Steam for Linux Released!

Post by carson @ 09:58am 15/02/13 | 17 Comments

Valve have released the update for Linux Steam and there is now a sale for it.

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the release of its Steam for Linux client. In celebration of the release, over 50 Linux titles are now 50-75% off until Thursday, February 21st at 10 AM PST.

The Steam client is now available to download for free from the Ubuntu Software Center. Ubuntu is the most popular distribution of Linux used by millions of people globally and known for its well-designed, easy-to-use customer experience.

This is great news. Hopefully we see more bigger titles seeing support for Linux. You can read more here and can see a list of the games available for sale here. promoted/edited forum item

ubuntu linux steam valve

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skythra
Posted 11:10am 15/2/13

The ubuntu store is f*****g balls for being a gateway to applications that are relevant compared to steam/google play/everything else ever.

However being able to get steam on it, and then at least having a gateway for SOME games which are made this decade is pretty cool!

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kos
Posted 11:21am 15/2/13

I had the Steam Linux Beta running recently on Mint 14 and gave Serious Sam 3 a go but the performance was absolutely terrible. It didn't seem like low FPS so much as huge amounts of stuttering, maybe a process priority issue or something?

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ChaosDreamer
Posted 11:44am 15/2/13

If they could set up Steam in such a way that it could emulate a windows enviro that would launch all of my current library of games I would switch to Linux in a second. But switching over doesn't make sense now as all my current library is locked down in windows. I see it as being the biggest impedance to getting a Steambox in peoples living rooms. That and a lack of a media streamer in Big Picture. If they teamed up with VLC I would not buy a console.

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skythra
Posted 12:34pm 15/2/13

I had the Steam Linux Beta running recently on Mint 14 and gave Serious Sam 3 a go but the performance was absolutely terrible. It didn't seem like low FPS so much as huge amounts of stuttering, maybe a process priority issue or something?

Did you have the non-open source drivers installed? By default linux will only install the non-proprietary drivers.

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skythra
Posted 12:36pm 15/2/13

If they could set up Steam in such a way that it could emulate a windows enviro that would launch all of my current library of games I would switch to Linux in a second.

The more games that switch to "Steam Play: Purchase a game once and then play it on all Steam supported platforms" the less your post makes sense.

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kos
Posted 08:55pm 15/2/13

Did you have the non-open source drivers installed? By default linux will only install the non-proprietary drivers.

With Ubuntu/Mint you can choose to have certain proprietary/licensed things included in the OS install, I thought things like the nvidia drivers were included in that? Either way, I did have the latest nvidia drivers installed separately as well.

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koopz
Posted 10:08am 16/2/13

disabling the nouvea driver in Ubuntu 12.10 was just a royal pain in the f*****g arse.. it's like Ubuntu has actually gone out of their way to not make this work for new *nix gamers.. it's a lot easier to install NVidia drivers in ver 11 :/

someone here mentioned Mint some time ago so I downloaded Mint 14 and used the proprietary driver recommended - works a charm.

I had the Steam Linux Beta running recently on Mint 14 and gave Serious Sam 3 a go but the performance was absolutely terrible.

I'm liking Mint over stock Ubuntu at the moment. I think I'll keep it. Most stuff works fine in wine (including work java stuff which really surprised me). The Win7 dual boot is still there for Battlefield 3, AssCreed, etc, though I haven't gone back to those in awhile. I'll prolly fire up Windows again when Brutal Legend comes along.

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skythra
Posted 01:20pm 16/2/13

With Ubuntu/Mint you can choose to have certain proprietary/licensed things included in the OS install, I thought things like the nvidia drivers were included in that? Either way, I did have the latest nvidia drivers installed separately as well.

Yup they come with, but disabled by default with a prompt asking you if you would like to use the proprietary drivers.

Like you should be ashamed at using closed source code even when it's free.

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koopz
Posted 09:41pm 16/2/13

Like you should be ashamed at using closed source code even when it's free.

wait... what..?

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Whoop
Posted 09:45pm 16/2/13

Like you should be ashamed at using closed source code even when it's free.

I'd be ashamed to admit I was using an nvidia card too.

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koopz
Posted 09:49pm 16/2/13

I'd be ashamed to admit I was using an nvidia card too.

wait... what..?

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mental
Posted 10:00pm 16/2/13

anyone tried to stop the download of a game, copied part of the game from a windows installed then allowed it to continue? Or can you point it to a windows directory?

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koopz
Posted 10:29pm 16/2/13

yeah I transferred a copy of my whole 'steamapps' folder over from the NAS backup prior to downloading any game content

it was difficult to gauge how much time and data that's saved though. I'm sitting here on Bigpuddle cable so the content isn't exactly trickling down the pipe. The initial setup including CS:S and TF2 content took around 5 mins with my exisiting steamapps folder already in place.

I'd like to buy Serious Sam 3 though after what Kos mentioned I'm wondering if now if a good time eh..

*edit* f***it... it's only $8.oo today on Steam. If it sucks I'll play it on the wife's Win7 machine

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koopz
Posted 11:37pm 16/2/13

oh that's right... I still have a Windows partition to choose to boot from...

that sounded good to say aloud to myself

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kos
Posted 09:33pm 17/2/13

I'd like to buy Serious Sam 3 though after what Kos mentioned I'm wondering if now if a good time eh..

Yeah, don't rule SS3 out on Linux, to be fair I did absolutely no troubleshooting to see if I could fix the problem.

I'm liking Mint over stock Ubuntu at the moment. I think I'll keep it.

Mint is pretty nice, but Cinnamon still feels a little rough around the edges compared to Unity, haven't tried MATE yet.

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simul
Posted 05:28am 17/2/13

My guess is that anything ported to OS-X will also be ported to Linux, under the hood they are basically the same - unless they are using Cocoa libraries which ports most likely won't be.

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koopz
Posted 02:18pm 18/2/13

Yeah, don't rule SS3 out on Linux, to be fair I did absolutely no troubleshooting to see if I could fix the problem.

on an RDO today so I gave it a bash... runs 5-40fps in Linux though on first launch it did pop up to say my video drivers were out of date. I copied the game folder over to a windows drive and she runs 75-100 frames there with everything turned up.

It's worth mentioning that the game runs in D3D under Windows, and OpenGL in Linux. I found a tip on the Steam forum this morning that allowed me to force the game to run in OpenGL in Windows to see it's performance. Not surprisingly, the game ran at 5-45fps.

*edit*

the game runs @ 190fps with everything on low in Linux. I turned it up a few notches and now it's sitting comfortably @ 80-90fps.

system specs:
Intel 2700k @3.5
8Gb ram (stock speeds)
Gigabyte GF_460_OC
Crucial M4 128Gb SSD
Current NVidia Xorg driver

*edit2*

the Steam cloud function doesn't grab single player save files. I'll have to try and find them on the Windows partition and copy them over

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