haven't experienced this bug. It's definitely accelerated. (GF GT 430, Linux Mint).

      I even recently ordered me a GTS 750 card - expecting to get rid of occasional slowdowns (eg. when a huge horde of zombies attack) and allowing me to play any linux game on the market.

    18. Re:If Xorg would fix... by ledow · · Score: 2

      How many of those multiple people have done what was requested in one of the very first replies - test under nouveau, where they stand a chance of debugging? None. How many tested not on Fedora, as suggested? None.

      An offer to debug is only useful if people have a tiny clue what's going on. In this case, we know exactly what the problem is - there's an unshared pixmap trying to be used as a shared one.

      And, as someone points out in the thread, there is NO instance of an unshared pixmap being created in the code and passed to those functions. So either there's a patch being applied somewhere, or the nVidia driver is talking nonsense or breaking itself.

      How to debug? Ask nVidia to provide a debugging version of their MASSIVE driver so someone can get a clue about where the original pixmap it has a problem with came from.

      More likely, there's an interaction at play here - a distro combination with the XR+R options with a particular version of the nVidia binary and maybe even some memory corruption (where something not a pixmap at all is being passed to the shared pixmap functions!).

      But without a line number, a clue, an origin, a pointer, etc. then it's impossible to debug.

      Like all things - you need a reproducible, and bisectable, bug in order to be able to get close to a reason in any significant amount of code. You can't break into or debug the nVidia binary AT ALL unless you're nVidia. The XOrg stuff doesn't look like it ever creates an unshared pixmap in or around these functions. Nobody has worked out if it's a Fedora specific, nVidia-driver-specific, or even card-specific bug.

      And it affects precisely, what... 2/3 people on that thread.

      If you want help in fixing bugs, you have to do most of the legwork, ESPECIALLY in open-source projects. Because likely you're the only one it affects and until a common ground can be found, nobody can reproduce it.

      Like my entire day's work every day in IT:

      If I can't reproduce it, I CANNOT fix it.

      If it always works when I try, even as your user, even on your computer, even doing exactly what you said you did, whether that's a printer not working, or a driver crash, or an obscure bug, I can't do much about it. If I can't make it happen in front of me, I can only stab in the dark as to the cause until I get lucky.

      Try it on Nouveau.
      Try it on Ubuntu, say.
      Try it on the previous nVidia driver and the latest (if it isn't already).

      When you get the bug in TWO places, someone can start drawing conclusions about the cause. If it works on Nouveau, it's probably not a hardware bug. If it works on Ubuntu, it's probably not a Fedora-specific bug. If it works on other nVidia versions, it's ALMOST CERTAINLY an nVidia bug.

    19. Re:If Xorg would fix... by phorm · · Score: 1

      Didn't nVidia recently contribute a bug fix for compiz that has been around for ages, but that the Compiz team didn't address?

      If NV is doing things a standard/accepted way and it's having issues, it could be that both nouveau and Xorg simply work with the non-standard way. It's quite possible that the Nouveau driver is just using some kludge that doesn't hit this bug.

  2. Year of the... by MacDork · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Linux desktop/gaming/etc. They don't just have linux games. They're going to be shipping linux hardware! Nice hardware. I'm excited to see titles like Dying Light treating Linux as first class citizens.

    1. Re:Year of the... by blackraven14250 · · Score: 2

      I think he's going more for the "here's just one random example" than "here's the specific example I'm excited about".

    2. Re:Year of the... by MacDork · · Score: 3, Interesting

      outdated by November 2015

      LOL, you didn't even read the specs did you? 6th gen intel processor. Not haswell. Not new 5th gen broadwell. 6th gen skylake. If anything, it's so cutting edge, I'd worry about it shipping in time for xmas given Intel's lousy track record with broadwell.

      Also, 970m isn't going anywhere any time soon. It's going to be early/mid 2016 at the soonest before Pascal GPUs ship out of nvidia.

      Also(!) Zotac tends to ship barebones systems in addition to full systems. Don't like the RAM/disk provided? Get a barebones and choose your own.

    3. Re:Year of the... by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 1

      When they first announced it, I was excited. But the most details that come out, the less interest I have.

    4. Re:Year of the... by rogoshen1 · · Score: 2

      trackballs and wireless keyboards allow the best of both worlds.

      Because honestly after sitting at a desk for 8 hours at work, sitting at a desk when I get home just seems to blur the line between recreation and work a bit too much.

    5. Re:Year of the... by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

      Yeah, like that is going to happen. Once they realize there is no money in linux games, that will be the end of that.

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

    6. Re:Year of the... by donaldm · · Score: 1

      Yeah, like that is going to happen. Once they realize there is no money in linux games, that will be the end of that.

      This may be the case for the Linux desktop but for Android (Linux kernel) that is a totally different story.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
  3. It will never be the year of Linux Gaming. by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just like the year of Networking it will never happen. If it happens it will just keep creeping up until you notice it is everywhere and then look back and wonder when was the year of X.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    1. Re:It will never be the year of Linux Gaming. by unrtst · · Score: 1

      IE. thin client.
      Where have you been that you missed that creeping up every couple years?

