Apply To Be Part Of The Valve Linux Beta

[DDF420]

Really bad survey.

I can understand that they want only ubuntu users for now (looking at the driver choices), but they specifically tell that they want the test to be performed on different hardware. How am I supposed to know which one of the 4 machines I have (and can easily dual boot to Ubuntu just for Steam testing) are least common?! What has my day-to-day choice of DE to Steam gaming? Isn't the whole point of testing to do it on at least few DEs or raw window managers? Same with drivers, if I'm going to be testing, I'd test both the OSS and closed source drivers for the GPU...

Why Ubuntu? There are a couple of reasons for that. First, we?re just starting development and working with a single distribution is critical when you are experimenting, as we are. It reduces the variability of the testing space and makes early iteration easier and faster. Secondly, Ubuntu is a popular distribution and has recognition with the general gaming and developer communities. This doesn?t mean that Ubuntu will be the only distribution we support. Based on the success of our efforts around Ubuntu, we will look at supporting other distributions in the future.

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/

So i really wish all those using another distro would stop complaining they are not yet included.

[DDF420]

Stop complaining

Really bad survey.

I can understand that they want only ubuntu users for now (looking at the driver choices), but they specifically tell that they want the test to be performed on different hardware. How am I supposed to know which one of the 4 machines I have (and can easily dual boot to Ubuntu just for Steam testing) are least common?! What has my day-to-day choice of DE to Steam gaming? Isn't the whole point of testing to do it on at least few DEs or raw window managers? Same with drivers, if I'm going to be testing, I'd test both the OSS and closed source drivers for the GPU...

Why Ubuntu? There are a couple of reasons for that. First, we?re just starting development and working with a single distribution is critical when you are experimenting, as we are. It reduces the variability of the testing space and makes early iteration easier and faster. Secondly, Ubuntu is a popular distribution and has recognition with the general gaming and developer communities. This doesn?t mean that Ubuntu will be the only distribution we support. Based on the success of our efforts around Ubuntu, we will look at supporting other distributions in the future.

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/

[GreatEmerald]

Necro - You are one angry person or improve your vocabulary to better express yourself, seriously you are like the Xbox kiddie squads..

I'm pretty sure it's a troll account. The first post from that account was how the person hated Qt (and the account name was part of the post). So don't mind that, and add that account into your ignore list if it bothers you.

And if you're the kind of person who believes Steam is evil, then I invite you to not install it. In fact, why don't you wipe your ~/.wine directory while you're at it. There are fucking .dll files in there, man! That's Micro$oft corruption in your $HOME directory!

I'm pretty sure that others like me are not planning to install it anyway. And we have our reasons. Since I don't accept their subscriber agreement, I can't install the thing to begin with. Of course, that is not to say that Steam as a driving force is bad - on the contrary, it can very much benefit GNU/Linux. So if you can live with its restrictions, good for you! Enjoy gaming on GNU/Linux.

As for Wine DLLs, aren't they all by the Wine project itself, and not from Microsoft? That's the whole point of DLL overrides.

[kwagga]

I'm pretty sure it's a troll account. The first post from that account was how the person hated Qt (and the account name was part of the post). So don't mind that, and add that account into your ignore list if it bothers you.



I'm pretty sure that others like me are not planning to install it anyway. And we have our reasons. Since I don't accept their subscriber agreement, I can't install the thing to begin with. Of course, that is not to say that Steam as a driving force is bad - on the contrary, it can very much benefit GNU/Linux. So if you can live with its restrictions, good for you! Enjoy gaming on GNU/Linux.

As for Wine DLLs, aren't they all by the Wine project itself, and not from Microsoft? That's the whole point of DLL overrides.

Hi GreatEmerald,

Cheers for the headsup on the possible troller.

Apart from Steam coming to Linux, what also gets me excited is the native client development scene being made possible by projects such as Mono Game.
A quick look at kickstarter also shows the days of big Game publishers dictating which platform gets developed for is coming to an end as well. Now I know not all Game studios are going to break away but some prominent names have already made the intention clear to support Linux in their future release, and that is damned well exciting

The recent Torchlight for Linux build was met with great success thanks to the ability of Mono Game to have the developers re-comile most of their code for Linux.

