Valve Updates Its Unreleased Steam Linux Client

Two days ago we started our exclusive coverage of Valve's soon-to-be-released Mac OS X Steam client showing Linux support after saying two years ago Steam/Source is coming to Linux and then yesterday finding more Steam Linux references and even the unreleased Steam Linux client binary and libraries. This has stirred up attention elsewhere on the Internet and within our forums there are now many users dissecting and discussing this soon to be monumental event for the Linux gaming community.

For those still not believing the situation and thinking this is just some hacked-up client in a back-room at Valve Corporation, their Steam Linux libraries were just updated in the past hours. From their Steam Linux client file that hosts the checksums, their Linux libraries file was bumped from bins_linux.zip.dc36f31374267ad4a740762a6cf1925ed30bcab9 to bins_linux.zip.232c70b3e732009cab1858499ca4f1c92ffd7367. Running a strings check against the shared objects on the two versions, there are multiple string changes to be found (particularly within linux32/steamclient.so). In other words, the Steam Linux client is still actively being worked on. This is Linux-specific work and not generic Steam platform bits, which are hosted in other files.

Valve Corporation on Monday will apparently be rolling out the new user-interface to all Steam users that has been in development for sometime and next week it's also looking like Steam's Mac OS X client will be leaving the closed-beta testing. Let's hope during next week's announcements from Valve they will also shed more light on their Linux client, which would put it ahead of the June target we originally reported on yesterday, but with the attention this news has been generating, it may place greater pressure on Valve to shed some light on the situation quickly. Also worth noting that Valve Corporation has not retracted these Linux files even with the attention that it has been receiving.

Head on over to our forums to continue discussing this and if you have been exploring Steam's secret Linux client.