    2. Re:It will never be the year of Linux Gaming. by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      I think they called it the year of the network...
      It was a good long time ago but their was a time when networking was going to be the big thing...
      And they where right but not right then.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    3. Re:It will never be the year of Linux Gaming. by Art3x · · Score: 1

      Just like the year of Networking it will never happen. If it happens it will just keep creeping up until you notice it is everywhere and then look back and wonder when was the year of X.

      Will this be the decade of Linux gaming?

  4. Redolent of the past. by fey000 · · Score: 1

    Sounds like it's high time for a Microsoft "exclusivity" bribe again.

    1. Re:Redolent of the past. by RogueyWon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Exclusivity bribes are on the wane even in console gaming land. Modern development costs means that the size of the bribe needed to provide the game's publisher with confidence it can still turn a profit despite locking out part of the market is getting ludicrous. If a developer/publisher expects that a platform will generate enough sales to be worth the porting costs, the general rule these days is that they will do the port.

      Valve is notoriously secretive about its sales figures, but it's increasingly clear that the Steam platform is a direct and significant competitor to Sony's Playstation platforms and, more crucially, Microsoft's Xbox platforms.

      Valve are not in a happy commercial place for so long as they are dependant upon their platform sitting on top of one of their competitors' products. They had a bad scare with the Windows 8 app store (though it turned out to be essentially a false alarm on this occasion). So it's entirely unsurprising that they are encouraging alternatives to Windows.

  5. Thanks to the Humble Bundle by pecosdave · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have a significant share of that 1,000 games.

    I'm very disappointed when I see a Windows only game, but I can understand why the big developers do it.

    I'm even MORE disappointed when I see a game that works with Windows and Mac but not Linux. Once it works with Mac or Linux making it work with the other is trivial. Don't give me the coca garbage - if it runs at full-screen you really don't have to mess with that a lot.

    The indie guys are really leading the charge, and based on very visible results with the Humble Bundle "Triple Compatibility" seems to up the success of the bundle, and I heavily suspect it's why they tend to make the one or two Linux compatible games in a heavily Microsoft centric bundle the "Pay at least $10 to get" game.

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    1. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And my experience has been pretty much the opposite. Generally speaking, indie developers focus on Linux last and so it ends up invariably being the latest version of the code base. And as for not being tested properly, I've had very few issues** with most indie games (a few mouse control issues) which seem to be about the same level of issue with games in Wine under Steam (so, either it's a hardware issue or it's a general programming issue).

      On the other side, a lot of games for Wine simply don't work. This is a combination of a lot of things, no doubt, but even under the best of circumstances it's a very convoluted process that basically demands installing dotnet and DirectX native libraries--both of which have install issues that require either a complex issue of installs or simply copy/pasting files to fill in gaps. And even then, obviously, there's issues*.

      Honestly, though, as someone who owns 210 of those SteamOS/Linux games, I've had very few issues with Linux gaming.

      * DirectX setup now crashes on me, which unfortunately happens on Steam during the first run (and possibly subsequent runs) of a game. The solution is to move/remove the dxsetup.exe from the game's folder, which is obviously a bad hack.

      PS - A short list of Windows games that work under Wine in Steam (with DotNET 4.0 and DirectX files installed):

      The 11th Hour, Alien Swarm, BlackSoul Extended Edition, Blockland, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land, Cinders, Coldfire Keep, Company of Heroes, Crazy Taxi, Crow, The Darkness II, Darkout, Deadlight, etc

      Obviously, a lot of Bundle games (in fact, they're the only ones I own through Steam). And not obviously, in the same span of game about 33% Windows (possibly Mac too)-exclusive don't work. But so many games are for Linux as well, that 49.52% of my collection is for Linux. And a good many of those are DRM free and merely listed in Steam for convenience sake (ie, they're not installed through Steam). So, yea, I'm not sure what your anecdote really amounts to.

      ** One counter example is EvoLand which apparently requires the 32-bit version of Google Chrome's flash (32-bit Chromium flash if you change config.js might work, but I wouldn't know since this is a 64-bit system and I don't have some of the other required 32-bit libraries). So, yea, apparently they didn't adequately test that. But, then, EvoLand on Windows is apparently a mess as well. And I ended up going with a 32-bit Wine prefix because so many games seemed to not work in Windows 64-bit, but that might just be a Wine deficiency.

    2. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      I don't even consider WINE an option. That's way too much work for crappy results. I would rather not waste hardware on Windows.

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
    3. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by pecosdave · · Score: 2

      First of all - no ZOOOMMM!!! I totally see that's a smart-assed comment.

      I want to address it anyways.

      I have 0 versions of Minecraft, and I'm not running the OSS knock-off version.

      The Unreal and Quake engines rock on Linux, and I guess the Half-Life engine is it's own? Portal is awesome on it also.

      Does Minecraft work on Linux? I refuse to check, just don't care enough. I love pissing off Minecraft fans by saying "When I was a kid I had an Atari 2600, it looked like crap but it was awesome because it was all that we had. Then came the 8 bit Nintendo, the Super Nintendo, the 64, then you got realistic 3D with the Unreal engine and it just keeps getting better, then YOUR generation declared "Good stuff sucks!". They went back to Atari looking graphics programmed the with sloppy code forcing high-end multi-core high-RAM hardware to run shit 8-bit graphics!"