Once again we see how Technology becomes the great equalizer

Kind Regards,
Arno

[Sidicas]

A quick look at kickstarter also shows the days of big Game publishers dictating which platform gets developed for is coming to an end as well. Now I know not all Game studios are going to break away but some prominent names have already made the intention clear to support Linux in their future release, and that is damned well exciting

Meh.. The big Game publishers will just buy out the smaller game publishers the instant those smaller game publishers get big enough. Electric Arts devours every middle sized game company and leaves a giant poo behind.

R.I.P. Origin Systems
R.I.P. Bullfrog
R.I.P. Maxis
R.I.P. Westwood Studios
R.I.P. Virgin Interactive
R.I.P. Dreamworks Interactive
R.I.P. Ubisoft
R.I.P. Bioware
R.I.P. Pandemic
R.I.P. Popcap Games

If you think the companies that develop games for Linux are safe from EA, you're wrong.

In fact, E.A. tried to devour Valve and Steam along with it last year. For whatever reason, that fell through and EA had to create Origin to compete against Steam. Thankfully Origin failed this year, but only because their customer service was terrible and the Windows gamers lashed out against it. For a while there, games were getting pulled off of Steam because EA was forcing the gaming companies to sign exclusive deals with their Origin service so that gamers were forced to buy games through EA rather than allowing the games to be sold on *ANY* other channels.

We haven't heard the last of EA.. They will be back with vengeance next year and they have very deep pockets, even deeper than Valve's. Valve might not be the perfect game distributor, but they're sure as hell, a lot better than EA. I wouldn't put it past EA to buy up *ALL* the indie linux game studios that are out there right now and shut them all down or at least force them to make Windows-only games.. Or maybe combine them all together to make a game studio that makes soccer games, just for the fun of it... They're such little fish so they make easy targets. EA has done stuff like that before with *MUCH* larger gaming companies that they acquired.

[ayandon]

Meh.. The big Game publishers will just buy out the smaller game publishers the instant those smaller game publishers get big enough. Electric Arts devours every middle sized game company and leaves a giant poo behind.

R.I.P. Origin Systems
R.I.P. Bullfrog
R.I.P. Maxis
R.I.P. Westwood Studios
R.I.P. Virgin Interactive
R.I.P. Dreamworks Interactive
R.I.P. Ubisoft
R.I.P. Bioware
R.I.P. Pandemic
R.I.P. Popcap Games

If you think the companies that develop games for Linux are safe from EA, you're wrong.

In fact, E.A. tried to devour Valve and Steam along with it last year. For whatever reason, that fell through and EA had to create Origin to compete against Steam. Thankfully Origin failed this year, but only because their customer service was terrible and the Windows gamers lashed out against it. For a while there, games were getting pulled off of Steam because EA was forcing the gaming companies to sign exclusive deals with their Origin service so that gamers were forced to buy games through EA rather than allowing the games to be sold on *ANY* other channels.

We haven't heard the last of EA.. They will be back with vengeance next year and they have very deep pockets, even deeper than Valve's. Valve might not be the perfect game distributor, but they're sure as hell, a lot better than EA. I wouldn't put it past EA to buy up *ALL* the indie linux game studios that are out there right now and shut them all down or at least force them to make Windows-only games.. Or maybe combine them all together to make a game studio that makes soccer games, just for the fun of it... They're such little fish so they make easy targets. EA has done stuff like that before with *MUCH* larger gaming companies that they acquired.

^ I totally agree with you. Nice reading also.

I truly love Steam just because their Game Quality, Price and DLC.

• The quality of the Games they make is awesome.
• Those games can run smoothly with mid-range hardwares.
• The Price are great. NOT at all expensive And then their insane offers - "75% discount"
  Compare to EA or Origin
• One you bought a Game, ALL its DLCs, added Maps, ALL ARE FREE. And they keeps on adding. (L4D2, TF2)
• They give away great games for FREE !! (Alien Swarm, DotA2, CS:GO Beta).
• If you buy PS3 version, get PC version FREE !! (Portal 2)
• If you buy PC version, get Mac and Linux (future) version FREE.

Steam may not be as rich as EA, but Steam and valve are beloved by their fans, including me.

[ownagefool]

Meh.. The big Game publishers will just buy out the smaller game publishers the instant those smaller game publishers get big enough. Electric Arts devours every middle sized game company and leaves a giant poo behind.

R.I.P. Origin Systems
R.I.P. Bullfrog
R.I.P. Maxis
R.I.P. Westwood Studios
R.I.P. Virgin Interactive
R.I.P. Dreamworks Interactive
R.I.P. Ubisoft
R.I.P. Bioware
R.I.P. Pandemic
R.I.P. Popcap Games

If you think the companies that develop games for Linux are safe from EA, you're wrong.

