Steam for Linux is there any truth to rumors?

[mamamia88]

just curious?

[Queue29]

For *****s sake

[Merk42]

Ask Valve

[betrunkenaffe]

A rumor or rumour (see spelling differences), is often viewed as "an unverified account or explanation of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in public concern" (33)[1] However, a review of the research on rumor conducted by Pendleton in 1998 found that research across sociology, psychology, and communication studies had widely varying definitions of rumor.[2] Thus, rumor is a concept that lacks a particular definition in the social sciences. But most theories agree that rumor involves some kind of a statement whose veracity is not quickly or ever confirmed. In addition, some scholars have identified rumor as a subset of propaganda, the latter another notoriously difficult concept to define. A pioneer of propaganda studies, Harold Lasswell defined propaganda in 1927 as referring "solely to the control of opinion by significant symbols, or, to speak more concretely and less accurately, by stories, rumors, reports, pictures, and other forms of social communication" (1927:9).[3] Rumors are also often discussed with regard to "misinformation" and "disinformation" (the former often seen as simply false and the latter seen as deliberately false, though usually from a government source given to the media or a foreign government).[4] Rumors thus have often been viewed as particular forms of other communication concepts.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumor

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

I believe it. Valve are real innovators. I always have my Windows partition if not though :)

[Dracona]

works pretty good for me using wine

[Khakilang]

What is Steam in Linux anyway? Is it a new application that cross from Window? What does it do?

[Legendary_Bibo]

What is Steam in Linux anyway? Is it a new application that cross from Window? What does it do?

It's like the iTunes store of PC games.

[MrPajitnov]

Honestly, I hope so.

The Steam on Linux rumors were what actually convinced me to give Ubuntu a try to begin with and now I'm all Linux.

My only remaining issue with Linux is the lack of a healthy and cohesive gaming ecosystem. There are games, sure- but there really isn't a decent, comprehensive method dor delivering AAA titles on the Linux platform that allows you to game with your friends running windows games. Steam could fix all of that.

[Merk42]

It's like the iTunes store of PC games.

And people need to understand that IF Steam were ported to Linux it wouldn't make their entire catalog instantly native Linux as well.

[Legendary_Bibo]

And people need to understand that IF Steam were ported to Linux it wouldn't make their entire catalog instantly native Linux as well.

Yeah they're just now porting a bunch of games to Mac. Isn't Mac very similar to linux though?

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

My only remaining issue with Linux is the lack of a healthy and cohesive gaming ecosystem. There are games, sure- but there really isn't a decent, comprehensive method dor delivering AAA titles on the Linux platform that allows you to game with your friends running windows games. Steam could fix all of that.

If Steam were brought to Linux, the only games that would be available on it are games that are already available for Linux and a few of the games that Valve themselves might port such as Half-Life and Team Fortress.

[Sand & Mercury]

No.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1313-QIPD-5381

There are no plans to create a native Linux Steam Client at this time.

[Dustin2128]

And people need to understand that IF Steam were ported to Linux it wouldn't make their entire catalog instantly native Linux as well.
it'd get the ball rolling though.

[Sutekh849]

http://store.steampowered.com/public/client/steam_client_linux
they are clearly thinking about it, as that would 404 if something wasn't there. of course they will deny everything until the official announcement (being valve) and it will be done on valve time, assuming they intend to finish it. phoronix naturally overhyped the whole thing, but the fact that some of their members were able to build a very early version before that link got forbidden seems to indicate that valve have at least done something towards it, although i think it will be some time before he hear anything

[█▀█▀█]

If I remember correctly, it was confirmed by Valve when asked by several U.K papers.

[Merk42]

If I remember correctly, it was confirmed by Valve when asked by several U.K papers.

It was one little line at the end of an article about it being ported to Mac.
The UK article could have very well just seen it on Phoronix.


Until there is a press release directly from Valve, it is not happening.

[jrothwell97]

Yeah they're just now porting a bunch of games to Mac. Isn't Mac very similar to linux though?

No.

We have to consider the difference in APIs, the fact hardware drivers tend to be pretty terrible, and other things that might conflict (compiz, screensavers, etc.)