      I've just about started fist-fights with that observations.

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
    4. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by morgauxo · · Score: 1

      Sometimes things actually run faster in Wine than on Windows.

    5. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by amorsen · · Score: 2

      Please explain how installing 32-bit libraries magically makes your system slower when they are not in use.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    6. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by Microlith · · Score: 2

      I've just about started fist-fights with that observations.

      Probably because it's profoundly and willfully ignorant, along with being unnecessarily antagonistic.

      You should probably try not being an asshole.

    7. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      But then I wouldn't be welcome on Slashdot.

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
    8. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Interesting

      >> Once it works with Mac or Linux making it work with the other is trivial.
      >
      > Are you for serious? Maybe if your middleware supports Linux yea, otherwise not so much.

      Of course he's serious.

      Once you get past coding for DirectX only, the gap between that and the next thing is MUCH smaller. That's why Mac companies are doing the most interesting Linux ports right now.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    9. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      That's just retarded. Have a tantrum like a little baby just because developers won't go to an unecessary EXTRA step just to please you? That's just stupid.

      The Steam experience is seamless on Linux just like it is on Windows and that's really all that matters on the end.

      If you are going to whine about irrelevant nonsense, at least whine about the DRM. At least that's associated with some moral high ground rather than being totally irrelevant nonsense.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    10. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      I suppose if someone wanted to get pedantically technical, one could argue that the extra lib directory in /usr causes a several microsecond increase on latency during the runtime linker's initialization....... if you're running a non-hashed directory inode filesystem....

      Or the claim is entirely bullsh.

    11. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      Please explain how installing 32-bit libraries magically makes your system slower when they are not in use.

      It doesn't. MAYBE the game MIGHT run a tiny bit slower than it might otherwise, but the rest of his system would not. Of course, the 32bit game runs a lot better than the hypothetical 64bit game that doesn't actually exist.

    12. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by linuxrocks123 · · Score: 1

      Or the claim is entirely bullsh.

      Right. Like those silly people who think Candlejack will come to ta.

      --
      vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
    13. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by linuxrocks123 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Trolling? There's no harm in running a mixed-mode system. It makes your kernel slightly larger and means 32-bit shared libraries will be loaded when and only when you're actually using 32-bit programs. You still get the speedup for software compiled in long mode. Given that the CPU designers baked the support logic into your CPU anyway, there's really no downside ot using that support when it makes sense.

      --
      vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
    14. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      It's certainly dick-headed... But profoundly and willfully ignorant? I don't know. The Minecraft engine is pure shit. I work with the base classes frequently while work with mods. It really does take an i7 with a decent GPU and a couple gigs of ram to really run it worth a shit with any kind of mods that make the game anything more than a simple sandbox, and the graphics really are terrible... That being said, the game itself is great, and the ease with which it can be modified is also great, so this shouldn't be construed as a dig against Minecraft, I'm just not a defender of the faith.

    15. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The Steam experience is seamless on Linux just like it is on Windows and that's really all that matters on the end.

      Not for me, where I can connect to steam on windows but not on linux on the same hardware. I'm in the second round of going back and forth with Steam, they're having me try all the usual troubleshooting shit with networking and whatnot in spite of it working perfectly fine on Windows.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    16. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Cannot say it will work but i had a similar experience with a VPN connection to the office once. I probably misconfigured something but i had to change the MAC address an IP addtess in linux yo something other than what was in windows and the connection worked.

      If course you don't physically change the MAC address as its hardcoded to thr NIC. But in you networking setup, you should be able to designate a different address for the networking stack to use. In my case, the DHCP in the router assigned the same IP to the MAC address leased when windows was used. I do not know which made it work or if both were needed as i stopped futzing with it once it worked.

      Might be worth a try if you haven't already tried it.

    17. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I'll give it a try (or something similar, I could just assign the address by client ID, I suppose) but I'd think that since I am not running a uPnP daemon on my firewall, having the same IP assigned (I am deliberately assigning one static address by MAC) would be an asset.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    18. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by arth1 · · Score: 1

      No, it's more that the loader first tries the 32-bit loader and then the 64-bit loader, for every binary and library it encounters. This takes extra time.
      Plus, task switching also has to deal with both 32-bit and 64-bit code, with different frame sizes. It's less efficient than a 64-bit pure system.

      SGI was the first company that offered a choice: 32-bit, 64-bit or mixed mode 32/64 (which is just now being implemented in Linux as x32), where you run 64-bit code in a 32-bit address space.

    19. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      Replied to like a real Apple specific programmer.

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    20. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      I tend to play "other than" AAA titles. Even stuff I get "working" tends to be buggy and I have to kill the processes manually quite often, not to mention all of the X-server restarts and resized I have to do when things head south. I just don't have that many hours to fine tune everything to make it reasonably stable.

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
    21. Re:Thanks to the Humble Bundle by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but that's false.

      ELF binaries in linux have what is called an interpreter in the header. It's a binary that the kernel actually loads to setup the ELF in memory before execution. That binary is responsible for the start-time aspect of run-time linking (setup the delayed-load tables, GOT, PLT, etc.)
      For 32-bit binaries, the 32-bit loader is specified as the interpreter (at compile time), for 64-bit binaries, the 64-bit loader is.