In fact, E.A. tried to devour Valve and Steam along with it last year. For whatever reason, that fell through and EA had to create Origin to compete against Steam. Thankfully Origin failed this year, but only because their customer service was terrible and the Windows gamers lashed out against it. For a while there, games were getting pulled off of Steam because EA was forcing the gaming companies to sign exclusive deals with their Origin service so that gamers were forced to buy games through EA rather than allowing the games to be sold on *ANY* other channels.

We haven't heard the last of EA.. They will be back with vengeance next year and they have very deep pockets, even deeper than Valve's. Valve might not be the perfect game distributor, but they're sure as hell, a lot better than EA. I wouldn't put it past EA to buy up *ALL* the indie linux game studios that are out there right now and shut them all down or at least force them to make Windows-only games.. Or maybe combine them all together to make a game studio that makes soccer games, just for the fun of it... They're such little fish so they make easy targets. EA has done stuff like that before with *MUCH* larger gaming companies that they acquired.

Valve are a private company, they don't need to sell themselves if they don't want to. The rumour was EA wanted to buy, there was never any rumour that Gabe was interested in selling.

[GreatEmerald]

A quick look at kickstarter also shows the days of big Game publishers dictating which platform gets developed for is coming to an end as well. Now I know not all Game studios are going to break away but some prominent names have already made the intention clear to support Linux in their future release, and that is damned well exciting

Indeed. Kickstarter projects is what excites me the most at this point. The idea of it is perfect - people tell developers what they want, and developers in turn create something people want. And the things that people want are pretty much universally Linux support, Mac support, DRM-free and Steam integration. Hence why so many developers on Kickstarter have all of those planned (well, Steam integration is not down to them, but rather on Greenlight and such). And that's really good for GNU/Linux as a whole.

We haven't heard the last of EA.. They will be back with vengeance next year and they have very deep pockets, even deeper than Valve's.

Eh, if they keep doing what they are doing, their money will eventually run out. They still need a good source of income, and it's rapidly drying out. EA's brand is tainted now, and more and more people refuse to buy anything related to it.

• The quality of the Games they make is awesome.
• Those games can run smoothly with mid-range hardwares.
• The Price are great. NOT at all expensive And then their insane offers - "75% discount"
  Compare to EA or Origin
• One you bought a Game, ALL its DLCs, added Maps, ALL ARE FREE. And they keeps on adding. (L4D2, TF2)
• They give away great games for FREE !! (Alien Swarm, DotA2, CS:GO Beta).
• If you buy PS3 version, get PC version FREE !! (Portal 2)
• If you buy PC version, get Mac and Linux (future) version FREE.

Steam is a distribution platform. It doesn't make games. Did you mean Valve?

Also, if you like Steam for those reasons, what do you feel about GOG.com? They have pretty much the same thing, just without DRM and $=? policy. And they're looking at Linux support as well.

[Larian]

If you like Steam ... [how] do you feel about GOG.com? They have pretty much the same thing, just without DRM and $=? policy. And they're looking at Linux support as well.

For my part, I'd feel better about them when and if they actually provide Linux support. But then again, I'm not a supporter of Valve because of the Steam platform, but rather a supporter of Steam because of Valve. The Valve studio is making (present tense!) native versions of their games, whereas GOG has flaked on Linux more than once - customer demand be damned. They balk at the very possibility of making Linux versions available for download because they're afraid of having to support them. Even in this area, Valve has gone on record as saying they want to make the entire catalog of games on Steam available on Linux and are trying to get that done. I consider GOG to be blowing smoke about Linux until they make a more concrete announcement.

In brief, Valve seems to be more interested in customer service and support than does GOG.

Winner: Valve.

[GreatEmerald]

In brief, Valve seems to be more interested in customer service and support than does GOG.

On the contrary. GOG.com just want to make sure that when it commits to Linux support, it would be able to support all of the major distributions. And they are looking for ways to do that. Here's an interview where they expanded upon it a little:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/24/cd-projekt-red-interview-cyberpunk-2077-witcher-2-piracy-windows-8-and-more/

It's a bit unfair towards Valve, as they did say they would also support other distros, but otherwise it makes sense. After all, for all of the DOSBox games, you can already play them on Linux without issues. Just extract their installer and that's all. It's only the native Linux games that are not available yet.