Because there are so many Linux distributions and so many potential configurations, porting a game in a way that's usable "by the masses" would be exceptionally difficult.

[MCVenom]

It's probably going to happen eventually.
If you're an optimist, you can wait until it comes out and be happy. There seems to be some proof for it.
If you're a pessimist, you can deny it till the end. And that's cool too.

These really are the only two opinions I've seen out there on this subject, so I'd say you'll have to look at it carefully and decide what you think.

I think enough's been said here; these threads always devolve into a 'You're not being realistic!' / 'You're ignoring the evidence!' flame war. :P

[forrestcupp]

And people need to understand that IF Steam were ported to Linux it wouldn't make their entire catalog instantly native Linux as well.

Exactly.

How many times do we have to tell you that Steam is just a souped up download manager. They could make Steam native for Linux and it wouldn't change the fact that none of the games work in Linux. We need the Source engine to be ported, not Steam.

And I can't believe this thread has made it 21 hours without being moved to Recurring Discussions. This ranks up there with KDE vs. Gnome and Firefox vs. Chrome.

[Zoot7]

No.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1313-QIPD-5381
It's also worth noting the date that page was last modified.

Date Modified
Wed, 12th May 2010
Which is after the binary was pulled from the valve server, unless I'm wrong.

I'd honestly say what happened was that the guy on Phoronix knew the Mac client was on the way, saw the Linux binary on the server, expected a simultaneous release and jumped headlong at the supposed opportunity of being the first to report the "good news". Then the Mac client was released and the Linux one was nowhere to be found, so he rightly looked like an idiot.

It is entirely possible there is some work going into porting Steam to Linux, but I would suspect it's far from finished if there is.

Moral of the story, don't hold your breath unless Valve themselves say otherwise.

[Merk42]

Moral of the story, don't hold your breath unless Valve themselves say otherwise.

And even if they do say it will be out in {future date}, realize it's Valve Time (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time)

[Zoot7]

And even if they do say it will be out in {future date}, realize it's Valve Time (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time)
Good Point. I grew tired waiting for Half-Life 2 Episode 3 a long time ago. :)

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

Good Point. I grew tired waiting for Half-Life 2 Episode 3 a long time ago. :)

This.

[MrPajitnov]

Because there are so many Linux distributions and so many potential configurations, porting a game in a way that's usable "by the masses" would be exceptionally difficult.

That would be the single biggest hurdle. Maybe if steam focused on the standard Ubuntu configuration to start (for the sake of having a guaranteed distro with a relatively large installed base to work with) then added support for more window/sound/graphical managers over time we could have a decent product out of the gate, but then the "free means freedom" people would scream bloody murder about losing their ability to choose every single piece of their OS.

To me the biggest problem is this: Windows is a Standard, OSX is a standard, Linux? Linux is basically a box of legos and a roll of duct tape that can be configured any which way the user wants (which I love about it) which basically turns platform development into an erratically moving target. When a studio spends upwards of $60,000,000 on a game just to work in the Windows environment (where there are standard APIs and a ubiquitous platform) then looks at Linux development with it's DIY construction and 1% market share it looks like more work than it's worth.

Hopefully this will change over time, but I'm not going to hold my breath. All I'm hoping for is a decent steam client with a Linux native copy of Left 4 Dead 2.

[Delvien]

I have a friend that works for Valve, yes, this is true, they are working on a steam version for linux.

Announcement should be within the coming months.

:)

[donkyhotay]

I won't believe the rumor until the day after the official download is available on the steam homepage.

[V for Vincent]

What surprises me is these "yeah, but you won't have the games" replies. I've never actually seen anyone say they'd have thousands of games at their fingertips if this happened. Just people who thought other people thought so.

Anyway, my guess is it's coming. I'm not at all positive, so I'll thank you not to quote me on this, but I've yet to see convincing proof of the contrary. Their official statement is years old.

