Valve Will Not Be Officially Supporting Ubuntu 19.10+

[oiaohm]

I sincerely hope that Conical comes to their senses and bails on this decision. For the vast majority of life outside High Performance Computer and high end serving there is no actual need for 64bit applications (note the specific reference to application). A 64 bit OS is highly useful but on a technical level if an individual application can address a full 4 odd Gb of memory (the 32bit limit) that is still perfectly fine for gaming and web browsing.

There are 3 major reasons why we need 64 bit applications.
1) 2038 problem. Linux kernel syscall and even the Windows 32 bit version of their API is infected with this. Best way to start addressing this problem is cease making 32 bit applications.
2) Address space randomisation works better on 64 bit applications than 32 bit ones. Yes even 32 bit ones running on a 64 bit kernel is less secure than a 64 bit version of that program.
3) Due to Intel work on compilers 64 bit is faster or equal than 32 bit in all test cases. So if you truly care about performance you don't really want 32 bit parts.

There is still very much a place for 32bit, even if you just argue for backwards compatibility.

For legacy support yes. But only for legacy. You don't want new programs being made 32 bit.

[doctorx69]

With all due respect to what Valve has done for Linux gaming, are they seriously arguing in favor of 32bit in 2019? Wth?
And about shifting focus to another distro, again, it's 2019. Shift your focus to flatpak, snap or even docker images.

OMFG... stop with the flatpak. It does not work for what you are advocating for. Newbies have no idea what a flatpak is. And frankly, i hate them. No they are not advocating for 32bit gaming.. they are advocating for gamers. Almost all the games out there are 32bit.. 64 bit games are not in the majority yet by a long shot.

[azdaha]

FWIW, I use many different distros for personal use and for work; including RHEL, gentoo, Arch, fedora. However, when it comes to playing games on Steam, nothing compares to Arch, IMHO. I hope Valve shifts focus to recommending it, now that Ubuntu is off the table.

[doctorx69]

It is more like Ford deciding to remove wipers from all their cars.
They are only needed when it rains and it put additional burden on the people that assemble the cars.

People wanting wipers an their cars, can keep using the old models...

Then a bunch of people starting arguing that wipers is something that Ford should have done away with 40 years ago, because it is old and useless technology...

But Ford now suggest using some new technology that involves swapping 2 wind shields in and out.
So you can clean the one while the other one is in use. There are 2 competing ways how the swapping can be done.
One is called snaps and the other one flatpak.
They still have some teething problems where people sometimes get wet while the swapping happens. And there are some edge cases where the swapping gets stuck. But the engineers working on these systems are assuring us that they will sort most of the niggles out.
They assure us it is something that should have happened a long time ago and soon we will be free of those unaesthetic wipers that was invented more than 100 years ago.

Many people rejoiced because the new technology is obviously better because its new and now they can finally get rid of those old fashioned wipers...

You are my hero!

[doctorx69]

Have you ever tried using it? By the time you're done with the (easy) install process, you'll know where everything is and where to look for solutions to problems that might arise. Much better than random tutorials with walls of terminal commands normies don't understand, because distro maintainers are trying to shield them from the "horror" of using a terminal to get things done.

Yes I have... and unlike ubuntu that i have a fully functioning desktop in 30 mins, I have to spend hours getting Arch working. I might as well go back to the abortion of windows if i want that kind of pain.

[Boland]

Depends on your point of view. The mac port has been on minimal life support for quite a few years.

Steam has been 64bit on macOS since last year....

[doctorx69]

I'm sure their balance sheet are laughing with them being in the red so far on the linux side...

Last count, they have billions... the amount they have spent in linux is a rounding error.

[doctorx69]

SteamOS is already Debian derivative. I can see them making it a more general purpose os. I absolutely will not go to a rpm based distro though. I have enough problems dealing with rhel. I may try Debian, but if pop os (which i just read they confirmed it) continues multiarch, then i will go there. I just do not get some of you though. You are either 20ish or you are not a gamer. I have used every version of windows since 3.1, aix since 4.1, dec alpha when that was a thing, red hat before they were corporate, used linux in one for or another since 97. The compatibility in windows is because it has a virtual filesystem for 32bit software in the syswow64 environment. It sucks for the most part. Games break all the time... due to patches from the os. Why the elitism? Flatpak, snap, VM works fine if you have a high end rig. But for most of the rest of us, we do not have that kind of hp. None of these solutions will help my dad or mom or joe user. You need to get over yourselves and seriously consider you do not know what you are talking about. I am hoping canonical grows a brain here.

[jacob]

Debian makes the most sense from a least effort for maximum results perspective.

It doesn't really. A primary distro for Steam must be one that Just Works Out Of The Box(tm). Debian comes close to being a meta-distro targeted at those who want to tinker with it and control how precisely they want their OS to be set up to the last detail. That makes it unsuitable as a supported target for games developers. Arch won't do either for the same reason. In fact thinking about it, once we have also ruled out all the Ubuntu derivatives and also Fedora, which tends to be too bleeding edge and not reliable enough, the best choice really seems to come down to SUSE or Mandriva, surprising as it seems.

[oiaohm]

It doesn't really. A primary distro for Steam must be one that Just Works Out Of The Box(tm). Debian comes close to being a meta-distro targeted at those who want to tinker with it and control how precisely they want their OS to be set up to the last detail. That makes it unsuitable as a supported target for games developers. Arch won't do either for the same reason. In fact thinking about it, once we have also ruled out all the Ubuntu derivatives and also Fedora, which tends to be too bleeding edge and not reliable enough, the best choice really seems to come down to SUSE or Mandriva, surprising as it seems.

Why does it have to be a distribution. Steam from flatpak runs ubuntu 19.10, debian past stable with flatpak 1.2.4 from backports......

Neutrally packaged works.