      The loaders maintain caches of what libraries of what architecture are where, this cache is loaded every time the loader is fired off by the kernel to setup an ELF program for execution. There is no trying to load different loaders or libraries from different architectures. It just doesn't work that way.

      Context switches between long-mode and protected-mode code are not any more expensive (practically speaking) than homogenous context switches. This has all been profiled. If SGI offered the ability to not support 32-bit userspace code at the kernel level (certainly doesn't matter at the kernel level- it's not like people are allowed to jump into the kernel.) it was likely because of an architectural nightmare like their 64-bit kernel running on the Itanic.

  6. Nice by Greyfox · · Score: 2

    It seems like Steam is enjoying some success where Loki failed. I'd guess PC gamers are subsidizing Linux development at the moment, an advantage Loki lacked. Has anyone put an Xtrek client up on steam yet?

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  7. I'm a Member of That 1% by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The summary maybe should have mentioned something more important: SteamOS is basically Debian Linux with Steam libraries. Valve likely wants to release SteamOS hardware and is pushing for ports/originals that target that platform. If this takes off, it's great news for gaming in Linux as it's just a matter of installing the right packages to be able to run these games. In fact repo.steampowered.com already has packages that you can install on 64 bit Debian to be able to select SteamOS as a session on your Ubuntu or Debian box. But you don't even need to go that far -- if you're running Ubuntu and have a steam account, please try this: apt-get install steam. It's that easy and like the article says there are many great titles. I highly recommend Faster Than Light.

    Is 2015 the year of the Linux gaming system?

    Could we please stop this shit? Please?

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by armanox · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's equally easy on Fedora (I think you need to enable RPMFusion first) - 'yum install steam' and you're good to go.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    2. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by waspleg · · Score: 3, Interesting

      it's not just likely, they already have a bunch of companies releasing stuff in November.

      There is also a Steam community group where they post announcements, with a DIY section. It's also meant as a console/htpc replacement not as a desktop replacement.

      If and when it's stable/good enough I might eventually actually be able to run Linux as my primary desktop with some SteamOS packages on the side (Windows 7 Ultimate at home, because I'm a gamer). I'm glad they chose Debian instead of Ubuntu in the end because that's not what they said they were going to do early on.

      However the assholes spamming every game thread with "When will there be a Linux version" then often being very snarky, rude and arrogant about it aren't helping the cause much.

    3. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by Cytotoxic · · Score: 1

      Let's just stipulate that the answer to every summary-ending question is "No."

      Is this the year of the Linux Desktop?

      Is this the year of Wearables?

      Will Mars One ever land people on Mars?

      Is this the year of the Linux Game Console?

      Is this the moment when Ruby on Rails takes over the programming market?

    4. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by quantaman · · Score: 2

      Is 2015 the year of the Linux gaming system?

      Could we please stop this shit? Please?

      This is the one time it might actually apply (though maybe it was properly 2014). Two years ago major game being ported to Linux were virtually non-existent. Now 20% of the games from the largest game store on the Internet are suddenly available and generally functional.

      For Linux desktop users that exposition of commercial software is completely unprecedented.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    5. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by nine-times · · Score: 2

      Valve likely wants to release SteamOS hardware and is pushing for ports/originals that target that platform.

      Yeah, they announced a bunch of pieces of hardware in the past week or two, and it looks like they're pushing out Steam Boxes in the fall. This means you'll be able to buy a game console that's basically commodity hardware, running Linux and Steam.

      It would only make sense that Steam will try to expand their library of Linux-supported games before the launch.

    6. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by The_Dougster · · Score: 3, Informative

      I recently got it working on Gentoo with the usual fiddling around. A portage overlay makes this pretty painless and there is a decent guide. http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/St... It's just a matter of building appropriate compatibility libs somewhat akin to supporting 32-bit binaries on a 64-bit system. I was impressed enough that I did a little re-partitioning to allocate a couple hundred gig sandbox for Steam to live in. Some of those games are big!

      What's cool is that, for me, linux steam came with the batteries included. I have a fair smattering of games for it that I've already accumulated just as a side-affect of their being cross platform titles.

      --
      Clickety Click ...
    7. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by arth1 · · Score: 1

      In fact repo.steampowered.com already has packages that you can install on 64 bit Debian to be able to select SteamOS as a session on your Ubuntu or Debian box.

      Would that be pure 64-bit, or mixed mode 64/32 bit?
      As far as I can tell, Steam absolutely requires 32-bit OS support and system libraries.

    8. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by present_arms · · Score: 2

      I have Steam installed on a pure 64bit Linux distro and I've had no issues so far.

      --
      http://chimpbox.us
    9. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      I have Steam installed on a pure 64bit Linux distro and I've had no issues so far.

      Hmm, wonder if they are static linking or you're getting 32-bit libs that you don't realize you're getting.

      You're sure that 32-bit support is actually disabled in your kernel? I'm not aware of any distros that do this out of the box.

    10. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Gentoo, unless you choose a multilib profile, will be 64-bit clean.
      In addition to the speed benefit, this is also a security benefit, as most rootkits and exploits are 32-bit and just won't run.

    11. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      Gentoo, unless you choose a multilib profile, will be 64-bit clean.
      In addition to the speed benefit, this is also a security benefit, as most rootkits and exploits are 32-bit and just won't run.

