Steam Clone for Linux?

[Mason Whitaker]

I've been thinking in the back of my head about the plausibility of a "Steam Clone" for Linux. It would have all the same functionality as Steam( such as game news, downloading games, forums, chat, ect ) but devoted to open source gaming. I know that there is already PlayDeb, but it lacks the functionality and features of Steam.

Your thoughts? Would this be popular?

[Rainstride]

its do-able with ease. the big problem is, there aren't that many great games that make it a worth while project. theres maybe a whole 20 windows game with linux versions?

[supersonicdarky]

theres maybe a whole 20 windows game with linux versions?true, but if a good platform is made, then it should positively influence linux game development. there are many games for linux that are unheard of, but thanks to a gaming platform, they may be noticed by thousands of people.

while I don't think a 'steam clone' is the answer, a universal linux gaming platform would be nice.

[juancarlospaco]

There's a Steam Clone (http://en.djl-linux.org/?q=node/18)

" It is inspired by Valve's Steam software for Windows. "

[Mason Whitaker]

true, but if a good platform is made, then it should positively influence linux game development. there are many games for linux that are unheard of, but thanks to a gaming platform, they may be noticed by thousands of people.

while I don't think a 'steam clone' is the answer, a universal linux gaming platform would be nice.Your idea has been tried and hasn't been met with much success. My thinking is why you would need another distro, when there already thousands of them? Make a platform compatible with all the distros, and all the more people are happy.

its do-able with ease. the big problem is, there aren't that many great games that make it a worth while project. theres maybe a whole 20 windows game with linux versions?

There are still wide range of Linux based open source games, which was what I was going for. I'm not talking about making Steam from scratch with Python and then labeling it Steam, I'm talking about make a Steam-like clone for Linux gamers.

There's a Steam Clone (http://en.djl-linux.org/?q=node/18)

" It is inspired by Valve's Steam software for Windows. "
That's actually really cool, thanks for the link!

[DeadSuperHero]

It wouldn't be all that hard to do.

-Lay out some APIs based on Jabber and have it mimic IRC functions when in-game.
-Push out this API to different game developers.
-Develop a client that displays the site, user preferences, a buddy list, etc.
-Have games implement this into their engines for possible redistribution.

I'd love to see it done with Free Software someday.