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Steam Linux Client Enters Open Beta

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The Steam for Linux beta program is now open to the public. All you alternative OS types out there should head on over and check it out.

In order to participate in the beta, you must download the latest Steam Linux client (found here) or upgrade your existing Steam for Linux client to the latest version. In addition, we will now track Steam for Linux client bugs using GitHub. This provides a better interface for tracking bugs than the forums used in the closed beta. The Steam for Linux repository (currently empty) is public, allowing anyone with a free GitHub account to create a new issue and edit or track it and search the existing bug database. The repository contains a readme file (README.md) detailing how to create a new issue (it describes the same format used in the closed beta).

The team will continue working through existing issues in the forum but it is strongly recommended that any new issues be entered using GitHub's issue tracking interface. The sub forums will remain open so that people can join/continue existing discussions about the Steam for Linux client. And last but not least, we now have a steam installer package repository. There is a mailing list for announcing updates to the steam installer package.
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For those looking to give this a spin and have an nVidia card, make sure you install the proprietary drivers before you try launching a game.
 
heelix said:
For those looking to give this a spin and have an nVidia card, make sure you install the proprietary drivers before you try launching a game.
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Sandy Bridge graphics failed until i updated the source list. Updated and restarted as instructed by the Steam client in a popup and it worked!

Running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Core i5 Sandy Bridge, 4 GB ram
 
DeathPrincess said:
Until it's not Valves aged junk and indie games, not really worth bothering with.
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Maybe THQ!

Although let's hope they get a move on it before they go bankrupt

I still see cross-platform gaming to become the next big thing in the gaming industry. Developers aren't idiots and they're out to make money, so sticking to a single API/OS and missing out on millions of potential customers is just dumb business. Plus they don't have to suffer through Windows8 :D
 
pelo said:
I still see cross-platform gaming to become the next big thing in the gaming industry.
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Gah. I'd rather that each developer concentrate on getting the main platform perfect than chasing the 3 people who made bad purchasing desisions. That time is much better spent with the 95%+ and adding features, and letting the others Wine about it.

Same with Steam. No download manager, or download queuing. No tabbed browsing or a stable client. But they added support for the 3 people who use Linux and 10 people who use crApples and though they could play games... and the crappy big picture mode. Great use of time and resources. :p
 
DeathPrincess said:
Gah. I'd rather that each developer concentrate on getting the main platform perfect than chasing the 3 people who made bad purchasing desisions. That time is much better spent with the 95%+ and adding features, and letting the others Wine about it.

Same with Steam. No download manager, or download queuing. No tabbed browsing or a stable client. But they added support for the 3 people who use Linux and 10 people who use crApples and though they could play games... and the crappy big picture mode. Great use of time and resources. :p
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Like they're optimizing for the desktop anyway... When's the last time you used AVX? Hell, how many "new" titles are on DX9?

Developers don't care about optimization unless it affects their wallet. Cross platform gaming will prevail because of one reason:

Money money money moneeeeeyyyyyyyyy
 
I wonder if these games will work with all Linux distros? I always figured that is the reason that they recommend you compile software on your own machine so they do not have to provide several binary files.
 
DeathPrincess said:
Wheres the money in making games for 3 hobbits and 10 Starbucks regulars? :p
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Ah, think beyond Linux on the desktop. All consoles, all mobile devices and all PCs sounds a lot better than DirectX on MS... and... that's it, really.
 
pelo said:
Ah, think beyond Linux on the desktop. All consoles, all mobile devices and all PCs sounds a lot better than DirectX on MS... and... that's it, really.
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It's still chasing the dregs. The games we're talking about aren't mobile platform targetted games. Those devices are pitifully weak and not really the target of anything serious. We're talking about "desktop" devices. You could not make a high level game then port it to a "mobile" device without mutulating it in some way. Plus the common used SDK will allow you to do that already (though youll still have to make ultra low quality assets and program in UI for the junk touchscreen).

There will never be "seemless" cross ports because, it's like wheels. You could make a wheel that would fit on a car a bike and a 18 wheeler, it would make getting new tires easier, and developing tires simpler, but it would be crap and unrefined for at least 2 of those. All of those units have purposes and different interfaces. One size fits all will just fit everything badly. But thats not what this is about, this is desktop Linux. Which is totally pointless supporting from a tech and ROI pov. You don't get any "extras" supporting Linux, nothing extra you can do. Just a bunch of headaches and a 3 person userbase.
 