      The kernel will still run 64-bit code unless you disable that feature. That means that a static-linked 32-bit binary or a package (like steam) that bundles its own 32-bit libs may still work, even on no-multilib Gentoo.

      I don't know for sure that this is what is happening in your case, but I wouldn't rule it out without checking.

    12. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      I would love to hear what the speed benefit is of not having 2 separate runtime linkers that each only apply to binaries of their architecture.

    13. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      He's getting 32-bit libs that he didn't realize he was getting.
      Not that that's a problem... in any way, whatsoever.

    14. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by donaldm · · Score: 1

      Let's just stipulate that the answer to every summary-ending question is "No."

      Is this the year of the Linux Desktop?

      Been using a Linux Desktop professionally (no dual booting) for over seven years and I have not missed MS Windows.

      Is this the year of Wearables?

      Who cares it's your choice, but what has this to do with the Linux Desktop?

      Will Mars One ever land people on Mars?

      I think I will stay on a planet with a breathable atmosphere.

      Is this the year of the Linux Game Console?

      Over a billion of android users (smart phone and tablet) would like a word with you.

      Is this the moment when Ruby on Rails takes over the programming market?

      Who cares one way or another.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    15. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Commodity hardware means you can upgrade it instead of buying a new console- at least for a while.

    16. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by nine-times · · Score: 1

      Yes, well some of the steam boxes appear to be upgradeable. If you don't like them, you can build your own, install SteamOS, and get all the same features.

      Plus, if you buy a game for this console, you can also play the game on your Mac, your Windows machine, or any other platform the developer chooses to support. And if you upgrade to the latest version of the console a couple of years later, you it'll be backwards compatible and support your old games. This should be a huge improvement for consumers.

    17. Re:I'm a Member of That 1% by arth1 · · Score: 1

      The kernel will still run 64-bit code unless you disable that feature. That means that a static-linked 32-bit binary or a package (like steam) that bundles its own 32-bit libs may still work, even on no-multilib Gentoo.

      I don't know for sure that this is what is happening in your case, but I wouldn't rule it out without checking.

      Ok, copied over /bin/ls from a 32-bit system to a gentoo box:
      gentoo $ file ls
      ls: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.16, stripped
      gentoo $ chmod +x ls
      gentoo $ ./ls
      sh: ./ls: cannot execute binary file
      gentoo $

      If it were just a case of missing libraries, it would have reported:
      -sh: ./ls: /lib/ld-linux.so.2: bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory

  8. this is 2015 by stud9920 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tuxracer and xbill don't count as games anymore

    1. Re:this is 2015 by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      It's 2015, you want xlennart instead of xbill.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  9. GOG.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    GOG.com will get there with almost 1000 games and also a lot of games for the Linux platform! ;-)

    1. Re:GOG.com by The_Dougster · · Score: 2

      Actually DosBOX runs like a champ. I was playing Wing Commander Privateer in a fullscreen DosBOX session a long time ago, and it's been improving ever since. Since GOG mostly runs their stuff from within a DosBOX anyways, all of those titles are de-facto linux titles as well.

      --
      Clickety Click ...
  10. Wasn't it 2013 already? by jones_supa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wasn't the Year of Games on Linux already in 2013? Why can't we settle with that? That year was the launch of Steam for Linux and the stream of games begun. We don't have to have every single game on the planet to be ported to Linux before we can celebrate.

    1. Re:Wasn't it 2013 already? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      It would need to climb significantly above 1% of users before it's even a competitor. 1% after how many years? That's pitiful.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:Wasn't it 2013 already? by Ravaldy · · Score: 1

      On par with Windows Mobile although they breached the 2% mark last year.

    3. Re:Wasn't it 2013 already? by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      If you can play the games you want to play, then mission accomplished. Who, other than shareholders and accountants, cares about marketshare?

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    4. Re:Wasn't it 2013 already? by master_kaos · · Score: 1

      So windows phone (which I still have yet to see someone actually using it in the wild) still has double the market share of a major operating system.
      Wow.

    5. Re:Wasn't it 2013 already? by MMC+Monster · · Score: 1

      I did see a Windows Phone at work a couple weeks ago. The poor owner was made fun of mercilessly. Especially since she said she just bought it and had gotten rid of her Blackberry.

      That's like kicking your tobacco habit by switching to crack cocaine.

      --
      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
    6. Re:Wasn't it 2013 already? by Ravaldy · · Score: 1

      Guess it depends who you hang out with. I know 7 Windows Phone owners. I became one 2 years ago. I honestly don't see the difference between the Windows Phone, iPhone and Android (I've own an iPhone and my wife owns an Android phone). They all perform the same tasks with different interfaces. The Android and Windows Phone both use the same tech and both allow you to copy files directly to the flash memory without the need for an iTunes equivalent.

  11. Wow, that's.... by pastafazou · · Score: 5, Funny

    ....almost a game per user!!!

  12. Probably not subsidizing... by Kludge · · Score: 1

    Apparently Steam has made it very easy for develop cross-platform, so with great ease developers can target multiple systems. This is great for Steam and the end users who may have multiple gaming platforms.