[forrestcupp]

That would be the single biggest hurdle. Maybe if steam focused on the standard Ubuntu configuration to start (for the sake of having a guaranteed distro with a relatively large installed base to work with) then added support for more window/sound/graphical managers over time we could have a decent product out of the gate, but then the "free means freedom" people would scream bloody murder about losing their ability to choose every single piece of their OS.It's not that big of a hurdle. A Linux binary is a Linux binary no matter what the distro. All you have to do is have a .run installer and install the binary and all dependencies into a folder in your /home directory. People do that all the time. That's how the old Loki installers worked.


I have a friend that works for Valve, yes, this is true, they are working on a steam version for linux.

Announcement should be within the coming months.

:)I have a friend that works for the Pentagon and he told me that the Roswell UFO and accompanying alien really is in Area 51. ;)


What surprises me is these "yeah, but you won't have the games" replies. I've never actually seen anyone say they'd have thousands of games at their fingertips if this happened. Just people who thought other people thought so.Yeah, but are there any Steam games at all that are native Linux games? If not, Steam won't do much good. Some people really believe that if there is a native Steam client, all their favorite games will magically work with Linux, and it's just not true.

[Sslaxx]

I have a friend that works for Valve, yes, this is true, they are working on a steam version for linux.

Announcement should be within the coming months.

:)
"He tell me" does not lend any validity to this statement.

[JamesNorris]

Yeah, but are there any Steam games at all that are native Linux games? If not, Steam won't do much good. Some people really believe that if there is a native Steam client, all their favorite games will magically work with Linux, and it's just not true.


A lot of the indie games have native Linux clients already, and there are a number of id games on there that have Linux versions, too...

Besides, it's chicken and egg... people always have debates about why there are so few native Linux games out there. Is there no market because there are no games, or are there no games because there's no market? If Steam is released on Linux, that's a captive market with a distribution chanel direct to Linux gamers and something that is measurable (client stats) can show developers first-hand how big their market is.

This can only be a Good Thing

[nrs]

Didn't Phoronix have alpha screenshots at one point? If the source engine is already running natively on OS X then it's not that big of a hurdle to port it to Linux. I very much doubt it's using proprietary stuff like Cocoa on that level. Most likely you're standard cross platform stuff, like OpenAL, OpenGL, standard *nix libraries, etc.

I'm not counting on it or anything, I just don't think it'd be that difficult if they've already ported to OS X.

[MrPajitnov]

Once there is a steady channel for people to view and purchase linux native games I think it will help convince hesitant developers to go for it, but the Linux community has to demonstrate that they will support paid, proprietary software in order to make it viable to anyone but indie developers

[dilodicus]

forgive me if I'm wrong but I believe Source does already run natively in Linux... Postal III, although still in development, uses Valve's Source engine and is set to run natively in Linux

Valve, as always, will deny until release, I don't doubt it's coming, I just doubt it'll be within the next 12 months...

[Merk42]

Here's a nice article (requires login to read)
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-08-12-valve-on-steam-part-two-interview?page=2

Final question, and one I'm sure you're not super-keen to answer, but I promised one of our tech guys I'd ask it. What truth is there to rumours that you're also working on a Linux version of Steam?
Doug Lombardi: There's no Linux version that we're working on right now

[sataris]

Steam will come to linux when there is a justifiable amount of profits to be made.

Valve is much smaller than companies like Blizzard, who dropped all linux support and even openGL support under windows for their games because they didnt make enough money to offset the costs of having to develop cross platform and SUPPORT all the linux users who said "OMG, your game wont work with _______ distro from 5 years ago."

Until there is real money to be made. Expect nothing of the sort.

Steam on linux is Vaporware.

[mocoloco]

Once there is a steady channel for people to view and purchase linux native games I think it will help convince hesitant developers to go for it, but the Linux community has to demonstrate that they will support paid, proprietary software in order to make it viable to anyone but indie developers

I couldn't agree more. When or if Steam for Linux is ever released, we as a community would need to purchase something right within launch. Let both Valve and the developers it distributes for see the value of releasing Linux versions.

[alexan]

just curious?

The only interest for Valve to get in Linux is through wine: let the community does all the job.



S+++w valve, soon windows live service will kick out Valve out of business since Valve can't provide a comparable alternative[/i] to "Windows Update" :lolflag:


Linux need its own company to deliver a market: games aren't just coding, but the cumulative work of artist, programmer, musicians and people like that.