It's Official: Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux!

[yogi_berra]

So why would they "leak" Linux Steam client binaries, be secretive about it but allow it to be known?

Because Apple does not allow virtualization, it is actually less expensive to develop an OpenGL client using some Linux. Also some studios will compile their games on Linux just to provide better code with no plans what-so-ever of releasing that client.

There is no evidence to suggest anything to the contrary.

[Dragonlord]

^ hits the nail on the head. Many dev on Linux but the game in the end is not for Linux. Paradox but true.

[Yfrwlf]

True, I can see that for server apps of course, and for clients since OS X is so similar, I could see developing on Linux instead of having to buy Macs for all the developers, then just using a few to finalize the Mac version.

While I appreciate Phoronix covering Linux news, they have officially hit a new low for me with these articles, this is flat-out shoddy reporting and/or was a complete lie to drum up hype for this site or to get Linux users to bombard Steam with "WHEN IS THE LINUX CLIENT COMING?!?!?!", so unless they've signed an inside deal that they "can't talk about" and know something other than "there's some Linux client files", it's still speculation and hope as to whether or not Valve will come out with official Linux client support. You can hope, but sadly that's far from official news from Valve that they are going to support Linux.

Yet, here I am on Phoronix making a fuss about something they said, so I guess the news worked on me as intended...sorta.

Phoronix should apologize to all its readers for linking to articles with no basis for their claims whatsoever, sites which were probably referring back to Phoronix as so many have already done. Whether this was done knowingly or not by Phoronix, at the very least it still shows Phoronix's poor news reporting skills and its hype machine.

I think they've been drinking too much of that beer they keep proudly showing off for some reason.

[Svartalf]

Phoronix should apologize to all its readers for linking to articles with no basis for their claims whatsoever, sites which were probably referring back to Phoronix as so many have already done. Whether this was done knowingly or not by Phoronix, at the very least it still shows Phoronix's poor news reporting skills and its hype machine.

Don't presume it's poor reporting skills. You're committing the same sin you're accusing Phoronix of unless you know, explicitly for a fact, that there isn't going to be anything for us (the web link doesn't count- it's old and we don't know what is going on either way...)- beings that we all "knew" we were getting UT3 a long time ago. For all you know Michael's got an insider and proof that he can't fully reveal.

If you don't have better proof, just sit on the fence like I am, leaning towards the "not gonna happen" side and move on. No, I'm not saying I believe that we're going to get it all- I don't see enough proof that it's going to happen right at the moment so I won't venture a guess either way. However, you don't see me demanding apologies for "shoddy" reporting like you're doing.

[Svartalf]

^ hits the nail on the head. Many dev on Linux but the game in the end is not for Linux. Paradox but true.

Blame more the publishers than the studios. They think we're a bunch of pirates (hey we didn't pay for our OS, right?) and a big fat money pit ("All those distributions...how can we support all those differing versions??!")- never mind that neither are really very accurate perceptions of things.

I still don't get why this (Steam, etc...) is as more of a big deal than the Humble Bundle- which pinned real numbers that actually looked GOOD for Linux gaming and will have as much or more of an impact than this stuff will for the medium-term story on things.

[Remco]

I still don't get why this (Steam, etc...) is as more of a big deal than the Humble Bundle- which pinned real numbers that actually looked GOOD for Linux gaming and will have as much or more of an impact than this stuff will for the medium-term story on things.

Simple: Steam is bigger than a bunch of cool indie games. If Steam comes to Linux, mainstream gaming comes to Linux. But the success of the Humble Bundle improves the chances of Steam coming to Linux, so it's all good.

[Svartalf]

Simple: Steam is bigger than a bunch of cool indie games. If Steam comes to Linux, mainstream gaming comes to Linux. But the success of the Humble Bundle improves the chances of Steam coming to Linux, so it's all good.

Heh... Circular argument. The main reason why I'm questioning it is that there's only SO much you can report before they officially announce it and ship it (like they did with MacOS). YES, it's big, but it shouldn't overshadow the other- because it's not happened yet (You can tell yourself that it's coming and coming until you're blue in the face, it won't happen any faster than they see fit to make it happen and it can still suffer the fate of UT3.) and the other will, guaranteed, give the REST of the industry, indie and major publisher, little room to quibble about "numbers" as a reason- as I've had thrown in my face entirely too many times times in the past.

[Kano]

Well maybe UT3 will run finally using Steam using OpenGL - it did already long time ago, but nothing happened after those screenshots:

http://icculus.org/cgi-bin/finger/finger.pl?user=icculus&date=2008-09-18&time=06-38-30

UT3 on Steam for Mac would be certainly nice and of course for Linux it would be even cooler.

Basically it would be stupid NOT to release a Linux variant of Source engine games via Steam when there is already a Mac version running. The differences could not be that extreme and you should not forget the free promotion Steam already got for a Linux variant will certainly let lots of users try it.

[ad_267]

Basically it would be stupid NOT to release a Linux variant of Source engine games via Steam when there is already a Mac version running. The differences could not be that extreme and you should not forget the free promotion Steam already got for a Linux variant will certainly let lots of users try it.

I think the real difference would be in having to support a Linux version. It would likely be a lot more work supporting Linux compared to OSX due to the large variation in Linux setups, in contrast to OSX where even all the hardware is the same.

[Kano]

I don't think so - maybe they should hire Svartaf to do the job