    1. Re:Probably not subsidizing... by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      Steam makes it easy for developers to publish cross-platform. It does nothing to make it easy to get your game running on multiple platforms. That's up to your (and your middleware vendor's) developers.

    2. Re:Probably not subsidizing... by Vintermann · · Score: 1

      Well yeah, technically it's Valve that helps people get their games running on multiple platforms, not Stream. But that's still picking nits.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    3. Re:Probably not subsidizing... by DamnOregonian · · Score: 2

      In a way, it does make it easy to get your game running on multiple platforms. The base dependencies for Steam are also basic middleware installed on virtually every Linux machine, and Steam ensures that it is there. SDL/OpenGL are easier to use than DirectX (IMO, I concede), and making sure that Steam enforces the dependencies across multiple flavors of platforms does in fact overcome the most difficult aspect of Linux development- dealing with the nightmare of different ways or slight variations in the details for pulling in dependencies on different platforms.

      Need the 32-bit version of of the Pulseaudio libraries, but you refuse to install that stuff on your machine? Don't worry, Steam has you covered.
      Steam is, in essence, a portion of the middleware, a compatibility layer, to a point.

  13. Wow! A thousand??? by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 2

    Now there's more games than gamers!

    Seriously, yes, I know -- or at least suspect -- there are more than a thousand Linux gamers on Steam out there, but really...when you've got barely 1% of the gaming market, it's a little silly to say 2015 could be the "Year of Linux Gaming." At some point you have to disconnect yourself from wishful thinking and hyperbole and just say "yeah, it's getting better, but it still has a very long way to go."

    --
    In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  14. It has been for me, started with Civ 5 by Maltheus · · Score: 4, Informative

    It started with Civilization 5 last summer. It got me to install Steam. I ended up buying about eight games since. I'd probably buy a lot more games, if more of them supported Linux. We have money too, ya know.

    1. Re:It has been for me, started with Civ 5 by luther349 · · Score: 1

      most aaa games on linux that there is are simply done as a curtasy to the user base linux sales on aaa games would never recoup the cost of even porting it at this point in time. for low cost indie games the boosted sales is well worth it. thats not a stab at linux or anything its user base just does not make up enough sales.

  15. 1% Isn't Market Share by thebes · · Score: 1

    It is a market blip.

    1. Re:1% Isn't Market Share by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      It's still money on the table, and the effort to port a game from OS X to Linux is very small compared to the effort to port from Windows to OS X. Humble Bundle's statistics also put Linux users at a 3.7% revenue share. Not huge, but for developers already porting to OS X, or who use some middleware like Unity that pretty much does all the work for you, it's a nice little boost to your revenue.

    2. Re:1% Isn't Market Share by thebes · · Score: 1

      Oblig. xkcd. 1% of anything but Apple, Google, Microsoft, IBM, etc. is still a remarkably small number. Progress? Yes. Newsworthy or worth being associated with "year of _______"? No.

      http://xkcd.com/1252/

  16. effect on Microsoft. by neghvar1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know numerous people, including me, who hold on to Windows because we are avid gamers of a wide variety of games which are not supported on Linux. If game support became a “killer feature” for Linux, then Microsoft would likely receive a significant reduction in users of their OS and Office suite.

    1. Re:effect on Microsoft. by luther349 · · Score: 1

      just not true i fix pcs on the side for people and most users dont give a crap whats on the box as long as it turns on and does what they what it to. meaning as long as pcs are bundled with windows your not going to see any large decrees in windows use..

    2. Re:effect on Microsoft. by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Total nonsense. Even if you're running Windows today for games. The OSS office suites can be used just as easily on Windows as they can any other platform. (...) There is still little support for non-Windows PCs in the market and most users aren't going to go out of their way to get one of the few pre-builts with Linux already installed.

      While in business MS Office is still heavily entrenched, you'd be surprised by how many are now using tablets for their primary entertainment consumption and have found Android/iOS apps to work with basic documents. A steambox for gaming, a tablet for watching movies, browsing and instafacetwittering then why exactly does the average user need a Windows box? Sure there are a few others that have their killer apps but if you ask people what's the one thing you need Windows for then gaming is a huge one. It's going to take a lot more than 20% of the games and 1% of the market though, but it might be getting out of the catch-22 that there's no games because there's no gamers and no gamers because there's no games.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    3. Re:effect on Microsoft. by Daniel+Hoffmann · · Score: 1

      > SteamOS may be a great comfort to the current Linux crowd but it's not going to move the MS gamers away from their platform.

      The steam machines are. You buy one, you plug it on your living room, you turn it on, now you are running linux and do not even know it.

  17. Re:Is ___ the year of the Linux ___? by Guspaz · · Score: 1

    Well, 2011 was the year of the Linux Smartphone, since that was the year where Linux smartphone marketshare passed 50%...

  18. Re:Quality vs Quantity by Guspaz · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not going to argue that every one of those games is fantastic, there is certainly a lot of questionable quality in there, but the problem isn't nearly so bad as you make it out to be.

    Steam lists 1001 games that run on Linux and have enough user ratings to give it a score, and 791 of them have good user ratings (defined by 70% or more of user reviews being positive for the title). 168 have mixed reviews (40%-70%). 42 have bad reviews (0%-40%.