Good luck out there on the Steam linux beta.
Running the AMD fgrlx drivers for for your Radeon card is mandatory and they have NEVER worked well on my machine. I'm stuck with X.org which has superior 2D.
 
DeathPrincess said:
It's still chasing the dregs. The games we're talking about aren't mobile platform targetted games. Those devices are pitifully weak and not really the target of anything serious.
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They're within spitting distance of today's consoles, actually. "Pitifully weak" when compared to our desktops, but then again we haven't had developers give two shits about our desktops since the Xbox and PS and it's looking less likely that they will in the near future.

DeathPrincess said:
There will never be "seemless" cross ports because, it's like wheels. You could make a wheel that would fit on a car a bike and a 18 wheeler, it would make getting new tires easier, and developing tires simpler, but it would be crap and unrefined for at least 2 of those. All of those units have purposes and different interfaces. One size fits all will just fit everything badly. But thats not what this is about, this is desktop Linux. Which is totally pointless supporting from a tech and ROI pov. You don't get any "extras" supporting Linux, nothing extra you can do. Just a bunch of headaches and a 3 person userbase.
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I'm not implying it's going to be seamless, but "it works" is better than being nonexistent. Secondly, developers will always cater to the biggest audience, so the platforms/OSes with the largest base of users will get preferential treatment. That's no different than what we see today. Hell, that's why we're playing console ports that struggle to get over 30FPS at native resolution with hardware that's 5x-10x more powerful than what the game was built for.
 
Eisenblut said:
Steam doesn't have tabbed browsing or a stable client? News to me. :rolleyes:
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Point out in the Steam client where to open a second tab? :p

pelo said:
developers will always cater to the biggest audience, so the platforms/OSes with the largest base of users will get preferential treatment.
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There's a difference between audience total number and how many of those are interested in that particular genre or gametype. If you were producing a...millitary horse simulator, and group 1 had 300 million people of which 0.1 of people were interested in this type of game, and group 2 had 30 million, but 10% were, which would you chase? Phone/tablet games are filled with things which aren't "proper games", so releasing "proper" games on tablets will amount to around nothing.

Now, people don't go for a gaming OS. Anyone who games knows that they need Windows, and thats where gamers are. So supporting a tiny market of people who have no expectation of gaming (unless they are the butthurt legion on the indie bundle site) make as much sense as Word for DVD players.
 
DeathPrincess said:
Now, people don't go for a gaming OS. Anyone who games knows that they need Windows, and thats where gamers are. So supporting a tiny market of people who have no expectation of gaming (unless they are the butthurt legion on the indie bundle site) make as much sense as Word for DVD players.
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Oh, really? Are you sure about that?

Windows 8 isn't Windows 7. I heard they added an app store, or something.
 
pelo said:
Oh, really? Are you sure about that?

Windows 8 isn't Windows 7. I heard they added an app store, or something.
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How does that have anything to do with anything? Anyone not paid by MS or with common sense knows Windows 8 was a lazy PoS basically designed to add several mobile annoyances to desktop platforms. Still doesn't magically make Linux a viable gaming platform or one thats supported by non forest people. :p
 
DeathPrincess said:
Until it's not Valves aged junk and indie games, not really worth bothering with.
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Team Fortress 2 is "aged junk"? LOL - game just got another update, like, last week. The co-op mode (players vs endless waves of bots) was a HUGE addition - larger than many game's DLC packs - released for free a couple months ago, too.

As to the 'indie games'...well, DEFCON is a hoot (although I haven't got that working on Linux, yet...haven't really looked into why, but it seemed to have an issue downloading the binaries?), Frozen Synapse is quite enjoyable (sort of turn-based realtime tactical shooter...kinda like X-Com? Good soundtrack, too), SpaceChem is a mind-bender - but a heck of a lot of fun until you hit a wall you can't figure out the puzzles beyond :p, Braid is ABSOLUTELY worth playing (although having the same issue with this as DEFCON at the moment on Linux), etc.

Nice thing is that you don't have to re-buy anything. Just install the client, sign into your account, and download the games you already own (and TF2 is free, of course) that are Linux-compatible.
 
DeathPrincess said:
How does that have anything to do with anything? Anyone not paid by MS or with common sense knows Windows 8 was a lazy PoS basically designed to add several mobile annoyances to desktop platforms. Still doesn't magically make Linux a viable gaming platform or one thats supported by non forest people. :p
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No, but it makes big game studios aware that they're going to have to start looking elsewhere.

