Post by Dan @ 11:48am 17/07/12 | 16 Comments
According to the blog, Valve's Linux team consists of 11 people, who's mission directive is to simply "strengthen the gaming scene on Linux". They currently have three stated objectives: bringing a full-featured Steam client to Linux, getting Left 4 Dead 2 running as well under OpenGL on Linux as it does in Windows, and porting additional Valve titles.
The post goes further to explain that the Ubuntu distro is their initial target platform, but that they expect to support other distributions as the project matures.
The goal of the Steam client project is a fully-featured Steam client running on Ubuntu 12.04. We’ve made good progress this year and now have the Steam client running on Ubuntu with all major features available. We’re still giving attention and effort to minor features but it’s a good experience at the moment. In the near future, we will be setting up an internal beta focusing on the auto-update experience and compatibility testing.Beyond the mention of a "near future" internal beta, no other dates or timeframes were mentioned.
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Posted 12:40pm 17/7/12
Posted 12:50pm 17/7/12
Besides, most people who can afford a gaming PC can afford a copy of the respective windows if for no other reason than to make wine use the appropriate directx dlls so wine can run directx under ubuntu.
Posted 01:00pm 17/7/12
This is awesome and great news for the Linux community. If they can reduce the cost of developing for Linux (and simultaneously reduce the cost of distributing for Linux with a native Steam client) it will be pretty sweet for everyone.
Posted 01:03pm 17/7/12
If Valve can convince developers to implement native Linux versions of their games like they have with the Mac then they'll have succeeded where outfits like Loki Games have failed in the past.
Posted 01:14pm 17/7/12
Posted 05:18pm 17/7/12
Posted 05:33pm 17/7/12
There's lots of reasons that Ubuntu makes a good OS, but there's lots more reasons dealing with programs which don't support ubuntu/linux which weigh in.
I like ubuntu, it's fast, free and works well with how i multitask.
But it doesn't run a lot of stuff i want to use in a work environment, and need to support in a work environment.
The OS itself as an OS is fine. Especially compared to windows8. It's the programs which hold you back.
Posted 05:38pm 17/7/12
My understanding is that they are making native versions? The mention of OpenGL for one, is a key clue.
Posted 05:48pm 17/7/12
That's clearly the plan, but if they're busy redeveloping the source engine for opengl, that only helps the games built on source, and not every game is going to want to do that.
Look at blizzard, it believed in opengl for warcraft3 and WoW, but not for starcraft 2 and Diablo3.
Was there outcry? Not really, not until they banned people on diablo3 who were using ubuntu because the process scanner they use for anti-cheating wasn't tuned for ubuntu and went nuts.
edit: references to ubuntu are really references to linux as a whole here, but the topic is ubuntu because that's what valve are aiming support for.
I'm only saying look at that because i'm more on the fence that there isn't enough support for opengl to justify hundreds of thousands if not a million or so dollars of man hours just to include a few extra thousand sales.. unless they change the attitude of pc owners that is
Posted 08:35pm 17/7/12
good. i want to move away from windows.
Posted 08:47pm 17/7/12
Posted 09:14pm 17/7/12
Down with directx, LONG LIVE 3DFX!!!
edit: Actually what I like most of all is the ability to play ALL my games under each OS without having to re-buy them. I know valve have some cross platform titles but it would be awesome if it worked for all the titles they sell. I mean you can only log into your steam account once so I don't see how any multiple, simultaneous use arguments could be used. There's mac versions of a couple of games I have but if I want them, I have to re-buy them which is an epic fail of epic proportions to the power of epic. Like if I sell my PC and get another PC I can just re-download my games without having to buy them, but if I sell my PC and switch to the infinitely better mac, I'd have to re-buy them. How does that work? F to the A to the I in the L.
Posted 09:40pm 17/7/12
Yeah sorry, I was replying to skythra and trog got in between.
I have nothing but praise for game developers going native cross platform onto Linux/Mac/Windows by Valve or any of those who have done it in the past - it means all gamers have less stuffing around to do like copying around binary executables in an unsupported way.
Posted 09:46pm 17/7/12
Be interesting to see if this influences people, would be nice to eventually move onto a nice robust OS that lets you choose your interface instead of forcing .... Metro...
Posted 02:55pm 18/7/12
Hahaha, It does certainly feel as though they're doing everything possible to avoid making the next half-life game.
Posted 06:48pm 19/7/12
interesting to see serial sam 3 there.
also, Dell is bringing back laptops with Ubuntu loaded in the US market.. although apparently they never stopped in other markets?
anyway.. back on subject...
last edited by koopz at 18:48:18 19/Jul/12