  19. 1% by Mirar · · Score: 1

    Obviously there might be more that would run the games under Linux or SteamOS.

    I personally have one full desktop machine running Windows _only_ for games. If I could run SteamOS instead, or Linux, I would.

    But thanks to Steam in-home streaming, I now have more computers running Linux because I can stream from the heavy desktop. Like the NUC running Mint (Kodi, Firefox, Steam) in the bedroom.

  20. Re:Quality vs Quantity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, 1,000 games is a good thing. Sadly, 985 of them suck ass, which makes this a meaningless statistic.

    99% of everything is crap, so your 'statistic' falls right in line with that. Besides taking a cursory glance at the game list shows that there are a lot more than just indie darlings and ancient properties are becoming available. Stuff like Civilization V, Borderlands 2, and the Portal games are on the service and Linux compatible. Heck, Cities: Skylines and Hotline Miami 2 were released just yesterday.

    So, yeah, there's a lot of crap on the service, but there's a decent number of reasonably good games coming to Linux, too. You might have to work a little harder to find the good stuff, but so what? The fact that companies are starting to see Steam on Linux as a viable platform to even attempt to bring games to is definitely a good thing.

  21. Re:Quality vs Quantity by Vintermann · · Score: 2

    Sadly, 985 of them suck ass, which makes this a meaningless statistic.

    No, the statistics are still valuable, unless you make an argument that Windows has a higher percentage of shitty games. Absent any other information, it's reasonable to assume the percentage of awful games are similar on all platforms.

    (But in fact, I think that the existence of more shovelware-friendly middleware on Windows means Windows has a higher percentage of bad games).

    --
    xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
  22. % of total sales by Daniel+Hoffmann · · Score: 1

    A more relevant data would be:

      - % of total sales of games that support linux. Ignoring the OS that the buyer actually uses, just if the game supports linux or not.
      - % of the sum of playtime of games that are supported on linux. Ignoring the OS the gamer is actually using during said time.

    With these two datapoints we could reach a conclusion that a buyer could use linux/steamos as opposed to windows and still have a decent game library available.

    A thousand of crappy games (and steam is chokefull of those these days) is not relevant at all.

    1. Re:% of total sales by Daniel+Hoffmann · · Score: 3, Informative

      You know after posting this I went to steam to check top sellers, in the front page ALL of them support linux. There is even one that supports linux but does not support mac (Dying Light)! The situation improved far faster than I expected...

      Most AAA tittles still don't support linux, I originally thought that the AAA would support linux before the more indie tittles would, supporting multiple platforms require a lot more QA and I thought the AAA would be the only ones with enough money and time to do it.

    2. Re:% of total sales by ledow · · Score: 1

      About 20%. There are about 5000 games on Steam.

      Probably not a lot. The hardware surveys don't bother to include Linux for most things because it's such a tiny portion.

      But the old arguments of "We can't make games for Linux because of X..." doesn't hold true - it's just as capable as the other two major OS. It still may not be economical to make Linux ports for everything, but that's another question entirely.

      And, again, the Steam purpose-built machines may change all of the above dramatically. Or not.

      Anecdotally, about 1/3rd of my 900 Steam games are on Linux. More than are on Mac. I could happily get by with just the Linux games, Linux office suites and Linux base OS for my daily and work lives. The only change there is that Steam has made the first viable whereas before it was a lot of faffing and installing Wine and all sorts.

      A long-term user of Wine, Crossover Office, Steam (day-one signup), WON before that, and someone who's lived and worked an IT job for many years with ONLY Linux laptops for my own use.

    3. Re:% of total sales by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      I originally thought that the AAA would support linux before the more indie tittles would, supporting multiple platforms require a lot more QA and I thought the AAA would be the only ones with enough money and time to do it.

      Small business are often the first to take advantage of niche markets, because fairly small numbers of sales is still worthwhile to them. AAA games require a huge investment in engineering time, especially if they use their own engine or have heavily modified a commercial engine. As such, the much smaller market share of Linux makes less financial sense for them. I'd guess most AAA games that come out on Linux are using an engine that supports Linux natively. If that weren't the case, there's almost no way they could justify it financially.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    4. Re:% of total sales by MarkRose · · Score: 1

      Sorry to disappoint, but that's because Steam sniffs the user agent string for OS and filters what it displays by default. If you visited with a Windows or Mac machine you would probably see a different list. You can remove the filter if you wish. Personally, I think filtering by default is great since my time isn't wasted looking at games I can't install and play.

      --
      Be relentless!
    5. Re:% of total sales by Daniel+Hoffmann · · Score: 1

      Huh, that makes sense. I am running linux here, yet GTA5 is still shown on the second page of my top sellers list, I expected it to be on the first. I guess there is come conditional weighting on the top sellers page...

  23. Where is our market ? by Pastis · · Score: 1
    I can port our paid educational games to Linux/Steam.

    http://www.dragonboxapp.com/

    How do I know how many people would be interested ? Where do I reach the nerd crowd ?

    --
    Sneak teach kids Algebra using a game
    1. Re:Where is our market ? by Ignacio · · Score: 1

      Work on porting to a cross-platform engine/library first. Without that your work will be much harder. And bullet points 6 and 7 in your system requirements are showstoppers.