They already have. See OP.
 
Just installed the client on my cheap Atom, perpetual 'soon to be' mini NAS box.

It ate my desktop, stole my credit cards, and I think my cat is pregnant.

Nah, works fine so far. Selection is 36 games. Mostly indie/casual games but on average good ones. Can do my Christmas shopping for all games though.

Has an update video driver options to help simplify the step a tiny bit. Not that I have graphics worth updating. Client seems to work perfectly fine after all of 10 minutes.
 
I thought Valve was touting L4D2 as running better on Linux than Windows. Why is it not in the games list? I thought they were going to have Portal 2 on there also.
 
Code: 
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
@SirMaster,

You need to install the 32bit compat mode
 
heelix said:
For those looking to give this a spin and have an nVidia card, make sure you install the proprietary drivers before you try launching a game.
Click to expand...

Well, it's not like the open source drivers are capable of anything more than 2D anyway.
 
Super-D said:
I thought Valve was touting L4D2 as running better on Linux than Windows. Why is it not in the games list? I thought they were going to have Portal 2 on there also.
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It's just open beta at the moment. (For example, the 'Big Picture' mode is buggy as hell. Kick off a download, launch 'big picture' and click the download link to experience a crash every time!)

If they have TF2 on there (they do, obviously), and that's the latest build of a Source engine game...it stands to reason any of the other Source-engine games can be ported, too (L4D2, Portal 2, etc). So it's just a question of polishing up the beta before they dump the rest of their products on it.
 
DeathPrincess said:
Gah. I'd rather that each developer concentrate on getting the main platform perfect than chasing the 3 people who made bad purchasing desisions. That time is much better spent with the 95%+ and adding features, and letting the others Wine about it.

Same with Steam. No download manager, or download queuing. No tabbed browsing or a stable client. But they added support for the 3 people who use Linux and 10 people who use crApples and though they could play games... and the crappy big picture mode. Great use of time and resources. :p
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You don't like [*]anything[/*], do you?
 
heatlesssun said:
Thanks! LOL! Yeah, the Windows 8 threads around here get crazy.
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Just the way we like it. :)

The library of games is small, but this just went into open beta, so we can't expect too much.
I remember when Steam moved to OS X (Intel), the library of games wasn't much more than this to start.
 
So supporting a tiny market of people who have no expectation of gaming (unless they are the butthurt legion on the indie bundle site) make as much sense as Word for DVD players.
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Have you forgotten about "The Flowers of Robert Maplethorp" for the CD-i? :D
 
DeathPrincess said:
Point out in the Steam client where to open a second tab? :p
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Can you find it now?
CX8FG.jpg
 
DeathPrincess said:
Wha? How does wanting valve to focus on broken stuff before they go chasing minor userbases in anyway translate to "I hate everything". :confused:
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Minor userbase? Have you seen the forums?

http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions

There were over 60,000 initial applications for the beta test. Let us also not forget the Humble Bundle (http://www.humblebundle.com/) in which GNU/Linux and Mac users make up a not insignificant portion of the sales (and it is also interesting that Windows users are cheapskates paying only slightly over half what GNU/Linux users are paying on average).

Egosoft is hiring GNU/Linux developers to port their games (X Series) to GNU/Linux. Dungeon Defenders now has a GNU/Linux version which means that Unreal Engine 3 now supports GNU/Linux. The Unity Engine also supports GNU/Linux. Many major titles on Kickstarter have announced GNU/Linux support including Wasteland 2 and Project Eternity. Even World of Warcraft has a GNU/Linux client (although for whatever reason, even though they spent the time and money to port it, they won't release it, only using it internally).

With the advent of tablets and with the rising popularity of GNU/Linux and Mac, developers can ill afford to continue to use inferior proprietary Windows-only libraries like DirectX. Before Microsoft came around and used their dirty tricks to monopolize the operating system market, people wrote cross platform software all of the time. It is not that difficult if you avoid using Microsoft locked-in training wheels like Visual Studio and DirectX.
 
damicatz said:
With the advent of tablets and with the rising popularity of GNU/Linux and Mac, developers can ill afford to continue to use inferior proprietary Windows-only libraries like DirectX. Before Microsoft came around and used their dirty tricks to monopolize the operating system market, people wrote cross platform software all of the time. It is not that difficult if you avoid using Microsoft locked-in training wheels like Visual Studio and DirectX.
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Very well said.
 
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