      Also, you may want to talk to organizations like Edubuntu, OLPC, and RPi since their primary focus is education.

    2. Re:Where is our market ? by Pastis · · Score: 1
      I can already publish on Linux. I have the cross platform toolkit (Unity3d).

      My question is:

      does the effort of

      • * making the last mile to have a nice port (maybe Steam achievement integration)
      • * QAing the builds on a variety of systems
      • * publishing to Steam (including assets, etc)

      is going to bring any revenue ?

      The main issue isn't making the software, it's getting known, sell and maintain.

      --
      Sneak teach kids Algebra using a game
  24. Re:Is ___ the year of the Linux ___? by Wootery · · Score: 1

    And servers go without saying.

  25. 640 games by nuckfuts · · Score: 1

    out to be enough for anybody.

  26. Come on Blizzard by FalleStar · · Score: 1

    Valve has done an awesome job of making Linux a viable gaming platform. I have over 200 games in my Steam collection, about half of which run on Linux now.

    The only thing keeping me booted into Windows most of the time is that my primary game is World of Warcraft, taking up about 70% of my total gaming time. If Blizzard would step up and embrace Linux* I'd gladly get rid of my Windows partition.

    * Yes I know WoW can run in a limited capacity under Linux, that's not good enough for real raiding/PvPing

  27. But I have AMD :-( by taxtropel · · Score: 1

    I would love to play my Steam Games on GNU/Linux, but sadly, I have AMD :-( Nothing like playing L4D or Starbound at 5 frames per sec.

  28. This Again? by Solokron · · Score: 1

    Part of me asks why are we still beating this dead horse, the other part likes to think it is only a matter of time as mobile platforms become more prevalent.

    --
    30% off web hosting. Coupon code "SLASHDOT".
  29. Think of the children by rwa2 · · Score: 2

    Ironically, I finally gave up running Linux on my main home machine about a decade ago so I could play Left4Dead, which was one of the first "big" Valve titles ported to Linux. Now I'm sorta addicted to World of Tanks, which works under Linux with wine/PlaysOnLinux but isn't a very good experience.

    I have 2 kids, though, and I'm not going to buy them each a Windows gaming PC, so I set them up with a multiseat Linux box for their minecraft:
    http://trumblings.blogspot.com...

    Steam works pretty well, so my son has started playing other stuff... TF2, War Thunder, and I think I'll gift him my extra copy of Portal 2 and Goat Simulator.

    So yeah, maybe still have one Windows PC as the gaming box for the "Windows exclusive" titles, but Steam on Linux will certainly open a broader market for them for secondary / multiplayer LAN setups.

    1. Re:Think of the children by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      Windows 2000 ticked me off for one buggy little thing when it was still new, even though to this day I consider it the best overall design/interface of any Windows desktop, though 8.1 is getting close. That was my last version of WIndows at home.

      I went hard-core about games during that era, I loved Blizzard games but they ticked me off when they started suing everyone, even people I knew personally. Between that and the bug I quit dual booting and decided if they didn't make it work on Linux I wasn't going to worry about sending any money their direction, and I pretty much stuck with it. I bought UT III because they promised compatability - I was suckered.

      All of that being said now that Steam supports game strreaming I'm seriously considering setting up a Wintendo dedicated to being the "host bot". (The Humble Bundles have given me many Windows-only games after all in addition to the Linux compatible ones) . I haven't experimented with it yet, but it certainly has potential. I'm not sure what I'll need hardware wise but I'm gussing maxing at 1080 on the Wintendo would keep the hardware reasonable and 1Gbps fast enough network wise.

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
  30. Re:Valve & Canonical. by unixisc · · Score: 1

    This sounds like a good idea - for Valve to buy Canonical. Given how Ubuntu has lost its way ever since Unity.

    One thing I wonder - will PC-BSD play all these Steam games? Or will it only be able to do it under a Debian VM?

  31. *PS4 is not dying by tepples · · Score: 1

    Is there money in FreeBSD games? Because the PlayStation 4 runs Orbis OS, based on FreeBSD.

    1. Re:*PS4 is not dying by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Shame you can't run them on your own FreeBSD PC system though.

  32. How about "exclusive or you can't sell it at all"? by tepples · · Score: 1

    Exclusivity bribes are on the wane even in console gaming land. Modern development costs means that the size of the bribe needed to provide the game's publisher with confidence it can still turn a profit despite locking out part of the market is getting ludicrous.

    Sometimes a smaller company needs to promise to produce one or more exclusive or timed-exclusive games for a console as a condition of becoming a licensed developer on that console. That's how "Pub Fund" on PlayStation family platforms works: Sony provides a devkit to an indie studio in exchange for exclusivity.

  33. Hit swap sooner by tepples · · Score: 1

    I think the complaint is that having to load 64-bit libraries, a 64-bit desktop, 32-bit libraries, and a 32-bit game will make the system hit swap sooner than loading 64-bit libraries, a 64-bit desktop, and a 64-bit game.

  34. Flat sheet of glass by tepples · · Score: 1

    Let me know when mobile platforms have something other than a flat sheet of glass as the standard-issue input device. Not everybody wants to carry a MOGA clip-on gamepad or a JXD tablet in addition to his phone. Or let me know when a viable control scheme for something like Mega Man is made for the touch screen.